Podcasts

My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. The first episode was released in January 2016. The podcast debuted at #25 on the iTunes podcast charts and peaked at #3 on April 27, 2018. Weekly episodes regularly land within the iTunes' Top 10 Comedy Podcast chart. As of 2020, the podcast gets 35 million downloads per month.

To Live and Die in L.A. is an investigative and true crime podcast hosted by American journalist Neil Strauss, and produced by Tenderfoot TV and Cadence13. Season 1 of the podcast follows the disappearance and death of aspiring Albanian Macedonian actress Adea Shabani, who was last seen alive leaving her Hollywood apartment with her boyfriend, Chris Spotz. Strauss works alongside private investigator Jayden Brant and producer Alex Vespestad to uncover the truth. In season 2, the focus shifts to the disappearance of California native Elaine Park, who went missing in 2017. Strauss again teams up with Brant, plus Incubus guitarist Michael Einziger, concert violinist Ann Marie Simpson, and Strauss's then-wife and author Ingrid De La O, who first introduced Strauss to Park's case.

The Teacher's Pet is a 2018 Australian crime podcast that investigated the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. Published by The Australian newspaper, the podcast was hosted by journalist Hedley Thomas and produced by Slade Gibson. As of 2020, the series has had close to 30 million downloads and reached number one in podcast charts in Australia, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand.

Lynette Dawson was an Australian homemaker and mother. She disappeared without a trace in 1982 and her whereabouts, dead or alive, have never been determined. The Teachers Pet podcast investigated details of her marriage to rugby league player and teacher Chris Dawson, her disappearance, an extramarital affair between her husband and a sixteen-year-old school girl, claims of sexual misconduct between teachers and students at Cromer High and other Northern Beaches public high schools, flaws in the police investigation, effects on the families involved and the unwillingness of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge Chris Dawson despite two coronial inquests concluding that Dawson was dead and most likely killed by her husband.

Criminal is a podcast that focuses on true crime. It is recorded in the studios of WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC, and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. The show describes itself as telling "stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle."

The Clearing is a 2019 true crime podcast about April Balascio, daughter of American serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. It premiered on 18 July 2019 and is a production of Pineapple Street Media and Gimlet Media. In 2009, April began to suspect her father of the 1980 murder of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew. Following her report to the police, Edwards was arrested and confessed to several other murders. He later became the subject of conspiracy theories accusing him of involvement in famous unsolved crimes. Featuring interviews from April and private recordings made by Edwards while he was living, The Clearing discusses April's journey to discover the truth about her father's life.

Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was Jesperson's preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.

Crime Writers On... is a twice weekly podcast hosted by four American true crime authors: Rebecca Lavoie, Kevin Flynn, Toby Ball, and Lara Bricker. The podcast started on December 12, 2014, as a commentary on and review of the hit true crime podcast Serial. Crime Writers On grew to cover journalism and a variety of crime-related pop culture topics including other podcasts, films, and television shows. The panel often provides updates on the real life cases discussed in previous episodes as they develop.

Michael Iver Peterson (born October 23, 1943) is an American novelist who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, on December 9, 2001. After eight years, Peterson was granted a new trial after the judge ruled a critical prosecution witness gave misleading testimony. In 2017, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time already served and freed.

Peterson's case is the subject of the French documentary miniseries The Staircase, which started filming soon after his arrest in 2001 and followed events until his eventual Alford plea in 2017. In 2019, he released his own account of his life since his wife's death in an independently published memoir, Behind the Staircase. The Staircase, a 2022 miniseries featuring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, also takes this murder case as its subject. Several other documentaries have been produced about Kathleen's death, including a sequel to the 2004 French documentary, podcasts, radio shows and other media.

The Vanished is a weekly podcast that focuses on the stories and circumstances of missing people, hosted by Marissa Jones. Most episodes feature interviews with the friends and family of the missing person, and sometimes the local law enforcement.

Since its launch in February 2016, The Vanished has received over 51 million downloads, and is currently part of the Wondery network. The show attempts to focus on people whose cases have been ignored by the media, such as people who are drug users or sex workers. Jones told the Daily Press, "A lot of our cases are not the ones that make the national headlines . . . So to have the chance to give these families a voice is very rewarding.”

The Bear Brook murders are female American murder victims, two discovered in 1985 and two in 2000, at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, United States. All four of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized; they were believed to have died between 1977 and 1981.

David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1954) is an American retired rock singer. Best known for his wild, energetic stage persona, he was the original lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen across three stints, from 1974 to 1985, in 1996 and again from 2006 to their disbandment in 2020. He was also known as a successful solo artist, releasing numerous RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum albums. After more than two decades apart, Roth re-joined Van Halen in 2006 for a North American tour that became the highest-grossing in the band's history and one of the highest-grossing of that year. In 2012, Roth and Van Halen released the comeback album A Different Kind of Truth. In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen.

Crime Junkie is a true crime podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

S-Town is an American investigative journalism podcast hosted by Brian Reed and created by the producers of Serial and This American Life. All seven chapters were released on March 28, 2017. The podcast was downloaded a record-breaking 10 million times in four days and had been downloaded over 40 million times by May 2017.

Payne Lindsey is an American director, documentary filmmaker, Right Side of the Tree lead singer and podcast host. He is best known for co-creating and hosting the hit investigative journalist and true crime podcasts Up and Vanished and Atlanta Monster.

My Dad Wrote a Porno was a British comedy podcast hosted by Jamie Morton, James Cooper, and Alice Levine. Published from 4 October 2015 to 12 December 2022, each episode of the podcast featured Morton reading a new chapter of Belinda Blinked, an amateur erotic novel series written by his father under the pen name Rocky Flintstone. Morton, Cooper, and Levine react to the material and provide running commentary. Each episode featured Cooper and Levine hearing the chapter for the first time, whereas Morton had read the chapter beforehand to prepare.

Up and Vanished is an investigative documentary-style podcast hosted by Payne Lindsey. The series investigates missing persons cold cases by reviewing old leads, interviewing witnesses and townspeople, and on-site investigation. The show is produced by Tenderfoot TV. The first season premiered on August 7, 2016 and investigated the case of Tara Grinstead, a beauty queen and school teacher who disappeared in Ocilla, Georgia. Season 2 aired in August 2018 and focused on the disappearance of Kristal Reisinger in Crestone, Colorado. The podcast also prompted a television special on Oxygen that premiered on November 18, 2018. The success of Up and Vanished has led to the creation of many other podcasts from Payne Lindsey, such as Atlanta Monster and Radio Rental.

Steve Austin, better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, and retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation during the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by This American Life; as of July 2020, it is owned by The New York Times.

Season 1 investigated the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee (Hangul: 이해민), an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County. Season 2 focused on Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, an American Army soldier who was held for five years by the Taliban, and then charged with desertion. Season 3, which debuted in September 2018, explores cases within the Justice Center Complex in the Cleveland area.

Serial ranked number one on iTunes even before its debut and remained there for several weeks. Serial won a Peabody Award in April 2015 for its innovative telling of a long-form nonfiction story. As of September 2018, episodes of seasons 1 and 2 have been downloaded over 340 million times, establishing an ongoing podcast world record.