If you have read my columns over the years, you've probably heard me whine about the large number of true-crime shows that infest podcasting. However, the blame for "true-crime all the time" is not confined to podcasting. Television -- which is the ultimate copycat medium -- has gone all in true crime. There's Dateline all over the screen, a TV channel dedicated to true crime -- the ID Channel -- and the familiar standby, Forensic Files.
As soap operas have faded, newer generations have found solace in the lurid nature of true-crime shows. Doesn't anyone see the connection between people in upscale, largely crime-free communities clamoring for guns for self-protection? Watch enough true-crime, and you'll be convinced that your family is trying to murder you. Here's a hint: check out the anti-freeze in your garage. If it's missing, start getting takeout for all your meals.
Anyway, there are essentially three types of true-crime podcasts. Number one is the wrongfully charged or convicted person. Number two is the hunt for the killer. Number three is the unsolved crime.
And that's the sad tale in Freeway Phantom. It is a new show from iHeartPodcasts and Tenderfoot TV that investigates the
50-year-old unsolved murders of six black girls in Washington, D.C.
Between
1971 and 1972, these young girls went missing, and their bodies were
later found discarded alongside D.C. freeways.
Dubbed “The Freeway
Phantom,” their killer was never found. Join journalist and public radio
veteran Celeste Headlee as she examines old case
files, interviews the investigators and family members who are still
haunted by these killings, and explores new evidence that may crack the
cold case wide open again. The first two episodes of Freeway Phantom
are live now, with new episodes every Wednesday.
My second recommendation is There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Host Bridget Todd chronicles what the online experience looks like for
women, and the overlooked ways women and other
marginalized voices have been at the heart of technology and the
internet from the very beginning.
In the fourth season’s first episode,
Bridget talks with disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz. After being
appointed to a position in the Biden administration
to combat disinformation, she was targeted by a right-wing smear
campaign that upended her life and impacted her family. Now, she’s suing
Fox News for defamation.
My question would be: What woman is not suing Fox News? The list of women who sued for sexual harassment is "Earth to the Moon and Back" long. Currently, Tucker Carlson and Fox News are being sued by former executive producer Abby Grossberg.
Tune in to hear Nina’s story, and listen
to new episodes of There Are No Girls on the Internet
on Tuesdays.
Finally, you just have to glance at social media to realize that people today have somehow failed to absorb basic life skills. You know, how to be a responsible, mature adult. That's why Grown-Up Stuff: How to Adult should be prescribed listening for people who qualify as an adult by age, but not by actions or lifestyle.
This is a much-needed podcast dedicated to explaining the complexities of adulthood,
for which most of us are woefully under-prepared.
In each episode, co-hosts Molly Socha and Matt Stillo seek out folks
who can actually help us start to make sense of all the basic life
skills required to be, well, a grown-up.
Tune in to new episodes of Grown-Up Stuff: How to Adult on Tuesdays.
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| Photo by Anna Tarazevich |
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