If you've checked out my podroll, then it's no secret I'm a fan of podcasts. And it's absurd that I haven't reviewed one at length yet, so let's do that today.

It's been nearly ten years since I was standing at the Dalhousie bus loop, waiting for my transit to work when I saw the first episode of Dan Taberski's debut podcast drop on a cold February afternoon. "Missing Richard Simmons, Episode One: 'Where's Richard?'" The premiere of a six-episode series produced by Pineapple Street Media, released under the Headlong banner.

What followed over the course of the next six weeks was one of the most interesting, morally dubious podcasts produced. Taberski dedicated himself to investigating why exactly beloved, flamboyant fitness instructor Richard Simmons decided to suddenly retire in 2014. Because, when Simmons did this, he also stopped teaching his exercise classes at his gym and cut ties with his fans and friends, one being Taberski—a former Daily Show producer who'd been a regular in Simmons' Beverly Hills studio himself.

While the series was created in good faith by a concerned fan, it was clear from the onset that there wasn't going to be any easy answers.

On one hand, you had the betrayal and hurt of dozens, if not hundreds, of fans of Simmons. For he was not merely a fitness instructor, but rather someone who allowed parasocial relationships to develop into sincere, deep friendships. Some of the attendees of his exercise classes (named the lovable pun "Slimmons") had been exercising under the teaching of Simmons for decades. He led the class in his Beverly Hills studio three times a week since 1974. And one day, unceremoniously, on February 15, 2014, he closed up shop and nobody ever heard from him again.

On the other hand, you had a man that had given all of himself to the public for decades. Simmons was a lovable actor and television personality since the 60s, later parlaying a recurring role on General Hospital and the Emmy-winning Richard Simmons Show into a fitness empire built on the Sweatin' to the Oldies video series. 65 videos in all, selling more than 20 million copies over his career, according to Deadline. He worked tirelessly up until his sudden retirement, a constant presence on Letterman and Howard Stern, in commercials for Sprint, Yoplait, and a self-parodying Geico spot. If he wanted to retire, that was more than his right. And if he didn't want to explain himself to anybody, surely that would be his right as well.

And this tension and struggle is what birthed the podcast itself. With Taberski turning over every possible stone to get a concrete answer to why Simmons cut ties with his friends and fans, and he also attempted to know the current state of Simmons as well. Was he doing okay?

Perhaps it is unsurprising that Taberski wandered avenues of conspiracy during this exploration and meditation. Was Simmons secretly ill, or injured, or depressed? Was Teresa Reveles, Simmons' housekeeper of over 30 years, secretly controlling and imprisoning him in his lavish home? The allegation, most pointedly raised by Simmons' former assistant and masseur Mauro Oliveira, hung over much of the back half of the series. Taberski even titled the second episode "Stakeout" after staking out the property himself.

It took until the final episode, "A Day at the Beach", released on March 20th of 2017, for Taberski to finally concede. It was clear something happened behind the scenes that caused him to go from ruthless investigative seeking the truth to something far more apologetic and small. But the specifics, like Simmons himself, remained unclear.

This was, painfully, only the beginning of the investigation. There was a great resurgence of speculation a couple of years ago when there was talk of a feature-length biopic about Simmons in the works, with comedian and actor Pauly Shore playing him. The project was announced in January 2024, and prompted Simmons to publicly disavow the film that April, telling his publicist in a statement that it "does not have my blessing" and joking that he'd rather see Tom Cruise play him instead. Shore, for his part, said he'd been up all night crying over the rejection but vowed the film would happen "whether [Simmons] likes it or not." It was during this time that timelines and true crime-adjacent conspiracies arose once again, much to Simmons' dismay.

Sadly, Simmons passed away just a few months later on July 13th, 2024, just one day after his 76th birthday. The result of a severe fall he experienced in his home a couple of days earlier. Simmons spent the following day in bed, but reportedly declined to immediately seek medical care as he wanted to spend his birthday at home. Reveles, who by then had worked for him for roughly three decades, was the one who found him unresponsive on his bedroom floor the next morning.

Only a couple months ago, the documentary "The Mystery of Richard Simmons: A Diane Sawyer Special" was released and to be honest with you? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The hour-long special, produced by ABC News Studios, premiered on Disney+ and Hulu, and it drew directly on Reveles' account of Simmons' final hours, along with interviews with his brother Lenny Simmons, sister-in-law Cathy Simmons, and longtime manager Michael Catalano. The special also revealed that Simmons had quietly reached out to Sawyer a decade into his seclusion, sending her flowers with a note reading "I trust you" and telling her he was finally ready to tell his story. Only to die before the interview could happen.

Simmons was a man who poured himself into fitness for the general public for forty years, and that entire legacy has been overshadowed by his final few quiet years of retirement.

Dan Taberski, on the other hand, found great success for himself after the podcast. He came out with hit series after hit series: Surviving Y2K (2018), a meditation on millennium-bug hysteria; Running from Cops (2019), a takedown of the long-running reality show COPS; The Line (2021), which dug into the war-crimes case against Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and was later adapted into a TV series; 9/12 (2021), which won Podcast of the Year at the 2022 Ambies; Heaven's Gate (2017), on which he served as writer; and Hysterical (2025), his NPR-featured investigation into a mass psychogenic illness outbreak among teen girls in Le Roy, New York. All of which are some of my favourite podcasts ever.

Missing Richard Simmons never actually resolved anything. Nine years on, we still don't know why Richard closed the door, and the podcast that made his disappearance a cultural obsession is partly the reason his disappearance became inseparable from his legacy. Every retrospective, every biopic pitch, every special has had to wade through the mystery Taberski built before it could get anywhere near the man. I don't think that makes the podcast bad. I think it makes it honest about what it was doing, which is more than I can say for most of what followed in its wake. But it does mean I can't review the podcast without implicating myself in it, too. I loved it and I still do. And loving it means admitting that some part of me, ten years later, still hasn't decided whether I wanted the mystery or the man.

Perhaps this is just a quirk of humanity—our incessant drive towards curiosity and mystery—our impossible need to uncover the truth when there is a notable absence of answers. And it's clear I'm part of the problem by being more interested in a morally dubious podcast about Richard Simmons than his decades of fitness classes.