Category: Extras

Today I got the privilege to interview Lee Acim, founder of AIO Audio News https://aioaudionews.com/

How and when did you get into AIO?

My family’s always listened to AIO, and my parents had a few albums and collections from before I was born. I listened casually and as a growing fan up through Album 56, and with the release of Album 57, I became more invested in the new episodes. In 2014, I visited the Focus on the Family Welcome Center and met Diane Ingolia, Jonathan Crowe, Nathan Jones, Jesse Florea, Bob Smithouser, and Nathan Hoobler. Through that connection, my interest was piqued in the current era of Odyssey at the time, and I joined the AIOWiki to learn more about the upcoming episodes. After becoming the AIOWiki’s most active user and most familiar with the system, I created the AIOWiki Podcast in 2017 out of a need for an active AIO fan podcast in the space, as there were none.

What inspired you to make your blog?

When I started the AIOWiki Podcast, I focused on imitating the “SCOOP” editions of the Odyssey ScoopCast, which were Ryan Matlock’s news podcasts about Odyssey. Those editions of the AIOWiki Podcast were too long to produce and came out way too long after the news was relevant. In 2018, I was becoming agitated at the amount of new info that was coming out and at my inability to keep up with it. So I toyed around with the idea of starting an Odyssey news website that used audio clips instead of blog posts for news. That was the creation of AIO Audio News.

What is your favorite Odyssey character?

Tricky; what is my favorite and what describes me best…? I have a hard time picking favorites from the past eras of the show, but currently my favorite is Bridget Perkins. Her development in “Always Home” was remarkable to watch, and I love how complex her character is. She’s very relatable, she’s not over-the-top, and she has clear motivations, but yet her emotions are such that she’s largely unpredictable. I’m highly anticipating her future episodes and how they develop her character. (Also I kinda like her actress Keely Marshall so…)

What is your favorite episode?

“Plan B, Part 2: Collision Course.” As a long-time reviewer of Odyssey episodes, I think about my favorite episode as the one I would rank the highest. Plan B, Part 2 is that episode. It’s the most intense, most action-packed, most plot-driven, and most impactful episode of the show. Granted, some episodes come close for me, like “Checkmate,” “The Time Has Come,” and the other Plan B episodes; but Part 2 beats them all out.

What Odyssey character would you say best describes you?

Buddy Norman, hands down. While a lot of older reviewers don’t like him, I view Buddy as the most relatable character of Era 9 (episodes 801-873). He has an innocence of thought that drives his reasoning, he takes time to test the information he’s given to see if it’s true, and his discernment and moral compass pervade his thinking. That’s the origin of his imaginings. All of his insecurities play out in his head, and the most important times in his life are the ones where he stepped away from his mind and dealt with them. That’s what “Walk Worthy” and “Sir Buddy’s Snowy Day” (his two best episodes) did so well. There were clear buildups of his expectations and emotions in his sequences, and he used his thoughts to hash out the problems he was dealing with. Then, when it was time to make a decision, he did it himself, outside his imagination. I think very analytically, like he does, and find that I act like him a lot of the time

Thanks again for doing this interview!

~Riley~