While a runaway success, the series also proved somewhat controversial because it delved so deeply into the life and background of a man who had originally consented to be involved with the podcast but who died during the making.

In an interview with Pacific Standard magazine, Reed said the team had considered what to include “carefully”: “There are lots and lots that I learned in the reporting that I didn’t put in the story because we felt that what it added to the story wasn’t worth either the sensitive nature of it, or maybe it touched someone who was still alive, and we didn’t include it for that reason.

“But I also don’t believe that when a reporter is doing a story about someone who has died, that they can only include elements that the person consented to when they were alive. I don’t believe that’s an ethical problem, and there’s a whole world of journalism about people who have passed away. The whole enterprise of that journalism is to learn more about [those people] than we understand from when they were alive.”

The podcast ‘prequel’ for those obsessed with S-Town