Welcome to the New York Times

Popcasts, or how can you struggle to believe what you're seeing

unfold right before your very eyes of music news and

criticism.

I'm your host John Karamanica.

It's going to be another music free week. As you might imagine, we are talking about Michael Jackson this week.

Leaving Neverland, which is a two-part documentary, just aired on HBO.

If you've seen it, you're familiar with the traumas that are contained

therein. If you have not seen it, it tells the stories of two men, Wade Robeson and James

Safecuck, who say that they were victims of

sexual abuse extended sexual abuse at the hands of Michael Jackson when they

were children. The film is extremely difficult to watch. I definitely almost vomited on the first night.

It was very, very bad. And it started a lot of conversation about maintenance of

legacy, burdens of proof, all the things that we've been talking

about for the last two or three years in the context of the Me Too movement, but refracted against a globally iconic figure that allegations had been made against previously,

but which they had never somehow seen to stick.

So we're going to have a roundtable conversation today about the documentary and about some of the bigger picture issues that are brought up by the documentary including Michael Jackson's estate and sort of how Michael Jackson fans are addressing these revelations of documentary. So we've got Ben Cisserio, music

industry reporter in New York Times. Hello. Joe Kaskerelli, pop music reporter in

New York Times. Hey John. And Aisha Harris, Assistant Television other in New York Times.

Hello.

Ben and Joe have written, well actually everyone at the table, Save Me has written pieces

in some way connected to the documentary.

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