Serial

I've been listening. I still like her a lot and there are a lot of interesting tangents, but the core of the story, Bergdahl, is such a dumbass, that I don't care.

I used to listen to the Season 1 as soon as the new episodes came out. Now, days go by before I even bother.

 

Agree completely. I've fallen way behind and probably won't go back. I think they chose the topic based on the trove of audio content available but it's just not in their wheelhouse.

 

Didn't they sort of admit this? That they were working on another story, that wasn't ready yet, and that they went with this when it kind of fell in their lap?

 

Yeah. I jumped off after the fourth episode. Some of the details held my interest, but not enough. Maybe she should stick to topics people don't already know about, and that aren't being reported by everyone. Serial is taking the True Detective path. Season 1 was groundbreaking. Season 2 was meh. Hopefully both have bounce-back season 3s.

 

Exactly. We already knew way too much about Bergdahl because he was a huge news story. What I liked about season 1 was that she was telling the story of someone who had possibly fallen through the cracks. Part of what made it compelling was that Koenig had taken the time and made it a mission to tell the story of a nobody.

 

I also think publishing once every two weeks is a problem, at least for me. I'm still listening, but pretty much as background noise while I'm doing other things. There just isn't the excitement about a new episode like there was last season. And with two weeks in between, I pick up other things to listen to that are more interesting. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History? Fascinating stuff.

 

Hardcore History is a cool podcast.

Funny and slightly scary story:
I was on about an hour long drive a few weeks ago. I had been up all night with the twins and was really tired.
I was listening to the King of King episode of Hardcore History, about Cyrus the Great. It was approaching the end of the episode.
The next thing I know, I'm listening to an episode about the lead up to WWI and the anarchist movement in Europe.
I must have dozed off but somehow didn't crash. I hadn't heard the end of the Cyrus episode or the closing bits and credits. I didn't here the opening bits and credits for the WWI episode, and I was several minutes into that episode.
In total, we're talking about 5-10 minutes of lost time while I was driving on the 99.

I pulled off at the next exit and took a 45-minute nap in my car.

 

I've liked this season more than I expected to. I doubt they can sustain it like the Syed case, though, just because there seem to be fewer interesting side roads on this story.

Yeah, there's been a lot of "reporting" on the Bergdahl story, but most of it has just been people screeching "traitor!" with no context. It's been good to get a clearer view of what really happened.

I really think they screwed up shifting to an every-other-week format midway, though. That's a long time to expect people to maintain interest episode to episode.

 

Day One of the hearing on Syed's request for retrial.

Season One

 

I'm thinking I may be more interested in the Season One updates Koenig does than the Season Two episodes.

 

I listened to Eps. 1-3, but I have not listed to 4-6.
I don't find it as compelling, and I don't have the same commute I had last year.

I know this story. I didn't know Syed's story.
In my mind, the only question for examination with Bergdahl is whether he should be imprisoned for life or if five years as an enemy captive was punishment enough.
I lean toward the former.
His motivation for desertion is immaterial to me, and the motivation he claims is so stupid it borders on crazy.

 

Thanks for posting about the update. I'm downloading it now.