To borrow a line from Twin Peaks “its happening again…”
I am going to recommend a podcast, and I know that seems to be all that I do but hear me out. In a world of true crime podcasts The Disappearance Podcast has been accidently downloaded by more listeners than any other podcast I have discussed with fellow podcast enthusiasts.

This is NOT a true crime podcast. But you could be forgiven for thinking that for the first four minutes of the debute episode.

In the beginning it seems like a pretty basic audio drama centred around the mysterious disappearance of a boy from the narrators childhood; Alistair Glamis. The narrator in question is a guy called John Herman, a normal guy who has decided to make a podcast about a tangential mystery in his life. A mystery that for some reason has struck a chord with him. It turns out Alistair left some stuff to John, which is weird because they weren’t really close. Things got a little stranger as season one wrapped up but it all seemed relatively standard for a podcast drama.

And then the message that changed EVERYTHING

<<<<< Spoilers below >>>>>

I was absent mindly working my way through my extensive podcast queue whilst cleaning one sunny afternoon when suddenly a familiar voice and the haunting music dropped this mind fuck straight onto my unsuspecting eardrums. 

“I’m John Herman, and this is the first time you’ve heard my voice…”

I’m sorry what? Haven’t I just spent six episodes listening to you speak?

That was it. I was hooked. This is a podcast that does it’s best work in the spaces in between seasons. I don’t think there is another podcast that is doing quite what The Disappearance Podcast is. Every podcast mystery drama I have encountered has been very linear; vivid creative and riviting, but linear.

Actually that is not true, Homecoming played with chronology using surveillance documentation. But nothing like this. In The Disappearance Podcast you are asked to follow three (now four) timelines and stitch together the threads. Its not quite new Twin Peaks Mark Frost/David Lynch level of playing with simultaneous timelines but it has got to be as close as you’ll get in 15 minute audio episodes produced by an independent content creator. Yes, I look back on that sentence and realize how many qualifiers there are in that comparison, but the fact is that if the podcast wasn’t in it’s infancy in September 2016 you would assume it was a taking inspiration from the Twin Peaks return.

Well it appears this series is about to enter its final episode. Catch up from the first episode, don’t leap in half way through.

I love it. Let me know if you love it too!