4.5 stars.
Mixing together oral tradition and individual introspection, this podcast features three friends who each read one-third of a book and then explain it to the other two. Books from decades ago get a kind of reboot over three episodes. So far, while they add their own flair to the stories, they treat books (and authors) with respect by giving backstory and relevant context.
While the novel itself is THE core component, the hosts each have a different storytelling style, prioritizing things like humor, radio dramatization, and fascinating research. You can tell they are friends with different but, luckily for the listener, overlapping interests.
The level of banter is currently PERFECT. It's incredibly annoying and alienating when podcasters veer too off-topic and caught up in their own jokes. This podcast features relevant and funny commentary as the story unfolds.
I checked out their instagram account and recommend following it for historical references (again, really thorough research) for context and visualization. It really adds to the story. I clicked through their Twitter account....for now at least, instagram seems the way to go if you're interested in getting the "full" experience. Twitter seems completely unnecessary. It does not add to the podcast material. The Facebook link on their website doesn't work, so that also needs to be addressed.
While ACCEPTABLE, the audio quality is inconsistent and, at one point, one of the female hosts was only in my left ear. Dear podcasters: you WILL lose listeners if you can't properly edit and mix the audio. Podcasts are meant to be heard. If the audio is lacking, it will degrade the experience no matter how great the content.
To improve, they need to first improve their audio engineering. Then, if they want to really excel, they need to ensure a steady and consistent social media presence.
Overall though, this podcast has content with great potential. I hope it sticks around for a long time, I'd love to see how it develops.