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Podcasting is a fast-growing form of storytelling. Today there are numerous platforms offering podcasts on various topics – music, politics, current affairs, sports, art, motivation, health, law and a lot more.
I realize that I spend a considerable amount of time each day listening to podcasts on various platforms. It’s at time quite a strenuous job figuring out what you want to listen to.
To make this a little easier, each week I will be sharing a podcast I liked and information on where to get it from. You may use this segment to figure out what to listen to.
To kick us off is BBC’s ‘Death in Ice Valley.’
This is a story of a woman popularly referred to as ‘the Isdal woman.’ The podcast is produced by BBC and NRK (Norwegian Public Broadcaster).
“Some people take their secrets with them when they die, and some graves hold more secrets than others…” so begins the chilling narration that takes us back to 1970 when the remains of a badly burnt unidentified woman were found in a remote spot, Isdal (Ice Valley), near Bergen in Norway.
Her body is surrounded by small artefacts: a watch, some drinking bottles, expensive jewellery. All these items have had their identifying characteristics removed, and there are no labels on the woman’s clothes.
Initially, the police reported the case as suicide, but more evidence perhaps point to espionage activity.
Norwegian journalist Marit Higraff and Neil McCarthy for the BBC, investigate who the woman was, where did she come from and what was she doing in Norway? Is someone somewhere missing her?
This real cold case allows listeners to provide witness evidence.
The podcast itself is beautifully atmospheric: doomy music with a wailing female vocal gives it an unsettling tone, and the sound of pattering rain in the first episode is used to great effect.
It’s a headphone experience; immersive storytelling. This is a mystery, told in the clue-by-clue manner of an Agatha Christie novel.
Will McCarthy and Higraff solve this 50-year-old mystery? Will we find out who the woman was, what she was doing in Norway, Who killed her and why?
Each week, a new episode is released on BBC Sounds (you can download it from Google Play), you can also listen to them on the BBC website. You can also find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
It’s currently on Episode 12.
