In the midst of the pandemic, I found myself, much like everyone else, suddenly with so much free time. While my friends and family have been recommending me an endless amount of books, movies, and  TV shows I wanted to try a form of media I hadn’t tried before: a podcast. For a while, I thought I could never enjoy a podcast, I mean there is no visual stimulation and I could easily get sidetracked or bored, but, I was determined to find one that was right for me. 

   I went to Google and searched: “life-changing podcasts”. As I browsed through different articles it was clear that I wasn’t going to find anything I liked. The majority of them centered around self-help, motivation, and productivity, and in this hard time, I was looking for an escape more than a lesson. Just as I thought my quest of looking for the perfect podcast was over I stumbled over the ‘Black Tapes’ podcast. Tucked away at the bottom of the ‘stories’ category in Spotify, I found my perfect, life-changing podcast. 

   Created by Paul Bae and Terry Miles, The Black Tapes Podcast is a spinoff of the popular and long-running program, Pacific Northwest (you don’t have to listen to one to understand the other). It centers around Alex Reagan, a journalist who embarks on a journey to investigate paranormal theories and stories. Reagan narrates a fiction nonfictional style podcast about her endeavors. 

   The story starts off as a biography of Dr. Richard Strand, an “evangelical skeptic” who is known for debunking stories involving the supernatural. Reagan begins to become interested in his unsolved cases, which she names the Black Tapes, and the story evolves into an exploration of these cases and the mysterious life of Dr. Strand. 

   The episodes vary in length, running from 30-50 minutes, with 10 episodes per season. There are three seasons currently out, but there are rumors of a fourth season or an extension of the third season swirling around. 

   One of my favorite things about this podcast is how open-ended it is. At the end of the, each episode Reagan leaves the listener to make conclusions for themselves. Whether or not the reader chooses to believe in the phenomenon explained in the episode is up to them, and I think that’s what makes it so interesting. I find myself thinking about the cases long after I finished an episode trying to come up with theories of my own. 

   So, why was this podcast so life-changing for me? Maybe it wasn’t life-changing in a traditional sense, but it provided me with a worthwhile escape from everything going on in the world. I began to look forward to simple things like laundry and exercise just to listen to another episode, in turn making me a more productive and active person. 

   This podcast is centered around the fact that no one can ever prove the presence of paranormal objects, it is up to oneself to decide what to believe in. So, I hope you get a chance to listen to this amazing podcast and make that decision for yourself.