Were you a middle schooler who spent hours at the family desktop looking at rotten.com with one eye while the other kept watch for your parents, not keen to explain why you were clicking through photos of a man whose hand went through a meat grinder (and not sure you could even if they asked?) Have you seen Alive, the made for TV movie about the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed into the Andes in 1972 more times than you’ll admit? Do you have an interest in the tragic and macabre that leaves you feeling a mix of revulsion and fascination that you can’t express in the group chat amongst discussions of potty training and the children’s choir performance on America’s Got Talent? If so, then Marked Safe is the niche haven you’ve always sought but never knew existed. Listening to an episode feels like having a sleepover with those girls you always wanted to find who too indulge their morbid curiosities. I’m not usually a fan of podcasts with multiple hosts as I generally find banter grating, but Brianne and Melanie have the cutest friendship, are hilarious, and the perfect complement to one another. Listening to their back and forth feels like hanging out with friends, and you can tell they genuinely care for one another, which is so sweet. They present the heartbreaking, jaw-dropping disasters they cover with a respectful balance of solemnity and dark humor. They cover the kind of stuff people like us pore over on Wikipedia at 2 am. My real life friends don’t share in my interest in disasters and I’m so glad I’ve found a community of horrible ghouls through Brianne and Melanie’s podcast who do.
