“There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.”

–Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.

Getting lost in the world of podcasts, much like streaming series, can be tedious. The options on display and apps available make it even more difficult. Podcasts can be a great way to pass the time when loadshedding sweats down your neck and rising inflation makes staying in the only option for some.

More and more people are hosting their own podcasts or exploring the idea as the trend picked up since Covid-19. This means you just might end up experiencing a kind of cognitive dissonance. Too many choices can be confusing. There is also the theory that as content on streaming sites becomes more open compared to the dwindling network shows, as Sherlock Holmes would say: “The game is on.”

In other words, watching a true crime series can be one of the choices at hand, but where do you go with so many to choose from? If you indulge in a bundle of them, you may expose yourself to the kind of visuals that are brutal enough to shake you down to your core or emerge as triggers (even if you may not realize it at first). The violence that can be shown in true crime stories on streaming giants, the most popular one being Netflix (coupled with our own reality and daily troubles) can make us desensitized to a great many terrible things. Or, give us nightmares. Pick your poison.

A podcast removes several such predominant realities and offers an aural choice where intelligent discourse on a subject as difficult as true crime can be intriguing enough to follow. It is also reminder of a time when we had the ability to listen with a degree of attention and not get pulled into other things.

To that end, a limited series podcast by journalist and author Saba Imtiaz (Karachi, You’re Killing Me) and journalist Tooba Masood can be the coolest and safest listening podcast if you adore true crime but can’t deal with the visuals.

The difference between fictional crime or true crime is that the latter explores an actual crime and the people whose actions are not bound by a script but real people. A fascinating subject at its core, Notes on a Scandal by Saba Imtiaz and Tooba Masood, both excellent journalists-writers and storytellers, is a limited-series podcast (described in the following words): “A tale of sex, lies, and scandal in Pakistan. A limited-episode podcast that reexamines and investigates a fascinating crime in an unusual city. The podcast serves as an accompaniment to Society Girl, a non-fiction book by Tooba Masood and Saba Imtiaz.”

Their book is not published yet but until it does, this podcast is an excellent companion to anyone curious about true crime genre without worrying about trigger-friendly out-of-the-blue visuals recreated in documentaries and TV shows.

In the present reality of a 24-hour news cycle always being available to us, what is fun about this podcast is that it doesn’t expect you to invest hours.

With seven episodes so far, it’s easy to catch up on with the shortest podcast duration being nine minutes, and the longest, 24 minutes.

The podcast surrounds the subject of Mustafa Zaidi, the late poet and civil servant and his death in 1970. It also talks about Shahnaz Gul and what connection she may have had to the surrounding events. In one episode, writer, author, academic and translator Bilal Tanweer reads verses of poetry by Mustafa Zaidi. We are introduced to this true crime story in a manner that is neither baffling nor too complicated to keep up with. Mustafa Zaidi’s death in 1970 through each episode is covered from various angles that may have existed.

This is an astute show because it is not taking the subject in a nonchalant fashion but in an arresting one. Through each episode, we learn more about the death of a man 50 years ago, theories that relate to it and much more. Compelling, enjoyable, intelligent with not too much of an ask for time, listen to this reexamination for it commands attention and satiates curiosity.