Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College - Podcast Rankings and reviews

The “narrator” buries stories and interesting tidbits under bushels of her overly wrought verbal prose. Much use of alliteration and self-satisfied soliloquies go on and on and on before she ever gets to the point. The premise is interesting and I’ll listen because I’ve read so many of the authors featured in this podcast and dig origin stories -
Just wish someone else had written the podcast and narrated it because her delivery and words dull the story.

If you’re a fan of Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt and co., I would think you’ll find this interesting and fun to listen to. Very well produced and researched IMO: It gets a little stalker-ish at times, especially concerning Tartt, who is a private person. But tons of great 80’s and 90’s stories and content, which is always fun.

I enjoyed listening to the Traci Lords episodes in season 1. The hosts provided different perspectives on Traci’s life and the scandal. They also included a variety of interviews from different people in the industry. I don’t understand the negative reviews on season 1.

It's wild to be this podcast only has 3.8 stars, I can only imagine it was some professional jealousy campaign by other less-good journalists/podcasters - it is head and shoulders more interesting, better reported and better voiced than 90% of the investigative/deep dive podcasts out there. Found it for the Bennington season (AWESOME by any measure but especially so for fans of the 80s, Bennington, Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem or Donna Tartt) and stayed for the porn in the 80s story which I thought I wasn't interested in but by the end of the first episode, I was hooked. Can't wait for more seasons!

I’m 5 episodes into the Tracy Lords story and I’m ready to puke. I’m so sick of the sound bites from every single person involved in making porn with a child go on to describe that child as “sexually charged”… SHE WAS SEXUALLY ABUSED NOT “CHARGED”.
I get that no one knew it at the time but I do expect the narrator to maybe interject (at least once!) a reminder to us all that this was a CHILD and even the choices sexual abuse victims make after they become adults are usually dictated by their abusive past. Felt like one victim blame after another.

The narration is so awful. Every sentence is given this bizarrely snarky delivery. You can practically see the narrator curl her lip and roll her eyes with every phrase. Not sure I’ll make it through the series, despite being very interested in the content.