Ten True Crime Podcasts
By L.R. Dorn
In developing the idea for and then writing With a Kiss We Die, the first in our unconventional new crime series, we listened to a lot of true crime podcasts. The ones that most influenced us break down into two categories. The “investigation” podcast has the crime journalist/host going out and actively investigating a case, using the well-established tools of journalism – the most important being an audio recorder. Through interviews with victims, family members, attorneys, forensic experts, and police investigators, the journalist builds a crime narrative that functions in a similar manner to its fictional counterpart in terms of mystery, suspense, and plot twists. The second and more prevalent category is the true crime “presentation” podcast which features the host(s) drawing from public sources, books, articles, documentaries, court records, etc., then summarizing the case and presenting their analysis. With a Kiss We Die starts in the mode of an investigation podcast, fictionalizes a real-life case, and turns traditional book chapters into episodes. Here are nine crime investigation podcasts and one crime presentation podcast that helped illuminate our path during the creation of The Raines Report.
- “The Lady Vanishes” (7NEWS, Australia)
This is the Moby Dick of true-crime podcasts: a complex, labyrinthine epic that spans three decades, two continents, multiple countries, and all boils down to a simple emotional hook – a daughter in search of her missing mother. The 7NEWS podcast team of Alison Sandy and Bryan Seymour started releasing the first TLV episodes in the spring of 2019 and as of the spring of 2023 the podcast extends to over 40 episodes (plus 20 bonus “Conversation” episodes that go into even greater detail on the vanished Marion Barter and her persevering daughter Sally Leydon). As of this writing there is still no definitive solution to the baffling disappearance that happened in 1997. The episodes have featured a constant parade of tantalizing red-herrings and jaw-dropping twists, helped along by the involvement of “super sleuths,” fans of the podcast who comb obscure corners of the internet for clues. Four years on and new witnesses continue to surface, piling up evidence against the number one suspect, octogenarian con artist Ric Blum. The Aussie accents of the reporters and sources are a value-add, giving off a vibe that feels both foreign and familiar to these American ears. This investigation, which helped spur an official New South Wales coroner’s inquest, has been a transformative journey for all involved.
- “Serial” Season 1 (Serial Productions)
All true crime podcast roads lead back to the first season of “Serial.” It was a groundbreaker in so many ways, and though released nine years ago, the case continues to make headlines as convicted killer Adnan Syed and his attorneys navigate the criminal appeals process. Host Sarah Koenig set the voice and style template for the multitudes of podcasting crime journalists who’ve followed her. Easily the most influential crime investigation podcast in the brief history of the medium.
- “The Trojan Horse Affair” (Serial and The New York Times)
This one is pure class. Sophisticated, nuanced audio storytelling that is as much about the relationship between two journalists, American Brian Reed and British Pakistani Hamza Syed, as it is about the local school board scandal they investigate. No dead bodies here, just malicious allegations made by a mystery letter writer. The resulting collision of class and race, and the implosion it caused, starts on a small scale and gradually spreads like a poison out across a community and then halfway around the world. There are so many layers of narrative to contemplate here and the technical elements are state of the art.
- “Do You Know Mordechai?” (UCP Audio)
Kathleen Goldhar investigates and hosts one of the more unique narrative non-fiction podcasts from a subject matter perspective. As its website states, the content here is “genre-bending.” Technically not true crime, more an exposé of a prodigious emotional predator juggling multiple romantic relationships told from the point-of-view of the women he preyed on. Female friendship, the longing for connection, and modern age loneliness take center stage, but as the strands are untangled, the listener gets drawn in by the sheer audacity of a colossal narcissist and manipulator. Surprisingly compelling through its pervasive melancholy, this is a novelistic audio documentary that explores love and lies from a Canadian podcast producer.
- “CounterClock” Seasons 1-4 (audiochuck)
Delia D’Ambra (the alliterative name bringing to mind our own Ryanna Raines) is a podcaster on the rise as her latest “CounterClock” Season 5 debuted at number one across all categories on Apple podcasts. She is a straight-shooting, unpretentious reporter/host/producer who scrappily persists in her pursuit of justice for the victims in the unsolved murders – “cold cases” – she investigates. While her girl-next-door earnestness can be disarming, make no mistake—D’Ambra has a steel backbone. Guided by a mix of pluck and savvy, undaunted by people hanging up on her and shutting doors in her face, she patiently stays the course. Though she may not always “solve” the case, her truth-seeking never fails to bring new evidence to light and open new threads of inquiry.
- “Bone Valley” (Lava for Good)
This one actually started releasing while we were in the latter stages of editing our novel, but we felt it had to be included because it is practically in a class by itself. Investigated by longtime journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert King along with his intrepid “assistant” Kelsey Decker (who herself goes on a journey from green true-crime newcomer to seasoned true-crime producer), this is a gut-wrenching exploration of not only a long-ago murder but of the legal system responsible for putting Leo Schofield in prison despite gaping holes in the prosecution’s case and an actual confession to the murder by an incarcerated serial killer. Unrelentingly gritty, “Bone Valley” is Dostoyevskian in its examination of both the darkness and the light in the human soul.
- “Suspect” Season 1 (Campside Media)
Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson investigate the murder of a young woman software engineer in Redmond, WA, during a Halloween party at an apartment complex. The event is presented cinematically through the voices of the partygoers and achieves a dreamlike, almost film noir quality. As the episodes unfold, the podcast evolves into a chronicle of racial profiling and injustice perpetuated as opposed to justice served. The listener experiences firsthand what it’s like to become a powerless pawn in the American criminal justice system.
- “OC Swingers” (audiochuck)
Justine Harmon investigates a serial rape case involving a Newport Beach, SoCal orthopedic surgeon and his girlfriend who were charged together with drugging and assaulting several women in Orange County, CA (the “OC” of the title). Neither of the defendants would agree to be interviewed, which you might think would be fatal to a podcast in which they are the main characters, but Harmon does a brilliant workaround by interviewing attorneys, cops, and, most poignantly, the victims to capture the drama that surrounds this shocking crime spree and the legal convolutions it spawned.
- “Canary” (The Washington Post)
Amy Brittain is the WaPo reporter who spent three years in what began as an investigation of a sexual assault case in a District of Columbia courtroom and turned into something much deeper and more complex. This is also not about a murder case but has one of those mega plot twists where after the first episodes something happens that changes everything. One discovery pivots the story and exponentially expands its theme of how our justice system often mishandles cases of sexual violations against women. It’s a poignant exploration of female victims/survivors and how shared trauma can bond total strangers to each other and give their lives new purpose.
- “The Prosecutors” (PodcastOne)
Alice LaCour and Brett Talley, actual criminal prosecutors, have some of the best chemistry of any cohosts across podcast land. They clearly delight in bantering with each other about all things crime and their verbal interplay seems made for the podcast medium. Brett the well-mannered southern boy and Alice the big city working mom practiced in the same office as U.S. attorneys for the Middle District of Alabama. They do deep dives into well-known homicide and disappearance cases, offering a lawyer’s perspective and drawing on their own courtroom experiences. They spent 9 hour-plus episodes analyzing the JonBenet Ramsey case and their coverage is among the most insightful you could hope to find. After an exhaustive analysis of the evidence (Brett and Alice love their timelines!), the prosecutors each present their theory of the likeliest scenario of the crime. Their arguments are always thoughtful, sensible, and well grounded. Alice’s summation of who most likely killed JonBenet is as compelling and convincing as anything you’re likely to read, watch, or listen to about this tragically iconic child-murder case.