No one has a problem with the Missing Richard Simmons podcast, and that's a problem

His life is not a true crime mystery. Let's stop treating it like one.

Richard Simmons teaches during his ’Cruise to Lose’.
(Image credit: Evan Hurd / Alamy Stock Photo)

In the second episode of the Missing Richard Simmons podcast, host Dan Taberski loiters outside the house of the famous fitness guru with a microphone. "I feel like somebody's house is his private place," Taberski says. "I don't want him to feel like I'm invading his privacy." Of course, if this was a genuine concern of Taberski's, he probably wouldn't have just made a six-episode podcast delving into Simmons' life and disappearance.

The first episode of Missing Richard Simmons aired in February, exactly three years after Simmons failed to show up to the exercise class he'd been teaching for four decades and subsequently withdrew from public life. He left no explanation for his departure. No clues. No notes. Nothing. So, what happened to him? This is the question Taberski sets out to answer in the podcast. Through interviews with Simmons' closest friends, Taberski allows the listener to revel in juicy speculation as to the mysterious vanishing of this flamboyant fitness figure. The podcast has been a hit, sitting at the number one spot in the U.S. for several weeks.

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Jessica Brown

Jessica is a freelance writer living in London. She's interested in people, places, psychology, and politics (and words beginning with other letters, too). Her writing can be found here.