Serial

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I know that this is a literary blog, and therefore podcasts aren't really in my range of things to write about, but in a sense this series is similar to an audiobook, and I can't recommend it enough.

Let me back up for a second...

If you haven't already heard of Serial, it's a podcast series featured on This American Life. Its narrator, Sarah Koenig, has been following a murder case from 1999 for the past year. Over the course of the season, she's presented the evidence, spoken with witnesses, poured over documents and testimonies, visited the crime scene, reenacted the crime...everything that you think would tell her who actually committed the murder of a high school girl in Baltimore on a January afternoon in 1999. 

As she's recorded and released each episode of the podcast, new evidence has come to light-- even Koenig didn't know how the story would end when it was first released to the public. The result is a scintillating 12 episodes, the twelfth and final one having been released this past Thursday. You can listen to episodes on your phone (with a podcast application), on your tablet, or even on the website, where you can also view pictures and documents from the case.

I first heard about Serial from a fellow blogger, but as soon as I knew what it was, I began to see it everywhere. It's become somewhat of a phenomenon, and I now I am one of those people who has to tell everyone I know that they must.listen.right.now. I put off listening to the first episode until after finals were over because I knew if I got hooked it would be bad news for my final essays. I am so glad that I waited, because (and this is somewhat embarrassing), I got so hooked that I listened to the first eleven episodes in one day. Oops? But really, it's that good.

I will warn, if you're the type of person who needs the ends of your mysteries to be tied up into a nice big bow, this might not be the story for you. I don't want to say much more, but if you're into mysteries and like true crime stories, this is one of the best, most baffling mysteries that I've ever heard.


Oh, and it would make a great conversation piece for your family gatherings over the holidays! I can't stop trading theories with fellow listeners...