White Silence tells story of our dark day

This coming week marks the 40th anniversary of New Zealand’s worst peacetime disaster. On November 28, 1979, a plane carrying 257 passengers on a sightseeing trip to the Antarctic crashed into the side of Mt Erebus, killing everyone onboard.

The podcast White Silence is a coproduction by Stuff and RNZ that aims to help listeners comprehend the controversy that followed the accident. It’s presented by Stuff’s Michael Wright and RNZ’s Katy Gosset, who bring a fresh perspective to the tragedy, the subsequent royal commission of inquiry, and the theories of who was to blame.

The interviews with family members of people connected to the crash are standout elements. There’s David Nicholson, whose sister was killed, Maria Collins whose husband Jim was the pilot, and Margarita Mahon, wife of Judge Peter Mahon who concluded Air New Zealand had conducted an ‘‘orchestrated litany of lies’’.

It’s well constructed and provides a comprehensive analysis of events for a new generation of New Zealanders.

Meanwhile, the pod-isphere is awash with special United States presidential impeachment podcasts.

Here’s a quick summary of the most popular ones.

The Latest, from the The New York

Times, is made by the same production team as The Daily, is presented by Michael Barbaro, and each episode is less than 10 minutes.

Can He Do That? is from the Washington Post and is hosted by Allison Michaels and political reporter Elise Viebeck.

It provides the most simple breakdown of who’s who and has a highlights reel of each day.

War Room: Impeachment is presented by Stephen K Bannon, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chief executive. This daily one-hour show is geared to prove the impeachment is a witch-hunt.