Untimely Podcast is a new independent podcast that deals with various recent or historical events that ultimately resulted in death and destruction. The show’s host presents with a matter-of-fact yet delicately descriptive style, holding your interest in a natural way, and drawing necessary attention to these tragedies – so that listeners leave with a sense of awareness, understanding, and gratitude.
Episode One deals with the heartbreaking tragedy of a fire that claimed many lives at a Catholic School in Chicago. The host’s delivery of the story takes a step by step approach, detailing the incident from the start of the fire, how it spread, to the people it ultimately affected. This style of story-telling is descriptive yet primarily factual – not driven by emotion or dramatized in any way, just respectfully and thoroughly offering the intricacies of the disaster; in a manner that paints a clear picture of the tragedy and the series of events that subsequently took place.
1600 students and teachers were present at the time of the fire – it was an incident that rocked the village, the surrounding areas, and indeed America. This podcast episode – The Untimely Fire at the Our Lady of the Angels School – openly informs or reminds listeners of how quickly and intensely something like this can strike.
Episode Two moves over to Tampa, Florida, to tell the story of The Untimely Collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The personal details here lay out how immense the effects can be regarding seemingly simple decisions we all make. The impact of what appear to be small events or choices can either be life-saving or catastrophic when it comes to what may follow later on in the day. The introduction in particular here talks of the people who were specifically involved in the bridge’s collapse, and those who ultimately avoided this fate.
The show’s host’s ability to balance factual details with personal references makes for a style of story-telling that attempts to leave no questions unanswered, but that also showcases the humanity and heart of the speaker and of everyone who experienced this event at the time. It’s a heart-breaking yet fascinating tale, and the story-teller addresses this in an admirable way. This episode comes with some unexpected, unsettling and intense Mayday recordings that really bring home the weight of the incident.
Though Untimely Podcast is a new venture, the thought and effort that has gone into these opening episodes is superb. There’s a Radiolab vibe to the set-up, and speaking personally – in both cases these were completely new stories. Future episodes are likely to be well-worth tuning in for.
Check out all episodes via Podbean or search for them on iTunes, Google Podcast, or Stitcher. Find & follow Untimely Podcast on Twitter.
