20 True Crime Podcasts More Addictive than Serial
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Criminal
If you’re into Serial, you'll appreciate Criminal's episodic take on a new new-crime case. Host Phoebe Judge has a similar presentation style to Serial's Sarah Koenig, and each show is just as addictive. The episodes are a little short but perfect for quick commutes to and from work.
Someone Knows Something Like Serial, Someone Knows Something follows one case over multiple episodes. The first season the program is taking a deep dive into the disappearance of a five-year-old boy in eastern Ontario back in 1972.
Unsolved Season 1 of Unsolved is a seven-part podcast investigating the murder of 14-year-old John Zera, who was mysteriously killed back in 1976. Host and reporter Gina Barton digs through old evidence and speaks with people originally involved with trying to solve the case.
Generation Why Each week, Generation Why gives a play-by-play rundown of a case picked by either the listeners or hosts Aaron and Justin. An episode could cover some unsolved mystery or dig into a conspiracy theory surrounding a closed case.
Sword and Scale Sword and Scale tells stories of murder, rape, kidnapping, and more serious crimes, and looks at how the justice system deals with them.
True Murder A little different from your typical true-crime podcast, in each episode the host Dan Zupansky talks to authors of true-crime novels. This definitely isn't as well-produced as shows like Criminal and Serial, but the stories are fascinating.
Finding Tammy Jo Chilling is really the only word you can use to describe Finding Tammy Jo, a podcast series about the murder of a girl in upstate New York who went unidentified for more than three decades.
Actual Innocence We were hooked after one episode of Actual Innocence—which is frustrating because only five have been produced so far and they're all damn addictive. Each follows a person who served time for a crime they did not commit and was later exonerated, which makes for fascinating, heartbreaking audio. Actual Innocence doesn't have the same production quality as Serial, but it's worth listening to regardless.
True Crime Garage Garage covers a new case each week; it could be a horror story that's current headline news or a discussion about infamous serial killers or cold cases. The podcast is laid-back and conversational, and not quite as gripping as some others such as Actual Innocence.
Missing Missing was selected as one of iTunes' best podcasts a few years back and looks into how and why people disappear and what life's like when you're on the run. Host and crime writer Tim Weaver is easy to listen to—the British accent probably helps—and brilliantly picks out the most fascinating aspects of how people vanish in the 21st century.
Truth and Justice with Bob Ruff Podcaster Bob Ruff actually looked into Hae Min Lee’s case after Serial brought so much attention to the murder. However, earlier episodes cover other aspects of the law and themes such as crime and justice.
The Mind of a Murderer Each episode is narrated by criminal psychologist and trial consultant Dr. Michelle Ward. Ward actually talks face-to-face with six violent murderers, relying on her expertise as a trial consultant to look into each killer's psyche and find out what actually drives people to kill. It's compelling, to say the least.
CrimeFeed CrimeFeed covers the most shocking true-crime stories exclusively. Unlike in a lot of other true-crime podcasts, most of the content is current; however, the program will occasionally look into cold cases. CrimeFeed more or less covers only information that's been circulated in the news and doesn't dive deeply into crimes or editorialize them in the same way such podcasts as Serial and the Mind of a Murderer do.
True Detective: Truth Squad If you were a super fan of "True Detective" on TV or are just now getting to know the show, you definitely need to know about this series. Weekly shows analyzed all of the clues and plot developments on the show and are still up for posterity, so you can feed your "True Detective" addiction (even though the TV program is gone).
Thinking Sideways Thinking Sideways investigates things we simply don't have the answer to—such as missing-people reports, suspicious deaths, or old mysteries that were just never solved—to try and reach a conclusion.
Casefile Casefile is an Australian podcast that digs into a different case during each hour-long episode. Murders and violent crimes are the most covered topics.
48 Hours The award-winning team at CBS News's "48 Hours" is behind this in-depth podcast covering tricky criminal cases and human drama. Production quality is stellar, and the team always selects gripping criminal stories.
20 True Crime Podcasts More Addictive than Serial
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Criminal
If you’re into Serial, you'll appreciate Criminal's episodic take on a new new-crime case. Host Phoebe Judge has a similar presentation style to Serial's Sarah Koenig, and each show is just as addictive. The episodes are a little short but perfect for quick commutes to and from work.
Warning: addictive audio ahead.