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Reddit launches Upvoted podcast to 'dig a little deeper' into stories from the site

Reddit launches Upvoted podcast to 'dig a little deeper' into stories from the site

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Reddit has always been a fantastic place to find and share stories, and now, the site's creators have launched a new podcast named Upvoted dedicated to these tales. "Every day, across thousands of communities on the network, some story bubbles up because a bunch of people click upvote," explains Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian in the first episode. "But that’s not the end … we’d like to use this podcast to dig a little deeper."

Ohanian explains in a blog post that whenever a "compelling story" pops up, the Reddit team will "follow up with the people involved to see if they’d like to share what happened after all the internet fame, or the life-changing comment, or even the simple kind gesture from an internet stranger." The first episode (below) tells the story of Dante Orpilla, aka Reddit user /u/youngluck, who posted an IAMA on the site in 2010 titled "IAmA fella getting sentenced to Federal Prison in less than 48 Hrs. I am facing 10 years. AMA."

Although in this episode the story is told by Orpilla and a handful of Reddit users, it's not clear how Upvoted will operate in the future: will it always use first-person accounts? Will there be investigations? If so, who will carry them out? Reddit doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to citizen journalism — but handled correctly, Upvoted could be a mine of fascinating stories from unexpected sources. "If this goes well," says Ohanian. "hopefully we can broaden working with you to keep telling your stories behind the stories of the frontpages of Reddit."