http://www.serialpodcast.org official

http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast discussion/transcripts

you can also get them throught the app store.

this podcast is really, really interesting and everyone I've recommended it to has loved it. it follows the 1999(?) murder of Hai Park, a high school girl in Baltimore. Basically, her ex boyfriend, a muslim, was convicted on specious evidence and now a journalist is investigating the facts of the case herself and interviewing many of the people involved in the hopes of uncovering something that will warrant a retrial.

it's based on true events and is ongoing. there are like eight episodes so far and they come out Thursdays.

[Edited on November 20, 2014 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]

11/20/2014 8:48:37 AM

Wife got me on it. She listened to all 8 podcasts between last Friday and y'day. Just listened to 3 yday myself. It's really good.

11/21/2014 11:34:49 AM

Heard the first episode on This American Life (it's a spin-off)...will definitely finish it at some point.

11/21/2014 12:14:56 PM

Heard the first episode on This American Life (it's a spin-off)...will definitely finish it at some point.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/21/2014 12:15:19 PM

FYI apparently episode 9 is out today on the site.

11/21/2014 2:34:24 PM

Episode 9 is very interesting. Plenty of time to catch up as episode 10 will not be released until Dec. 4th

11/21/2014 2:51:55 PM

It's really good, and Koenig is a master storyteller. I've been hooked on this series since hearing the This American Life special that kicked it off.

My only concern is, that as I listen to these episodes, I start feeling a bit uneasy. Partially because she's making them with only a week or two lag time, and with the popularity of the podcast exploding, I fear that it'll begin to warp the interviews she gets.

I fear too that in some ways, it's going to create a trial by mob for all those involved. If this helps get a falsely imprisoned man out of prison, I'm good with that, but I feel that depending on the way she spins the story, it could justly or unjustly destroy the lives of other individuals who were involved without due process under the law.

Won't stop me from listening though.

11/21/2014 3:42:54 PM

I also would add that depending on the way Koenig introduces episodes, she could basically sway the mob back and forth, resulting between episodes in a lot of unnecessary abuse for all those involved. She does seem to tease each week back and forth: "Look, this says he's guilty!" then next week "Oh wait, this says he's innocent!"

It feels like, sometimes she deliberately releases and holds back information she has just to manipulate audiences week to week. I can understand from a compelling storytelling reason why she would do it, but given that real people are involved, it could lead to a lot of abuse in between episodes on those individuals.

[Edited on November 21, 2014 at 3:48 PM. Reason : .]

11/21/2014 3:46:13 PM

I've only heard the first episode and this is a run on sentence so get your ass ready but I thought the whole point is that she constructs a story based on information that she has at the time and then you see how her view changes over time.... or more generally that its a timelapse of how our opinions/stories/memories change based on our current experience.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/21/2014 4:05:32 PM

I get that, and I understand what she's trying to do. However, I do feel she is walking a very fine line here. I guess when I started the series, I had assumed there would've have been greater lead time to prevent the reverb effect. Anyways, I found an article that articulated my concerns the best:

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/11/20/3595208/the-ethics-of-serial/

Still, great series. I'll keep listening.

11/21/2014 4:13:47 PM

No Serial next week? Thanks, Obama.

11/21/2014 10:59:27 PM

What are the odds that she/they arrive at a [100% this is definitely what happened] conclusion?

11/21/2014 11:17:11 PM

^That's my concern. We eventually reach some inconclusive end where you just say meh, decide for yourself. But the shit is really compelling and I'm going to keep listening. A law school friend recommended it to me on Thursday and I've listened to the whole series already

11/22/2014 12:30:52 AM

Just caught up on this and its super interesting. The nonexistent/missing phone booth id really weird. Also, if like this podcast, another podcast of a similar type is called "Criminal". I would recommend it to you guys.

11/22/2014 1:07:43 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/business/media/serial-podcastings-first-breakout-hit-sets-stage-for-more.html?_r=1

Quote :

" “Serial” has been downloaded or streamed on iTunes more than five million times — at a cost of nothing — and averages over 1.5 million listeners an episode. That is as many people as watch an episode of “Louie,” the buzzed-about comedy on FX. Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” told me his show took four years to reach one million listeners. “Serial” raced past that in a month."

11/24/2014 2:16:32 PM

I'm current...Doesn't seem like there's going to be any definitive conclusion. Lame.

Regarding who the fuck did it, I have no clue. All I know is I don't trust Adnan...he's always talking like "what i would have done back then" or "on a normal day we would" or "what we usually did after school was"...he has no actual memories...or so he says. I get that he was a pothead, but damn. I'm sure he was in contact with a lawyer not too long after this happened who would have asked for his memories etc.

And Jay...it's hard to tell. Dude is pretty smart, so if he was involved with her murder I'd imagine he could cover it up. Just the way he talks...the way he answered questions in court. I could see him lying and being involved.

[Edited on November 24, 2014 at 2:52 PM. Reason : If you wanna read on this: http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/]

11/24/2014 2:47:09 PM

Quote :

"Doesn't seem like there's going to be any definitive conclusion. Lame."

are there a lot of people really expecting a concrete end to this story? I thought from early on it was pretty apparent this wasn't going to end in some huge eye opening turn of events. There is still some time left, but I don't see that happening.

11/24/2014 2:57:31 PM

expecting, no...hoping for, yes.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/11/21/what_genre_is_serial_investigative_journalism_character_study_or_legal_procedural.html

11/24/2014 2:59:25 PM

Quote :

"What are the odds that she/they arrive at a [100% this is definitely what happened] conclusion?"

Not expecting one, but she may use the Innocence Project activity and the re-examination of the case as a way to provide an exit ramp for her story. Sort of, "We're not sure in the end, but Innocence Project and the Prosecutors are examining more carefully in preparation for his next appeal."

[Edited on November 25, 2014 at 1:38 PM. Reason : correct name of group]

11/25/2014 1:36:59 PM

Quote :

"he has no actual memories...or so he says. "

how much detail do you remember about 15 years ago?

I couldn't tell you what I did on a given day last year.

Either way, the inability or ability to recall such things has no bearing on whether he's innocent or guilt.

11/26/2014 11:29:06 AM

As they've said on the show, it's kind of a Catch-22. If he's telling the truth, it was a normal day and he doesn't remember it. If he's lying, of course he would remember what happened, but he's lying about it.

11/26/2014 11:39:41 AM

Quote :

"how much detail do you remember about 15 years ago? I couldn't tell you what I did on a given day last year."

do you remember what you were doing on 9/11?

do you remember what you were doing the day when your ex-gf went missing?

I think he was just stoned out of his gourd.

11/26/2014 12:27:43 PM

Quote :

"how much detail do you remember about 15 years ago? "

for sure, but:

Quote :

"I'm sure he was in contact with a lawyer not too long after this happened who would have asked for his memories etc."

Quote :

"I think he was just stoned out of his gourd."

That's one possibility. Another possibility is he murdered his ex-girlfriend that day and is lying.

11/26/2014 12:41:44 PM

Half of this show is great, and the other half is boring bullshit.

If episode 10 is as bad as 8 and 9, I'll quit.

12/1/2014 7:02:20 PM

OH NO PLEASE DON'T QUIT

12/1/2014 8:13:54 PM

The wife and I listened to it from Boone to Apex and back over the break. We're hooked!

12/1/2014 9:23:23 PM

I'm really enjoying this. The lack of forensic evidence really bothers me. Ultimately I think Adnan did it. Seems like a grade A sociopath.

[Edited on December 1, 2014 at 10:03 PM. Reason : Add another note]

12/1/2014 9:57:01 PM

This is the skeeziest part, IMO.

[Paraphrasing]

SK: So you never paged her or caller her or anything.......?
Adnan: ......... what is that a question?
SK: .......... Yeah, I mean.. DON'T YOU THINK THAT'S WEIRD that you didn't page her or didn't call her?
Adnan: Well you know I was connected through our [friend group], so.. they'd just tell me, you know.

Adnan knew that she was missing and people were whispering that she maybe sneaked away to California or something and he didn't try to page her ONCE? After just calling her past midnight to give her his cellphone #?

12/1/2014 10:16:23 PM

Yup. That part got me too.

12/1/2014 10:31:21 PM

Quote :

"If episode 10 is as bad as 8 and 9, I'll quit."

I agree that 8 and 9 weren't half as good as any of the previous episodes, but I'm still invested enough to stick with it until the end.

12/1/2014 10:57:03 PM

New development, but arguably a spoiler. It'll be interesting to see how this affects the podcast and other people involved.

[Edited on December 1, 2014 at 11:24 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2014 11:23:40 PM

very cool. thanks for posting that. haha I wonder if they'll televise it.

12/2/2014 10:58:36 AM

^^ not necessarily a "new" development. that's been in the works for a while now.

12/2/2014 11:34:49 AM

Quote :

" Another possibility is he murdered his ex-girlfriend that day and is lying."

absolutely it's a possibility. However, his memories or lack thereof of specific times on specific days isn't evidence one way or another.

Hey may well have done it. But, what's important is that there isn't evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. There's plenty of reasonable doubt that I couldn't convict him. Same thing with the Brad Cooper murder. In that case, I have an even greater belief that he did it, but again there's enough reasonable doubt based on lack of evidence where I wouldn't convict him as a juror.

The biggest thing that Serial does, and I hope Sarah Koenig focuses more on this, is that prosecutors don't win convictions on evidence, but on appeals to the emotions of jurors. It seems like a decade ago, the issue was that people who were clearly guilty had lawyers who were able to get not guilty verdicts on serious crimes based on technicalities, loopholes etc. These days it seems like prosecutorial overreach and appeals to emotion are putting people away who aren't guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I'd love to see data on that perception, though-- could just be survivorship bias.

12/3/2014 12:37:49 PM

It's interesting that the jurors wanted him to testify. It makes sense in a way, but it's no reason to convict someone. And even if he had testified, it probably would've backfired.

^Yeah, This American Life had a story a few years ago where a guy represented himself on a drug charge. He violated court procedure constantly but the prosecution didn't want to object too much because then it feels like they're beating up on him. In the end, the guy got off anyway.

12/3/2014 3:21:55 PM

Have you all see Jay's rap sheet? Jebus that dude has got in a shitload of trouble. Not sure if he's served any time or not...

Also: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/unpacking-the-social-justice-critique-of-serial/383071/

12/3/2014 4:37:47 PM

^Kang's article was terrible, looking for racial judgments made by SK and even putting words into her mouth at points. Anyone who read it with a right mind who had listened to Serial should have disagreed with his piece. I guess it's ok for the Atlantic to slam him but it's almost giving Kang too much credit.

12/3/2014 5:51:22 PM

http://serialpodcast.org/season-one/10/the-best-defense-is-a-good-defense

12/4/2014 7:49:05 AM

^^ yeah i didn't really read it...just assumed you all would find it interesting. Looking over it, it is a shitty piece.

12/4/2014 10:04:05 AM

And given how the first 20 minutes of today's episode was about racial prejudice versus Muslims, Kang looks like a hypersensitive SJW tool.

12/4/2014 11:38:40 AM

I literally listened to the whole 10 episodes today. While interesting, I was hoping for more. I thought this was going to be something like A Thin Blue Line where they start uncovering a whole bunch of shoddy police work. But instead it seems like we're just exploring the intricate details of a case in which we all know who is guilty. And yea it makes you feel uneasy when you start to have that realization.

Here's the format of every episode:

-Koenig talks about how nice Adnan is.
-Damning evidence against Adnan. "I have to admit, this is pretty damning."
-BUT WAIT LOOK OVER HERE. MINOR, IRRELEVANT INCONSISTENCIES IN WITNESS TESTIMONY.
-More evidence that is rock solid unless space aliens somehow committed the crime.
-Koenig asks Adnan a simple question and he responds by acting shifty and self incriminating.

I suppose it's an interesting work about human memory and how people can do horrible things (because it was almost certainly Jay or Adnan).

12/4/2014 10:19:20 PM

now wait a second, you don't have ANY reasonable doubt that Adnan didn't do it?

12/5/2014 6:28:43 AM

I wouldn't go that far, but I get the sense that people routinely get locked up with a lot less evidence.

12/5/2014 7:49:09 AM

http://jezebel.com/is-serial-driving-you-slowly-insane-come-sit-by-me-1667228055

12/5/2014 12:58:19 PM

The real question here is, who the fuck is Hai Park?

12/8/2014 12:15:09 PM

I'm hesitantly on Adnan's side of this. Regardless, the case needs to be retried because it seems like there was a lot of sketchy shit going on that really should have caused a (second) mistrial.

12/8/2014 2:22:06 PM

I somehow got onto this a couple days ago. Already 5 episodes in. I am disappointed to hear that it hasn't concluded. It rally bothered me how she would present her opinion in the same breath as evidence, and then remembered that this is just a story and not real life (well, my real life).

It's great so far.

12/16/2014 10:06:24 PM

Quote :

"It rally bothered me how she would present her opinion in the same breath as evidence"

Was it hard for you to distinguish between the two?

12/16/2014 10:16:04 PM

No, it's just an annoyance of mine. Occurs all the time with these NPR types who think that their opinion is as good as fact.

12/16/2014 10:59:43 PM

His lawyer seemed like the most annoying person in the world to have to listen to - especially during a trial where her gameplan was to bore the shit out of a guy testifying.

He probably lost just because of that.

12/17/2014 1:18:58 AM