Vernon's 'bush boys' podcast gets rave review in U.K. Guardian
The podcast of the true and utterly bizarre story of the Vernon "Bush Boys" has received a rave review in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper. The Guardian review adds to plenty of widespread acclaim for the podcast put together by former Vernon resident Sam Mullins. The podcast, Chameleon:...
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The podcast of the true and utterly bizarre story of the Vernon "Bush Boys" has received a rave review in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.
The Guardian review adds to plenty of widespread acclaim for the podcast put together by former Vernon resident Sam Mullins.
The podcast, Chameleon: Wild Boys, traces the peculiar story of the two Vernon "bush boys", who arrived in the city in 2003 and claimed to have been raised in the B.C. backcountry and had no contact with society.
The story garnered national and international attention, until it turned out, that they'd made it all up and were actually from suburban California.
Vernon-born writer and comedian Sam Mullins turned the remarkable story into an eight-episode podcast released Jan. 25.
READ MORE: 'Untold story': Vernon's 'bush boys' featured in new podcast
The review, by the Guardians veteran radio critic, Miranda Sawyer, lists the podcast as one of three radio/podcasts to listen to in her weekly April 2 column.
"I was gripped and surprised throughout Wild Boys, right up to the final episode. It really doesn’t go where you think it will," Sawyer says. "It’s beautifully paced, with excellent cliffhangers and much care in the sound production. Presenter Sam Mullins is great and he, eventually, even talks to the boys themselves."
The critic's review echoes the opinion of hundreds of listener reviews across the web.
Apple podcast gives the show a 4.6-star rating from more than 600 reviews, and the New York-based cultural website, vulture.com, also gives the podcast a big thumbs up.
"In addition to being a mystery, Wild Boys is in part a story about being from a small rural place, and how the community of such a place thinks and feels about itself, along with the ways in which that can clash with the outside world," the review says.
Anyone that's listened to the podcast will understand why the reviews it received have been so positive.
Mullins rehashes the original story of the two strange and incredibly thin boys who arrived in Vernon and includes plenty of interviews with those who helped out, as well as those who were skeptical of the boys' story.
He then tracks the boys down and explores the story of why and how they ended up in Vernon in the first place, and where they are now.
And like the Guardian reviewer says, "It really doesn’t go where you think it will."
The Chameleon: Wild Boys podcast can be found here.
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