S-town Refelction

I recently got caught up in the podcast S-Town. Without a doubt, S-Town is one of the most brilliant pieces of creative nonfiction I have ever experienced. The people interviewed are personable and intriguing, the host's commentary thoughtful and nuanced.

"S-Town" focused on a man who lived in Woodstock named John B. McLemore. Podcast host Brian Reed begins the podcast to investigate a murder, but the story changes when McLemore dies instead. McLemore and Goodson were close friends, and are described in the podcast as having a father-son relationship.

I found it ethically confronting in the deepest way: not whether it was good or bad radio, but whether this story should have been told at all. Whether this was a story so fraught and intrusive that it was one of those instances when a journalist, however reluctantly, should turn away.

S-Town is morally indefensible. The response to the guilt of knowing that – and it’s something I’ve grappled with more than once over the years – is to know that this is a good story, powerfully told with the best of intentions. That it has purpose. Occasionally something a bit like s-town can nudge close to art in the way it peels away the layers of life.