Reply All: #26 Craigslist, Horsley's List
May 29, 2015 10:16 AM - Subscribe

Exploring strange Craigslist posts. Plus, what it's like to have online harassment blend with real-life threats when you're an abortion provider.

This week premiers a double-dose of a new segment, where the team finds weird Craigslist ads and interviews the posters. We hear from a guy trying to get legal help, who is hopeful that this post will pan out as well as his previous ones. They also talk to a minister who advertises his speedy nuptials on the site.

And in the second half of the show, we learn about Neal Horsley, an anti-abortion activist who created a website that listed the names and addresses of abortion providers around the country. He died last month, but the legacy of his website lives on. They talk to Jennifer Boulanger, a woman who works at a number of abortion clinics, and whose name ended up on Horsley's website in the 90's.
posted by radioamy (4 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I have to say that I wasn't super fond of this episode. It felt disjointed. I think part of it is that the Craigslist things didn't feel like "quick segments" (like YYN), they felt like unfinished stories. I actually liked the minister, and that would have worked if it were part of a longer show about Craigslist. The first piece though, was just depressing. Alex seemed very uncomfortable during the interview.

The interview with Jennifer Boulanger and the story of Neal Horsley was actually really interesting. I guess it was just too short so they tacked on the first two pieces?

Unrelated to this episode, I really enjoyed this podcast interview with PJ & Alex on The Moment with Brian Koppelman. I wasn't familiar with Koppelman previously, but he's apparently a Hollywood-type, and he's a great interviewer. I've heard a lot of interviews with PJ & Alex, and was fairly familiar with their stories, but this still felt fresh.
posted by radioamy at 10:21 AM on May 29, 2015 [3 favorites]


I enjoyed it. There's something bloglike about this podcast, and so I didn't mind that there were shorter, somewhat incomplete pieces. The episodes seem to be looping around several themes, including ways in which the web creates surprising relationships and (thankfully) ways the web has created a mechanism for systematic abuse of specific groups of people, especially women. I don't mind if every story isn't a complete tale, as they all seem to be additional point of information in a much larger story the podcast is telling over time.
posted by maxsparber at 12:51 PM on May 29, 2015


yeah, I just listened to the episode this afternoon, and I liked the individual pieces, but the craigslist stuff seemed too short to be a "segment" but not long enough to be a feature. Perhaps they feel like craigslist is too much of a goldmine to dispense with in one episode (I agree, I think craigslist is ripe for exploration and analysis). But you don't quite get the same focus I expect from a weekly podcast.
posted by skewed at 2:19 PM on May 29, 2015


I enjoyed this, especially just dredging up the weirdness that is craigslist. I was sad there wasn't more of a firm ending for the guy who posted looking for a lawyer (or maybe I missed it? I was driving so my attention was scattered).
posted by selenized at 10:59 PM on May 30, 2015


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