What is it?

In recent years, podcasts have been gaining a lot of attention in the media. However, I am not a huge fan of podcasts. One of the main reasons that I do not particually enjoy podcasts is that they are usually 45 minutes to three hours per episode. I do not have that kind of free time, and if I did I would not be spending it listening to a story/new article on my phone. So, in an effort to not judge before I did research, I went looking for a podcast. I was looking through podcasts, determind to find one that I would enjoy, and I landed on 2298. While I was choosing podcasts I also looked at length, just to make sure that I was not choosing a podcast with three hour episodes. I was pleased to find that each episode was around eight minutes long. And not just that, it was told in a postapocaliptic story told in first person! Clearly, I was hooked and started listening right away.

2298 is a story podcast created by A. R. Olivieri which takes place in a dystopian universe. The story follows the character Profile 24 as he tries to get back on task. He lives in a postapocaliptic time where the world is run by the internet which goes by the name The Network. One of The Network’s main goals is that all of their profiles stay focused. Profile 24 is worried because he is losing focus due to a bird he is continuously seeing. Without revealing too much of the plot, Profile 24 discovers much more about life than he originally thought.

The Verdict

I really liked this podcast. The story was a bit hard to start to understand but considering that the episodes are so short, you are not wasting time sampling the story to see if you like it. I was impressed by the fact that this entire podcast series was done alone by Olivieri including the sound effects and all of the voices. Most times when you listen to, audiobooks for example, the voices are monotone or uninteresting when they change characters. 2298’s narrator did an incredible job of keeping the energy of the story up, which made me what to continue listening. 2298, in a way, changed my opinion of podcasts. It was beautifully crafted by a single creator and created a world that I was interested in hearing about. Well done Olivieri. 4/5 stars.