I’m going to start with a confession: I’m not really a podcast person.
It’s not that I dislike the format. It’s just that somewhere along the way, podcasts stopped being “interesting conversations” and started becoming “the place where people say they discovered the truth.” And I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me, “Well, I heard on this podcast…” in the same tone once reserved for medical diagnosis or divine revelation, I lose interest pretty quickly.
That said, I have listened to a few. One in particular stuck with me: a podcast called Darkness, produced by students at the University of Texas at Austin. It tells the story of Mark Kilroy, a UT student who went to Mexico on spring break in 1989 and never came home. He was kidnapped by a drug-running cult that believed human sacrifice would bring them supernatural protection for their trafficking business. It’s a story that is equal parts heartbreaking, terrifying, and grimly fascinating. I had read a book about the case years ago, but the podcast was deeply researched, respectfully told, and genuinely haunting in its detail.
That’s the kind of podcast I could make time for — something rooted in real investigation, not just speculation or personality. But anything that starts with “here’s what they don’t want you to know”… I’ll pass.
The truth is, I tend to spend my listening time elsewhere. I’d rather work through an audiobook or lose myself in old-time radio — the real ancestor of podcasting, back when theater came through a speaker the size of a suitcase and imagination did the rest. Give me Orson Welles as The Shadow, or the chilling violin stabs that announced Suspense! — “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” Those shows didn’t just fill time. They took over the room. Actors, Foley artists, orchestras, scripts tight enough to hold your breath — that was storytelling. That still works on me better than most modern “two-people-talking-in-a-studio” shows ever will.
And of course, there’s always music — usually something I know by heart — and the news, which I still prefer to read from reputable sources rather than hear filtered through a personality with theme music and a Patreon link.
Maybe I’ll stumble onto another podcast like Darkness one day — something worth the time and attention. But until then, I’ll be over here listening to voices from another era: mysterious men who cloud men’s minds, detectives who solve impossible crimes in 30 minutes flat, and announcers who once promised, “We again hope to keep you in… Suspense!”
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
