Zipit!
Redacted review
Production company – Wondery/Ballen Studios
Rating – 
Ballen Studios is a production studio that has garnered a lot of interest over the last year or so, strangely enough by making shows that don’t really interest me. Until this one. While other podcast review blogs lap up the shows, I have always avoided them. Not sure why, maybe I’m getting old and the thought of podcasts produced by YouTubers makes me cringe a bit. I will (of course) review shows I don’t like, but they have to pique my interest first.
Who knows though, maybe now I’ll go back and see what I’ve been missing. The general populace can’t be wrong can they? Apart from, you know, the last decade of politics, but I won’t go there. This isn’t a political blog, and my family get bored of me banging on about it, so I will save you the bother too.
Let us then cast our critical eye over this week’s podcast. Redacted, by Ballen Studios.
So what’s it about?
Each episode of Redacted looks at real conspiracies and cover ups throughout the 20th century. From spycraft, to military coups, to weird medical tests, there really isn’t a level that governments have stooped to. Dramatically narrated and scored, at first listen you can expect to be wowed by the production values on show here.
And that’s pretty much it. There are many podcasts that cover similar topics, but this one is geared towards a “younger” audience. By that I mean younger than me (which despite my mental age being about 17, I appreciate that there are a lot of people younger than me).
As I mentioned in the introduction, Ballen Studios was started by YouTube star MrBallen. As such the show is heavily flavoured with the social media seasoning that seems strangely absent from other, similar shows. Is this a bad thing? Well, read on and I’ll tell you.
Is it any good?
Look, I’ll be brutally honest. If you are seeking some kind of deep dive into the unsavoury stuff that governments get up to, such as shows like Swindled, Spyscape or indeed, the incredible investigative journalism of Tortoise Media, this show will leave you wanting more.
While each episode lasts about half an hour, there are a fair few adverts scattered throughout, and you end up feeling like you are basically listening to a crib sheet on the subject. Despite this, the episodes are well written.
The narration feels like the AI voiceover on tiktok videos or those annoying YouTube shorts that seem to fill every available space on your social media timelines. I feel a bit guilty for saying that. It is, apparently, voiced by Luke Lemana, who I’m sure can’t help sounding like that. It is what it is though.
This is a relatively new podcast as well. As I write this, it’s only thirteen episodes old, so a lot of my criticisms may well prove unfounded as the podcast progresses. I certainly hope so, because this could be a very good show indeed. Also the fact that I haven’t given up after my ten episode watershed speaks to the quality of the show.
Final thoughts
If you feel like dipping your toes into the dark morass of governmental intrigue, then I guess this is fine. It’s a half decent springboard into the subject. Don’t expect all the strings to be pulled for you though. This is only a cursory look into these subjects.
This is the kind of podcast that my kids would listen to and tell me about the crazy new stuff they learned. I appreciate that makes me sound like a boomer (which I’m not), but I would definitely recommend this to the teen market.
You can get Redacted here:
For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods