'STown': the binge-worthy new podcast from the makers of 'Serial'

26 May 2017 - 02:00 By Sylvia McKeown
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'STown' is set to change the future of podcasts.
'STown' is set to change the future of podcasts.
Image: Andrea Morales

In the opening seconds of the six hours and 29 minutes of new podcast sensation 'STown', producer and narrator Brian Reid sets the tone of the story by explaining how, in order to fix an antique clock, the horologist (or antique clock restorer to you and me) must make sense of how the clock works from the impressions left behind by its maker and restorers.

As we have come to expect from the makers of the smash hit podcast Serial and sister podcast This American Life, STown starts with a mystery that is presented to Reid by an antiquarian horologist in 2012 via an email with "John B McLemore lives in Sh*ttown, Alabama" in the subject line.

McLemore, the writer of the e-mail, asks a reporter to investigate "the son of a wealthy family who had allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder".

After months of talking on the phone, Reid becomes intrigued enough to visit Shit Town, officially known as Woodstock.

Reid guides the listener through hours of recorded phone calls, interviews and funeral proceedings which span the many years that make up this story, but it's through Reid's ability to express his true feelings that he's able to entrance his listening audience.

When he finds out in the second episode that McLemore has committed suicide he's devastated. His voice cracks and rises to reveal his distress but still remains professional and informative.

It is this characteristic of Reid's that makes STown extraordinary. He manages to be delicate as he curses and rails.

McLemore's life, which has been stuck in this Shit Town, turns out to be rich and fascinating, more so than the original storyline, which centred on a police officer accused of sexually assaulting women and the cover-up of a murder by a rich man's son.

The other factor which lends itself to STown's success is the fact that all seven episodes are available right away, which is appealing to the binge-watching habits of Netfix users.

It is the first podcast in history to be hit by 1.8million subscribers just over a week after its launch. STown manages to craft a new way of storytelling that will change the landscape of podcasts as profoundly as Serial did in 2014.

Listen at Stownpodcast.org

This article was originally published in the Times.

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