None of the stories are “true,” but these “movies for your ears” all have one goal.
Here’s the deal: Radiotopia.FM, the brainchild of Roman Mars (99% Invisible, PRX Remix) and the Public Radio Exchange, was announced into existence last month. There are seven shows currently included in the project: 99% Invisible, Love + Radio, KCRW’s Strangers, The Truth, Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything, Radio Diaries and Fugitive Waves. More shows will be added over time.
I’m going to listen to as many episodes of each show in Radiotopia as I can. This week, due to a rough work schedule, I listened to only 23 episodes of Jonathan Mitchell’s “The Truth” podcast — slightly less than a year’s worth. You can listen to The Truth on iTunes and Stitcher, and find out more about it here.
“The Truth,” a reality-based fiction podcast that used to be on American Public Media before being absorbed by Radiotopia, and produced by Jonathan Mitchell, might single-handedly bring back the radio drama from the dead. Each episode is written collaboratively by the cast, who pull from improv, comedy and dramatic acting experience to help craft stories that feel like you’re right there with them, experiencing something that could actually happen.
A lot of the stories, especially in the first year, are suspense or horror. They’re crafted with such subtlety that at first you have no idea what’s happening — an innocuous drive to relive childhood memories of a lake, for example, turns into a harrowing remembrance of a long-dead friend. Over grilled cheese.
The Truth’s Halloween/Election series has to be my favorite set of radio stories ever. There’s the episode where a fundraiser for the ACLU lends her brother some money, and pays for it… with a smile; or the story of a third-party candidate in Illinois who finds himself being stalked by a perfectly-hidden serial killer.
But not every episode is spooky. The second episode, “Eat Cake,” is an adorable story of two strangers bonding on Valentine’s Day over coconut cake; “Interruptible” is a slice-of-life morality tale about listening; “Human Intelligence” answers two mysteries: are we alone in the universe, and does Santa Claus exist.
And all of these stories exist in the context of a world just absurd enough for them to be plausible. The truth mentioned in the show title is the same truth that existentialists have been searching for for centuries. But that doesn’t diminish the sense of wonder. And it doesn’t take away from the fact that Mitchell and his crew spin damn good yarns. I just wish I had more time to listen to all of them.