By This article previously appeared on Crossfader
You ever read a news story about a high profile court case and get the uneasy feeling that someone involved is entirely full of shit? The brilliant legal panel at MIC DICTA is here to confirm that almost everyone involved in the legal system is almost entirely full of shit. The legal system is painfully opaque, and even if you consider yourself a relatively well-educated adult, making heads or tails of why judges rule they way they do on buzzworthy cases can be daunting. Oftentimes, the default attitude of many people is to trust the infallibility of the law, a belief that the system works even if individual people involved may be idiotic. MIC DICTA shatters this delusion, routinely reminding its listeners that even the Supreme Court is mostly made up of ideologues and sycophants with warped agendas.
What really makes MIC DICTA special is that it doesn’t feel dumbed down for the benefit of the lay-listener. Discussions of specific legal cases can get technical as the panel picks apart the core legal arguments, leaving the listener as a fly on the wall for a bunch of legal nerds speaking as they would if they were hanging out at a bar. This doesn’t make the podcast impermeable; rather, it gives the listener a chance to really understand the extreme subjectivity of the law, how open to interpretation it really is. Some of the best moments of the show are when the panel sharply disagree with each other about a certain ruling from a judge or a supreme court justice, and whether or not the official in question presented a sound legal argument.
This isn’t at all to suggest that MIC DICTA is dry, far from it; the rotating panel, always hosted by Charles, has a consistently sardonic, ballbusting approach that keeps things entertaining without losing the listener in the weeds. To round it all out, the music selection between segments is always superb. All in all, this is a show that respects its audience’s intelligence while never forgetting to be entertaining.
Since MIC DICTA is driven by current events, it’s generally best to start out with the most recent episode to get a feel for the show. However, if you’re looking for a good back episode to get a feel for the show, Episode 11 is essentially perfect, especially when the panel discusses a lawsuit surrounding the world’s tallest waterslide.
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