5 Funny True Crime Podcasts🕵️‍♀️

This issue is sponsored by Crew Collective. Explore true crime stories that don't involve gruesome acts AND might even make us laugh

In partnership with Crew Collective, a podcast about the wild, weird, and deeply human side of cosmic storytelling.

Podcast Picks Curated by Barry Rothbart

Here’s why Barry chose this theme:

I love serialized true crime podcasts that can have the intensity, drama, and pathos of true crime, while also still being weird, quirky, and at times not take themselves too seriously. And still have big crimes, obviously.

Searching for Allan Rothbart podcast cover art

Searching for Allan Rothbart

Host Barry Rothbart investigates the strange true crimes of his father through his recently uncovered deathbed tapes.

This show is part true-crime, part family memoir, and part late-in-life coming-of-age tale. It explores the lies between parents and their children, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when the truth undoes it all.

The Shrink Next Door podcast cover art

The Shrink Next Door

The true story of a therapist who completely engulfs the life of his client.

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong.

Wind of Change podcast cover art

Wind of Change

Patrick Radden Keefe leads a spiraling investigation into whether the CIA was behind the music of a prominent 80s hair metal band.

It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall has just come down. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. A heavy metal band from West Germany, the Scorpions, releases a power ballad, “Wind of Change.” The song becomes the soundtrack to the peaceful revolution sweeping Europe — and one of the biggest rock singles ever. According to some fans, it’s the song that ended the Cold War.

Ghost Story podcast cover art

Ghost Story

Tristan Redman doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage bedroom. And when he discovers later that occupants of his family home have seen the ghost of a faceless woman, he’s intrigued.

This show was named as the Best Documentary Podcast - Ambies 2024 award-winner and Best True Crime - British Podcast Awards 2024 nominee.

Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding? And Other Crimes podcast cover art

Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding? And Other Crimes

The podcast follows the investigative efforts of a woman and her friends as they try to solve the mystery of who pooped on the floor at one of their weddings in Amsterdam.

New episodes focus on other equally ridiculous mysteries and the people trying to solve them.

Movie Pairing

The Coen Brothers' Fargo

The reality-based crime film that made "Minnesota nice" a household term. By deftly filming a crime drama against the backdrop of a friendly midwestern culture, the Coen Brothers tapped into a contrast comedy goldmine. There's simply no one better in the business of welding crime, drama, and humor into the same picture.

You can curate a list for us! Learn more about that here.

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Community

🎉 RESONATE Podcast Festival and Tink Media launched Pitch Party, a new podcast where audio lovers and production company reps alike will discover a new podcast pilot from independent producers weekly.

🧠 Teaching through Emotions, the award-winning podcast created by psychotherapist and teacher educator Betsy Burris, marked World Mental Health Day with a series of special offerings designed to spotlight the mental health needs of educators and students.

👚Get your limited edition t-shirt to celebrate International Podcast Day, featuring filler words (like “ummm”) from around the world. EarBuds teamed up with Certified Crucial to design it. Ask Arielle Nissenblatt for a discount code!

💖In Podcast The Newsletter, Lauren Passell recommends Nymphet Alumni. She writes: “This conversation […] will change the way you look at not just clothing but bodies, why people do things, technology, evolution, sexuality.”

Podcast news from Podnews

Spotlight

FACE-OFF: US vs CHINA podcast cover art

FACE-OFF: US vs CHINA is an inside look at the turbulent relationship between the world's two superpowers, the two men in charge, and the vital issues that affect us all. FACE-OFF is hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief and current fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.

In each episode Professor Rana Mitter, recently of the University of Oxford and now professor of modern China at the Harvard Kennedy School, chats with Jane on what’s at stake.

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