Trial by podcast
The premise of Serial, a podcast spin-off of the WBEZ Chicago radio show This American Life, is that people love stories. The first season, which is still unfolding, recounts the murder of 17-year-old Hae Min Lee in 1999 and the subsequent arrest and conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, who began serving a life sentence for the crime in 2000. Adnan maintains his innocence to this day.
Telling this story one segment at a time over many weeks adds suspense and intrigue. As listeners live with the story and the questions it raises, its characters become a part of their lives.
But “recounts” isn’t exactly what Serial does, since no two people interviewed on the show have the same memories or experiences of the events surrounding the murder. The show circles these events, following the trail of fragmented memories from each new witness to a collection of old letters that were never used in court to the unreliability of cell phone records to inconsistent alibis and an improbable sequence of events. The result is captivating storytelling with real-life events becoming stranger—and denser—than fiction.
