The Daily BuzzSerial’s second season goes to Afghanistan with U.S. Army
The long awaited podcast will explore Bowe Bergdhal’s controversial story of desertion and capture.
Last year, This American Life alum Sarah Koenig had over 100 million downloads of her investigative podcast Serial.
The first season captivated audiences by re-telling the murder of Baltimore, Maryland teen Hae-Min Lee and the conviction of her high school sweetheart in the case, Adnan Syed.
This season, Koenig teamed up with screen writer Mark Boal, to tell the story of controversial soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal.
Bergdhal was only a Private first class (Pfc) when he walked off his post the night of June 30, 2009. He was subsequently captured by the Taliban and spent five years as one of their prisoners.
Since his release, Sgt. Bergdhal hasn’t made any public statements. Until now.
From Serial’s website:
Through all of this, Bergdahl has been quiet. He hasn’t spoken to the press or done any interviews on TV. He’s been like a ghost at the center of a raucous fight.
“As you can imagine, he’s been the subject of a lot of sound-bite coverage,” Boal told the New York Times. “He has a definite point of view about hit-and-run TV reporting, and so this was the opposite of that.”
It is Boal, not Koenig, is the one who actually spoke to Sgt. Bergdhal. He has over 25 hours of taped phone calls between the two.
In fact, the screen writer, who has won numerous awards for his films like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, is working on a film about the desertion and capture of Bergdhal.
The first episode of the season addresses the question: “why?” For example, why would Bergdhal leave his post and head out into the Afghan desert alone?
The coverage comes at a time when Gen. Robert B. Abrams is deciding whether to proceed with charges against Bergdhai that include desertion and endangering troops.
