Recommendation: 'Inconceivable Truth'
Matt Katz's autobiographical podcast touches on identity, medical ethics, and what family really means.
Plenty of people wonder about their ancestry. And in the age of Ancestry.com and 23andMe, plenty of those people are either confirming long-held beliefs or discovering things about their biological family trees that would have remained uncertain or gone unknown in years past. As Inconceivable Truth touches on, the discoveries some people are now making were sometimes originally constructed as mysteries by design.
I knew of this podcast's host and central narrative figure, Matt Katz, from years of listening to WNYC – especially his relentless work on the Chris Christie beat (he literally wrote the book on Christie). I've always appreciated his ease on mic and ability to break down a story and guide conversations. So, when I first came across something about his new autobiographical podcast, I paid attention and the premise ended up getting me to listen and subscribe:
Investigative reporter Matt Katz has been searching for his biological father since he was a little kid. But it wasn't until his 40s that he realized he was on the wrong journey altogether. The true story is wrapped in confusion and secrecy, and in the end it upended the truth about who he is – raising questions about identity, fatherhood, medical ethics and what family really means. But will finding answers make him whole, or just make things even more complicated?
I'm currently 3 episodes into the podcast's 8 episode run (the 4th episode is out this week) and have found it both absolutely fascinating as a narrative and inspiring as a piece of production and storytelling. What I'm most impressed with is how it manages to be incredibly compelling while parceling out the knowledge that Katz discovered about himself in a way that never seems to cynically string the audience along cliffhanger-style, but rather makes you feel as if you're truly along for the ride with him as he learns new details about who he and his family are.
Here's the first episode, out via Wavland and Rococo Punch:
