Is this the first great podcast of 2021?

Trigger warning: Contains copious amounts of wrongness...

• I love a good podcast, and it seems you guys do too. So here’s one I stumbled across the other day that has got its claws into me real good. I bet it does the same to you. Let’s go…

It starts off weird. In 1980, Allan Bridge set up an automated phone line and posted hundreds of flyers around New York. You tore off a tag with a phone number, took it home, then gave it a call.

After the beep, you could leave a message to anyone and apologize about anything that you were sorry for.

That’s the set up. But then it gets weirder. Calls flood in. People confess to horrible, terrible things. Shoplifting. Affairs. Robberies. Drug addiction. Rape. Murder.

Then the guy who started the phone line gets cosy with a self-confessed serial killer who has his eyes on him. They exchange dozens of recorded messages. Things get dark.

It all sounds made up. I promise you it’s not. It’s the premise of The Apology Line, a new podcast from Wondery that dives into the whole tawdry tale across its six episodes, three of which are out now.

I wouldn’t normally recommend Wondery podcasts. I’m not a fan. There’s no denying they’ve become heavyweights in the podcast game, scoring major hits with Dr Death, Dirty John and The Shrink Next Door.

Those podcasts, and many of their others, use a formula they’ve come to rely on: heavily scripted, brutally edited, well researched stories that use lots of actors and big-voiced hosts that have no connection to what’s going on.

That’s not my kind of podcast. I like them a little more rough around the edges. Wondery podcasts sound more like a movie. It’s no wonder so much of their stuff is adapted for TV. I think that’s why I’ve found it so hard to connect with most of what they’ve done. It just doesn’t sound real.

But The Apology Line is different. For starters, it’s hosted by someone closer to the story than anyone else. Its creator Allan Bridge may have died in 1995, but his wife Marissa Bridge is alive and well, and she’s the one hosting this thing. She’s great at it.

Secondly, they’re using proper interviews and audio to tell the story. All of Allan Bridge’s phone recordings from the time have been kept intact, and are used throughout this podcast. They’re a fascinating record of this crazy moment in time. When you get to the third episode and the serial killer shows up, you’ll be on the edge of your seat.

Thirdly, all of this really happened. And it’s been covered before. The podcast This American Life hosted some of these tapes in 2004, and interviewed Marissa Bridge about it. But it’s just half an episode, in no way as thorough and detailed as this podcast is.

Honestly, I’m all in. To my ears, it’s the first great podcast of 2021, one that doesn’t involve worldwide pandemics or rogue presidential capers or cataclysmic world events. Instead, it’s a perfectly formed time capsule of one weird thing that happened in the ‘80s. Sounds good to me.

• Listen to The Apology Line here. And tell me what you’re listening to while you’re at it! If you’ve found anything good, I’d love to know…