True crime podcasts have taken over the world since the lockdown and have the most number of listeners. So if crime is your thing you need something to blow your minds off whether they are cold cases or unsolved mysteries? Here’s a list of some of the best true crime podcasts:
GENERATION WHY Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn
Have you found yourself loving true crime documentaries but have no idea where to start when it comes to podcasts? Generation Why is a good starting point into the world of true crime podcasts. Running for nearly 10 years now, its strength has to be the great hosting by Aaron Hebel and Justin Evans. The duo have thoroughly learned their craft over the years, and have heaps of episodes where they share their theories and discuss their opinions on all things true crime.
TOM BROWN’S BODY Apple Podcasts, Spotify
The year is 2016. A small town in Texas gets a taste of crime when a popular 16-year-old goes missing the night before Thanksgiving. Fast forward to 2018, his bones are discovered under a tree in the town, and for the past two years, no one in the tight-knit community knows what happened to him until these remains were found. Award-winning journalist Skip Hollandsworth gets down to what happened, and why everyone in Canadian, Texas, is a suspect.
WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY Spotify, Apple Podcasts
If you’re looking for a listen that’s a bit more salacious and a bit less gory, Welcome to Your Fantasy might be the true-crime series of your dreams. Historian Natalia Petrzela hosts the investigative series on the rise of the Chippendales dancing company — and its dark backstory of organised crime. The twisted tale tracks how mastermind Steve Banerjee built the male revue into a phenomenon and how drugs, greed, and crime tore it all down.
UP AND VANISHED SoundCloud, Audible, Spotify
Fascinated by the stories of those who have simply disappeared? Well, Up and Vanished brings you stories of those who have vanished without a trace. It is a true crime series that investigates mysterious cold case disappearances. Season 1 covered the disappearance of Georgia high school teacher Tara; 2 focused on the disappearance of young mother Kristal Reisinger from a remote mountain town in Colorado, a case that has since been reopened.
PAPER GHOSTS Audible, Spotify
Fifty years ago, in several small New England towns, four different young girls went missing over a series of years. All of them were last seen just miles away from the others. The craziest bit is that not one arrest had happened until the host and true crime author, M. William Phelps, got a phone call that set this investigation in motion. This podcast doesn’t just reveal the story of these cases, but also new information about how these cases may be connected.
SUSPECT Audible, Apple Podcasts
In 2008, a Halloween house party goes wrong when one of the hosts, Aparna Jinaga, is murdered. She was found strangled in her Washington State apartment after the party in her building. This unsolved murder mystery grows more complex when one of the attendees is wrongfully arrested and sentenced to prison based on incomplete evidence and racial bias. Returning to the case over a decade after the events unfolded, Suspect offers a unique look at forensic science, the investigation process of Jinaga’s murder. This 2021 release follows the classic format of examining a specific cold case with meticulous detail.
