UPDATE: The Wheeler Centre has added another session (Wed Jul 26, 8.30pm) after the first talk sold out in days. Tickets go on sale at noon, Thursday June 8.
Speak to any podcast tragic over the past few months and they’ll no doubt mention S-Town to you. S-Town comes from the same minds behind mega popular podcasts This American Life and Serial. Since its debut in March, it's become a worldwide storytelling phenomenon, with over 40 million downloads and counting. Now, S-Town’s co-creator and host Brian Reed is coming to Melbourne to talk about it.
S-Town follows the story of John B. McLemore from “Shittown Alabama” who contacted This American Life senior producer Reed back in 2014, asking him to investigate the son of a wealthy family who had allegedly been bragging about getting away with murder. But the podcast that follows isn’t the usual whodunit that you’d expect.
Reed will be taking to the stage at the Athenaeum Theatre on Wednesday July 26. He’ll touch on the podcast’s backstory and unlikely hero, and how it explores issues of poverty, prejudice, greed and mental illness. Reed will also discuss what’s happened since the series landed, how the podcast has been received and the issue of journalistic ethics.
Reed will be appearing as part of the Wheeler Centre's Invasion of the Pod People series.