Heyyy guys! So I've mentioned many times here that I'm a pretty big fan of podcasts and one of the biggest... actually probably the biggest podcast is Serial. Last year Serial was about the murder of a young girl named Hae Min Lee, and whether her ex boyfriend Adnan Syed was wrongfully convicted of the crime. While of corse they couldn't prove whether or not it was Adnan, it did give a fair and honest look at all different sides of the story. Really the point of the podcast was not to prove or disprove Syed's innocence, but to tell his story and the story of the murder in general. And it did that very successfully. It was a story that happened several years ago, and a lot of light was shed on the story because of the podcast, and Adnan's case has been reexamined in court since the podcast came out.
Anyway this season follows a soldier named Bowe Bergdahl. This story is slightly more complicated than the first season. I'm going to link the wikipedia article on him right here because it is complicated for me to explain... and to be honest I'm not exactly sure how I feel about his story. He is a veteran I guess at this time who was captured by a POW camp and his release was exchanged for the lives of 5 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. This was already a controversial move, but to make matters even more difficult Bowe abandoned his unit when he left. And people died because of that. He did it because the conduct of the unit wasn't what it was supposed to be, and he was trying to show "hey this is what we're supposed to do." There was speculation that he sided with the Taliban after his capture, but he was gaining intel for his unit, so I'm not sure if thats true.
So this is a complicated podcast to understand. I usually listen to it while I'm cleaning my room and because it is kind of a difficult subject matter that is tough to understand if you don't know a lot about the military... and that's why I'm not going into great detail about anything... but what I do like about the podcast is that its very thorough. It isn't necessarily thorough now because they tell the story week by week... but you kind of hear from the sides of everyone. You hear from Bowe, even when he didn't know what he was saying was going to be on the podcast. You hear from the taliban... the first episode is ended with "That's me talking to the taliban" which definitely makes you want to listen more... and you hear from other men in his unit... and I'm thinking we'll hear more from them later. There's a lot of information and its good reporting.
Also this season is slightly different because in the first season... we really did not know whether Adnan did it or if he didn't do it... in this we know that Bowe left his unit. He admits to it. Which I think adds something to it. Its not just trying to figure out if he did it or didn't do it. I think I'm slightly more interested in the actual story because I'm not focused so much on if he did it or not.
The other thing I like about this season is that this is the only report of a POW camp I've ever heard before. I've seen the movie Unbroken... but that movie doesn't focus a lot on that aspect of his life. And its hard to get an accurate account of current POW camp because there are so few escapes from them. Its just something a little different that I wouldn't know much about without this podcast. That's what I find the most interesting about this season.
I was upset that it wasn't about another murder... but I'm happy they aren't doing the same thing again. I like that they did a different story this year. If they did several seasons of the same type of story, it it wouldn't really work.
You can download this podcast, listen to it on Pandora or Stitcher, which is a podcast app. I think its interesting, I don't know if its for everyone though.
Byeee!
-Shannon
Anyway this season follows a soldier named Bowe Bergdahl. This story is slightly more complicated than the first season. I'm going to link the wikipedia article on him right here because it is complicated for me to explain... and to be honest I'm not exactly sure how I feel about his story. He is a veteran I guess at this time who was captured by a POW camp and his release was exchanged for the lives of 5 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. This was already a controversial move, but to make matters even more difficult Bowe abandoned his unit when he left. And people died because of that. He did it because the conduct of the unit wasn't what it was supposed to be, and he was trying to show "hey this is what we're supposed to do." There was speculation that he sided with the Taliban after his capture, but he was gaining intel for his unit, so I'm not sure if thats true.
So this is a complicated podcast to understand. I usually listen to it while I'm cleaning my room and because it is kind of a difficult subject matter that is tough to understand if you don't know a lot about the military... and that's why I'm not going into great detail about anything... but what I do like about the podcast is that its very thorough. It isn't necessarily thorough now because they tell the story week by week... but you kind of hear from the sides of everyone. You hear from Bowe, even when he didn't know what he was saying was going to be on the podcast. You hear from the taliban... the first episode is ended with "That's me talking to the taliban" which definitely makes you want to listen more... and you hear from other men in his unit... and I'm thinking we'll hear more from them later. There's a lot of information and its good reporting.
Also this season is slightly different because in the first season... we really did not know whether Adnan did it or if he didn't do it... in this we know that Bowe left his unit. He admits to it. Which I think adds something to it. Its not just trying to figure out if he did it or didn't do it. I think I'm slightly more interested in the actual story because I'm not focused so much on if he did it or not.
The other thing I like about this season is that this is the only report of a POW camp I've ever heard before. I've seen the movie Unbroken... but that movie doesn't focus a lot on that aspect of his life. And its hard to get an accurate account of current POW camp because there are so few escapes from them. Its just something a little different that I wouldn't know much about without this podcast. That's what I find the most interesting about this season.
I was upset that it wasn't about another murder... but I'm happy they aren't doing the same thing again. I like that they did a different story this year. If they did several seasons of the same type of story, it it wouldn't really work.
You can download this podcast, listen to it on Pandora or Stitcher, which is a podcast app. I think its interesting, I don't know if its for everyone though.
Byeee!
-Shannon
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