Five New True-Crime Podcasts To Keep You Up At Night

There are a lot of great true-crime podcasts out there, and with the coronavirus pandemic still raging, many of us murderheads have found a perverse sense of comfort listening to these creepy tales of serial killers, stalkers, kidnappings, and conspiracies as we grieve for canceled events, social isolation, and the serious healthcare crisis. But after months of lockdown, many of us have blown through all the episodes of Serial and Monster and Up and Vanished there are, and are probably all caught up on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries reboot as well. Fortunately, while 2020 definitely taketh, it also giveth…..new true-crime podcasts, at least. Here’s a list of five new true-crime podcasts where you can get your fix, complete with strange disappearances, multi-billion dollar cults, and murderous missionaries. 

On October 16, 1972, Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich boarded a small plane in Alaska. They were never seen again. Despite a huge search effort, the plane was never recovered, and the case went cold – until 1995, when the FBI were given some startling new information. Missing In Alaska tells “the strangest story you’ve never heard” about this creepy disappearance, and it’s got everything from a bomb in a briefcase to mysterious radio transmissions to a bonafide Mobster. If that doesn’t win true-crime bingo, what does?

Hundreds of women are going missing in the border town of Juarez, Mexico, and the ones that are found are bound, have strange symbols carved into their bodies, and are disposed of like garbage. Victims’ families and the FBI have tried to figure out who is responsible – a serial killer? A Satanic cult? Organ traffickers? – but so far, they have no idea what’s happening to these women. Forgotten: Women of Juarez talks to victims’ families, visits dangerous locations where women have gone missing, and even interviews a psychologist who claims to know one of the culprits, to bring awareness to this tragic situation – and maybe even uncover something along the way.

As a former police officer and prosecutor and now a practicing defense attorney, Sworn host Philip Holloway has seen the justice system from every angle. On this podcast, he takes us through the details of several troubling cases, exploring the legal aspects and the real emotional consequences of their outcomes: What it’s like to be exonerated after a wrongful conviction, or how attorneys can defend people they know to be guilty. He also dives into wide topics like racial bias in sentencing, the trouble with eyewitness testimony, and the impact of the coronavirus on the legal process. A hard-hitting and essential look at the law.

19-year-old Renee Bach left her Virginia home to move to Uganda and help starving children. She was doing the Lord’s work, praised as a “model missionary.” But ten years later, allegations surfaced that she ran an unlicensed clinic where her practices led to the deaths of over 105 children. On The Missionary, journalists speak to the Ugandan families, members of Renee’s church and family, and Renee herself to find out if she was just a woman with good intentions who got in over her head, or a predator taking advantage of a tragic situation to wreak even more havoc.

Scientology is the true-crime gift that keeps on giving, but however much you think you might know about the secretive religion, there’s a lot more that goes on than any of us are aware of. So on Scientology: Fair Game, Leah Remini and Mike Rinder dive deep into Fair Game, one of the most abusive practices of Scientology. This is the policy that motivates scientologists to destroy the lives and careers of anyone they consider to be an enemy, whether they're a member of the church, a government official, or a celebrity, to intimidate them into silence and compliance. Don’t miss a minute of this mind-boggling look under the skirts of the richest cult in America.

If you want to be sure you're listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what's trending by checking out the chart here. There's even a chart just for radio podcasts here, featuring all your favorite iHeartRadio personalities like Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey and dozens of others.

Photo: Getty Images


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