https://stownpodcast.org/

I – proleptic decay and decrepitude: 8.75/10

delectable flavor of schizophrenia, True Crime, “taste the pysho-sphere”

I normally find podcasts to be among the lowest form of serial entertainment, but this is incredible. True Crime/biographical journalism augmented by audio recordings.

Part I describes the author's relation to John Macklemore, his visit out, and his experience hanging out with him for a day or two. The motorman motormouth whirlwind schizophrenic that is this enigmatic character in the shit whole South.

• “We got 1 high school and 95 churches. We got geebus, and geebus comin –oh I gotta eat a tums–”
• “Kabrum Nichols had died! Dead’r’n hell!”
• “it’s like the Darfur region of the Sudan”
• Identical mannerisms as Ignatius Riley, down to the “Oh my Gawd!”
• “why the hell don’t you get out of here Hasan?” - “who’d prune the maze?”
• “I had the praetorian class towering behind that uniform”
• “[S-Town is filled with] proleptic decay and decrepitude”
• “Off on the right is where I went to high school, I like to call it Auschwitz. See the crematorium? See long-low killing facility on either end?”

II – Tedious and Brief: 10/10

Chapter 2 profiles, some of the colorful and backwards, other towns people which help point out why the hell John is sticking around such a place that would be so disagreeable with his world views, as well as getting some more insight into John according to the perspectives of his peers.

John, who hates tattoos, and starts getting cagey about the investigation into Kabrum's death who calls people with tattoos low lives also conveniently goes and gets tattoos, covering his entire chest at the black sheep parlor whenever they are short on cash.

Reid describes the 'fuck everything' philosophy endemic in this part of the south whereby people don't overstress the decisions that they make minute to minute because life is going to be challenging either way. This, he reports, directly leads to the rather willing and incriminating testimony from Kabrum about the almost murder that night that they were zonked out under everything under the sun, including vodka, Xanax, and speed.

• "Can't be mad when low down dirty shit happens to you if you hang out with low down dirty people." is the mentality for not reporting or trying to press charges on the guy who stabbed Tyler's friend's brother
• "Hiding in the woods in Bib county is like having your tea in London"
• "It's progress as in ISIS is making progress"

John is, amongst other varieties, a climate doomer – emphasis on the doomer moreso than just the climate angle.

• life passes like the shadow
• make haste, but slowly
• use the hours, don't count them
• Even as you watch, I'm fleeing
• Use the night
• Nil boni hodie. Diem perdidi. "I did nothing good today. I have lost a day."

III – do not call the police, I will shoot them: 8/10

We learn of John's apparent and imminent suicide.

The cousins no one has heard of arrive and immediately box Tyler out of the estate inheritance which becomes very messy. John had no will and hid all his "assets" in unbanked resources. I.e. this guy definitely buried his money in bullion:

“time to go dig up some more money”

The tension and irony of Ozark.

Drank the cyanide with the town clerk, this poor poor woman named Faye, on the phone and was screaming about how it burned.

IV – fountain of youth: 7/10

The plot thickens as Reed starts to reach out to people on the list that John left; friends of his who were only contacted after the funeral, if at all.

V – At the behest of an Alabamian horologist: 7.5/10

More of Rita's side of the story – dirt on Tyler.

VI – journalism is a bankrupt occupation: 0/10

This marks the absolute low point in the series. Reed begins to share things about John that we went out of his way to guarantee were shared strictly off the record. Reed justifies sharing them (from the PERSPECTIVE of conversations he had with John) by saying that he got the same info on the record from other sources and that, by John's own logic, he's just worm food in the dirt now, so sharing this info won't effect him. Bankrupt journalistic ethics, I can't believe that his studio/producer greenlit this shit. I (almost) didn't finish because of how slimy/gross it felt listening – not so much about the content shared, but hearing Reed's justification for sharing it.

I think S-Town still holds up if you separate Reed's bullshit narrative from the people he talks to.

And I think trying to understand another person is a worthwhile thing to do

oh shut the fuck up.

Like talking about the aspects of John's sexuality that he shared in confidence (or rather, the specific trysts that color in the shame John associated with it) help to introduce the significance of John's friendship with Olin – but the first story is just Reed digging up old dirt from Bib county, sullying the already-complicated memory of John and the townsfolk.

Really feels like the treasure hunt angle didn't pan out, and so now Reed is looking for a story in John's private life – if only to answer the question about "did he ever experience love."

VII – gears & turtles: 2/10

Declared the jackoff site to be a super fun place

We learn about how John helped build the town that he attributes his depression to. How the way that most people in the town remember him bares little resembles to the way Reed understood him.

Again with the "and then we had an off the record conversation" right after talking about what he and Tyler had been talking about in that context (finding gold).

Also sounds like John gave himself mercury poisoning from fire gilding various objects (clocks) dozen(s) of times per year, since he was at least 17 – ingesting lots of mercury.

Also learn about the source/cause of all his tattoos, the ritual of "church" he had Tyler perform on him, and the depraved extent of his self loathing.

I pierced his nipples the night he killed himself

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