Scattered podcast review: pilgrimage into a parent’s mysterious past

“There are so many things that I never got to ask my dad. They were always so secretive about the bad stuff. But I want to know all of it. I want to know what happened. And that’s what I’m going to do in this show.” — Chris Garcia 

“Scattered” is an intimate and beautifully produced six-part podcast series (plus a Bonus Episode #7 that features a conversation with comedian Karen Kilgariff, co-host of the My Favorite Murder podcast, talking about the experience of losing her mother to Alzheimer’s disease), following comedian Chris Garcia’s mission to learn more about his late father Andres Primitivo Garcia’s life while pursuing his father’s dying wish to have his ashes spread off the coast of Cuba. Fulfilling that request proves to be complicated, as is Garcia’s quest to find answers about his father’s struggles in Cuba, and as a refugee in the United States during the Cold War era. 

Sprinkled throughout the series are recordings of Chris performing live standup comedy bits. His appearance on 2 Dope Queens is one example, which took place just six days before his father’s death, on Super Bowl Sunday 2017. 

The series is sure to strike an emotional chord with listeners for many reasons, especially: 

• Those longing to know more about their family history
• Those grieving the loss of a parent they didn’t know well
• Those who have been touched by suicide and mental illness
• Those who have experienced a loved one’s decline into Alzheimer’s disease
• Those who remember, or want to know more about the human toll of Fidel Castro’s political revolution and reign

These are heavy themes, but the comedian who studied poetry in college skillfully maintains an upbeat tone with the narration, often cracking up into laughter with his mom and sister as they talk through memories of Papí. Humor is well balanced with anguish from one episode to the next, while the timeline shifts from present to past and back again fluidly. 

Chris’s desire for a more complete picture of his father is partly answered by his mother Ana’s sometimes hazy memories, and his older sister Laura’s recollections as a daughter born in Cuba who immigrated with their parents to California, by way of Spain. Chris is 12 years younger than Laura, and was born in Los Angeles where he was nearly named Christian Angel Garcia by Andres who had become a born-again Christian just a few years earlier. Ana scoffed that they may as well name him Mr. Bible-Jesus!  

Chris grew up in Inglewood, under the noisy flight path of LAX, and moved to the Bay Area when he was 18 to study poetry at UC Berkeley. After school, he bounced around Europe and Los Angeles before settling in San Francisco. At the age of 28, he started developing his style as a comic, refining it over seven years while performing bits largely built around making fun of his dad’s amusing way with words, delivered in a good natured mimmic of his thick Cuban accent. 

Much of the Spanish-to-English translations heard throughout the series are deftly handled by Chris, who is bilingual, but the series also features the captivating voice of actor Emiliano Díez (NCIS, Ray Donovan) translating the words of older Cuban men as they describe their memories.   

WNYC Studios artfully contributes historical context through archival audio clips, and subtle musical backgrounds and transitions, even woven into the ads for the dot-coms that sponsor the series, to move the story along with a dreamy island tone. The theme song “Please Won’t Please” by Brooklyn’s poetic singer-songwriter Helado Negro (himself the son of Ecuadorian immigrants) provides an enchanting melodic ending to each episode. 

Interviews with Cuban historians Lillian Guerra and Jennifer Lambe lend an academic perspective to fill in some of the missing pieces of the months Andres spent in a Cuban Labor Camp, and at Havana’s infamous psychiatric hospital Mazorra, where he was given electroconvulsive therapy treatments.

Conversations with others outside the family add color to the developing portrait, providing contextual details that are often disturbing, but sometimes thrilling to hear. At one point, Chris becomes giddy when he learns about his father’s contribution as a machinist to a major NASA mission. The son’s pride is as palpable as if he had just found buried treasure, and his reaction is contagious. 

Later we hear the comedian’s voice quavering during a standup bit. The audience is rapt as Chris recalls a moment when he witnessed his father briefly emerge from a deep state of confusion and joyfully recognize his wife of 53 years. 

Early on, Chris talks about his time with therapist Dino, a sort of father figure who helped him process his guilt about living apart from his parents when his father was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. It is apparent that this combination of therapy and a fearlessly personal comedy style has helped Chris learn to express his feelings, even as he references the macho Cuban culture that would not approve.

In 2013, Chris and his girlfriend Valerie moved from San Francisco to L.A. By then Andres was exhibiting increasing bouts of violence. Ultimately the family moved him into a residential care facility in Long Beach. For the podcast, Chris visits the Brittany House and interviews the manager, a Samoan immigrant, who had helped care for Andres. The exchange is bittersweet.

Another poignant recording is of a conversation Chris captured on his cell phone while driving his father home one day. It was the first time Andres did not recognize his only son, and spoke politely, mistaking him for a taxi driver. That recording was the subject of a segment on This American Life back in 2013, which in turn came about because of Chris’s appearance on WTF with Marc Maron in 2012 (now available only to Premium subscribers). “Scattered” the series evolved from a pilot of a 2018 WNYC podcast called “Death, Sex & Money” that generated such strong listener response, the studio opted to make it into this series, that was released on October 23, 2019.

The final episode answers the question of whether the Garcia family would spread Andres’s ashes off the coast of his beloved Cuba, as he had wanted. Ana and Laura had not been back in 47 years, and Ana had sworn she would never return. Chris was afraid that airport customs wouldn’t allow them to bring ashes into the country, and they were not sure how they would deal with boating restrictions on an island trying to prevent refugees from attempting to sail to America. 

Scattered welcomes the listener along on a private family voyage guided by a first generation American as he strives to understand what set the stage for his own life. In addition to the podcast series, a dedicated Instagram page provides photos, videos and audio clips to add to the storytelling. 

Chris Garcia’s passion project is heartwarming and informative without ever becoming preachy, political or overly precious. It is both a wonderful personal tribute, and a model of how memoir can be a collaborative project, told through sound.