Shit Town on NPR

Never heard of it - but you've sold me... wonder if it's on iTunes? Like as a podcast?

Ugh, is this what NPR comes up with now? "Shit Town"? •Pull the plug, Trump.

Is that the real name?

R1

Yes, ten episodes.

Don't read anything about it.

It's incredible.

Go to iTunes under NPR.

Hell, its number one podcast now.

Fuck those "serial" podcasts!

There I said it!

I will say that by telling this story in radio format is a genius way to avoid having to be PC.

R3

They call it "S Town" in promotional materials. Yes, it's NPR.

The narrator is a "Smug Liberal" and gets his metaphorical clock re-arranged.

Episode 5 has been the saddest by far.

It's not called shit town - it's called s-town. Thanks for the spoiler about what the "s" stands for, though.

R10

Sorry for not including a spoiler warning. I simply assumed that NPR had demanded that name for PR purposes, and that revealing it ruins the entire story.

Where are there 10 episodes? I can only find 7. I thought they uploaded them all in one batch.

I bet John's gay friend who loves Brokeback Mountain and has seen it over 50 fifty times is a DLer.

I binged all 7 (only 7, not 10) episodes the other day. It's hard to comment without giving major spoilers. You can find a few precious photos of the maze, which is impressive, and its creator from a google search: reddit and other sites have tracked down a few of his accounts and comments.

^There's a photo of his back tattoo that is a bit shocking. I think he may have found a way through his depression if he had allowed himself to explore his obvious masochism.

R15

He had severe mental health issues due to long term mercury poisoning.

What a sad but wonderful podcast.

I was a little disappointed. (SPOILERS below)

I really enjoyed the first five episodes. A podcast that seemed to be directed to a murder/mystery, made a deft turn to a story about a tragic suicide, mysterious players and motives, and a possible race for hidden treasure.

But the final two episodes fell completely flat. I anticipated a continuation of the legal battle for inheritance, a discovery of gold, and answers to questions posed in the first five episodes. Instead we get discussion around whether John ever experienced true love, if his depression was the result of mercury poisoning, and why he had so many tattoos. The only resolution to the earlier themes were hinted at "off-mike".

I kept waiting for something to happen in the final two episodes. No such luck.

I've just listened to the first two so far. So sad. So fucking sad.

Wow. It is so sad. So sad. I've only heard two of them so far.

When the final episode gives the diagnosis it makes you look at everything different.

I've mentioned this podcast before, but I'm going to plug them again - and, no, I'm not tied to it in any way. But the podcast "Crimewriters On" is a group comprised of authors who started a podcast reviewing "Serial", and have continued their reviews of other podcasts. I like their discussions; they don't just review the content of a podcast, but also production values, the writing, how the information is framed and presented, etc. They have three podcasts dedicated to "S-Town", they reviewed Episode 1, then Episodes 2-4, and finally Episodes 5-7.

It might not be for everyone, but if you wanted to hear some critical discussion about S-Town, I'd encourage you to give it a try.

Well he and his mother were living on something so there had to be money somewhere. Probably lying about being unbanked though.

NYTimes had an article today saying it had been downloaded 16 Million times in one week.

If you haven't listened do yourself a favor and do it now.

Another thread on it here

Found it. Will put it on the list for next week. I wore myself out when I got hooked on reading the Andy Warhol Diaries last night.

Who has the gold?

R26

I have a feeling there wasn't much gold, but that Tyler has it.

Whoever said above that "S-Town" is the official name is probably right, but Brian speaks the intro after a few minutes in each episode and calls it Shittown.

The reason that there was no battle over the estate is that the cousin was appointed Guardian of John B's mother, and the mother was the inheritor of his estate, as her son had no issue or siblings and died without having executed a Will. Until John's mother dies, the Guardian has legal authority to act for her.

Enjoyed the series. Apparently Tyler's criminal cases are still pending.

I am listening to this series now. Tyler and Rita are thinking the worst of each other. Tyler has been indicted.

The town clerk angle is the creepiest one. She knew where the money was, he made her listen to the suicide... she was lying to everybody...UGHT!

So, is it true he killed himself because his straight friend refused to continue giving him tattoos (which apparently was a sexual experience for him)?

[SPOILERS]

The probable mercury-poisoning angle was intriguing to me. Apparently John B was restoring clocks using this ancient method of gilding metal with gold plating by cooking gold with mercury; he used no protective measures when handling mercury, according to witnesses.

I just heard this podcast for the first time. Anyone knows what happened to the maze?

Apparently the rights were purchased by Tom McCarthy, who I'm not a huge fan of.

Funny how the guy running the podcast has a black wife by when Tyler was showing off his Confederate flag tatoo and spouting off about black people he was all "I don't judge; we come from different places". It would be more interesting if he did not lie like that and manage for form empathy with the interview subject.