I know, big statement for issue number 9. But I'm currently trapped on (yet another) plane without wifi, with no movie or podcast downloads (I know, real fail on my part) and thus trapped with my thoughts, my to-do list of things I can't do without the magic of the interwebs, and the knowledge that I need to get moving on my next article.

So, let's talk about my most favorite true crime podcast ever. Ever ever.

But first, the honorable mentions, because in this genre there are MANY. Serial, of course, is the show that changed the industry and pulled millions of people into podcasting with a very real, very real-time investigation. But as I always say when Serial comes up, the reporting was only half the trick. The engine was Sarah Koenig putting herself inside the story. Her doubts, her dead ends, her thinking out loud at her desk. The case belonged to Adnan Syed. The story belonged to her, and that move built the parasocial bond this entire medium now runs on.

From there, so many great ones. Up and Vanished, Bear Brook, Missing Richard Simmons, which is maybe not fully true crime but is a gripping mystery nonetheless. Genuinely too many to name (and a few we'll come back to cover in future issues).

So why West Cork? Because it does the Serial thing, two reporters living inside their own investigation, and then it does something Serial never quite did. It transports you.

Quick one before you go press play: Everything I do here, every week's full set of picks and the entire Worth the Listen archive, is part of Pix Plus. If this newsletter keeps sending you somewhere worth your hours, that is how you get all of it, week after week. It is the easiest yes I can point you toward if you love this stuff as much as I do.

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