Just finished binge listening today, and I'm left feeling so incredibly sad. As several people mentioned up thread, I'm also having difficulty processing the entirety of it, so I plan on listening again. JBM had such a brilliant mind, but was such a tortured soul. Owen, Brokeback Mountain, the truck, all of it just heartbreaking. I also tend to believe Tyler over Rita, but not by much. And Mr. K3 can choke and die on a fat dick.
I laughed and laughed when John B. was going off about how the citizens of Shittown were "hiding in the woods" during the fight when the cops showed up. He said something like "folks here hide in the woods like they drink afternoon tea in England." I don't know why that struck me as so hilarious, but it did. He had such a way with words. Until the end of episode 2, I was positive that this podcast was going to make him a star
My favorite parts were the interviews with John B's friends. The friends from the list that weren't called in time to attend the funeral. It was just so...sad but beautiful...the way he was loved and what he meant to people. The part with the professor (I think) talking about the sun dial John B made for him was incredible. Especially at the very end when he was talking about the knowledge and skill it takes to make something so beautiful and then he said something like "what could mean more to me than that?" I cried.
My favorite parts were the interviews with John B's friends. The friends from the list that weren't called in time to attend the funeral. It was just so...sad but beautiful...the way he was loved and what he meant to people. The part with the professor (I think) talking about the sun dial John B made for him was incredible. Especially at the very end when he was talking about the knowledge and skill it takes to make something so beautiful and then he said something like "what could mean more to me than that?" I cried.
Yes, this is one of my favorite parts as well. For someone who didn't follow a conventional life (i.e., marriage, children) he had such a tremendous impact on so many people.
Wow, the maze is so elaborate and beautiful! So much bigger than I even imagined.
i can't imagine how awful it must have been for the tone clerk who was on the phone with him as he died. I don't know if that something you can ever really get over. I do wonder though about the phone calls to his friends on the list. All of them said they weren't contacted until after the funeral. She was so adamant that she called them, but that can't be true if they all say the same thing. I wonder why she would lie about it.
I am also wondering what happened to the rest of his dogs. It sounded like Tyler only took a few of them.
Overall, it was just such a great story, and so well done. The incredible amount of editing that must have gone into weaving together all the clips of interviews and other information is astounding.
I loved this so much. I was expecting something more like up and vanished podcast meets this American life and did not expect what we got, which was just a beautiful and sad story.
I agree that John was broke and that he took his life so at least his mother could be taken care of from the sale of the property.
I feel sorry for Tyler. He lost his employer, his friend and the inheritance he was promised, and he is definitely going to jail for the property he stole.
I also feel a *little* sorry for the cousin. It sounds like she kind of walked in to a shit storm. She didn't know Tyler at all and if she was telling the truth that she was told by the police that Tyler likely padlocked the house, I can see how she might think the worst. I do think wanting them to cut off his nipples so she could get the rings was shady AF though, which definitely makes me hate her.
I also feel so sorry for Mary grace. I don't think he was deliberately abusing her but keeping her in a dark room is definitely elder abuse. I think that's partly why I want to think Rita is a moderately good person so that I can believe that Mary Grace really is doing well.
The episode with the grandma and Bocelli. GAH! SO well done! I love TAL.
Maybe in the very least K3 will keep the maze now that there is so much buzz about it?
John B had some zingers.
I wonder what things would be like if John didn't take his life and he could witness the popularity of the podcast? Surely, he would be a star. I feel like the love he would have felt could have maybe saved him.
Such a shame.
I hope he is finally at peace.
Do you think there would have been a podcast if he hadn't taken his life though? I totally agree he was a fascinating person and I thought the podcast was very well done but the story he originally contacted him about turned out not to be what he thought it was. I kind of thought that Brian enjoyed corresponding with John afterwards as friends but he wasn't still working on the murder story when he found out about John's death.
Just not sure what the story would have been.
Listening to Brian's reaction when finding out about John was so sad to listen to. Save
I'm only on episode 6, so I've skipped most of the responses, but did Brian Reed's tendency for upspeak drive anyone else batty? It's not something I usually notice or care about, but I felt like his was so pronounced and constant!
I'm only on episode 6, so I've skipped most of the responses, but did Brian Reed's tendency for upspeak drive anyone else batty? It's not something I usually notice or care about, but I felt like his was so pronounced and constant!
Yes it did! I don't know if I didn't notice it at first or if it just got progressively worse but it was driving me nuts the last few episodes.
I really only listen to podcasts in the car, but I'm listening today because I need to finish this. So utterly tragic, listening to all the people who say John B. had such an impact on their lives. I was crying during the Brokeback Mountain episode.
As I was listening, it seemed to me that John B just had these idealistic views of how people should be, and was consistently let down by their inability to live up to those expectations. The mercury poisoning angle was very interesting, though, and I could see that having an impact.
I'm still really interested in why Faye the town clerk hadn't called all those friends, because I don't believe at all that she did.
I'm only on episode 6, so I've skipped most of the responses, but did Brian Reed's tendency for upspeak drive anyone else batty? It's not something I usually notice or care about, but I felt like his was so pronounced and constant!
Yes it did! I don't know if I didn't notice it at first or if it just got progressively worse but it was driving me nuts the last few episodes.
Yes, I started noticing it near the end but I thought maybe I was just spending too much time with the podcast straight through that the host was getting on my nerves or something! I couldn't tell if it was getting worse or what!
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
I really only listen to podcasts in the car, but I'm listening today because I need to finish this. So utterly tragic, listening to all the people who say John B. had such an impact on their lives. I was crying during the Brokeback Mountain episode.
As I was listening, it seemed to me that John B just had these idealistic views of how people should be, and was consistently let down by their inability to live up to those expectations. The mercury poisoning angle was very interesting, though, and I could see that having an impact.
I'm still really interested in why Faye the town clerk hadn't called all those friends, because I don't believe at all that she did.
I'm torn on both Tyler and Rita.
I don't think she did either. As someone whose anxiety manifests as avoidance, I imagine I may react the same way after a traumatic situation like that? Who knows though.
I do also believe the mercury poisoning because of the enlarged brain.
Just finished, I thought is was marvelous. What talent to put that story together in such a masterful way. I've enjoyed reading all of your comments... still processing!
Post by nancybotwin on Apr 16, 2017 1:04:23 GMT -5
I just finished listening. It was intoxicating. I want to know where Tyler is today and if the Rita/Tyler/treasure piece ever resolved. I think the fact that the calls did not get made is shady AF.
I'm only on episode 5. It's beautiful and addictive. But....I can't help but feel like Brian is revealing things about John B that he has no right to, that's John B never really consented to before he died. It feels voyeuristic to me. But then, I think, John B was a genius who knew exactly what he was doing and was always several steps ahead of Brian (and everyone else) anyway. So either he set it up this way, or knew it was going to happen and didn't care.
I just finished listening. It was intoxicating. I want to know where Tyler is today and if the Rita/Tyler/treasure piece ever resolved. I think the fact that the calls did not get made is shady AF.
I think what happened with the calls is Rita was probably thinking about John's funeral and how it should be people his mother knew. I can her thinking she didn't want a bunch of "strangers" showing up at the funeral in what she thought should be an affair with close family and friends.
I just finished listening. It was intoxicating. I want to know where Tyler is today and if the Rita/Tyler/treasure piece ever resolved. I think the fact that the calls did not get made is shady AF.
I didn't realize Tyler had a conferderate flag tattooed on him. By the end of the story, I had come down on the side of the cousin. Not firmly, not unquestioningly, but if I was going to make a choice, it would have been for her. The tattoo makes me feel more strongly for her. The whole story is so sad though. I'm glad Mary Grace seemed to be doing better at the end.
Idk.. I enjoyed the podcast immensely, and John was clearly incredibly smart and talented. But I think a lot of credit is being given to a mind that was at the end extremely addled by mental illness and/or mercury poisoning. I do not think he had any fortune at the time of his death -- I think he had been living off of it, and spent up probably the last of it before he killed himself. As soon as they hinted that someone would die, I was pretty sure it would be John B via suicide. I wasn't at all surprised by that, but still sad to be right.
I also don't think he had any grand scheme to have his life story be told on a national stage. I'd be willing to bet his outbox was full of similar letters to radio shows, tv shows, etc trying to get someone to bite on the corruption in Shit Town. Most people scanning their inbox would have gone wide-eyed at the ranting and hit delete. Or at most, they would do some googling and not find any obituary for the supposedly-dead teen in a town that reports on a dinner party, and can it.
I'd say the foresight was This American Life's, seeing this kind of manic, funny, *engaging* personality and thinking "okay, this murder might be complete bunk, but there might still be a segment in there somewhere. Let's check it out."
This article makes me want to read this woman's book immediately. This sentence is so good I could get lost in it: " in that pivot from a world where an Italian and half-Jewish man can have a black wife, to one where whiteness is flattened and exclusive, he helped to normalize an imaginary white existence, one absent of blackness, unfettered – as best as it could be – by this country's racist past."
I think her statements are valid, but I also wonder how she would have done it to address thise issues. I feel like there was enough of a groundwork of "yeah this place is racist as FUCK" that it didn't need to be spelled out further, BECAUSE of her points -- that good ol boys clubs cannot exist except on the backs of a racist history. Like it's one of many subplots that is hinted at but not outright explored, but I didn't get the impression it was omitted as unnecessary. If that makes sense.