May 10, 2018

"Goodson listened to the podcast alone in his bed. Every few hours, his wife would crack open the door to make sure he was OK."

"'I was just clusterfucked,' Goodson recalled. The hardest part to hear wasn't the sections about him—it was hearing his late friend's voice. 'Oh Lord. I probably bawled my eyes out through the whole thing,' Goodson said. 'Up until it got up to that fruity stuff. I don’t have nothing against homosexuals, but it was too much for me. I felt like they took that a little far.' Listening to the podcast was the first time he learned McLemore had intimate relationships with men. 'I had my thoughts, but it wasn’t none of my business on his sexuality and all that,' he said... Not much has changed in Woodstock, Alabama in the last year. 'It's still the same old shit town,' Goodson said. There have been visitors. Fans of the podcast will drop by the property he shares with his wife, four daughters, five-month-old son, grandmother and uncle to take a photo, which annoys the hell out of Goodson. 'It still gets aggravating when you got people coming up in your yard and wanting to take pictures all the time and that kind of crap,' he said."

From "'It’s the Same Old Sh*t Town': Tyler Goodson Explains How S-Town Changed His Life/One year and nearly 80 million downloads later, Tyler Goodson discusses life after a podcast" (Esquire).

I'm a big fan of the podcast "S-Town" (i.e., "Shit-town). A year ago, I wrote, "I've thought a lot about what will happen to Tyler. It seems inevitable that less scrupulous people than the 'This American Life' team will find him and want to use him for purposes that he may not competently evaluate. He's a young man and — you won't learn this listening to the podcast — unusually good looking. I can't believe there won't be offers to participate in filming a reality show. Wouldn't people love to see that house he's built out of scraps and wisteria vines and a horse trough? Wouldn't people love to hear him talk with Uncle Jimmy shouting 'Goddam right!' and 'Yes suh!' in the background? What is 'This American Life' doing to protect him? What can they do? What should they do?"

16 comments:

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
madAsHell said...

'Up until it got up to that fruity stuff. I don’t have nothing against homosexuals, but it was too much for me. I felt like they took that a little far.'

Was this lifted from a Faulkner novel?

John Pickering said...

I haven't heard the podcast, but the question Ann raises about the duties incumbent on the reporters for This American Life after producing and publishing their story, is the subject of Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer, which argues that gaining the trust of sources and then betraying them is the very core of what journalists do.
Malcolm is an example par excellence of the high New Yorker magazine writing style.

Ralph L said...

Wisteria vines are damned hard to break, or even cut.

Ralph L said...

Tattoo sleeves. Gak.

But he's got a Confederate flag and a death's head with the stupid type of cowboy hat.

Ralph L said...

According to Brian Reed’s podcast, Tyler had four children at the time that John McLemore died. When John died, he had a fourth baby on the way, according to the podcast.

Can't get the facts straight in the first 2 sentences.

Ralph L said...

Everybody else lost in the maze?

He put the rows too close together. Even if those are boxwood, in a few years, it will be difficult to get through without considerable pruning, and not enough sunlight will get to the lower branches.

Etienne said...

Peasants. Not everyone gets to be a capitalist success story.

Henry said...

Remember when we talked about Ta-Nahesi Coates complaining about how bad it was being famous?

Here's Tyler:

“It’s hell being famous without the rich part,” he told me. “If money came along with it, I wouldn’t feel near as bad about it.”

MD Greene said...


Doesn't make me want to listen to the podcast.

It'd be nicer if we made an effort to meet people from different backgrounds instead of learning about them from "real life" stories and then stalking them like a bunch of voyeurs.

Paul Mac said...

Market forces can handle the photo problem. Charge to take one, preferably too much. Word either spreads and keeps folks away, or you get paid for the inconvenience.

M Jordan said...

I enjoyed the podcast for the first half. Then it started to seem to me to devolve into a liberal reporter spinning a gothic southern tale out of flax. By the end I was sick of it. I will say, though, that McElmore was an interesting, colorful character. And like all interesting , colorful characters, he got old.

C Hayes said...

I must be way, way out of the loop on popular (?) culture. I've never heard of these guys. Can anyone give me the 10cent overview?

Snark said...

"I must be way, way out of the loop on popular (?) culture. I've never heard of these guys. Can anyone give me the 10cent overview?"

A guy named John in Alabama attracts the attention of a podcast guy with the story of what he believes is a pattern of corruption and secrecy in his small town, initially around a rumoured murder. In the course of investigating this the podcast guy becomes fascinated by John on his own merits. The story morphs into an exploration of John, who is unusual and compelling, and of his world, including some close friends and associates. The title S-Town comes from John's epithet for where he lives - Shit Town.

It's good, and I'd recommend seeking it out if you like podcasts.

mikee said...

My wife, my son and I listened to the podcast driving from Texas to Maryland.
It was wonderfully done radio drama, and a very sad tale.
The way the layers of the plot were created and then peeled back to reveal new perspectives on the characters and their actions was masterful.
The vileness of some of the people was disgusting.
Such is life.

grimson said...

By giving voice to the principals, we learn that when living in small, closed communities, everyone knows all about everyone else--most of it untrue.