US Army Corps of Engineers
The point of this blog is to share great podcast episodes with someone who just got into the medium. For the most part that means looking back, but hey—things come up. So surprise! I’m moving things forward this week. I just listened to this episode and I suggest you do so, too.
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has been a major feature in national news for the past few weeks. The situation right now is bad, but the episode I’m sharing this week shows the year or so leading up to now was even worse. It comes from Michigan Public Radio and it airs on a show called Reveal. This time of year is awards season for journalists—I’m glad I’m not going up against them.
The thread that carries us through the episode is a woman named Lee Anne Walters. She first began noticing problems with the water when her two boys started breaking out in a rash every time they went swimming. Lindsey Smith and the MPR team weave together local and state officials as well as the doctors and scientists who eventually forced those officials to take the matter seriously. They lay out a coherent, thoughtful timeline showing how and why Flint ended up where it is today. More importantly for me, the character portraits are clean and well observed. Each person comes across as human—even the public servants who have been forced to resign.
You won’t find any smoking guns, and the story doesn’t vilify the state’s political establishment. It’s clear from this and other reporting that very important people failed to do their job—often spectacularly. But what’s worse, Do Not Drink shows many of those people failed to care about what would happen to the citizens they were charged with serving. Smith makes the failures in Flint plain, but her work is restrained and evenhanded. It’s all the more damning because of it.
Now for the less fun part. Reveal is not in my regular lineup. The production is strong, the host Al Letson is good, and the topics are interesting, but my feelings remain lukewarm. Admittedly, I don’t listen on a regular basis, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
My biggest complaint is episodes sometimes fail to really hang together around a central theme. An episode titled The Secrets of Church, State, and Business talks about Jehovah’s witnesses, broadband internet policy, and soldiers coping with their involvement in torture. If you’re scratching your head, the theme is secrets. All three are interesting subjects worthy of an hour-long show, but I don’t think they make much sense together. MPR’s piece is a freelance production Reveal fit into its format. But even if they didn't write it, the episode has me thinking about checking up on the show more frequently.
So definitely go listen to Do Not Drink. If you use iTunes, you’ll end up with Reveal in your feed. Maybe subscribe, maybe don’t. But definitely check back.