There is overwhelming amount of news to catch up now, and it can feel impossible to look away or take a break. Being engrossed in a truly persuasive story can be a great antidote to the appearance of fate, and if focusing on fiction doesn't work, you can try out the audio tales of crazy things.
All five of these shows are focused on the story.
“To burn the human body, you need 28 gallons of fuel and sparks.” So we begin the opening that draws attention to “Noble.” This sets up a story to explain and unfold in rigorous detail the cremation process. In February 2002, investigators acting on anonymous tips discovered a mountain of more than 300 abandoned bodies in the wooded area of Noble, Georgia, a small, rural town in the wealthy of Appalachia. The scene from this horror film was found on the grounds of a crematorium in three states. It was discovered that the owner had improperly disposed of the remains for years.
In a delicate, eight-part series, Atlanta-based journalist Shaun Raviv is a journalist who wrote for Wired and The Washington Post, unravels the emotional and legal details of this ominous Saga through interviews with investigators, experts and family. Noble also uses this singular story as a jump-off point to explore deeper questions about the relationship between what a living person died and our ambiguous death.
Starter Episode: “Gusman”
For decades, an astounding number of top elementary schools across the country have failed to effectively teach children how to read. That sounds probably not true, but with more than 13 detailed episodes, this American public media podcast shows how deeply flawed teaching methods have taken hold despite being widely exposed by cognitive scientists.
This approach (known as the “all language” method) encourages children (known as phonics) to decipher words by understanding the overall meaning of the text (known as phonics). The conflict between the two sides was called the “reading war,” and demands for reform were mounted nationwide. In “Sold a Story,” Emily Hanford speaks to educators, linguistics experts and parents, interweaving the revelation of this systemic failure and its children's impact.
Starter Episode: “Problem”
In 2020, technology writer Carl Miller received tips on murder services run through the Dark Web. There, customers were able to anonymously order hits and pay using Bitcoin. The first six episodes of this fascinating series outlines the investigation that follows as Miller and his little London-based team track down the people behind the Killlist and try to find out whether it's a real crime syndicate or an elaborate scam. The show then shifts focus to more episodeal storytelling, each of the 12 additional installments is in the spotlight on one of those on the list. (There were over 100 names.)
In addition to the obvious themes of cybercrime and the Internet's ability to erode our sympathy, “Killist” is about toxic masculinity. Most of these killing orders date back to abusive or spurred male partners. It is also a deeply humane podcast supported by Miller and his colleagues reflecting the human sacrifice of responsibly reporting these types of stories.
Starter Episode: “Hack”
The growth of affordable DNA testing over the past decades has allowed people to unlock the secrets of their ancestors, but this process can come with an unexpected twist. To know that your presumed father actually isn't common is that there is a genealogy term in it: non-paternal events, or NPE
Investigative reporter Matt Katz grew up with an unreliable, often absent father who found him both attractive and annoyed until he was completely removed from the photograph. After years of trying to track down his father, he went through a DNA test that revealed the truth. In this unprotected and caring series, Katz's highly personal story intersects with a broader narrative of the wider impact of the vast majority of New York's unregulated artificial insemination industry in the 1970s.
Starter Episode: “Warren”
In the early 2010s, dozens of people in downtown Seattle experienced scenes just outside the film. The masked man swooped to intervene, as if they were about to witness or become victims of a crime. This mystical figure, dressed in a hooded rubber mask and a skin-skinned dark and gold suit, seemed motivated by the desire to go by Monica's Phoenix Jones and make the streets safer. But things got even more complicated after Jones became a local celebrity and started a local civic patrol group called the Rain City Superhero Movement. “Superhero Complex” host David Weinberg doesn't turn the strange stones over the Seattle self-styled vigilante's rising and falling chronicles.
Starter Episode: “From the Shadow”
