The Polybius Conspiracy (Radiotopia’s Showcase)
The East Coast Listening Post (R4) | iPlayer
Story Pirates (Gimlet Media)
Searching for something absorbing to take you away from the festivities? A podcast to make the long drives bearable, the enforced walks enjoyable? I have something for you. The Polybius Conspiracy, a seven-part podcast from Radiotopia’s Showcase strand, has been out for a couple of weeks and is an intriguing story, ripe for binge listening. Be warned: it doesn’t do exactly what you expect.
Superficially, it’s a journalistic unpicking of a tale from the early 1980s. A mysterious video game, now known as Polybius, appeared in an arcade in Portland, Oregon. Just a new black box arcade game. One young teen, Bobby, played it over and over, until he felt sick in the head and went home… and was then, according to him, abducted by strange people, or people-like beings. He escaped and lived to tell his tale. Unfortunately for Bobby, he was never believed and this, he claims, ruined his life. When you hear the details of his tale, you too will find it hard to believe him. But other people, other incidents, make you question your initial scepticism.
There’s some seductive retro detailing here that recalls Stranger Things. We learn what gaming arcades were really like back then: slightly dodgy places with dubious older men hanging around as well as kids. We get a sense of the conspiracy theory proclivities of gamers, and we too have our buttons pushed. But what’s interesting about this podcast – other than, obviously, the story – is its format and its tone. Journalistic podcasts from the US are now so familiar that we accept their style and structure in the same way as we do romcoms or TV news. We know the atmosphere, the language, the tropes. How the storytellers approach Bobby, how they choose to tell his tale: all ridiculously familiar. Everything soothes us into thinking that we know what’s coming next, but we don’t.
Also playing with this format is Radio 4’s The East Coast Listening Post, written and performed by comedy duo Lazy Susan. On late at night and just 15 minutes long, this is an out-and-out mickey-take of Serial-type shows. Two US journalists, sisters Jenna (Freya Parker) and Dana (Celeste Dring) – complete with up-speak at the end of their sentences and NPR vocal fry – are employed by Eric Sass, “MC, host, story connoisseur” (David Elms), to report on interesting tales from the UK. They decide to investigate the goings-on of two other sisters, Gilly and Sally. Gilly and Sally are elderly English aristocrats and thus utterly eccentric, especially Gilly. Gilly’s fond of shooting, shouting and, well, shagging and drugs. Jenna and Dana fulfil everything you might expect from Serial-style hosts: they insert themselves into the story, have moments of self-doubt, and describe the main characters swiftly and emotively. “Sally has a sweet, round red face,” says Jenna. “Kind of like an apple in a wig.” The joy of this show is partly in the silliness, but mostly in the spoofing. As a big US podcast fan I loved it.
If you’re looking for something less niche, then perhaps Story Pirates might suit. Actually it’s still pretty niche, as it’s a children’s podcast, and aside from Fun Kids’ great offerings such podcasts aren’t especially established here. In the US, however, Story Pirates has a well-known live show that draws big audiences, and Gimlet has taken notice and snapped up its podcast.
This features stories written by kids and performed by comedians and improv actors. Whether you like it or not will depend on how well you can handle the latter’s “what ho!” panto acting style. I don’t like it really, but the stories themselves are great, and I love the interviews with the authors. “Why did you decide to set this story in an office?” asks one of the hosts. “Oh, I’d learned how to spell office and I wanted to use it,” replies Eric, aged eight. Of course.
