Podcast Central

[CardiacCoug]

This American Life has a spinoff podcast, Serial. It will be multiple episodes about a single story. The first two are out, and I'm hooked:

http://serialpodcast.org/

I'm almost done listening to this, along with millions of other people obviously.

The take-home message I guess is that some murderers are just regular people who do something really stupid.

Is it really in doubt that Adnan killed the girl? Doesn't seem like it to me.

I thought as a whole the podcast was OK but not great. It doesn't deserve to be the most popular podcast of all time.

[SeattleUte]

I'm almost done listening to this, along with millions of other people obviously.

The take-home message I guess is that some murderers are just regular people who do something really stupid.

Is it really in doubt that Adnan killed the girl? Doesn't seem like it to me.

I thought as a whole the podcast was OK but not great. It doesn't deserve to be the most popular podcast of all time.

Oh brother. Everyone agrees that there wasn't evidence to convict him.

[Northwestcoug]

I'm almost done listening to this, along with millions of other people obviously.

The take-home message I guess is that some murderers are just regular people who do something really stupid.

Is it really in doubt that Adnan killed the girl? Doesn't seem like it to me.

I thought as a whole the podcast was OK but not great. It doesn't deserve to be the most popular podcast of all time.

My oldest daughter is convinced that Adnan is innocent. She thinks he is just too nice of a guy to do something like that. Me? I can't get past the details Jay has given in the case. Either he, Adnan, or both, are lying. But like SU says, there is no way he should have been convicted. Just not enough evidence.

I agree, there's 'better' podcasts out there. But the format was fresh, it was a very interesting case, and Sarah Koenig has a sultry voice .

But even if you're not enamored with her voice like I am, she is an excellent storyteller. I'm looking forward to season 2.

[UVACoug]

I think the podcast was significantly flawed in several ways. As a piece of journalism, I think it fails completely. Sarah consistently withheld or delayed key information for dramatic effect in order to manipulate the audience. That makes for good story-telling, but I don't think it is a very good method of finding the truth. The last few episodes seemed a bit incoherent and thrown together because she ran out of other things to talk about.

As for whether Adnan is guilty or innocent, I ended up where Sarah did. There is no way in hell he should have been convicted. There is little, if any, credible evidence that he did it. The jury convicted him because they were presented with an obviously false story from Jay and didn't have any alternative explanation for the crime. That isn't how the system is supposed to work. Because of the lack of evidence, I am left with no choice but to believe he didn't do it. There are simply too many false convictions to condemn a guy because there is no better explanation, especially where all the information I have is second or third hand. Cases like this are one of the prime reasons why I am opposed to the death penalty.

Anyone interested in other false conviction cases should watch Central Park Five or West of Memphis. It is shocking what kind of confessions corrupt cops can get out of people ... especially teenagers.

[Applejack]

I'm not sure you can complain that the podcast fails as a piece of journalism. This was infotainment. It's like complaining that 48 Hours Mystery didn't cut to the chase early enough. The whole point is to get you to think about whodunnit over weeks. But yes, the last few episodes were filler - she ran out of new info.

I think everyone will agree that he never should have been convicted. There is a boatload of reasonable doubt to this story.

To me there is only one thing that really cuts against Adnan's story and it wasn't really talked about in the podcast. It's the Neisha call, which was beat to death, but more importantly it seemed to me that Jay talked about the Neisha call ("we called some girl in Silver Spring") during his first interview with detectives, i.e. before the detectives could have obtained a warrant for the cell records and tipped Jay off. Thus, even if we buy the "butt dial" theory, Jay either made up a story about calling a girl in Silver Spring that matched the butt dial (miraculously) or Jay made the call to Neisha in a preemptive move to indict Adnan for a murder he would later commit (amazing foresight). The podcast never focused on the fact that Jay knew about the call, and that always troubled me.

[old_gregg]

I'm not sure you can complain that the podcast fails as a piece of journalism. This was infotainment. It's like complaining that 48 Hours Mystery didn't cut to the chase early enough. The whole point is to get you to think about whodunnit over weeks. But yes, the last few episodes were filler - she ran out of new info.

I think everyone will agree that he never should have been convicted. There is a boatload of reasonable doubt to this story.

To me there is only one thing that really cuts against Adnan's story and it wasn't really talked about in the podcast. It's the Neisha call, which was beat to death, but more importantly it seemed to me that Jay talked about the Neisha call ("we called some girl in Silver Spring") during his first interview with detectives, i.e. before the detectives could have obtained a warrant for the cell records and tipped Jay off. Thus, even if we buy the "butt dial" theory, Jay either made up a story about calling a girl in Silver Spring that matched the butt dial (miraculously) or Jay made the call to Neisha in a preemptive move to indict Adnan for a murder he would later commit (amazing foresight). The podcast never focused on the fact that Jay knew about the call, and that always troubled me.

also jay knew where the car was. jay's story is pretty clearly bullshit, but there's no way adnan didn't do it.

[Clark Addison]

This is pretty good. I especially like Santa on the phone and the Cristina Gutierrez-like attorney.

[Applejack]

also jay knew where the car was. jay's story is pretty clearly bullshit, but there's no way adnan didn't do it.

Jay knowing where the car was is pretty strong evidence that Jay was involved. It only implicates Adnan if you believe Jay's story.

I think there is definitely a way Adnan didn't do it - Jay did it (probably with someone else) and framed Adnan. For that story to work, you only need to believe that Jay had Adnan's cell phone for most of the day. Then, the only thing that needs explaining is how did Jay know about the Neisha "butt dial"?

[old_gregg]

also, the whole lending his car to jay then asking for a ride from hae (and then changing his story about that later) thing is pretty weird to me. i don't know, jay is obviously culpable in some way. but adnan smells like a manipulative sociopath to me.

[falafel]

This is pretty good. I especially like Santa on the phone and the Cristina Gutierrez-like attorney.

Ha! That was perfect.

[CardiacCoug]

Oh brother. Everyone agrees that there wasn't evidence to convict him.

Sure I won't argue with people saying there wasn't enough evidence to convict. But I think he did it. Really you get a call telling you your girlfriend is missing and you still have no idea where you were for hours earlier in the day? You give away your car and phone that day to avoid being tracked, you enlist the help of the biggest gangsta at your school, all coincidentally on the day somebody else kills your ex-girlfriend?

Yeah he's about as innocent as OJ Simpson. Did you listen to it all or just read a review/summary?

[UVACoug]

I'm not sure you can complain that the podcast fails as a piece of journalism. This was infotainment. It's like complaining that 48 Hours Mystery didn't cut to the chase early enough. The whole point is to get you to think about whodunnit over weeks. But yes, the last few episodes were filler - she ran out of new info.

I think everyone will agree that he never should have been convicted. There is a boatload of reasonable doubt to this story.

To me there is only one thing that really cuts against Adnan's story and it wasn't really talked about in the podcast. It's the Neisha call, which was beat to death, but more importantly it seemed to me that Jay talked about the Neisha call ("we called some girl in Silver Spring") during his first interview with detectives, i.e. before the detectives could have obtained a warrant for the cell records and tipped Jay off. Thus, even if we buy the "butt dial" theory, Jay either made up a story about calling a girl in Silver Spring that matched the butt dial (miraculously) or Jay made the call to Neisha in a preemptive move to indict Adnan for a murder he would later commit (amazing foresight). The podcast never focused on the fact that Jay knew about the call, and that always troubled me.

Where are you getting that from? Is it in a transcript or something? I haven't heard it before.

[falafel]

Where are you getting that from? Is it in a transcript or something? I haven't heard it before.

I remember Jay saying that. It was the silver spring part that I recall anyway.

[falafel]

Sure I won't argue with people saying there wasn't enough evidence to convict. But I think he did it. Really you get a call telling you your girlfriend is missing and you still have no idea where you were for hours earlier in the day? You give away your car and phone that day to avoid being tracked, you enlist the help of the biggest gangsta at your school, all coincidentally on the day somebody else kills your ex-girlfriend?

Yeah he's about as innocent as OJ Simpson. Did you listen to it all or just read a review/summary?

I have serious (not just reasonable) doubts about whether Adnan did it. I don't think it's clear at all that he's guilty. Yeah there's some strange stuff he can't offer explanations for, but Jay's story is much more shady.

[Applejack]

Sure I won't argue with people saying there wasn't enough evidence to convict. But I think he did it. Really you get a call telling you your girlfriend is missing and you still have no idea where you were for hours earlier in the day? You give away your car and phone that day to avoid being tracked, you enlist the help of the biggest gangsta at your school, all coincidentally on the day somebody else kills your ex-girlfriend?

I agree that his lack of memory after the cops called is troubling. But he was admittedly high most of the afternoon. Plus, while I think such a call would crystallize that day in my memory, I'm not sure it would stay there if I hadn't thought about my day for six weeks (or however long it took the cops to suspect him).

His story about giving the car and cell phone to Jay are really weak, I agree. But I doubt he gave him the cell phone so that he couldn't be tracked. He'd only had the cell phone for a few days and I doubt kids back then knew about the pinging capabilities of cell phones. I certainly didn't.

Where are you getting that from? Is it in a transcript or something? I haven't heard it before.

THey never discuss it, but I remember from Jay's first interview (I think) that he mentions the "Silver Spring" call while he is with Adnan in the car.