The Mortified Podcast

Here is the concept: grown adults get on stage in front of a room full of strangers and read from the diaries, love letters, song lyrics, and journals they wrote as teenagers. Out loud. To an audience that is absolutely losing it. The Mortified Podcast captures these live performances, and the result is one of the funniest and most oddly moving shows you will ever hear. The cringe factor is off the charts. You will hear a 40-year-old woman read the erotic fan fiction she wrote at 14. A guy in his 30s performs the rap lyrics he was convinced would make him famous in eighth grade. Someone reads the melodramatic breakup letter they slid into a locker in 1997. Each story is introduced by hosts Neil Katcher and David Nadelberg, who set the scene with just enough context before letting the storytellers do their thing. Episodes run about 30 to 40 minutes and the show updates every couple of weeks. With 274 episodes in the archive, there is an absurd amount of material to work through. The show is part of Radiotopia from PRX, which means production quality is solid. It carries an explicit rating because, well, teenagers write some wild stuff. But underneath all the laughter is a real message: the embarrassing things you are writing and feeling right now are universal. Everyone was that dramatic, that confused, that certain they were in love at 15. For teens currently living through those big feelings, hearing adults laugh lovingly at their younger selves is both hilarious and deeply reassuring.