Truer Crime Podcast Season Two: When True Just Isn't Good Enough

If there is one genre that defines podcasting, it's true crime. The fascination with true crime is not restricted to podcasting. TV shows proliferate with true-crime motifs, from long-running shows like Forensic Files and Dateline to more recent shows like Crime Scene Confidential and Murder In My House. 

When a genre inundates a medium like podcasting, more intense adjectives are needed. For example, a comedy show is no longer just funny, it's funnier or the funniest. 

We've now reached that point in true crime. There's a show called Truer Crime. Essentially, we've up the ante on true crime.  

The good news here is that Truer Crime is a podcast worthy of its -er extension. Truer Crime has just been purchased by growing Atlanta-based podcast network, Tenderfoot TV.

Tenderfoot TV does have an impressive roster of podcasts, including Culpable, Cuidad Magica, Radio Rental, and Radical.

Here's what host Celisia Stanton has to say about her show: "Crime stories are hard to ignore and even harder to forget. But the thing is... they’re stories. And getting a story right is all about how you tell it. Truer Crime talks about real people — murdered, missing, misled — with more nuance, more context, and more questions."

On her website, Stanton explains the genesis of her podcast: "For years, like you -- or at least someone you know -- I kept coming back to this captivating and questionable genre: true crime. Then 2020 hit. And in the middle of the pandemic, I was the victim of a huge financial scheme, one that defrauded me of tens of thousands of dollars. Suddenly, I was learning first hand what the ‘justice’ in ‘criminal justice’ really meant. It’s easy to criticize true crime as sick entertainment, but we can’t deny that the way these stories are told has a profound impact on how we view our world. So I don’t think the answer is to stop telling them. In fact, I think we need to go deeper. So I created Truer Crime to do just that. Aside from podcasting, I’m a wedding + portrait photographer, high school debate coach, and mother to three cats (Piedmont, Jean Jacques, and Newton)."

 Ahead of season two, which is slated to premiere this spring, there is a three-episode prequel, out now.

I listened to the three-episode prequel and came away impressed. The Mindy Dodd episode was representative of the show. 

First, Stanton begins in an unusual yet refreshing way for a true-crime podcast, taking a much-deserved swipe at Snapped, an Oxygen network TV show where the focus is on murderous females. Apparently, the show is sometimes guilty of fitting a case's facts to its theme. Mindy Dodd was on Snapped, and Stanton tells listeners that Mindy's story is far more complicated and nuanced than a woman who kills her husband. By the time, Stanton presents us with all the facts -- Mindy's husband Henry started out as her stepfather who abused her, got her pregnant, threatened to kill her, and forced her to marry him -- we perhaps better understand her motive. 

It's fitting that the show has an uplifting ending. Listen to find out.

Stanton is excellent as the host. Unlike some true-crime hosts, she is not overly dramatic. Her tone is more measured than some of the more self-righteous true-crime hosts, who would condemn jaywalking as if it were a capital crime.

The background music -- usually overwrought and too loud -- is more understated and mood inducing than finger-pointing screeching.

 While I'm not sure that Truer Crime is that much different than your average true-crime podcast, I readily admit that Stanton is a talented host with a unique focus and the show's texture sounds more fair-minded and even-handed than judgmental.

A terrific insight into the show comes from Dani Bruflodt, who produces the Thyme is Honey blog about daily efficiency.

"Finally, a true-crime podcast that looks at the darkest corners of humanity and, instead of providing us with a constant stream of trauma porn, asks us to confront the failures of both our society and justice system and seek better solutions. Stanton delivers the stories with compassion and a keen understanding of abolition and transformative justice."

 Check out Truer Crime. If you like true-crime podcasts, it's a good one.