Hello Unknown
After (nearly) three years of writing and recording, we can now finally announce the Hello Unknown podcast!
Hello Unknown is a podcast exploring the hidden parts of the human experience. Host Jonathan Wright re-examines stories from culture and history that tell us about the feelings we avoid and the big questions we don’t know how to answer.
The podcast is up on all podcast platforms (including Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon Music), with the first three episodes already in the feed.
Scoring from Neighborhood Libraries. Branding from Louise Swindells.
Thanks for listening!
EPISODE SUMMARIES
Episode 1: Cheater
On August 23, 2000 Enron, the business darling of the 90s, collapsed under the weight of fraudulent accounting. Its CFO, Andy Fastow, insisted that Enron had played by the rules. Maybe they had.
In this episode Jonathan Wright tells the story of Enron and takes a trip to Vietnam to ask what Andy, and Jonathan, can learn from the spirit of the cheater.
Episode 2: Windows
In this episode Jonathan Wright confronts OCD and his fear of death, telling the stories of a lawyer who bounced against windows and a near-death experience for Jonathan’s son.
Episode 3: Sleep to Dream Her
You probably hate Dave Matthews Band. We don’t blame you. But Dave knows what it takes to create.
In this episode Jonathan Wright tells the story of one particularly terrible DMB song and also bares his soul about what it took to write his novel.
Episode 4: Good Lost/Bad Lost
What do the TV Show Lost and Jonathan’s dating history have in common?
In this episode Jonathan Wright watches the first 10 episodes and last 10 episodes of Lost (why??) and also delves into his extremely anxious dating history to answer the question of whether it might, sometimes, be good to get a little lost.
Episode 5: The 6th Dalai Lama
A monk sees footprints in the snow. He follows the footprints, belonging to his teenaged religious leader, to the home of his forbidden lover. Buddhist Tibet explodes.
In this episode Jonathan Wright tells the history of his favourite Dalai Lama and reads his old notebooks to try and answer the question of how we tell our life stories.
Episode 6: Hawaiian Mall
In the final episode of season 1, Jonathan Wright confronts the unknown, telling the stories of two Hawaiian malls: one in a pineapple cannery in Lahaina and the other in Jonathan’s mind.