Podcasts for Dummies

I've never been a huge fan of podcasts.  I'd much rather see action than just hear it.  I never got into the Serial craze.  I knew what it was about but I didn't really care.  My friend on the other hand loves them and feels the need to stock up on dozens of them so she always has something to listen to in the car.  It's so not my thing but she's been trying to get me to listen to a few of them for months, to no effect.

Anyway, that's why it was a bit surprising for me to get sort of semi interested in S-Town after seeing it pop up on Twitter a few times this weekend.  The worst part is that I hadn't even heard of this particular podcast until I saw it on Twitter.  For something with huge following, I definitely should have heard about it before now.  Anyway, because my friend is the queen of all podcasts, I decided to ask her opinion.

It was not what I expected.  She stated that this particular podcast was beyond bizarre.  It started out as a murder mystery - her particular cup of tea - but by the end of the first hour, there turns out to not be a murder, just an Southern dude with lots of strange mannerisms and problems.  Her verdict was "nobody cares and avoid it at all costs."  For some reason, her play by play peaked my interest and I decided to listen to it.

Luckily, all 7 episodes were out on line and I was able to finish them all pretty quickly in one day.  It's good when your Monday includes mindless formatting - it leaves perfect time to listen to the craziness that is S-Town.  So how did I feel after my first podcast trial?  I have to say - I'm not entirely sure.

It was pretty interesting.  The gentleman was such an enigma that I found myself dying to know exactly what he would say or do next.  However, in the end, nothing really happened.  Also, the reviews that originally peaked my interest stated that it was so moving and handled with such class.  The presenter was very good at telling the story and trying to connect but I'm not sure the story itself was moving.  Sad - yes.  Moving - not so much.  In the end, I really should have listened to my friendly podcast expert and avoided it.  But at least I'm now more in the know than I was yesterday.  If only my podcast friend was into it too so we could discuss...