I’m embarrassed to report that I’ve never been one for podcasts – they always seemed to me like a pointless excuse for millennials to crack open a beer and chat. Normally, I finish an episode and think, “Why exactly did these people think the internet would care about their banter?” However, “The Case of the Missing Hit” from Reply All changed my mind. The episode follows Tyler Gillett, a filmmaker from California, attempting to track down a song from his childhood that is obsessively stuck on repeat in his head – but the catch, is that he can barely remember the melody to it. Anyone who hasn’t been able to shake a nagging melody can relate to Gillett’s dilemma, yet few would have the tenacity to search for a song like he did.
PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman’s (the hosts of Reply All) depiction of how we respond to madness is what makes the episode so fascinating, but the buzzy, fast-paced search for the song is what makes it so thrilling. The episode opens with a candid monologue from Vogt about his own OCD, drawing the listener into what appears at first to be an episode of the ever-so-popular psychological podcast genre. Quickly but effortlessly, Vogt and Goldman manage to capture a mystery with a near “true-crime feel” by including a series of dialogues from a host of “sound detectives” such as Steven Page, the lead singer of Barenaked Ladies, Rolling Stone writers, and even a band hired to recreate the tune.
As the search progresses, Gillett’s madness only intensifies. The listener is submerged in his obsessive self-questioning – is the song merely a figment of his imagination? Is it a mash-up of other 90’s tunes he heard on the radio as a kid? Or, just maybe, could it exist at the back of a dusty record store somewhere in the world? Finally, Gillett and the team discover that the song really does exist, and that it was created by a musician called Evan Olson in the 90s. Their relief and joy at the discovery is palpable, making this tale not just exhilarating but heartwarming.
My newfound love for podcasts made discovering “Something Large and Wild” from This is Love all the more exciting. The episode tells a poignant tale of unlikely friendship between 17-year-old Lynn Cox, a long-distance swimmer, and a baby blue whale. Cox’s breathless-sounding voice and the ethereal soundtrack made me feel as though I was actually submerged in water, and I understood her experience as though I was there. The story begins with a cryptic soundtrack as Cox describes her swim. She describes “water hollowing out” and as the soundtrack rises to crescendo, she realizes that a slipstream is pulling her under. “Usually water always feels fluid and wraps around you,” she remarks knowingly as she recounts maintaining a level head amid fears that she may be swimming with a shark.
Despite there being few characters in this story, Cox describes each of them elegantly – adding a personal, nostalgic flair to the story. She recounts how the old man who ran the pier watched over her as she discovered that she was actually swimming with a baby whale, not a dangerous sea creature. And, the baby whale himself is brought to life by lilting sounds of water and a melodic crescendo. “I touched her and I could feel that she felt my hand on her. And it was amazing,” said Cox during an expression of awe at the wonder of nature.
Camilia Fateh 