October 18, 2016
Reply All/gimletmedia.com
This photo launched a decade-long obsession for one web community.
A self-described “show about the Internet,” Gimlet Media podcast Reply All likes to follow stories to their winding, unpredictable ends. Some episodes are wild goose chases, some go from fun to creepy and back and some solve mysteries of varying degrees of importance
The most recent episode, “Boy in Photo” starts with an anonymous but not particularly mysterious photo that a message board puzzled over for a decade. That’s it above. Just a dude in a Hooters shirt and two better-dressed women, all sitting on a bed.
Kind of unremarkable, right? Still, the people on this board found themselves wondering: Who is this guy? When was this taken? Was this a date gone awkward or a chance meeting at a party? Is this man a beloved by his friends, or mocked?
Because this is the internet, they didn’t just wonder: They started digging. Curious themselves, the Reply All people decided to look into it as well.
To tell you more would give too much away, but suffice it to say the investigation takes them to the Philly area and it’s an emotional roller coaster. Don’t Google. Just listen.
