Reddit wants to fill whatever aural void you may have felt since Serial wrapped on December 18, 2014.
Presenting the Upvoted podcast — your new fix for all things podcast-y and Internet-y. Since Reddit became Serial's unofficial watering hole for fan discussions and the occasional post by a potential person involved in the story's case, it was only a matter of time before the site itself tried its hand at talk radio. In a blog post shared today, Reddit's co-founder Alexis Ohanian explained the goal of Upvoted is to dig a little deeper into popular content and "learn about the people and their stories beyond all the upvotes." (An upvote, if you're unaware, is akin to a "like" on Instagram; the more a piece of content is upvoted, the more popular it is.)
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"When a compelling story pops up," Ohanian wrote, "we’ll follow up with the people involved to see if they’d like to share what happened after all the internet fame, or the life-changing comment, or even the simple kind gesture from an internet stranger."
The first episode, which debuted today, is called "Episode 0 - The Story of u/youngluck (Dante Orpilla)."It follows up on Dante Orpilla's story of drug addiction, losing his son, and how he turned his life around. The second episode will debut next Thursday, and so on.
If you're looking for the "master class in investigative journalism" that Serial provided, this may not quite fit the bill. However, if you've ever been curious to know happened to those individuals who achieved brief viral fame (like #AlexFromTarget), then stay for the ride. After all, you did upvote these stories in the first place. (Reddit)