Never Prepared For: How i Died

How i Died — it's stylized like that by the way — is an audio drama that focus on the life of a newly chosen forensic pathologist of Springfield, Jon Spacer. Appropriately enough with his profession, Jon has the ability of talking with the ghost of the cadavers — a gift that either makes his job easier, or worse. To make matters tougher, he has to deal daily with Sheriff Crowley, whose attitude to Jon couldn't be less trusting.

The fictional podcast is made by AudiOhm Media. Vincent Dajani is the writer as well as the voice of dubious Jon Spacer, and Shaina Waring acted as the no-nonsense Sheriff Crowley.

In the beginning, I thought the story is close to a slice-of-life type, like the television serial Pushing Daisies — only with less pie and more emotional baggage. But in the end of episode one, I found out that it is implied the story would be a piece in a bigger story line.

As an addition to the pleasant surprise, the criminal cases depicted in the podcast are actually based on true events, with details on information are changed to protect the victims. It is a nice touch, I think (in a creative sense, of course. crime is bad, kids); some kind of a delve into the premise of the "what-if" or the otherside-ness of a story. Although sometimes, a hundred percent of truth might not be the only purpose of telling and hearing the story.  

At time this first-sound review is made, How i Died is just started. But even though with only two episodes being released, it is an audio drama that absolutely worth more attention. It is well produced, with great voice actors, exemplary sound design and editing, and a clearly nifty writing. It's more than highly recommended, and I'm excited of what comes next from the story idea.

Note:

• How i Died is in the AudiOhm Media website, Apple Podcast, Libsyn, and your existing podcatchers.
• recommended for: great voice acting, non-imposing drama, great horror mystery with enough thrill
• caution for: death, accidents, violence, abuse, mental illness, graphic depiction of crime victims.

The Asian Madness [Review]

The Asian Madness is a fairly new podcast. It covers on the true crime, urban legends, myths, superstition, cultural issue, all in Asian continent.

Now, true crime is not really my kind of genre. Not only my lack of avidity to nightmare-induced-podcasts, but I don't really enjoy enjoy other people tragedies. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not saying all true crime fans are sadistic psychopath, it just that, I myself just don't know how to put my personal perspective on the information of crime stories.

So, why this pod? Well, mostly was because of the title: The *Asian* Madness.

Podcast in Asia has not flourish as well as in the other parts of the world (read: Western world), the reason, well, I haven't been able to deduce it why. Not that there are none podcast, there are several, but mostly are local ones, with local languages, ones I don't understand.

As for podcast about Asia, not only most of it were conversational, it mostly ranges in economy and politic--two subjects which I already had more than fair share of during my college years.

Thus, don't blame me when I actually squealed when I found a podcast about Asia and from an Asian, and also contains more ghosts than a stock market review. 

The Asian Madness is hosted by Jessica, commonly known as the Mad Asian. Episode was released more or less every week, although it then changed into bi-weekly after the fourth episode, with some mini-sodes in impromptu. Most episodes were about true crime though, with so far only one episode focusing on urban legends, and several episodes on cultures.

The structure of each episodes are fairly simple, not to mention the duration range is mostly below half an hour. The only tiny pet peeves I have with this podcast is the narrator tendency to tell general details about each of the country, such as its history, geographical location, etc., basically details that you could easily find in first paragraph of Wikipedia pages.

But, as a true crime podcaster, Mad Asian is not your usual one. She's maybe not everyone's taste. In fact, I honestly surprised that I liked her style. I guess her wry humor got me chained. She's not haunting, ominous, or too blatantly (boringly) factual. She's like the cool friend that tells a story in a night-out, and everyone in the room would directly tuned into her at the very start of her voice. She hardly sounds emotional on the subject, but here and there again, some burst of curses and emotion would give color to the story told.

The details of the crimes are wisely mentioned. As insane as it is, it's never mentioned as for the sake of gratification. But still, it's insane..so listener discretion is HIGHLY advised.

And also, do consider on what you're eating before listening this podcast: meats, soup, and err..tofu are not endorsed.

Note:

• The Asian Madness is on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, and your usual podcatcher allies
• for additional show notes, check the instagram account here
• recommended for: true crime, myths, urban legends, history, Asian culture
• caution for: graphic description and extensive discussion on violence, crime, murder, mutilation, cannibalism, kidnapping, missing person, sexual abuse, non-sexual abuse, violence on women and children, bodily horror, non-bodily horror, trauma, suicide, deaths (LOTS of it), cultural views, religion and belief, ghost, inept law enforcement.