A movie in your earbuds
The Truth podcast—with actors' voices, music, and sound effects—is a radio drama for today.
Many podcasts are purely informational—they are about politics, cooking, or culture. Others demand to be experienced, not merely consumed. These are the programs that go deep into human experience and incorporate music and ambient noise to create a comprehensive aesthetic experience.
The Truth is one of my favorites among these podcasts (full disclosure: its producer, Jonathan Mitchell, is a member of my husband’s family). Part of the Radiotopia network, The Truth features “movies for your ears”: fictional stories performed by actors and accompanied by music and sound effects. They are something like Garrison Keillor’s Guy Noir radio dramas on Prairie Home Companion, but less stodgy. And, unlike the Guy Noir dramas, The Truth covers the gamut of human experience and makes use of a variety of genres: comedy, horror, drama, science fiction, and even political thriller. “Santa for President,” commissioned by NPR’s All Things Considered, ran last December just as the primary races were heating up.
The Truth began in 2011 with “Moon Graffiti,” an episode that explored the question: What if Apollo 11 had crashed on the moon instead of landing safely? The episode focused on the claustrophobic drama of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they assessed their grim situation, completed their fact-gathering mission, and marveled at the “magnificent desolation” around them. But the episode spooled out into questions much larger than the fate of two men: What does an America that lost the space race look like? Should concerns about safety supersede our yearning to explore?
