Criminal Podcast

Last night Christine and I attended a live event for one of my favorite podcasts, Criminal. From their website, "Criminal is an award-winning podcast about true crime. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle." Unlike a lot of true crime media, the stories aren't typically gruesome or horrific. The host, Phoebe Judge, does a great job of taking out certain details of the more violent stories which allows her to tell the story, as it happened, in a more nuanced way. Since starting the show in 2014, there have been more than 250 episodes that have been a joy to listen to. 

For their 10 year anniversary, Phoebe, co-creator Lauren Spohrer, and the rest of the Criminal team are currently on tour doing a set of live shows across the country. Knowing my love of the show, Christine asked if I wanted tickets to go when they went on sale months ago. So on a cold night in Glenside, PA, a town just north of Philadelphia, a few hundred of us packed into the Keswick Theater. The live show isn't exactly like an episode because the stage allows for visuals throughout, but the essence of the show is still there. In what can only be described as the most relaxing sounding voice in media, Phoebe shared multiple stories that were a combination of funny, shocking, and thought provoking. We also got to learn a little bit more about her as a person in an...interesting...PowerPoint presentation. 

The podcast has covered stories dating back to the start of our country, some from the past few years, and everything in between. If you're into true crime documentaries and/or biographical miniseries, you'll likely recognize some of the stories like in the episode entitled "Animal Instincts", which covers Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home. One of my favorite episodes is "A Bump in the Night", a story about a 20 year old woman who moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. And they didn’t stop.

If you're in the market for a new podcast for your feed, I cannot recommend Criminal enough. If true crime isn't your thing, the team also makes a show called This Is Love. It features Phoebe's calming voice and tells amazing stories of all types of love: from a city in Northern Italy where everyone decided to stay quiet to save something beautiful to an unconventional love story about a teenager, the Pacific Ocean, and an encounter with something wild. Not into podcasts but love mystery novels? Phoebe has a third podcast feed called Phoebe Reads a Mystery, where she reads a chapter a day of classic mystery novels.

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