Abstract

How can young Colombians deal with the country’s tumultuous history? This is the question answered by “17 years and 1 minute,” an eight-part documentary podcast about the final report produced by Colombia’s Truth Commission. Although the Truth Commission has embraced digital narration, the density of its final report represents an obstacle. “17 years and 1 minute” narrates the journey of a Colombian sound engineer who faces the challenge of reading the more than fifteen hundred pages of a report portraying the history of a country he lives in but does not know. Throughout the episodes, listeners move from the origins of the conflict to the meaning that historical facts can have in our daily lives. By taking a deeply personal approach to the national past, these episodes suggest paths, offer clues, and invite new questions about the weight of history in our lives.