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Before I get into this review, I should probably explain how podcasts have taken over my life over the last few years. My first year teaching, I used to listen to sports talk radio on the way to work. I would occasionally listen to music, but found that I got more out of people talking. This wore on me very quickly. I then started listening to NPR (which I now joke is my obligation as a teacher). One thing quickly led to another and I found myself subscribed to NPR podcasts of segments I liked and suddenly realized I could listen to “talk shows” of just things I was interested in, as opposed to whatever happened to be on the radio, and off I went. I tend to alternate between subject matters. I usually alternate between episodes of a “serious” podcast and then to a goofier one. This both reflects my interests and is also a direct result to my over-saturation of politics earlier this year when I was at one time listening to exclusively six or seven different politics podcasts, several of which were releasing daily episodes which super bummed me out. So, you will probably see a similar pattern as these reviews roll out.
Podcast: Crimetown
Producer: Gimlet Media
Hosts: Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier
Summary: (taken from Crimetownshow.com)
Welcome to Crimetown, a new series from Gimlet Media and the creators of HBO’s The Jinx. Every season, we’ll investigate the culture of crime in a different American city. First up: Providence, Rhode Island, where organized crime and corruption infected every aspect of public life. This is a story of alliances and betrayals, of heists and stings, of crooked cops and honest mobsters—a story where it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier.
5 out of 5 stars
Crimetown is produced by Gimlet Media and hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier. It has been mentioned before that I have an outrageous fascination with non-fiction books and that love extends to other form of non-fiction as well. I often find myself watching documentaries as often as traditional TV and movies. I have a vague interest in the genre of “true crime” although I was never really sucked into it all that much until I read The Lufthansa Heist by Henry Hill and Daniel Simone. I must have missed the period of fascination most people (or at least males I grew up with) had with the mob, but I hit a period last year after reading that book and seeing other documentaries and of course the classic Goodfellas that got me supremely interested in all the different angles around Henry Hill. It passed. Or so I thought.
A friend and I will often drop into conversations if we’ve started listening to a podcast we think is worth checking out. He led me along on a string a little for this one. He said it was a podcast that was in the style of a documentary about organized crime. They were going to spend each season focusing on a different city. At this point I was already pretty interested and figured I would chuck it onto the backlog of podcasts to check out. Then he reeled me in. “It’s just started it’s first season and that season just happens to be about Providence.” A podcast that sounded interesting, I would only have to listen to a couple episodes to catch up to, and was about my home state? How could I not at least give it a chance?
True to the description, Crimetown is an incredible undertaking. The podcast uses archived audio as well as interviews with several people intimately involved with the politics, law enforcement, and mafia starting in the 1970s. It uses several people of interest to drive the story, however, it is fair to say that the infamous Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, the former mayor of Providence, is the focal point of the podcast. Each episode or chapter runs about 30 to 45 minutes and are packed with stories and interviews. They do a great job telling just a couple specific stories each chapter that drive the overall plot forward. At the time I am writing this, six chapters have come out and each chapter has a companion page at their website crimetownshow.com where they put up pictures of the people involved and occasionally archived documents and videos. It really is quite amazing how well they paint each of stories and it has become a must listen for me as soon as it is released. If you are at all interested in true crime or even just someone who finds the style of documentaries to be interesting this podcast is completely worth checking out. I look forward to the rest of the season and any/all of the future seasons to come.
Going on to the Next 