S-Town and Ysrael

Brian Reed is the host from Serial and This American Life.

John B. McLemore is someone that emailed Reed in 2012 about the fact that he lived in Shittown, Alabama. The real name of the town is Woodstock and he wants to discuss two events that had happened and wanted Reed to investigate.

Brian is in S-town because he was reaching out to Reed about two cases that he wanted him to help investigate.

Time is mentioned in this podcast as different ways to tell it. They mention how humans have used sand, clocks and the sun to tell the time. Strange enough, John is on his own time because he doesn’t use daylight savings so this is something that affects his every day life. The discussion of clocks at the beginning May be connected to the murder because they are discussing witness marks.

Ysrael is a boy that Rafa and Yunior always heard about. When he was a baby, a pig had “eaten off his face.” It was described as “skinned like an orange.” He was at the campo and was always bullied and wore a mask to cover his face. He has become very fast at running, presumably from sways running away from the kids that make fun of him like the ones in the alley.

We are told that Yunior and Rafa go to the campo because their mother works long hours. She works at the chocolate factory and doesn’t have the energy to take care of them while school is out. This is the reason they go and stay with their uncle at the campo.

When the brothers were home and going to school, they didn’t get along very well. This was strange because during the summer they got along well. During the year though, Rafa would say stuff to Yunior such as “shut up pendejo” and stuff like “mama only took you in because she felt sorry.” This probably had to do with the fact that his brother was around friends and wanted to “fit” in with them.