As a genre, true crime is often the subject of worthy criticism—that it uses real tragedy for entertainment purposes; that it plays on or enhances its audience's fears to generate interest; that it focuses overwhelmingly on dead white girls at the expense of other kinds of crimes and victims. Over the last few years, the tide has begun to turn with stories that eschew finger-pointing and salacious details for more nuanced and diverse storytelling as well as an interrogation of the systems that enable criminal behavior. From rigorous investigative journalism to intimate memoir and provocative podcasts, these 10 true crime listens maintain a systemic perspective to point the way toward justice for all.
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For decades, an invisible epidemic of Native American women going missing and being murdered has persisted in the United States and Canada. In the past few years, a movement to draw attention to these long-overlooked cases has begun. Invisible zeroes in on two related stories—a Northern Arapaho woman named Jade Wagon, who disappeared in January 2020, and her sister, Jocelyn, who was murdered not long after—while zooming out to unveil the many underlying causes of this tragic epidemic. The girls' mother, Nicole joins a devoted group of civilians, elected officials, and law enforcement to tell the story, explore solutions, and call for change.
Produced by Kevin Hart and Charlamagne Tha God’s SBH Productions, Finding Tamika does not miss a beat, propelled by a musical soundtrack and a real-life story filled with many moving pieces. Though it unfolds with the episodic suspense of a podcast, the complex narrative and ambitious format stands alone as a focused series. Centered on the case of Tamika Huston, a young Black woman from Spartanburg, SC, who went missing and was later found murdered, the story has plenty of twists and turns on the way to find the killer. Actor and activist Erika Alexander guides the proceedings with great passion, giving depth and dimension to Tamika’s life and family, and ultimately focusing on the central crime: the vast disparity in reporting, investigating, and solving the many cases of missing and murdered women of color.
The world was stunned when Chanel Miller revealed her identity as the woman who was sexually assaulted by Stanford swimmer Brock Turner in 2015. Known then as Emily Doe, she delivered a powerful victim impact statement that was published online the next day. Her words resonated so deeply that they were read more than 11 million times, including on the floor of Congress. In her hauntingly lovely memoir, Miller offers an intimate first-person account of surviving not only rape but also the justice system’s tragic failures in handling sexual assault cases. Her vital story is all the more powerful when heard in her own voice.
This true crime series adds a proper dose of chills to the list. White Smoke covers the story of Ed Buck, a seemingly well-intentioned multimillionaire Hollywood executive. Through host Patrick Strudwick’s detailed coverage, Buck is exposed for a number of heinous crimes surrounding his habit of injecting others with dangerous doses of methamphetamine in exchange for sex, resulting in the death of two Black men. Unfortunately, Buck is not the only powerful person who has taken advantage of his privilege to abuse victims. Strudwick opens up the seedy underbelly and dangerous nature of the “chemsex” scene, providing an important piece of expository journalism.
When eight-year-old Relisha Rudd disappeared from a homeless shelter in Washington, DC, in 2014, nobody noticed. By the time authorities formally declared Relisha “missing,” 18 days had passed since she’d been spotted at school or the shelter where her family lived. Seven years later, Relisha has never been found. Through the Cracks investigates gaps in our society and the people who fall through them. In this first season, host Jonquilyn Hill asks if Relisha’s disappearance was, as the city later claimed, unpreventable. From WAMU and PRX.
The New Jim Crow takes on the epidemic of mass incarceration in the US that perpetuates the cycle of prejudice and unfairly targets Black men, indicting the system behind it as a modern extension of the Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation. While many believe state-sanctioned discrimination ended with the civil rights movement, author Michelle Alexander argues that our nation's prison system operates in an eerily similar fashion to those oppressive laws from decades past. Narrator Karen Chilton takes the dark, bitter truths from this work and delivers them in a somber but engaging way. Her style imitates that of a radio broadcaster, emulating the book's authoritative and informative tone.
In this provocative self-narrated listen, CNN senior legal analyst and bestselling author Elie Honig explores America’s two-tier justice system, explaining how the rich, famous, and powerful manipulate the legal system to escape justice, even for the worst misdeeds. Drawing on the examples of notorious figures like Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby, Honig explores one of the most vexing questions of the American criminal justice system: How do they get away with it? It’s not just that money talks, Honig makes clear, but how it can corrupt otherwise reliable institutions and blind people to the real power dynamics behind the scenes.
While shelved as YA, this riveting nonfiction book is an excellent choice for adults as well. The 57 Bus tells the true story of two teens in Oakland, CA, who happen to ride the same bus, when one of them assaults the other in a random, horrible act. More than just recounting what happened, author Dashka Slater explores with compassion the complexities of the world that shaped these two young people—their struggles with issues of gender, race, class, and social justice—and essentially enabled the hate crime. If you are drawn to true crime to try make meaning from terrible events or to enhance your empathy toward the plight of others, this insightful and ultimately hopeful book is the listen for you.
In this damning portrait of the Sacklers, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe investigates the family whose name was splashed across famous buildings around the world yet nowhere to be found on the business that made their fortune—Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactured OxyContin. Keefe meticulously lays out the evidence for the family's role in the opioid crisis, illustrating point by point why the Sacklers should be held responsible for their involvement. Just as compelling as Keefe's masterful storytelling is how he threads the needle in investigating how society punishes some kinds of bad behavior (drug addiction) and not others (capitalist greed), a theme he told us has been a long-running fascination in his storied career.
This acclaimed deep dive into the cover-up and downfall of disgraced ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is an exemplar of just how powerful audio documentaries can be. Unlike the many TV docs and news programs that covered the horrific story of how Nassar sexually abused countless young women over the course of his career, Twisted moves beyond the picture of the girls as victims and Nassar as a monster (which they are and he is) in order to expose how the system failed these young women, over and over again. Narrating their own work, coauthors Mary Pilon and Carla Correa turn up the volume on the women’s distressed but determined voices as they plead for justice in complaint after complaint, giving listeners hope that these stories will never be ignored again.
