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\\xa0In this bonus episode, James Howard Kunstler reunites with former KunstlerCast host/producer Duncan Crary for a behind-the-scenes discussion of JHK\\u2019s personal connection to the wildly popular S-Town podcast, a This American Life spinoff program. Back around 2010-2013, John B. McLemore, the tragic figure at the center of the series began an email correspondence with JHK. John B was a real person, referred to by various people in the series as \\u201cbrilliant,\\u201d \\u201ca genius,\\u201d \\u201ca real character,\\u201d and he was for sure. He was also a fan of Jim\\u2019s books, and, after getting his phone number off his website, took to calling him on the phone. The two probably had a dozen long phone conversations. It is well-known now that he called his home of Woodstock, Alabama, \\u201cShit-town.\\u201d He regaled JHK with many a sordid tale of the home-folk, and even of himself. To Jim, the place sounded like \\u201cHieronymus Bosch meets Dogpatch.\\u201d Since John B seemed so unhappy under his mask of hilarity and mirth, Jim tried to encourage him to think about moving. He always had an excuse for not doing that, but clearly John B and the neighbors he disdained, fought with, looked for love with, had a synergistic thing going. They needed each other to play out their never-ending crazy scripts of cracker mischief, vengeance, and failure. After a while, John B went dark. Jim thought JB had just gotten tired of advising him to move. As it turns out, what happened to John would become the subject of an audio documentary that has broken all the records in podcasting and stirred up a bit of controversy. Because so many of the concepts McLemore espouses in the series are inspired by JHK\\u2019s blogs and writings (sometimes John uses Jim\\u2019s exact phraseology), Duncan suggests the early KunstlerCast years are a bit like a \\u201cprequel\\u201d to S-Town. (Note: You can listen to all the previous episodes on the KunstlerCast feed for free, and you can purchase a book of based transcripts from the first five years.)\\xa0

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