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Serial

Serial

By Serial Productions & The New York Times

Serial Productions makes narrative podcasts whose quality and innovation transformed the medium. “Serial” began in 2014 as a spinoff of the public radio show “This American Life.” In 2020, we joined the New York Times Company. Our shows have reached many millions of listeners and have won nearly every major journalism award for audio, including the first-ever Peabody Award given to a podcast. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest Serial Productions news: https://bit.ly/3FIOJj9 Have thoughts or feedback on our shows? Email us at serialshows@nytimes.com

Episodes

The Retrievals - Ep. 5: The Outcomes

In fertility treatment, a successful outcome is defined as a healthy baby. In this story, the outcomes are complicated for everyone involved. 
17/08/23·53m 45s

The Retrievals - Ep. 4: The Clinic

What we know about what happened at the clinic.
17/08/23·38m 0s

The Retrievals - Ep. 3: The Sentence

At the nurse’s sentencing hearing, the patients learn a shocking detail that forces them to confront the limits of their compassion.
17/08/23·46m 38s

The Retrievals - Ep. 2: The Nurse

The patients know what happened to them. Now they learn who did it. The story of the nurse whose own pain was also unseen.
17/08/23·33m 5s

The Retrievals - Ep. 1: The Patients

Patients at a fertility clinic experience excruciating, unexpected pain. For months the reason for that pain remains hidden. Then they get a letter from the clinic.
17/08/23·56m 34s

The Retrievals - Trailer

The patients in this story came to the Yale Fertility Center to pursue pregnancy. They began their I.V.F. cycles full of expectation and hope. Then a surgical procedure called egg retrieval caused them excruciating pain.Some of the patients screamed out in the procedure room. Others called the clinic from home to report pain in the hours that followed. But most of the staff members who fielded the patients’ reports did not know the real reason for the pain, which was that a nurse at the clinic was stealing fentanyl, and replacing it with saline.From Serial Productions and The New York Times, The Retrievals is a five-part narrative series reported by Susan Burton, a veteran staff member at “This American Life” and author of the memoir “Empty.”Susan details the events that unfolded at the clinic, and examines how the patients’ distinct identities informed the way they made sense of what happened to them in the procedure room. The nurse, too, has her own story, about her own pain, that she tells to the court. And then there is the story of how this all could have happened at the Yale clinic in the first place.Throughout, Burton explores the stories we tell about women’s pain. How do we tolerate, interpret and account for it? What happens when pain is minimized or dismissed?Episode 1 of The Retrievals arrives Thursday, June 29th.
22/06/23·4m 24s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 8

Kim interviews Fred Lamb and takes a fresh look at the case.
30/03/23·36m 4s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 7

Kim takes stock of the evidence against Fred Lamb and gets to the bottom of the stories she’s heard about him — including one from his wife of more than 30 years.
30/03/23·34m 34s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 6

Kim examines the bizarre interrogation that led to Fred Lamb’s arrest.
30/03/23·31m 18s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 5

Kim talks to someone who confessed to Shelli’s murder from a jail in Arizona.
30/03/23·32m 57s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 4

Kim digs into the early stages of the investigation into Shelli’s murder and follows up with old suspects. 
30/03/23·36m 8s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 3

Kim heads to Laramie and hears two very different versions of the case against Fred Lamb.
30/03/23·28m 10s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 2

Kim talks to Shelli’s former roommate, who connects Kim with a man who was at the crime scene and has troubling memories about Fred Lamb and the police.
30/03/23·23m 6s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Episode 1

A Times investigative reporter, Kim Barker, revisits the murder of Shelli Wiley — a long-unsolved case from Kim’s time in high school. She reaches out to Shelli’s family to understand why the police arrested a man named Fred Lamb for Shelli’s murder in 2016, and why prosecutors abruptly dropped the charges against him.
30/03/23·23m 46s

The Coldest Case In Laramie - Trailer

Kim Barker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, revisits an unsolved murder that took place while she was in high school in Laramie, Wyoming, nearly 40 years ago. She confronts the conflicting stories people have told themselves about the crime because of an unexpected development: the arrest of a former Laramie police officer accused in the murder. All eight episodes of "The Coldest Case in Laramie," a new show from Serial Productions and The New York Times, are available on Thursday, February 23rd wherever you get your podcasts.
16/02/23·4m 41s

We Were Three - Ep. 3: I Am All That Is Left. Amen.

Rachel goes back to California, to the place where she grew up and where her brother and father died, to find answers.  For more information on 'We Were Three': https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/podcasts/we-were-three.html
13/10/22·44m 20s

We Were Three - Ep. 2: Assassin

Rachel retraces how her family, over decades, fell apart and came back together.    For more information on 'We Were Three': https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/podcasts/we-were-three.html
13/10/22·49m 24s

We Were Three - Ep. 1: Black Box

Rachel goes back to California, to the place where she grew up and where her brother and father died, to find answers. For more information on 'We Were Three': https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/podcasts/we-were-three.html
13/10/22·43m 59s

We Were Three - Trailer

A three-part series from This American Life producer Nancy Updike. When Rachel McKibbens’s father and brother died suddenly last fall, two weeks apart, from Covid, she’d had no idea her father was sick, and no idea her brother was dying. They were unvaccinated, but the story of what happened started long before that. All three episodes of "We Were Three," a new show from Serial Productions and The New York Times, are available now wherever you get your podcasts.
13/10/22·3m 2s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 8

A man banned from working in education in the aftermath of the Trojan Horse letter inspires Brian and Hamza to track down one last witness with him – in Australia. And all three travelers find their faith tested.
18/03/22·47m 30s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 7

Birmingham authorities struggle to explain why they disavowed their own findings about the Trojan Horse plot. But when Brian and Hamza make a discovery deep inside some court documents, everything suddenly makes sense.
18/03/22·50m 26s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 6

Hamza takes a long, hard look at what the government found when it investigated more than 20 majority-Muslim schools in Birmingham. And our two reporters have a confrontation – with each other.
18/03/22·1h 4m

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 5

Hamza and Brian learn that the Trojan Horse letter wasn’t the only unsigned letter alleging an extremist operation was afoot in Birmingham. An interview with a couple who lodged complaints against their school starts out cordially, but six hours later, the atmosphere is so tense that not even an offer of tea can smooth things over. And Hamza stops pretending he’s not angry about what he’s hearing.
18/03/22·1h

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 4

A series of frustrating interviews with Birmingham politicians leaves Brian and Hamza wondering if crucial information about the Trojan Horse letter was kept from officials in London. Then one rainy Friday afternoon, Brian hears back from a government source who wants to meet right away.
18/03/22·45m 24s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 3

In a state of surprise, Hamza and Brian leave a meeting with the man the Trojan Horse letter was first sent to. And they learn about an internal investigation report that local officials have kept hidden, but which they think could contain a bombshell.
18/03/22·38m 6s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 2

Hamza and Brian think the source of the Trojan Horse letter might be hiding in plain sight. After learning about the petty personnel dispute that probably gave rise to the letter, they’re even more bewildered about how it ever could have been taken seriously.
18/03/22·53m 20s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Part 1

A strange letter appears outlining a plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate Birmingham schools. Hamza and Brian visit the supposed mastermind of the plot, and he tells them he did take over a bunch of schools – just not for the reasons in the letter.
18/03/22·59m 15s

The Trojan Horse Affair - Trailer

A mysterious letter detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. But who wrote it? From Serial Productions and The New York Times, “The Trojan Horse Affair,” an investigation that became bigger than we ever imagined. All eight parts are available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Search "The Trojan Horse Affair."
03/02/22·4m 7s

The Improvement Association - Ep. 5: ‘Democrat, Republican, White, Black, Green’

The Improvement Association PAC’s power in the county is threatened when an unlikely candidate enters the race for county commissioner. Plenty of people outside the PAC now have their own ideas about how to build Black political power here. Zoe examines what this election could mean for the PAC’s future.  
28/04/21·48m 49s

The Improvement Association - Ep. 4: ‘Let Them Pull the Red Wagon’

With the PAC’s reputation suffering because of years of cheating accusations and resentment stirring within its ranks, a prominent member turns against the leadership. Nevertheless, Horace and his closest allies make a bold move by supporting a political upset at the center of the county.
28/04/21·51m 1s

The Improvement Association - Ep. 3: ‘The Ballad of the Nursing Home Ballots’

Zoe delves into one of the most serious allegations against the Bladen Improvement PAC: an accusation about stealing votes from vulnerable people that goes back 10 years. In trying to track down the veracity of this particularly persistent rumor, she comes to understand how and why election cheating allegations are so sticky.
28/04/21·39m 36s

The Improvement Association - Ep. 2: ‘Where Is Your Choice?’

Zoe talks to people in the county who believe the Bladen Improvement PAC has been cheating for years. She tries to get beyond the rumors and into specifics, and comes face to face with the intense suspicion and scrutiny leveled against the organization. In the middle of another election, Zoe goes out with members of the PAC to watch how they operate and try to make sense of all these allegations against them.
28/04/21·44m 11s

The Improvement Association - Ep. 1: ‘The Big Shadoo’

Following a notorious case of election fraud in Bladen County, North Carolina, in 2018, the reporter Zoe Chace gets an invitation from Horace Munn, the leader of the Bladen County Improvement Association PAC, a Black political advocacy group whose name was dragged into the scandal. Horace asks Zoe to come down and investigate for herself and find out who is really cheating.
28/04/21·44m 12s

The Improvement Association - Trailer

Listen to the trailer for our newest show, "The Improvement Association."  From Serial Productions and The New York Times, hosted by Zoe Chace.
30/03/21·3m 37s

Nice White Parents - Ep. 5: ‘We Know It When We See It’

Chana has traced the history of the school from its founding and come to the present. But now: One unexpected last chapter. Last year, the school district for BHS mandated a change in the zoning process to ensure all middle schools would be racially integrated. No longer can white families hoard resources in a few select schools. Black and Latino parents have been demanding this change since the late 1950s. The courts have mandated it. Chana asks: How did this happen? And is this a blueprint for real, systemic change?
20/08/20·52m 23s

Nice White Parents - Ep. 4: ‘Here’s Another Fun Thing You Can Do’

Public schools are inequitable because the school systems are maniacally loyal to white families. We can’t have equitable public education unless schools limit the disproportionate power of white parents. But is that even possible? Chana finds two schools that are trying to do just that, and both are actually inside the 293 building. One is downstairs in the basement, where a charter school called Success Academy opened about 7 years ago. The other is upstairs at BHS, the newly renamed SIS.
20/08/20·48m 54s

Nice White Parents - Ep. 3: ‘This Is Our School, How Dare You?’

Chana Joffe-Walt explores how white parents can shape a school — even when they aren’t there. She traces the history of I.S. 293, now the Boerum Hill School for International Studies, from the 1980s through the modern education reforms of the 2000s. In the process, Chana talks to alumni who loved their school and never questioned why it was on the edge of a white neighborhood. To them, it was just where everyone went. But she also speaks to some who watched the school change over the years and questioned whether a local community school board was secretly plotting against 293.
20/08/20·45m 4s

Nice White Parents - Ep. 2: ‘I Still Believe in It’

Chana Joffe-Walt searches the New York City Board of Education archives for more information about the School for International Studies, which was originally called I.S. 293. In the process, she finds a folder of letters written in 1963 by mostly white families in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. They are asking for the board to change the proposed construction of the school to a site where it would be more likely to be racially integrated. It’s less than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, amid a growing civil rights movement, and the white parents writing letters are emphatic that they want an integrated school. They get their way and the school site changes — but after that, nothing else goes as planned.
20/08/20·51m 52s

Nice White Parents - Ep. 1: The Book of Statuses

It’s 2015 and one Brooklyn middle school is about to receive a huge influx of new students. Reporter Chana Joffe Walt follows what happens when the School for International Studies’s 6th grade class swells from 30 mostly Latino, Black and Middle Eastern students, to a class of 103 —an influx almost entirely driven by white families. Everyone wants “what’s best for the school” but it becomes clear that they don’t share the same vision of what “best” means. For more information about this show, visit nytimes.com/nicewhiteparents
20/08/20·1h 1m

S-Town - Chapter VII

“You’re beginning to figure it out now, aren’t you?”
20/11/18·1h 1m

S-Town - Chapter VI

“Since everyone around here thinks I’m a queer anyway.”
20/11/18·45m 26s

S-Town - Chapter V

“Nobody’ll ever change my mind about it.”
20/11/18·1h

S-Town - Chapter IV

“If anybody could find it, it would be me.”
20/11/18·1h 1m

S-Town - Chapter III

“Tedious and brief.”
20/11/18·52m 31s

S-Town - Chapter II

“Has anybody called you?”
20/11/18·46m 38s

S-Town - Chapter I

“If you keep your mouth shut, you’ll be surprised what you can learn.”
20/11/18·51m 21s

Serial S03 - Ep. 9: Some Time When Everything Has Changed

The state of Ohio decides where Joshua belongs.
15/11/18·48m 3s

Serial S03 - Ep. 8: A Madman’s Vacation

A teenager decides to cooperate.
08/11/18·1h 3m

Serial S03 - Ep. 7: The Snowball Effect

If you listen closely to the trash-talking, you start to get the message.
25/10/18·53m 20s

Serial S03 - Ep. 6: You in the Red Shirt

Life after you put a cop in jail.
18/10/18·49m 28s

Serial S03 - Ep. 5: Pleas Baby Pleas

Don’t tell the judges, but the prosecutors have the most power in the building.
11/10/18·58m 42s

Serial S03 - Ep. 4: A Bird in Jail Is Worth Two on the Street

What happens when the right evidence points to the wrong man?
04/10/18·58m 35s

Serial S03 - Ep. 3: Misdemeanor, Meet Mr. Lawsuit

The smell of raw marijuana + acting nervous + hands in pockets = ?
27/09/18·1h

Serial S03 - Ep. 2: You’ve Got Some Gauls

When a judge believes he knows you better than you know yourself.
20/09/18·54m 55s

Serial S03 - Ep. 1: A Bar Fight Walks into the Justice Center

A young woman at a bar is slapped on the butt. So why’s she the one in jail?
20/09/18·50m 33s

Serial S02 - Ep. 11: Present for Duty

The Season Two finale: What is Bowe’s fault, and what isn’t?
31/03/16·1h 3m

Serial S02 - Ep. 10: Thorny Politics

Are you hearing what I’m hearing?
17/03/16·50m 27s

Serial S02 - Ep. 9: Trade Secrets

You don’t make peace with your friends. 
03/03/16·47m 43s

Serial S02 - Ep. 8: Hindsight, Part 2

Woulda, coulda, shoulda…
19/02/16·35m 33s

Serial S02 - Ep. 7: Hindsight, Part 1

It makes sense if you’re Bowe Bergdahl.
18/02/16·36m 50s

Serial S02 - Ep. 6: 5 O’Clock Shadow

Why did Bowe Bergdahl walk off? 
04/02/16·58m 48s

Serial S02 - Ep. 5: Meanwhile, in Tampa

CIA, FBI, YouTube, the Portland PD? There was no handbook for getting Bergdahl back.
21/01/16·52m 17s

Serial S02 - Ep. 4: The Captors

What's happening on the other side of the door?
07/01/16·43m 57s

Serial S02 - Ep. 3: Escaping

Bergdahl’s first year in captivity starts with an escape and ends with an escape. In between, he learns necessary, twisted lessons of survival.
24/12/15·53m 7s

Serial S02 - Ep. 2: The Golden Chicken

On the move with Bergdahl, the Taliban slip past the U.S. Army’s massive effort to find him. During those days and weeks, each side is asking, what is Bergdahl worth to us?
17/12/15·58m 2s

Serial S02 - Ep. 1: DUSTWUN

In the middle of the night, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl grabs a notebook, snacks, water, some cash. Then he quietly slips off a remote U.S. Army outpost in eastern Afghanistan and into the dark, open desert. About 20 minutes later, it occurs to him: he’s in over his head. 
10/12/15·43m 5s

Serial S01 Ep. 13: Adnan Is Out

It’s Baltimore, 2022. Adnan Syed has spent the last 23 years incarcerated, serving a life sentence for the murder of Hae Min Lee, a crime he says he didn’t commit. He has exhausted every legal avenue for relief, including a petition to the United States Supreme Court. But then, a prosecutor in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s office stumbled upon two handwritten notes in Adnan’s case file, and that changes everything. 
18/12/14·16m 53s

Serial S01 Update 3: Day 03, Adnan Syed’s Hearing

February 2016: Sarah Koenig ducks back into the Adnan Syed case for a few days. There’s a hearing in Baltimore—a court proceeding that’s been nearly sixteen years in the making. Syed’s attorney will introduce new evidence, and present a case for why his conviction should be overturned. Sarah and producer Dana Chivvis will discuss what happens, day by day.
18/12/14·14m 12s

Serial S01 Update 2: Day 02, Adnan Syed’s Hearing

February 2016: Sarah Koenig ducks back into the Adnan Syed case for a few days. There’s a hearing in Baltimore—a court proceeding that’s been nearly sixteen years in the making. Syed’s attorney will introduce new evidence, and present a case for why his conviction should be overturned. Sarah and producer Dana Chivvis will discuss what happens, day by day.
18/12/14·14m 37s

Serial S01 Update 1: Day 01, Adnan Syed’s Hearing

February 2016: Sarah Koenig ducks back into the Adnan Syed case for a few days. There’s a hearing in Baltimore—a court proceeding that’s been nearly sixteen years in the making. Syed’s attorney will introduce new evidence, and present a case for why his conviction should be overturned. Sarah and producer Dana Chivvis will discuss what happens, day by day.
18/12/14·15m 7s

Serial S01 - Ep. 12: What We Know

On January 13, 1999, Adnan Syed was a hurt and vengeful ex-boyfriend who carried out a premeditated murder. Or he was a bewildered bystander, framed for a crime he could never have committed. After 15 months of reporting, we take out everything we’ve got - interviews and documents and police reports - we shake it all out, and we see what sticks.
18/12/14·54m 25s

Serial S01 - Ep. 11: Rumors

Almost everyone describes the 17-year-old Adnan the same way: good kid, helpful at the mosque, respectful to his elders. But a couple of months ago, Sarah started getting phone calls from people who knew Adnan back then, and told her stories of a different kind of boy.
11/12/14·39m 40s

Serial S01 - Ep. 10: The Best Defense is a Good Defense

Adnan’s trial lawyer was M. Cristina Gutierrez, a renowned defense attorney in Maryland – tough and savvy and smart. Other lawyers said she was exactly the kind of person you’d want defending you on a first-degree murder charge. But Adnan was convicted, and a year later, Gutierrez was disbarred. What happened? 
04/12/14·52m 42s

Serial S01 - Ep. 9: To Be Suspected

New information is coming in about what maybe didn’t happen on January 13, 1999.  And while Adnan’s memory of that day is foggy at best, he does remember what happened next: being questioned, being arrested and, a little more than a year later, being sentenced to life in prison.
20/11/14·44m 46s

Serial S01 - Ep. 8: The Deal With Jay

The state’s case against Adnan Syed hinged on Jay’s credibility; he was their star witness and also, because of his changing statements to police, their chief liability. Naturally, Adnan’s lawyer tried hard to make Jay look untrustworthy at trial. So, how did the jurors make sense of Jay? For that matter, how did the cops make sense of Jay? How are we supposed to make sense of Jay?
13/11/14·42m 43s

Serial S01 - Ep. 7: The Opposite of the Prosecution

Adnan told Sarah about a case in Virginia that had striking similarities to his own: one key witness, incriminating cell phone records, young people, drugs - and a defendant who has always maintained his innocence. Sarah called up one of the defense attorneys on that case to see if she could offer any insight into Adnan’s case, and got much more than she bargained for.
06/11/14·31m 57s

Serial S01 - Ep. 6: The Case Against Adnan Syed

The physical evidence against Adnan Syed was scant - a few underwhelming fingerprints. So aside from cell records, what did the prosecutors bring to the jury, to shore up Jay's testimony? Sarah weighs all the other circumstantial evidence they had against Adnan, including curious behavior, a disconcerting note, and an unexplained mid-afternoon phone call.
30/10/14·42m 58s

Serial S01 - Ep. 5: Route Talk

Adnan once issued a challenge to Sarah. He told her to test the state’s timeline of the murder by driving from Woodlawn High School to Best Buy in 21 minutes. It can’t be done, he said. So Sarah and Dana take up the challenge, and raise him one: They try to recreate the entire route that Jay said he and Adnan took on January 13th, 1999.  
23/10/14·42m 51s

Serial S01 - Ep. 4: Inconsistencies

A few days after Hae’s body is found, the detectives get a lead that opens the case up for them. They find Jay at work late one night and bring him down to Homicide. At first, he insists he doesn’t know anything about the murder. But eventually he comes clean. He tells them what happened on January 13th. A few weeks later, he’s back at Homicide and his story has changed. In some ways, these changes are small and understandable. In other ways, they’re big and confounding.
16/10/14·33m 14s

Serial S01 - Ep. 3: Leakin Park

It’s February 9, 1999. Hae has been missing for three weeks. A man on his lunch break pulls off a road to pee, and stumbles on her body in a city forest. His odd recounting of the discovery makes Detectives Ritz and MacGillivary suspicious. For instance, why did he walk so far into the woods - 127 feet - to relieve himself? And that’s just the start. A look into the man’s past reveals some bizarre behavior.
09/10/14·27m 6s

Serial S01 - Ep. 2: The Breakup

Their relationship began like a storybook high-school romance: a prom date, love notes, sneaking off to be alone. But unlike other kids at school, they had to keep their dating secret, because their parents disapproved. Both of them, but especially Adnan, were under special pressure at home, and the stress of that spilled over into their relationship. Eventually Hae broke up with Adnan. And then, depending on who you ask, Adnan was either understandably sad and moping around, or full of rage and plotting to kill her.
03/10/14·35m 49s

Serial S01 - Ep. 1: The Alibi

It's Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he's innocent - though he can't exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found.  
03/10/14·52m 57s
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