The Mortified Podcast: Episode 191

The Mortified Podcast released this episode around late May, where in a normal year, graduation would be taking place as normal. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the producers cleverly used senior superlatives to come up with the theme for the episode: “Most Likely to Save Us from a Global Crisis”. I originally thought the stories that would be featured would be inspiring stories of young children or teenagers preparing to solve some of Earth’s most pressing issues (like COVID). After all, the last episode I listened to, “Roughin’ It”, seemed to have a well-connected theme of the great outdoors between each story, which matched the episode title. I was especially excited, as most, if not all of us, were members of the Class of 2020 graduating class, which would make the stories even more relatable. Unfortunately, I found my shoulders droop after listening to the first story, as it had virtually nothing to do with the episode title. Instead, all three speakers shared unrelated stories about a child-written autobiography, a school trip to Costa Rica, and trying to not embarrass yourself in front of a cute guy in class. I believe the story title was created to match the news and what was “trending” at the time, as graduation was on the minds of a significant portion of the population, and COVID-19 probably dwelled on everyone’s mind. Essentially, it resembled “clickbait” in a podcasting world. Nevertheless, the misleading title did not detract too much from the stories, which were funny in their own way, and they likely provided the listener with a good distraction from the sad reality that the title described.

Structure-wise, I was surprised that the pre-recorded introduction of the Mortified Podcast that I heard in the last episode was missing – the narrator, Neil, immediately introduced us to the first story after the advertisements finished playing. The lack of the familiar title sequence threw me off, as that was one of the only things that stuck out from the first episode I listened to, and it certainly detracted from the podcast’s identity in my mind. Furthermore, I imagine a new listener who was not familiar with the podcast would be thrown off, as they would not know what the podcast is about until a few minutes into the episode. Though, by having more of a “cold open” style intro, the podcast did feel like it moved faster, which keeps listeners more engaged and probably more willing to listen to the entire podcast. Also, the lack of an intro made the show sound a bit more genuine, as it removes the pre-recorded tone of the opening and lets Neil speak directly to the audience from the beginning. Instead of the theme music from the title sequence, Neil implemented a lot of sound effects and shorter music clips to fit the theme, like Bonnie Tyler’s “I need a hero!”, which I honestly found more entertaining and humorous. I’ll be interested to see if the next episode I listen to has an intro, or if it jumps right into the stories like this one did!

Neil did talk for a bit more in the beginning than the last narrator, David, did in “Roughin’ It”; however, their roles remained the same: introduce one story, then only return at the end of it to perform a quick conclusion and intro for the next piece. I still believe that more commentary would have helped make the podcast more interesting, as it would add more character to each episode, instead of the audience simply listening to three almost random stories. Additionally, additional banter or opinion on the stories would add to a consistent identity, as Neil would be able to show more of his character and be a welcoming figure for listeners of the podcast. On the other hand, Neil did seem to connect the stories more fluidly, as he introduces a “moral of the story” before each one and uses that big idea to connect to the following story. For example, he directed our attention to the importance of “calm, cool-headed decisions”, and that “confidence is important, but meaningless if it isn’t accompanied by compassion”. By zooming out and looking at the overall ideas of each story, Neil stitched together three seeming unrelated stories (though still slightly disconnected) and constructed a feeling of significance behind childish stories. The lessons that Neil brought up definitely made the podcast more interesting, as it causes the audience to feel like they are learning things from these awkward stories, instead of just listening to weird mistakes that people have made in the past. I also found myself more invested in the stories, as I eagerly listened to see when the morals of the story would come into play.

A quick note on the organization of the speakers – while this episode was similar to “Roughin’ It” in that there were also three stories shared, I found the stories in “Most Likely to Save Us from a Global Crisis” to be ordered more reasonably, in chronological order. The first story was about a fourth grader, the second about a high schooler, and the third about a college freshman. While listening to each story, I could feel the podcast transition from more trivial matters to more relatable topics, which I think flowed much better than the random ordering of the last episode. It almost felt like I was growing up again, experiencing the troubles of a child, teenager, and young adult in half an hour.  I truly hope that the next episode I listen to will also have a similar structure, as I found it to be a huge improvement from the last episode.

Please give this episode a listen if you have time! The last story especially was incredibly ridiculous! Thanks for reading! 🙂 (967 words)