Serial With Milk

Photo courtesy of Slate Magazine, Nov. 2014

With the advent of online podcasts and downloadable audio dramas, a landscape once dominated by terrestrial radio stations is beginning to change shape. In "Only half the story: Radio drama, online audio and transmedia storytelling," Lance Dann investigates the ways that these new forms of audio storytelling influence audiences and allow new types of stories to be told.

"The audience to a downloaded audio piece has the freedom to choose when and where to listen," writes Dann. "This should allow for more intricate plotting; it can certainly allow for longer-form drama and sequentially developing serials." How fitting that the podcast Serial itself fits this description perfectly. As described on the podcast's website, "Serial tells one story—a true story—over the course of a season." The in-depth, calculative, analytical investigation of host and executive producer Sarah Koenig necessitates that the listener give their undivided attention to every detail presented. Despite the dense storytelling, Serial has become one of the most famous and successful podcasts of all time.

Serial is produced by NPR station WBEZ Chicago and created by the writers of This American Life. It was the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 million downloads on iTunes as of December 2014, according to CNN. By February 2016, the 18 episodes released had been downloaded 80 million times. (Do not follow the previous link, unless you want to see potential Season 1 spoilers. You've been warned.)

Season 1 of Serial spends 12 episodes tracing the events of several students of Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 13, 1999, the day student Hae Min Lee went missing and was killed. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was charged with her murder, but for the past 17 years he has asserted his innocence. Sarah Koenig combs through reams of evidence and interviews every person connected to the case in an attempt to find the truth of what happened, as the audience follows her progress week by week.

"Each season, we follow a plot and characters wherever they take us," Serial's website states. "We won’t know what happens at the end until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we bring you the next chapter in the story, so it's important to listen to the episodes in order." Episodes are written and released as the investigation progresses, resulting in a season that does not have an traditional overarching plot line, but rather gives weekly updates, so to speak, on the progress of Koenig's investigations.

Though Serial is not a drama in the way that Dann's The Flickerman is--a fictional story with a made up roles and plot lines--it engages in the dramatic genre by framing a true story in a way that allows listeners to be caught up in the characters and events introduced. During each season (Season 2 is airing now), listeners gather together across the web to speculate, theorize, and collaborate on hypotheses based on the evidence that each episode reveals.

Dann argues that online audio allows audiences to control their listening experience at the expense of the intimacy of live, real-time broadcast. Serial's week-by-week updates restore that sense of intimacy--as Koenig uncovers the story, so do we. The episodes must be heard in order--none can stand alone. The writing is data packed--yet enthralling-- and aimless (in that the ending is uncertain as the writers commence each season). All of these features would be impossible in a traditional, scheduled radio drama format.

The huge success of Serial relies on the podcast format, and the ability of listeners to control the timing and pace of their experience. Serial has, like The Flickerman, paved the way for unprecedented and original formats of dramatic storytelling.