Gather around the firepit, fair listener, as we bring you the tale of a prisoner whose criminal history was as illustrious as his love of birds.

Robert Stroud was convicted of manslaughter and murder, but may be better known for the birds he raised and sold while an inmate at Leavenworth penitentiary. Stroud wrote two books about birds during his incarceration and gained respect among bird-lovers. That incongruity — a violent prisoner caring for these fragile animals — brought Hollywood to his prison door.

“Birdman of Alcatraz,” starring Burt Lancaster, brought Stroud a nickname and more notoriety, even though he wasn’t allowed to raise birds while an inmate at the island prison.

In our 12th (and spookiest) episode this season, author Jolene Babyak helps us peel back Stroud’s upbringing, psyche and journey through the prison system as we look into how Stroud became the complicated criminal he’s now known to be.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

From firing high profile government employees to making fundamental decisions on who can officially call themselves an American citizen, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Trump administration – its most frequent litigant lately – are turning to the court’s emergency docket to unkink the federal government’s policy hose.

But unlike the court’s regular docket, the justices can use the emergency docket without having to explain themselves or even reveal how they voted, earning its nickname as “the shadow docket.”

With a plethora of litigation critical to the administration’s effort to reshape the federal government, Courthouse News’ Supreme Court reporter Kelsey Reichmann takes us through the maze of major issues that could be decided without any hints as to how the court came to its conclusions.

With so much litigation rising from federal court in Washington, D.C. or directly running afoul of laws passed by Congress, Courthouse News D.C. reporters Ben Weiss and Ryan Knappenberger also contributed to this episode.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

As Congress and the courts attempt to untangle the complex web of human trafficking investigations related to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, members of the Trump administration, some of whom trumpeted the push for disclosure as pundits and podcasters before being appointed to the inside, are now pleading with the MAGA base to move on.

But now that they’ve lived through more than a decade of intense speculation of who flew on Epstein’s plane or went to his island of unthinkable debauchery, will they be satisfied with Trump’s explanation that the whole thing is just a hoax perpetrated by his political opponents? How do conspiracy theories like this one become so sticky?

Join us for the next episode of Sidebar where we look into how the different arms of government are handling the unhealable sore of the Epstein files, and is there hope for justice for the lives destroyed by human trafficking beyond a prison suicide, or is this all political fodder for the next election cycle.

Special guest:

· Melina Tsapos

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.