{"id":840,"date":"2020-11-27T09:26:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T17:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/?p=840"},"modified":"2020-11-27T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T17:26:13","slug":"reply-all-boy-in-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/2020\/11\/27\/reply-all-boy-in-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"Reply All: “Boy in Photo”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my final podcast blog installment, I listened to the \u201cBoy in Photo\u201d episode from Reply All<\/em>. Although I have become familiar with the general tone and structure of Reply All<\/em>, I found that it subtly transitioned from the typical upbeat nature into a more personal question driven by the host, PJ Vogt, and some of the Reply All<\/em> producers, Tim Howard and Sruthi Pinnamaneni. We are introduced to a seemingly unremarkable photo posted to an ILX message board that is scrutinized over for years. Exactly why? Well, this awkward boy in the picture seems incredibly relatable and as a result, draws people to it. No matter how much internet stalking these people from the message board do on him and his friends, people know nothing of the person they name Wayne. Eventually, the only information they dig out is that his actual name is Tommy Loftus, so Reply All<\/em> decides to take the investigation into their own hands to discover who this person is and exactly why this picture kept a message board actively interested in him for over a decade. As a result of the more personal and raw feel of this episode, I felt as if it was a refreshing and more engaging format that set itself apart from the other episodes I listened to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to all of the other episodes I happened listened to, PJ Vogt was the main driver of the story, but unlike other Reply All<\/em> episodes, the other producers involved in the show felt as if they were more actively involved rather than the previous structures of the other hosts functioning as a person for PJ to simply recount the story to in the studio. Namely, Tim, the executive producer of the show, tags along with PJ in their first trip down to Pennsylvania and in a way, provides a more active version of the listener within the story as he is also able to comment on his own observations rather than simply reacting to PJ\u2019s story. Through this extra voice in the story, Tim functions as the listener that goes along with PJ in real time. On the other hand Sruthi continues to play the role of Alex Goldman in past episodes as more of a friend that learns of the story after the fact. With this slight distinction and combination of these different narrative structures, the podcast balances between the more raw storytelling PJ and Tim bring listeners actively on and the more polished and traditional podcast format when PJ relays the events back to Srithi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, this podcast episode includes organic commentary that transports listeners into a more active and real time-involvement within the story rather than simply listening to the hosts reaccount what they have already experienced. A large part of this difference is the fact that the initial person that PJ interviews to get an idea of the entire situation plays a very small role in the podcast. In previous episodes, the first person initially interviewed has always been the protagonist of the story, and as a result, anchors and constantly adds to it. However, in this episode, the first person we meet simply introduces listeners to the boy in the photo and functions as a way for the narrative to give a large information dump. I found this structure very appropriate for this particular story because the very existence of the boy in the picture, Tommy Loftus, remains the largest source of mystery. As a result, this episode was driven more by PJ\u2019s personal account of  his struggles figuring out exactly who this person is and whether what he discovers is true or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another feature of this episode was that it includes more raw audio such as the ambiance of the bar or the sounds of the car. Notibally, Tim literally lists out the stores they pass as they drive through a Pennsylvanian suburb where Tommy\u2019s friends are supposed to work. Although listeners don\u2019t get an explicit description, through Tommy simply listing \u201cSharkey’s Wrangler, Family Wash Day, and Eagle National bank\u201d a sense of the slow suburban life sets in, and I found this a very subtle yet effective way to organically help listeners picture a boring old town in a less direct way. Additionally, the hosts in this episode express more of their emotions, similar to how one might confide in a close friend or diary. Before they enter the Tavern to interview Bill, PJ constantly remarks that he \u201cfeel[s] so uncomfortable\u201d and \u201cwants to puke.\u201d As a result, the larger focus on the hosts themselves created a central point in the story that involved many different voices and also created a connection to a relatable personality. Like the first episode I listened to, \u201cThe Case of the Missing Hit,\u201d I found this less edited and slightly messy feeling intertwined with a more traditional podcast structure made the story seem like a more personal experience. By getting to see the hosts psych themselves up before meeting and interviewing people in the story, listeners also experience the story vicariously as almost another person on the production team. 
Throughout this podcast episode that diverged a bit from previous episodes, I really enjoyed the less polished format of the hosts playing a larger personality by providing raw audio and emotions which effectively transported listeners directly into the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word Count: 877
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In my final podcast blog installment, I listened to the \u201cBoy in Photo\u201d episode from Reply All. Although I have become familiar with the general tone and structure of Reply All, I found that it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}