Revisiting Serial with Josie Duffy Rice

Commenting from Baltimore in 2026 and want it known (and Laura Lipman may have mentioned) our current mayor has made great strides in addressing community violence. Brandon Scott kind of figured it out through a relationship based strategy rooted in the community. It’s mind blowing listening to this and thinking about how much has changed. God I love this fucking city.

Actually, if you are a woman in an abusive relationship with a man, you are in the most danger of being killed when you leave.

I am late to this party but primal fear is also my favorite legal thriller I am so glad you brought it up…. thank you Sarah

Why quails? They are great birds, chill AF compared to chickens, cute little eggs and easy to butcher and eat.

In the Dark is a much better version of a serial like podcast, especially the second season

Fantastic episode 💯💯

I'm sorry about your dad, Sarah

Guys which episode of the podcast is that, where Sarah tells Mike about all those reddit stories and theories? Including the one where there's an old little lady sitting and she turns out to be a trafficker?

I caught myself in parasocial empathy when you mentioned your father, I didn't know and I'm sorry, I hope you're doing okay. I also think the idea of using the justice system as a quest during the griefing process is inciteful, I'd never thought of it that way before

I’m kind of late to the party of listening to this, but I was actually a bit disappointed that this guest didn’t look properly at the case in question. Serial missed or deliberately left out a lot of stuff that was really important. The Undisclosed Podcast is what really made a difference in the exoneration of Adnan, and they have been detrimental to searching for new evidence, and potentially finding out who really killed Hae. After listening to Undisclosed, there is no question that Adnan is innocent. Listening to Serial without following up with Undisclosed is like taking a shower but then not washing with soap. You might be wet, but you’re not clean.

More Josie Duffy Rice all the time, please!! ❤️

Nah I agree with you. If there's no physical evidence, just some guy saying that someone did it then I think it's gross negligence to throw them in jail

Listening to this episode during my last day in Baltimore!

This episode was a complete miss for me. My main take away was that the guest would have approached the Serial subject matter differently which doesn't feel insightful or interesting. I think I've listed to every single episode and this was the first miss -- so very good track record.

I feel like Serial became the True Crime Podcast reference point for TV. A lot of shows parodying True Crime Podcasts parody the Sarah Koenig style of well produced investigation shows, but usually ignore the "Two ladies cracking jokes about murders" style.

This was such a Christmas gift. ALSO I relisten to some old eps and i can finally define the vibe of post Michael YWA it’s like when you have a friend of a friend that you know and like big only see in a specific context but then you get to close to them one on one and it’s a really lovely close friendship you didn’t even know you needed.

I remember when SNL did a parody of the Podcast and it was pretty dead on. Then there was all this buzz about what is this thing that was popular enough for SNL to joke about? Shortly after, Sarah Koenig was interviewed about the run away success of Serial and she seemed clearly uncomfortable about the discussions and fan detectives that had popped up. She was worried that the Lee family was being disrespected by the parody on SNL and the people who were speculating on the case and posting on Reddit. Also, the people running around Baltimore County, trying to retrace the steps (which she did first). It really seemed like she had no idea what can of worms she was opening. I wonder what she thinks now.

I'll never forget Sarah Koenig mentioning Adnan once stole money from the mosque when he was a teenager....ma'am.

if anyone wants an in-depth episode by episode debunking of Serial, listen to the relevant season of Undisclosed! They really prove that Adnan is innocent and all of the “doubts” that Koenig had are completely unfounded!! the eps on cell tower records are super interesting (do not trust cell tower locations!!) fully recommend if you want something more in-depth/still think Adnan is guilty somehow!

I listened to Serial at the beginning of the pandemic out of boredom/curiosity following the cultural reaction to it. I was pretty horrified when I finally listened to it myself. Obviously we know a lot more about the politics of police & prisons now, but geez. I really felt like her coverage was half buying into the narrative of criminalizing Adnan & I couldn’t understand how anyone would look at what she had done as a vindication of his innocence. When Adnan was released, I again felt so conflicted about the praise of Serial all over the media. I felt like I was living in the twilight zone!! So thank you for this!!!

thanks so much for this episode. i first listened to Serial when I was a senior in high school and i basically thought it was the most brilliant and flawless work of journalism I had ever encountered. now, I’m a second year law student, and I re-listened after adnan was (finally!) released. it was jarring how much i had changed and how glaringly obvious the lack of structural critiques was in the original series! i am still obviously glad i listened the first time around—it made me aware of adnan’s case and the idea of prosecutorial misconduct years before I probably would have encountered it otherwise—but I agree with so much of what Josie said here. great job y’all you are two of my biggest inspirations as I work towards a career as a public defender <3 <3 <3

This is one of the most disappointing episodes of YWA. For as much of an authority as the guest appears to present themself as, it’s wildly clear that they paid far more attention to the discourse around Serial than they did the podcast itself. They repeatedly mischaracterize what Serial was/is, often in direct opposition to what Koenig explicitly says about her process throughout Serial. The actual artifact of Serial does not fit neatly at all into the argument they are attempting to make, which is the true dereliction of duty here.

So excited to listen to this. I just re listened to serial and was disturbed by it on many levels

You touched on the Reddit community around Serial. I’d love to hear a bonus episode around the true crime community, amateur investigative journalists, and the morality around the genre. Only Murders in the Building is such a fun comedy that pokes at this too, which could make for an interesting watch & commentate on episode.

god i desperately want a lindbergh baby episode after listening to baby jessica

The reference to the clearance rate in Baltimore is wrong. Clearances don't mean arrests and clearance rates don't mean the crime happened in that year. You could, in fact, have a clearance rate of more than 100% because of the misalignment of years and exceptional clearances, which are encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender (dead suspect, suspect on the lam far enough, victims refusal to cooperate, denial of extradition requests or because a crime was committed in another jurisdiction that the person has been convicted for and it would not make sense to prosecute them. In short, clearance rates are meaningless.

not me thinking it was “cereal” when I listened to the main ep 🤦🏼‍♀️

Great subject! Thanks for giving voice to the doubts I had about season one of Serial (still one of my faves, though). I thought the HBO documentary about this case did a better job of giving voice to Hae Min Lee, "The Case Against Adnan Syed"

Truly a gift from Santa himself, I just finished relistening to serial last month and was thinking of Sarah the whole time

One of the other podcasts I listen to is "Wrongful Conviction" it really goes into so many cases of people who have been convicted for crimes that it is pretty obvious they did not commit. There are false confession and other factors that leads to all of these scenarios. Some of the people showed on the podcast are still in prison but a lot of them have been exonerated. And for every case featured there are so many people in prison who have no way to advocate for themselves.

Finally took the plunge and became a patron as a Christmas present for myself because I needed to hear this! I am forever haunted by JDR's 2014 Gawker writeup about Serial. It was so prescient. She has been the clearest thinker and communicator about it from the very beginning.

I never listened to Serial but the idea that the press are "stenographers for the police" really struck me since I spent some of yesterday comparing this IndyStar article https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2022/12/24/kason-thomas-kyair-thomas-missing-columbus-twins-indianapolis-women-mecka-curry-shyann-delmar/69754770007/ to any other article about the situation that claimed the cops found the baby.

this is still my twin-fave podcast along with Maintenance phase. thank you for giving me the podcast I need to get through this whole "going on silly runs for my silly mental health" thing !!!

All hail Josie Duffy rice teller of great truths 🙏

YAAH thank you!! 😍

Interestingly I think, my friend really didn't like Serial because she thought reading Hae's diary out was really voyeuristic and kinda sleazy

Yessss looking forward to listening!!

Thank you for this very special gift!

Wait when did you stop believing in psychopaths? Because I definitely believe in them, but it made me feel better that you didn’t. Also thank you for the holiday time podcast deluge, we need it.

Exactly what I needed on this day after Christmas with Covid. Many thanks x

I appreciate the comment about psychopaths not factually existing. I tried to internalize the idea of psychopaths not really existing when I first listened to YWA and it went horribly wrong for me lol

YES! Thank you so much! Serial was the only true crime podcast I ever listened to. It left me with a really bad taste in my mouth, I felt a lot of the investigating was really iffy and I just felt awful for the victim and her family. Yuck.

thank you so much for this! none of my people ever listened to serial, so i've never really explored my feelings about it in conversation. with this, at least it feels a little as if 😅☺️ hoping you're having some lovely free time!

Such a gift, thank you!!

This was a lovely Christmas present. Thank you so much!

merry christmas to ME

WOOOOOH BESSIE

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! 🖤🖤🖤

Happy Christmas/Happy midwinter/Happy Hanukkah/Happy day off work to all of you ❤️

Truly a Christmas Miracle....

As I am currently experiencing withdrawals from what a day, for me, this gift is multifaceted ✨️💖✨️

just in time to board a flight, what a great little present

I could not be more excited for this episode!!

Thank you! Hope you all have a wonderful and restful day ✨❄️✨❄️✨

driving back from the in-laws today 😵‍💫, thank you!!!! merry christmas!!

this gift was specifically designed for me…

What a gift!!

Ooh can't wait to listen! Merry Christmas! ❤️

Amazing. Merry Christmas!!