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The Round-Up
60 Minutes reported on the Havana Syndrome and who could be behind it. The timing is interesting to say the least. I post it because the producers have been working on it on and off for the last 9 years, before a recent acquisition hire happened. Spoiler alert: The producers say Russia is behind it (Direct Energy Weapon), meanwhile, the CIA is still investigating. AND I’ve heard the US Govt. has something. The point is:
Listen to Vice’s Havana Syndrome
And Brazen’s The Sound: Mystery of the Havana Syndrome
iHeartPodcast Awards were live-streamed last week from Austin, TX, at the Moody Theatre during SXSW. The full list of the winners is here with badges!
We have a write-up from the iHeartPodcasts Awards that we are proofreading for the next newsletter. Stay tuned for that.
LA Times Festival of Books’ free festival at USC mid-April has listed their limited podcast lineup so far. 2 of the 6 slots remain empty. Here’s what we have so far. I should ask Sam Sanders if he will be hosting an episode of any of his podcasts again.
TBPN, a small but niche business tech live show that podcasts its episodes out of Silicon Valley, was acquired by…OpenAI(ChatGPT) for $30 million! The talk about the acquisition here. I hear it’s big on Twitter…
Age of Audio documentary is making the rounds. Last week was in LA, and will be in Texas & Rhode Island this April. Check it out here.
I am also testing the “Featured Episodes” this week on the homepage. In honor of Artemis II launching, episodes from From Future Principles Pod, 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II, and NASA’s Curious Universe. Check it out! Play them from your mobile browser or desktop!
On to my pick this week!
Podcast: Wisecrack
Genre: True Crime with a hint of Comedy
Publisher: iHeartPodcasts & Tenderfoot.TV
About: He left home as the chubby kid with a dream, a decade later, he's a touring comic with a killer set. Literally. In Wisecrack, stand-up comedian Edd Hedges returns to his hometown for a charity gig, only to find himself headlining the most terrifying night of his life. The warm welcome quickly unravels into a chilling true crime tale of a downward spiral and a town shaken by murder. When TV crime producer Jodi Tovay stumbled across Edd’s comedy set, it did more than get a few laughs, it opened the door to a years-long investigation she never saw coming. Part comedy special, part true crime thriller, Wisecrack blends punchlines with plot twists in a genre-defying ride where the laughs are real and the danger is no joke.
AirPods in. Great Pods mini-player set. Vacuum plugged in. Post-Eid, the chores weren’t going to do themselves. Family kept interrupting my zone, but honestly, this one pulled me back in every time.
Wisecrack won Podcast of the Year and Best Sound Production at this year’s Ambies, plus iHeart’s Best Crime Award. When a podcast takes 8+ years to investigate, interview, and even just figure out if there’s a story worth telling, you can hear why. Jodi Tovay took us on the adventure.
Edd’s comedy set plays more like a dramedy set, a clever way to ease you in before things get dark. And they get dark. Episode 2, Edd revisits his family home. Banging starts outside. His family’s whole tone shifts. I’m in my living room in broad daylight, thinking, good thing it’s not nighttime right now.
The cast of characters is something else. John Hedges, a hulking man with eight fingers from a sawmill accident. Carol, Edd’s wonderfully daffy mother, who accidentally became a village meth dealer through someone she met on Farmville. And then there’s Pete Rogers, the killer’s father, who casually drops that he warned the victims to hide their sharp knives beforehand because he knew there was a “risk.” Just let that sit.
What got me is that both Edd and the killer were bullied, dyslexic kids from the same street. One ended up on a comedy stage. The other was on the wrong side of the police tape. And look, I’ve said it before in this newsletter, we can’t wear the other person’s shoes. We just don’t know what happened, nor can we. Jodi eventually bypasses the scripted set entirely and goes straight for the cold, hard facts.
What makes this one stick is the unfiltered evolution (using big words today) of Jodi and Edd’s relationship, which involved the comedian literally living in Jodi’s house for weeks so she could “keep eyes on him.” From getting kicked out of English pubs to analyzing crime scenes where seven kitchen knives were used, the podcast masterfully navigates the gray areas of culpability. By the end, you’re not just looking for a guilty verdict. You’re witnessing the transformation of a man making peace with his childhood bully in a way that’s as hilarious and scary at the same time.
Jodi pitched this to streaming TV companies. They passed. Tenderfoot TV, the folks behind Radio Rental, did not. Their loss, our gain.
This is a team effort, and you can tell. Funding, sound design, and years of patience. Not a one-person bedroom pod. This took a village. A very unsettling English village.
Here’s the clip from the Ambies at the moment of Jodi’s speech.
There are also bonus episodes worth sticking around for. Honest, hindsight-heavy, and they don’t let Edd off easy. Was he exaggerating too much in his act? He addresses it. Was Edd actually a bully himself? Checkmark that box. Plus panels from various CrimeCons if you want to go even deeper.
”good old fashioned journalist quest. As the tone evolves from terror to tragedy, and humour intermixes with empathy, a multitude of emotions pass through your frontal cortex.”
Most Viewed Podcasts (MVP) the past week on GP!
5. MF DOOM: Long Island to Leeds - BBC Sounds
4. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Lemonada Media
3. Fraudacious - Novel in association with BBC Studios
2. The Idiot - Serial Productions & The New York Times
1. Me, Myself, and AI - MIT Sloan Management Review
Most viewed pages on GP • Last updated Mar 31, 2026 • Updates Every Tuesday
Stay safe, seriously, stay safe, call that friend, and be kind!
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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