Podcast reviews: 'Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer' and 'Scam Inc.'

Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer

(audible)

Jerry Springer's life story "still has the capacity to surprise," said Fiona Sturges in the Financial Times. Two years after the death of the divisive TV host, this "thoughtful and compelling" podcast series retraces Springer's rise from little-known Cincinnati mayor to broadcasting phenomenon. Leon Neyfakh, creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco, weaves into his account interviews with dozens of people "who knew, worked with, or were guests of Springer."

The star of The Jerry Springer Show apparently never gave up his dream of returning to Democratic politics, even as he surpassed Oprah Winfrey in the late 1990s by goading guests into fistfights over personal matters. I'm one of the Ohio journalists Neyfakh talked to, said John Kiesewetter in WVXU.org, and while I haven't heard the series' nine episodes, Final Thoughts "appears to be the most comprehensive documentary about Springer's five decades in public life." Unlike the recent Netflix docuseries, it devotes significant attention to Springer's 1970s and '80s political career and also his flirtations with statewide Ohio campaigns as recently as 2018.

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Scam Inc.

(Economist Podcasts)

This year, multiple media outlets have released exposés about the recent proliferation in Southeast Asia of so-called scam compounds, said Nicholas Quah in NYMag.com. "Of these, Scam Inc., from The Economist, struck me as the most effective," because of its "sweeping scope" and ability to access various nodes in the network of fraudsters who are using texts, emails, and other digital messages to cheat innocent victims out of their money. The compounds are prison-like complexes where workers who've essentially been kidnapped are compelled to mislead strangers into fake online romances and then milk them for cash. When host Sue-Lin Wong states early on that these "pig-butchering" scams are as numerous as stars in the sky, the claim seems suspect, said James Marriott in The Times (U.K.). "It turns out she's not exaggerating." Stick with Scam Inc. through its slow opening and you will soon be marveling at these corrupt constellations that exploit vulnerable marks. "A whole parasitic third-world criminal economy" has been built on the loneliness of affluent Westerners. It's "an extraordinary story."