Interesting, but host is too obsessed with pushing these very 1 to 1 connections from the authors’ past relationships to their work. Feels reductive and oversimplified to the point that it annoyed me almost every episode.

First of all to the ajjn11 comment- what a stupid take. You think because a podcast you happen to like has a lower rating than you would give it, that the only explanation is that people must be jealous? And not that many other people feel differently than you (and clearly articulated why in the comments)? Grow up. Anyway, this host handled the topics carelessly and seems to take pleasure in irresponsibly analyzing things that she had no authority on.

And vapid. Should be called Once Upon A Time in Fashion at Bennington. The entire podcast is about 80s clothes. Also the host’s baby voice is grating.

First I couldn’t stop reading The Secret History. Then I couldn’t stop listening to this podcast. Fascinating history of this group and I will now read Brett Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem.

I enjoyed listening to the Traci Lords episodes in season 1. The hosts provided different perspectives on Traci’s life and the scandal. They also included a variety of interviews from different people in the industry. I don’t understand the negative reviews on season 1.

She was FIFTEEN years old. You guys are disgusting! You mock her and objectify a child?!!! What is wrong with you. This is beyond gross.

It’s an okay listen, but then they said “1986 was maybe the last great year of Hollywood” and then I remembered that certain people will be ignored in the narrative. Update: I think I know what’s troubling about this podcast, they’re talking about a very sensitive subject, they’re trying to be fair and do all this research and interviews but it falls flat due to the tone. They try to be sexy and be like this expose, with this annoying banter and double entendres, and it’s about a underage girl who went into porn. And then there’s the arrogance of all of it. Also, guys, umm, glad you mentioned how a lot of these interviewees were very biased and that we should believe Traci Lord, especially her rape and molestation, but you kind of dropped the ball when you say things about how much she was sexually aggressive. Edit: Also, the little bit where they talk about how celebrities want to be porn stars with leaked nude photos and sex tapes? After it was reported how this was done without their consent. And this feels especially uneasy since we are re-examining how the media and society treated these young women. These were not wanna be porn stars, they were people who were taken advantage of and were then laughed at. What was the point of this podcast? Update: Season 2 is better. Don’t know how long this opinion will last but the college lives of rich literary figures are more palpable to listen about. Though I am wondering when Donna Tartt sics the lawyers on them (and I will not blame her). Update: I went to check up on Tartt, and surprised to learn a certain thing about her. This podcast does not mention how racist those books are. Interesting. Update: Still annoyed by that line “1986 was the last great year in Hollywood.”

Maybe if you are talking about an underage person being exploited and abused… don’t play sound clips of them moaning? Just a thought.

It's wild to be this podcast only has 3.8 stars, I can only imagine it was some professional jealousy campaign by other less-good journalists/podcasters - it is head and shoulders more interesting, better reported and better voiced than 90% of the investigative/deep dive podcasts out there. Found it for the Bennington season (AWESOME by any measure but especially so for fans of the 80s, Bennington, Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem or Donna Tartt) and stayed for the porn in the 80s story which I thought I wasn't interested in but by the end of the first episode, I was hooked. Can't wait for more seasons!

I’m 5 episodes into the Tracy Lords story and I’m ready to puke. I’m so sick of the sound bites from every single person involved in making porn with a child go on to describe that child as “sexually charged”… SHE WAS SEXUALLY ABUSED NOT “CHARGED”. I get that no one knew it at the time but I do expect the narrator to maybe interject (at least once!) a reminder to us all that this was a CHILD and even the choices sexual abuse victims make after they become adults are usually dictated by their abusive past. Felt like one victim blame after another.

LA porn’s worth it. Bennington ‘86 great.

The annoying Princeton grad who narrates this is like fingers on a chalkboard. She repeats over and over what the other hosts say. When you do a podcast on troubled people who grow up poor, perhaps you can find a host less blue bloodish and far less annoying.

The Traci Lords season 1 was awesome. Well researched, but Lili Anolik is insufferably annoying in it. I feel bad for Ashley West from the Rialto Report having had to do the podcast with her, her voice is just grating, her attempts at trying to be clever fall flat. It’s why I couldn’t listen to season 2 because Lili is obnoxious. 2 stars off because she’s lame.

Spare yourself. The host manages to turn this into an anti trump anti ‘maga’ piece. What a waste.

I find the narration style of the host repeating verbatim what was just said by an interviewee redundant and self-involved. This narrator is not the only radio host to do it, but it’s weird to me how prevalent it is. I don’t like her gossipy tone either, it seems like she wants Donna Tartt to hate her, almost like a bully. I am curious about the story and enjoying hearing the interviews. I hope someone makes an exposé podcast about Liki Anolik someday.

Cannot stop listening! Obsessed!

Basically the same comments as others. It’s working for many others though, so I don’t think you should change. I’m just not the target demo

The narration is so awful. Every sentence is given this bizarrely snarky delivery. You can practically see the narrator curl her lip and roll her eyes with every phrase. Not sure I’ll make it through the series, despite being very interested in the content.

If you’re a fan of Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt and co., I would think you’ll find this interesting and fun to listen to. Very well produced and researched IMO: It gets a little stalker-ish at times, especially concerning Tartt, who is a private person. But tons of great 80’s and 90’s stories and content, which is always fun.

The “narrator” buries stories and interesting tidbits under bushels of her overly wrought verbal prose. Much use of alliteration and self-satisfied soliloquies go on and on and on before she ever gets to the point. The premise is interesting and I’ll listen because I’ve read so many of the authors featured in this podcast and dig origin stories - Just wish someone else had written the podcast and narrated it because her delivery and words dull the story.

This podcast is really interesting but so confusing. I have never Googled this much during a podcast to try to get a handle on the characters. Truth, I never heard of this book and I’m an avid reader the same age as all these characters. (So I wasn’t a kid when the book came out.) I am listening to the audio book now. Doubly confusing! It seems some books become famous for reasons other than great prose and story. My guess is Donna Tartt was young. I’m curious what the impetus was for this podcast. I I patiently waited for it to all come together and make sense. Still waiting and I finished listening.

I was absolutely addicted to this podcast and listened to the whole Bennington series in one week. Thank you!

I went to Bennington. The mystification of 80s Bennington and over-sensationalized commentary does a total disservice to what makes the college truly unique and transformative. There can be a narrative that highlights all aspects - the wildness, questionable morals of the 80s, the hardworking students, the slacking students, and the dedicated, brilliant faculty - in a respectful and…better way, but this podcast simply fails. Unlistenable.

I thought this was an interesting idea. And then I started to listen to the episodes. I loved the Secret History when it first came out. I reread it recently and couldn’t get through it. I don’t think that either one of these writers is such a big talent. They are both so full of themselves. Perhaps when they were younger they seemed like phenoms but their books are not aging well. The host with all her asides and armchair psychology would have served her story better if she had written a tight article. All the interviews were a waste of time. Why did Donna switch colleges? Seems self-explanatory.

You know… I think I was unfair in my initial review and wanted to amend it. I did listen to the whole thing, and to be perfectly honest I can’t stop thinking about it. Even if I really dislike elements of this podcast, I need to respect something that really was thought provoking in me.

This was my all time favorite podcast, EVER

I don't care how confident or self assured Traci Lords appeared to be at 15 years old, she was under the age of consent. Don't victim blame a child for an industry that is well known to have exploitative tendencies. Rethink your entire lives.

I’m a big fan of BEE so I was really excited for season 2. The writer/narrator, Ms. Anolik, is really obnoxious. Her observations, interpretations, and even her cadence of speech are gossipy and grating. Occasionally some interesting nuggets about Ellis’ life are mined, but eventually the cost outweighs any benefit. I tapped out following an utterly ridiculous rant equating Donald Trump to Patrick Bateman. Yeah, Bateman loves Trump in the novel. It was NYC in the 80s, he was one of the most famous businessmen in the world. Brett has made it pretty clear that people shouldn’t read too far into the Trump/Bateman theme. Kind of ironic I guess. BEE has derision for snowflakes and fanatical Trump haters. Ms. Anolik clearly falls into both of those categories.

I love this podcast so much. Everything about it is amazing. The Secret History of The Secret History- nothing could be better. Five stars for sure.

I loved the “Hollywood” segment, maybe because I grew up in South Bay and knew so many of the spots where Traci Lords hung out there. And I loved the shifting point of view; I certainly wasn’t bothered by the sleaze factor, though several friends of mine were. I then listened to “Bennington” and was captivated by it. I was an adult when Less Than Zero was published but I never read it; ditto The Secret History. After I listened to the podcast, I read both books and then re-listened to most of the series with a new ear. It was a terrific experience! Thoroughly enjoyed and recommend both series here and am looking forward to the next.

I kept listening and waiting for it to get better. There is detailed research that went into this show, but it’s entirely skewed and 100% self-serving to the narrator and her view. I don’t recommend wasting your time. It’s very anti-climatic.

Detailed research and great storytelling

As a Donna Tartt fanatic, I enjoyed this as much I have ever enjoyed any podcast, ever. Going back to read all the books now!

I admittedly gobbled up the gossip in season 2 cuz I love tangled webs and Donna Tartt. I acknowledge this was truly a guilty pleasure. Heavy on the pleasure. So, I decided to check out season 1. Omg i am so disgusted by the narrative that was spun around the child abuse VICTIM Traci Lords. I kept listening, thinking there was no was Lili Anolik would side with Ann Berlin. In the end, the only thing I learned is that more people need education on how trauma impacts executive function (fight, flight, freeze, and FAWN) and that our frontal lobes aren’t developed until age 25. Lili gives journalists a bad name. At least Season 1 made me a fan of Traci Lords who was a victim and nothing less.

This podcast is the best pod I have ever listened to in my life (and the first review I have ever written). The subjects are highbrow but it’s not too esoteric. It’s fun. It’s like the umami spot that hits at the back of your mouth. And the construction/narration feels like fiction itself. Somebody turn this into a movie. I want more from this team, though I hope you continue to choose slightly highbrow subjects (not super into listening to The Valley one, but I will try).

I agree with all of the criticisms and all of the praise. I think the author is fully aware that she is crossing the lines into the sleazy, the vapid, the inappropriate, and deliberately recreating the kind of gossipy voice that she attributes to the Bennington undergrad of the day—an obnoxious voice, certainly, but one that is also strangely compelling and hard to stop listening to. I’m not sure if I violate the golden rule by listening— if I were in Donna Tartt’s shoes, how would I feel about this, really? I think I would be horrified and appalled, but also possibly a bit amused and entertained. If Anolik is a competent guide to the spirit of 1980s Bennington, then one could view this as the ultimate Bennington style tribute.

Please, dear reader, I beg you- get an editor, take yourself out of the story, and please get someone else to read it; we know that you are smart from your vocabulary -do you need to pound us over the head with it with your film noir delivery?

Lili Anolik is the Queen of Podcasts, periodt. She manages to take a somewhat straightforward topic and build in as much nuance and crescendo as humanly possible, in both Once Upon a Times… I hope there are many more seasons of this because this was brilliant.

Loki Anolik’s narration is stiff in it’s attempt to sound conversational. You can tell she is reading a script, but you can also tell every time she corrects herself, or clarifies herself, it is scripted. “Blah blah blah, but no! more like bloh bloh bloh”. It presents oddly to the ear. Aside from that, I really don’t find this gossipy stuff interesting, especially with respect to the Bennington College episodes.

I keep wanting to stop listening to this podcast. I don’t know Brett Ellis or Donna Tartt. I haven’t read their books. Probably never will. I don’t like anything about any of these characters. I am not of the generation that bore them. There are dozens of people in this podcast and I have a hard time keeping them all straight. I keep forgetting who is connected to whom. But, really, I couldn’t care less about the whole lot of them. They all seem like a bunch of self-entitled pseudo-intellectual rich kid snobby brats - even the ones who don’t have any money. But I am addicted to Lili Anolik’s storytelling. She breaks every podcast rule - too many characters, too many names, the entire story is too “inside baseball.” There’s no earthly reason to listen to this. Except I can’t stop. It is wonderful and textured and odd and literary and yet entirely down to earth. I am loving this ride. I can’t figure out why I’m on it but I am totally gobsmacked by it. I am not one who is easily surprised, but I never saw this coming. Awesome.

Interesting subject, but I am so annoyed my Ms Anolik’s robotic voice. Truly she knows she sounds bad, she apologizes for her tone. Why not have had someone else narrate? Also why the constant over explanation? She approaches each episode like the listener has amnesia. We know it’s “not that Larry David”. Bravo to Ms Tratt for her objections to this series.

Remarks for the host: there is no need to keep mentioning the poor audio quality or your horrible laugh every time you introduce another interview. It takes the listener out of the story and isn’t necessary. We get it, you never intended for this to be a podcast, and actually it probably shouldn’t have been. I was initially very interested in this story, but it felt like there was too much emphasis on Brett and the celebrity nightlife that was going on at that time. For what appeared to be a podcast about Bennington, it didn’t feel like I was actually left with a story about the school. Also, for 2 writers that used their Bennington experience and relationships to inspire their novels, I’m surprised there wasn’t more commentary around the morality of novelists using real people for fictional characters? This podcast goes in so many other directions that felt like a waste of time.

Anolik’s research and narrative shine even though the subject matter isn’t up my alley. Many reviewers seem to be naturally attracted to this era or subject matter and therefore have a view - positive or negative. I however was supremely engrossed by this new story to me, most importantly based on true events, and Anolik’s voice and cadence is immersive. Highly recommended.

This is my era (ish) so I wanted like it. But former spoiled kids turned old farts remembering when they played tortured artists for a few years gets old quick. It’s one thing for historians to recreate and celebrate the glory of Paris, the Romantics, or the Beats - times of legitimate talent. But this ain’t it. Just a bunch of spoiled cokeheads with grating, delusional memories. Think St. Elmo’s Fire meets Friends. Only way worse.

This should be interesting, GenX gets so little conversation, it could have been a fun exploration of what the “x” really means and how it’s represented in art and pop culture. Instead it’s the host repeating what people are saying unnecessarily, trying to be cute with her own language, mixing up the timeline for no apparent reason, failing to find anything scandalous in what Donna does but pretending she does, too many details about bad teachers, and some delusion that exploration at college only happened at a small school in Vermont. Probably should have been 4 episodes at best with better editing. Season 1 was great though.

I kept waiting for her to relate something contemptible (or at least unbecoming) about Donna Tartt, but all I sense about DT is that she’s a human being like the rest of us. BTW - the NYT book critic’s name is pronounced with the “ch” sound of “cheetah.” Not Mishiko.

This ticked so many boxes for me as a Gen X-er, literary brat-pack fan, nostalgia freak. So well done and fascinating. My only problem is I binged it too quickly and now it’s over!

Surely there is a niche audience who will love this. I generally enjoy an expose of louche burnouts and New England culture. But this is a highly specific love note to Gen X and a few authors I’ve enjoyed yet don’t care enough about to consider whether Brett Easton Ellis is the Most Important Person Living Obviously. It’s also a strangely striving and florid style. I dunno, maybe write an actual novel? In any case, no thanks.

It comes full circle. I found this podcast when I was reading the New Yorker article about Claude. Bennington has always seemed to be the place where I should have gone if I were talented in that way. I love being in this world.

So much delicious tea spilled, but like, super thoughtfully and elegantly? 🤷