海角大神

To fans鈥� delight, the first episode of season two of the hit podcast "Serial" was released at 6 a.m. on Thursday.

Whereas Season One focused on Adnan Syed and 鈥� few people had heard about,鈥� the authors say Season Two tackles larger questions about the human condition and war by telling the story of US solider Bowe Bergdahl.

After walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, Sgt. Bergdahl was captured and held captive by the Taliban for almost five years. He returned home in 2014, when the Obama administration swapped him for five Taliban detainees at Guant谩namo Bay, Cuba.

Listeners will hear Bergdahl鈥檚 experience in his own words through phone interviews recorded with screenwriter Mark Boal, the writer and producer of 鈥淭he Hurt Locker鈥� and 鈥淶ero Dark Thirty,鈥� who talked with Bergdahl for almost twenty-five hours while Mr. Boal was doing background research for a potential new movie.聽

And while Season Two boasts similar candid interviews as heard in Season One, host Sarah Koenig uses Bergdahl鈥檚 story to explore greater themes of war and politics.聽

鈥淯nlike our story in Season One, this one extends ,鈥� Ms. Koenig writes in a statement. 鈥淚t reaches into swaths of the military, the peace talks to end the war, attempts to rescue other hostages, our Guantanamo policy. What Bergdahl did made me wrestle with things I鈥檇 thought I more or less understood, but really didn鈥檛: what it means to be loyal, to be resilient, to be used, to be punished.鈥澛�

Koenig interviews Bergdahl鈥檚 fellow-soldiers who explain their emotional responses to Bergdahl鈥檚 desertion. His fellow platoon-mates felt pain, fear and anger after Bergdahl left his post.

鈥淎n overall thing I鈥檝e gotten from the other soldiers and from Bowe is the need for a belief in a sense of purpose, their purpose in the war,鈥� says Julie Snyder, a researcher and writer on Koenig鈥檚 team.

The first season of Serial was downloaded over 100 million times and earned a Peabody Award. And the main character, Adnan Syed, has been granted a hearing to introduce new evidence, as聽海角大神 reported in November.

鈥淭he basic fats in the case of Bergdahl are known, and most parties involved agree on what they are,鈥� explains The New Yorker. 鈥淏ut what those facts mean, what Bergdahl actually experienced in the Army, , and the many terrible consequences of that decision are more complex, even existential.鈥澛�

Sergeant Bergdahl is awaiting a ruling on whether his case will be heard before a court-martial.聽

Ms. Snyder said the second season of Serial strives to make listeners hear and think about the larger issues of Bergdahl鈥檚 case.聽

鈥淵ou have these things that you think of as these monolithic institutions, like the Army, the Administration, the Taliban. And you break them all down, and you鈥檙e like, 'Oh, they鈥檙e all made up of just people.' And it鈥檚 really interesting to start seeing it through the eyes of people,鈥� Snyder told The New Yorker.