The first season of Criminalia was very good!

Latter seasons I wasn't so fussed on, and now they have so. many. ads. But I really enjoyed the first season.

oooo that could be good

my mom has no idea about podcasts, she was just telling me how she found some on dateline and asked if they're always that short LOL

I was like mom... are you thinking of audiobooks??

I also listen to two air disaster podcasts ("Take to the Sky" and "Black Box Down") which are classified as true crime, both of which are EXCELLENT.

I'm assuming she's already heard season 1 of Serial, but Dirty John is the other one I always see recced and it's pretty entralling

she has heard absolutely nothing

WHAT s1 of Serial is what basically started the true crime podcast genre lmao

THIS LITERALLY STARTED WITH A TEXT OF "Old person question for you, where donyou find podcast to listen to?"

oh less crime but really really good and kind of still in the same investigative vein is S-Town

The air disasters might fit the "something bad has happened, let's see how the investigation went down" itch

....occasionally even has actual crime involved, too!

otherwise I'm a history/science podcast gal

god there were some I want to warn your mum AWAY from, but i can't remember what they are called. One of the hosts kept referencing Freud for the psychology, if that gives an indication of ~quality

LMAO recs to stay against are also good!!!

I am noting all of these down to send her, she's going to have to do a lot of listening and figuring it out

She tried just asking me "do you know any good ones" and I was like well yeah but I don't think you'd like the ones I normally listen to

I think another way to go, not crime so much but a really solid source, is just to go to the This American Life archives because, well, TAL is always good but they also have pulled out a list of staff and listener favorites which I think are all a great starting point to then see if you want to keep listening to the rest of TAL

which, invariably you do

I might end up listening to that one tbh

thank you both, she has a few downloaded to try out

also not crime but an extremely solid generally accessible series is Radiolab's The Other Latif which was some of the most incredible true to life drama I've heard in ages, all about a guy who was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and the saga of what happened to him before and after that

so I mean... I guess crime but not the typical sort

and also deeply questionable if he was ever actually a criminal

I remember listening to that, it was wild

god, I binged it so intensely on a long drive back from Yosemite and I absolutely could not stop until I'd heard it all

I need to go back to Radiolab

in the vein of true crime adjacent: i highly rec "behind the bastards"

anyway figures you'd heard The Other Latif because I am sure I shoved it on you and anyone else who will listen haha

LOL James was talking about behind the bastards!!

- if "accessible history" is something she's interested in, I HIGHLY recommend Mike Duncan's Revolutions.

each season covers a different revolution, starting with English Civil War, and ending with Russian Revolution

I'm not sure how into history ones she'd be, I do hope she'll branch out once she gets her feet wet with true crime because I would love to shove "You're Wrong About" at her

she's starting up a new job after Christmas and was looking into podcasts as a commuting option

yeah fair! Revolutions is veeeery accessible, and a decent length for each episode for commuting.

I'll definitely keep it in mind, if not for her then for me

I've been adding all of these to my spotify list lol

with the two air disasters - Take To The Sky is more human focused, with no ads, but does have a ramble at the start between the two hosts. I usually skip it, ahah. Their format is "one host per week tells the story, the other reacts, then the next week they swap." Black Box Down isn't quite as human focused, with ads in the middle. One host tells the other

the story and the other reacts, and they don't swap.

But I find that format quite fun, as you get the "story, story, story" with the "WAIT, WHAT, OH NO" from the other person

I do enjoy that format, it seems to be the one most of my podcasts end up following

also, as I said, sometimes there are actual crimes involved! (aside from France having a tendency to go, ".. you fucked up and killed people, now you GO TO JAIL"). Black Box Down covered one where the pilots were attacked by another pilot, and another another incident where a mid-air collision lead to the father of one of the passengers straight up murdering

a dude he held as partly responsible for justice.

Bear Brook is my absolute favorite

Crimetown is another good option

99% Invisible might be worth a try too for her, lots of different topics

yes good all excellent

I'm still tickled she asked me about podcasts lol

hahahaha right, I tried to talk my dad into trying podcasts when he was in recovery from surgery, and he was EXTREMELY skeptical