Missing Richard Simmons follows the search for Richard Simmons, after he disappeared in 2014. The quest is conducted by one of his former Slimmons members, Dan Taberski, who hosts the podcast and tries to understand why Richard Simmons would want to leave his life behind. I wanted to explore the idea of manipulation to show how podcast hosts give themselves authority to speak on other people’s lives and create theories, which only misleads their listeners into believing assumptions. I examine the motives and invasiveness of podcast hosts because they overstep boundaries. However, they portray themselves as well-intentioned journalists causing the listeners to believe what they are doing is necessary and reasonable, when it is rather unjust and harmful to those they are discussing. I made a timeline because similar to “Missing Richard Simmons” it presents events in chronological order. The timeline, however, does not include a host to persuade listeners that their actions are respectable.It only presents the facts, which properly educates readers and allows them to come to their own conclusions.
