Serial (podcast)

''Serial'' is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by ''This American Life''; as of July 2020, it is owned by ''The New York Times''.

Season 1 investigated the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee (Hangul: 이해민), an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County. Season 2 focused on Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, an American Army soldier who was held for five years by the Taliban, and then charged with desertion. Season 3 explores cases within the Justice Center Complex in the Cleveland area. Season 4, covering the history of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, premiered in March 2024.

''Serial'' ranked number one on iTunes even before its debut and remained there for several weeks. ''Serial'' won a Peabody Award in April 2015 for its innovative telling of a long-form nonfiction story. As of September 2018, episodes of seasons 1 and 2 have been downloaded over 340 million times, establishing an ongoing podcast world record.

Series overview

Koenig has said that ''Serial'' is "about the basics: love and death and justice and truth. All these big, big things." She also has noted, "this is not an original idea. Maybe in podcast form it is, and trying to do it as a documentary story is really, really hard. But trying to do it as a serial, this is as old as Dickens."

''New York Magazine'' reported that Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directors of ''The Lego Movie'' and the film ''21 Jump Street'', would be producing a television program about the podcast that will take a "behind-the-scenes approach that details how Koenig went from virtual anonymity to creating one of 2014's biggest cultural phenomenons".

Season 1 (2014)

On February 9, 2015, Scott Pelley of CBS News reported ''Serial''s season 1 episodes had been downloaded more than 68 million times. By February 2016, the episodes had been downloaded over 80 million times.

Season 1 investigated the 1999 Killing of Hae Min Lee (), an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore. She was last seen at about 3 p.m. on January 13, 1999. Her corpse was discovered on February 9 in Leakin Park and identified two days later.

The case was immediately treated as a homicide. On February 12, an anonymous source contacted authorities and suggested that Adnan Masud Syed, Lee's ex-boyfriend, might be a suspect. Syed was arrested on February 28 at 6 a.m. and charged with first-degree murder, which led to "some closure and some peace" for Lee's family. A memorial service for Lee was held on March 11 at Woodlawn High School.

Syed's first trial ended in a mistrial, but, after a six-week second trial, Syed was found guilty of Lee's murder on February 25, 2000, and was given a life sentence. On September 19, 2022, a judge, citing the prosecution's failure to hand over potentially beneficial evidence to the defense, overturned the conviction. Syed, after 23 years in prison, went free. After a lengthy appeal process, a judge reinstated the murder conviction in March 2025, but reduced Syed's sentence. As a consequence, he does not have to return to prison but will remain convicted of first-degree premeditated murder.

People involved

* Hae Min Lee – 18-year-old high school student and athlete, abducted in January 1999 and found dead the next month
* Adnan Syed – former boyfriend of Lee who was convicted of killing her in 2000. His conviction was vacated in 2022 – nearly eight years after the podcast was published – after prosecutors filed a motion stating that "the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction."
* Jay Wilds – key witness at Syed's trial and professed accomplice of Syed
* Stephanie McPherson – Jay's girlfriend and close friend and classmate of Syed
* Don Clinedinst – Lee's boyfriend at the time of her murder and colleague at Lenscrafters, an eyewear shop
* Aisha Pittman – classmate and Lee's close friend
* Jennifer (Jenn) Pusateri – Jay's close friend
* Debbie Warren – Lee's friend who said Lee told her she was meeting Don after school
* Krista Myers – classmate and close friend of Lee and Syed, who recalled Syed asked Lee for a ride after school the day she disappeared
* Becky Walker – classmate/friend who remembered Lee and Syed had talked about a ride, who also said she saw Syed after school
* "Cathy" – a friend of Pusateri who said she saw Wilds and Syed on the day Lee disappeared
* Saad Chaudry – Syed's best friend
* Asia McClain – student at Woodlawn High School and acquaintance of Syed and Lee, said she saw Syed in the library at the time of the murder
* Laura Estrada – classmate who did not believe Syed was guilty, but who did not think Jay would lie about something serious
* Nisha – student from Silver Spring, Md. and friend of Syed's, who was called from Syed's phone at 3:32 pm, a time during which Syed claimed Jay (who did not know Nisha) had his phone
* Yasser Ali – Syed's friend from the mosque
* Rabia Chaudry – friend of Syed's family, older sister of Saad Chaudry, and an attorney, who has been fighting for years to prove Adnan's innocence
* "Mr. S" – discovered Lee's body in Leakin Park
* Kevin Urick and Kathleen "KC" Murphy – state prosecutors at trial
* M. Cristina Gutierrez – Syed's defense attorney
* Detectives Bill Ritz and Greg MacGillivary – lead homicide investigators
* Ronald Lee Moore – suspected serial killer named as a possible suspect in Lee's death

Season 2 (2015–16)

In September 2015, ''The New York Times'' reported the second season would focus on Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, an American Army soldier who was held for five years by the Taliban, and then charged with desertion. A spokesperson for ''Serial'' only said, "Over the last few months they've been reporting on a variety of stories for both seasons 2 and 3 of ''Serial'', along with other podcast projects." The first episode of the season was released, without any previous release date announcement, on December 10, 2015.

For season 2, Koenig teamed up with Mark Boal, the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of ''The Hurt Locker'' and ''Zero Dark Thirty'', and his production company, Page 1. Boal had conducted a series of interviews with Bergdahl as part of a film production he was working on, and both Boal and Bergdahl gave Koenig permission to use those excerpts of those recorded interviews in episodes of ''Serial''. As Koenig stated in season 2's first episode: "They'd come to us saying 'hey, we've been doing all this reporting on the story, and we've also got this tape. Do you think you might want to listen?' And yes, we did, and we were kind of blown away, and so we began working with them. They shared their research with us, and also put us in touch with many of their sources... We don't have anything to do with their movie, but Mark and Page 1 are our partners for Season 2."

On December 14, 2015, General Robert B. Abrams, head of United States Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina ordered that Bergdahl face a court-martial on charges of desertion.

Sarah Koenig announced on January 12, 2016, that the podcast schedule would be changed to every other week to allow for deeper reporting, and to add more information than initially planned. Internet radio service Pandora Radio streamed the second season of ''Serial.''

On November 3, 2017, military judge Col. Jeffery R. Nance rendered a verdict dishonorably discharging Bergdahl from the Army, reducing his rank to private and requiring forfeit of some of his pay for ten months and no prison time. The verdict is subject to review by Gen. Robert B. Abrams, and may also be appealed to the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals. After the sentencing, ''Serial'' announced its team to be working on a "coda" for the season.

Award

In June 2017, the Radio Television Digital News Association announced that season two of Serial had won the 2017 National Edward R. Murrow Award for a news series and for its website. Murrow Awards are presented in October in New York.

Persons involved

* Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl – held for five years by the Taliban, then released in May 2014 in exchange for Taliban prisoners held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was court-martialed on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in December 2015.
*Lieutenant John Billings – Bergdahl's platoon leader
*Mark Boal – screenwriter of ''The Hurt Locker'' with whom Bergdahl held most of his interviews
*Shane Cross – a friend from the same platoon as Bergdahl
*Ben Evans – soldier who had described OP Mest, where Bergdahl operated out of
*Darrel Hanson – in the same company as Bergdahl
*Kayla Harrison – a friend, and Kim Harrison's daughter
*Kim Harrison – a friend Bergdahl identified as his emergency contact
*Josh Korder – in the same company as Bergdahl, recorded message for Bergdahl over radio
*Austin Landford – soldier whom Bergdahl was supposed to relieve at the end of his shift. It was Landford's noticing Bergdahl's non-presence that notifies the Army that he has gone missing
*Mark McCrorie – in the same company as Bergdahl
*Mujahet Raman (not his real name) – Taliban who speaks about Bergdahl's capture
*Jon Thurman – in the same company as Bergdahl

Season 3 (2018)

Season 3 is meant to be an analysis of the normal operation of the American criminal justice system, as opposed to the previous two seasons, which followed "extraordinary" cases. K. Austin Collins of '' Vanity Fair'' commented that the third season was "an overarching account of an institution: the criminal-justice system, writ large". Koenig has described season 3 as "a year watching ordinary criminal justice, in the least exceptional, most middle-of-the-road, most middle-of-the-country place we could find: Cleveland." Reported by Emmanuel Dzotsi, episodes follow different cases and are taped in Greater Cleveland, with particular focus on cases before the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas at the Justice Center Complex in Downtown Cleveland.

Season 4: ''Guantánamo'' (2024)

A fourth season, subtitled ''Guantánamo'', focusing on the history of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, was announced in February 2024. The nine-episode season premiered with two episodes on March 28, 2024, with episodes released weekly thereafter. Season 4 is produced by Jessica Weisberg, with Koenig co-hosting the season with ''Serial'' producer Dana Chivvis. Koenig, Chivvis and their team interviewed over 100 people, including guards, interrogators, commanders, lawyers, chaplains, translators and former prisoners. The season has been described as "a history of Guantánamo told by people who lived through key moments in its evolution, who know things the rest of us don’t about what it’s like to be caught inside an improvised justice system."

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2 (2015–16)

Season 3 (2018)

Season 4: ''Guantánamo'' (2024)

Development and release

The concept for ''Serial'' originated with an experiment in Koenig's basement. Koenig and Snyder had pitched a different idea at a staff meeting for a weekly program on events during the previous seven days, which staff members received without enthusiasm. When Ira Glass asked Koenig if she had any other ideas, she mentioned podcasting a story that unfolded over time, a serialized narrative. In an interview with ''Mother Jones'', she explained that each episode would return to the same story, telling the next chapter of a long, true narrative.

Episode one of the series was released on October 3, 2014, with additional episodes released weekly online. Glass introduced it as a spinoff of his popular radio program, ''This American Life'', and aired episode one on his show. He explained, "We want to give you the same experience you get from a great HBO or Netflix series, where you get caught up with the characters and the thing unfolds week after week, but with a true story, and no pictures. Like ''House of Cards'', but you can enjoy it while you're driving."

Music

Nicholas Thorburn released the soundtrack for ''Serial ''on October 17, 2014. It includes 15 tracks, all short instrumentals, and is available at the Bandcamp site or streamed from several reviewing sites.

Mark Henry Phillips, who mixes the show, has also provided original scores.

Musical credits for Season 2 include Thorburn and Phillips, as well as Fritz Myers and staff music editor Kate Bilinski.

Funding

''Serial''s launch was sponsored by Mailchimp, a frequent podcast advertiser, and salaried staff positions were initially funded by WBEZ. Admitting the podcast was funded from ''This American Life''s budget during the launch, producer Koenig noted that ''Serial'' would eventually need to generate its own funding. She said, "Everyone's saying 'It's podcasting! It's internet! ''Of course'' there'll be money somewhere.' We're not exactly sure yet." Dana Chivvis, another producer, observed that, since the industry is still in its infancy, a business model for podcasting has yet to be established.

Towards the end of the first season, producers asked for public donations to fund a second season. Within a week, the staff of ''Serial'' posted an announcement that a second season has been made possible by donations and sponsorship.

In July 2020 Serial Productions (the company behind the Serial podcast) was acquired by ''The New York Times''. Techcrunch reported that the deal was valued at $25 million and noted that Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder would become ''Times'' employees as a result of the sale.

Reception

Season 1 (2014)

The first season of ''Serial'' was both culturally popular and critically well received. ''Serial'' was ranked at No. 1 on iTunes even before it débuted, leading iTunes rankings for over three months, well after the first season ended. It also broke records as the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 million downloads at Apple's iTunes store. David Carr in ''The New York Times'' called ''Serial'' "Podcasting's first breakout hit." ''The Guardian'' characterized it as a "new genre of audio storytelling".

Introducing a ''PBS NewsHour'' segment about ''Serial'', Judy Woodruff noted that it is "an unexpected phenomenon", and Hari Sreenivasan

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