P.S. - In Defense of True Crime Media (Bonus Issue #37)

Five true crime podcasts straight from my own to-listen playlist.

Hi friends!

Outside of running this Substack, I host a podcast called Truer Crime. You can probably guess by the name, but it’s my contribution to one of the most popular (and often controversial) genres of media – true crime. You can read the full story of what led me to create this podcast here, but the cliff notes version is after I became the victim of a large financial fraud scheme, I started to view the true crime genre with a new lens. I believe deeply in the importance of these stories, both because the experiences of the folks impacted deserve to be heard and the ways these stories shape so much of the world around us. The ways crime is prevented (or isn’t), trials are conducted, and prisons are structured are deeply tied to how we view crime in the first place. And even in a world filled with sensational and often outright disrespectful true crime media, I don’t think the solution is to stop telling these stories.

So for today’s bonus issue, I wanted to highlight a few podcasts that I believe are taking the genre to the next level. Each of the below shows is unique and challenges us to think about these stories in a new way. I binged most of them in just a few days, but I also included a few that are topping my to-listen list. Check them out below!