The radio sucks. There are too many commercials, repetitive music, and boring “DJs” that talk about nothing I’m interested in. I put up for it for years and years of my life and then: boom. I was introduced to podcasts.
Now I’m not going to say me adapting to podcast was a natural progression. The first podcasts I was introduced to were NPR’s Fresh Air, Planet Money and NPR Politics. Not really things I was super interested in, but I was young and impressionable and it was what the guy I was dating at the time enjoyed.
A little bit later I discovered Serial and was hooked. Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes.
It told the story of the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and the accused murderer, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed.
What was special about this podcast? It was so intriguing and suspenseful, I couldn’t stop listening! I was hooked.
Podcasts became a big part of my daily drives to and from work and I started searching for more and more stories to dive into. Due to this, I wanted to put a list together of the top podcasts I’ve been listening to recently in case others wanted to stop wasting their drive learning about how great these Indianapolis windows or carpet cleaning services are and actually get some substance during the morning and afternoon commutes.
- My Favorite Murder – I know, I know. You’re probably thinking “man, way to start this off with something depressing,” but it’s anything but that. My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. You don’t get hung up on the focus being the subject of murder, instead, you get lost in the amazing comedic friendship between the two likable hosts. But, I’m not going to lie, the stories of the minds of these killers and occasional survivals of victims are quite intriguing. America can’t deny it’s love for true crime or else we wouldn’t have shows like CSI, NCIS, or all those other initial-related TV dramas.
- S-Town – This podcast was crazy! In all started off in 2012 when a John B. McLemore sent an email to the staff of the show This American Life asking them to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama. After a year of emails back and forth and several months of conversation with McLemore, the show’s producer Brian Reed traveled to Woodstock to investigate. Upon arrival, Reed was lead on a totally different course as the story unfolded of another death related to the production of the podcast.
- Up and Vanished – Host Payne Lindsey produced this true-crime documentary to investigate an unsolved missing persons case from Ocilla, Georgia involving high school teacher Tara Grinstead. The Tara Grinstead cases was one of the largest unsolved case files in Georgia’s history and there had been no recent movement on the case…until Lindsey decided to start asking questions.
Seeing a reoccurring theme with these podcasts? Wow. I have quite the fascination with true crime! These really are my top 3 podcasts so I do hope you dive in and get to learn why. With two of the podcasts wrapping up, S-Town and Up and Vanished, I’ve started to open up my interests outside of the true crime would so look for a follow up soon on some more podcasts recommendations that you should start looking into!
Until then, happy listening!