So many people who listen to podcasts hold the episode "The Case of the Missing Hit" from Reply All in extremely high regard, and for good reason. It's a fun mystery, rousing, relatable, and with a phenomenal ending that really takes advantage of the audio format.
That's why I wanted to give Underunderstood's newest episode "Lou Pearlman Tried to Send a Boy Band to Space" a shoutout here. If you haven't heard of it, Underunderstood is a show is about diving into mysteries that can't be solved by the internet, and this one is a perfect intro to the series.
It's about one of the hosts finding an obscure fact from Trivial Pursuit about a boyband that was supposed to write a song for NASA and eventually go to space. It conjured up a lot of those same feelings -- of discovery, of mystery, and of wonder, and covers some similar topics about diving into a soul-sucking industry, about songwriting, and about searching for a track that may or may not have ever existed. There's tragedy, joy, laughs, and everything in between.
It's so much fun and all reported beautifully, enhanced with the great rapport between the hosts, with some compelling guests and a fantastic cherry-on-top ending. (Which I won't spoil!)
If you haven't had the chance to dive into this show or this episode yet, I highly recommend doing so! This episode is an easy favorite in my podcast app.
Did anyone in here end up watching the 20/20 about Lou Pearlman this weekend? Thoughts?
Before watching I knew a few of the details of how he was scamming his musical artists. I was a teen girl in the early 2000s, so I loved BSB and *NSYNC. I remembered when both groups went to court with him, and part of what it was about.
I had no idea about his previous business ventures, or the pyramid scheme he was running. I feel so terrible for the people he scammed they had on the show.
They mentioned it in one episode, but I didn't remember hearing them go in-depth on it. There's some hilarious Aaron Carter drops in there.
I just finished it and damn, this was Netflix documentary quality. This dude was like the blueprint for that Fyre Festival guy. Also, the dichotomy of how the members of *NSYNC, BSB, Innosense and various business partners and lifetime friends describe him and his ways to how Aaron Carter describes him was absolutely jarring.
So I REALLY want to see this documentary, but it's only shown on Youtube Premium, which is $15.99 a month!! I already pay for 3 streaming services, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a 4th. Anyone heard if it will ever be on Netflix or Hulu? Other platforms?
