Despite the long hours he spent with John B. McLemore while making the “S-Town” podcast, host Brian Reed says he wouldn’t call their relationship a “friendship” — because he and McLemore were bound by the dynamic between reporters and subjects.
McLemore first traveled to Woodstock, Alabama, the town at the center of “S-Town,” three years ago, after McLemore reached out to him in his capacity as a “This American Life” producer. He told Reed he thought someone in town had gotten away with murder, which led to a complex, empathetic portrait of Woodstock and McLemore that veers from Southern Gothic to a metaphysical exploration of how we should spend our time on Earth.