Podcast Corner: Lewinsky on board for podcast dramatising Clinton scandal

Season three of American Crime Story was announced last week.

‘Impeachment’ features Monica Lewinsky among the producers as the anthology series looks at the Clinton affair scandal that rocked America.

Beanie Feldstein (Saoirse Ronan’s bestie in Lady Bird) will play Lewinsky and Sarah Paulson plays Linda Tripp, a seeming confidante who secretly recorded phone calls with the young White House intern.

Director Ryan Murphy has adapted the story from a book by Jeffrey Toobin — maybe he’s fresh off listening to season two of Slate’s renowned podcast series Slow Burn as well.

Over eight episodes, plus some bonus live shows and titbits, Slow Burn presenter Leon Neyfakh examines the impeachment of Clinton in a post-MeToo era.

Nobody comes out of it well. The first episode is a cliff-edge will-she-or-won’t-she thriller as Lewinsky, over a torturous 11 hours with federal prosecutors, is faced with compliance or decades in prison.

It then examines Clinton’s political life, a divided Congress in the 1990s, and the feminist reaction to the affair — which includes a particularly un-PC-sounding roundtable for the New York Observer under the headline ‘NEW YORK SUPERGALS LOVE THAT NAUGHTY PREZ!’

The final episode discusses an alleged sexual assault in the 1970s that Clinton has always denied.

Whether you believe Juanita Broaddrick’s rape accusation or not, it is powerful and leaves the listener scratching their head at just how Clinton has survived all these accusations.

For other American content, Season one of Slow Burn is also worthy of a binge listen, retelling the Watergate scandal as it echoes presidential misconduct in the time of Trump.

The scandal gripped America in 1973 and it’s no less riveting nearly 40 years later.

Season three of Slow Burn is due soon and is taking a bit of a left turn as it leaves the corridors of Washington DC behind for the mean streets of California and the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG.

You've got to hear this

The music world lost another hero recently with the death of American musician, frontman David Berman, frontman with bands such as Silver Jews.

He did not do many podcast interviews but Kreative Kontrol went in-depth with him in June.

A heartbreaking listen.