By Analia Gallagher
There aren’t many guarantees in life, but one thing that is truly inevitable is death. An episode of the NPR podcast This American Life tells stories that all come together for a common theme. The episode, “The Secret Of My Death”, is 63 minutes embodied with a total of four stories that all relate back to the theme of death. Although very different from one another, they all come together with the idea of trying to make sense of death by the events before and/or after it.
The podcast starts off with the narrator, Ira Glass telling Graeme Patterson’s story of his near death experience. Only 5 minutes, it's the shortest of them all, but is a great segway into the topic. It explores in depth a near death experience Graeme had as a kid while he was alone at a construction site. Although the event only lasted maybe 60 seconds, the attention to detail shows how much the event impacted him. Ira Glass and Graeme go back and forth telling the story. These changes in perspective portray the story in a way in which the reader feels like they are truly there.
Nadia Bowers’ narrative, “Dear Dealer”, is the third story in this podcast. This one is the lengthiest, at about 23 minutes and is about Nadia’s sister, Sasha, who died of an overdose three years prior. Although Nadia is the only speaker, her soothing, yet accusatory, voice makes it impossible not to be intrigued. She is writing to the dealer contact that she found on her sister's phone in an attempt to get to the bottom of her death. Without any answers, Nadia asks all the questions one would have when losing a loved one to addiction. She also shares stories of memories she had with Sasha, good and bad, that reveal their relationship . There are even recordings of them from their teenage years that make anyone with siblings empathize with her story. It becomes clear to the listener that writing this could have helped Nadia gain some of the closure needed and helps her arrange her thoughts to make sense of the tragedy.
The third story takes a different road on the topic of death and incorporates the society’s love for social media. In episode “Commento Mori”, Dave Maher recounts his close encounter with death, but probably not the way you’re assuming. Have you ever wondered what people would say about you when you passed away? Dave Maher was able to find out. Maher fell into a coma and about a month into it, his friends were told that Dave’s parents were taking him off life support. They all gathered at a close friend's house and celebrated Dave’s life. Word quickly spread of his apparent passing and people flooded the comment section of his Facebook page with written goodbyes and favorite memories. Miraculously, Dave eventually woke up and saw the outpouring of comments he received. The podcast goes on to tell the emotions he felt during the process of reading them and how it forever affected him. It puts life in a completely new perspective in a total of only 14 minutes.
The final story is probably the one that will resonate with the reader the most. It is the story of a guy who was a proxy for a friend at a funeral and all the emotions it entailed. Going to a funeral for someone you’ve never met is a difficult experience because oftentimes people feel they don’t belong. This is what “Charlie” was going through when he attended the funeral of a Navy Seal and was attempting to piece together the guy’s life with little to no background information. The podcast is predominantly narrative, although towards the end there is a question and answer segment with the author. In eighteen minutes it covers extremely intense topics such as mental health and puts yet another spin on this theme of death.
Overall the podcast shows depth and tackles difficult topics related to death--in ways one would never expect. It shines a light on many worldwide issues such as drug abuse and suicide. The way each story is constructed keeps the reader on her toes throughout the whole podcast. This podcast would appeal most to an adult demographic because it covers difficult situations that involve death; the audience will need to be mature enough to handle the sensitive topics. Anyone who has lost a loved one in a tragic way and has dealt with the hard aftermath could also be considered part of the target audience due to the connection they might feel towards the subjects in the podcast.
Image Source:
Adam Maida, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/646/the-secret-of-my-death
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