The Onion has a new project on the way and its a parody of daily news podcasts like, well, The Daily. Titled The Topical, the show is described as “the only podcast brave enough to ask: What if the news had sound effects?” The podcast will be fronted by fictional host Leslie Price, who will cover the day’s top news stories using the “classic ‘podcast voice.’” The show makes its debut on January 29, and new episodes will be released every day at 5 p.m. Eastern time on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher.
The Topical isn’t The Onion’s first time dipping into the podcast world — its true-crime podcast parody, A Very Fatal Murder, debuted in early 2018 and returned with a second season last year. But The Topical is the first project in a new partnership The Onion announced with Sony Music Entertainment late last year, which means that more podcast projects are likely on the way.
“The Onion is thrilled to have found a stalwart ally in Sony Music Entertainment to help it dominate yet another medium in the world of journalism,” The Onion’s executive editor Jordan LaFlure said on the partnership in a release last year. “A daily news podcast provides an opportunity for The Onion to access and inform billions of presumably illiterate people previously deprived of the finest reporting the world has ever known.”
Check out the first trailer for The Topical above, or listen to a short preview right here, which promises this: “Join us each day and we’ll hold your pathetic little hand through the endless cycle of bullshit that is the day’s news.” That’s The Onion guarantee.
