The episode always starts out with a brief recap of the text or television episode they want to follow. Sometimes it’s five chapters and other times it’s a full television episode or movie. Then the podcast goes deeper. It discusses the theme of that one section of the story. Then tries to uncover why certain parts of the story make us tick.
Then comes the even deeper dive into one aspect of the world. Take Gringott’s Wizarding Bank or Direwolves. After dissecting that one element comes a roundup of the seven most important things.
To me, what makes stories so captivating is their incredible ability to transport you into a completely imaginary world. But as I’ve been listening to Binge Mode, I’ve been reminded of something else.
Stories, no matter how complex they become, are ultimately about much simpler things.
Take Game of Thrones. On its facen for all the events in the story is love. Without forbidden love (and no, I will not be spoiling R + L = J), the whole saga of Game of, the story is about war and fighting White Walkers. Yet, the underlying reason Thrones couldn’t have even happened.
The same applies to Harry Potter. Of course, the plot is about Harry defeating Voldemort and saving the Wizarding World. But the story is about loyalty, friendship, love, and how we reconcile life and death.
And as I sat here thinking about these two cultural phenomena, I began to think. Which stories had made me stop and listen? In retrospect, these stories all had one key defining element: love and humanity.
To be believable, these characters must carry some notion of what makes us human.
What else is that if not love and friendship? Stories that remain with us all have these incredible characters with such depth that they remind us of ourselves. These driving elements show us that if such people can be built from someone’s imagination, surely we can be as brave as those fictional beings.
Sure, we aren’t fighting dragons in our day-to-day lives or seeking out Horcruxes. But what is so different about moving to a new city or asking a boss for a raise? Bravery and friendship and the other multitude of innate character traits that make us human exist in us and in these characters.
So why do certain stories make us listen? What commonalities do they share? I’ve been listening to Mal and Jason from Binge Mode go through and deep dive into these stories for a few months now. I’ve recognized that it’s those stories that help us see ourselves in a new light that make us listen.