Serial

Have you heard Serial? If not, you should. It's an American podcast created by the people who made This American Life. (Note to self: listen to This American Life.) I discovered it last weekend, thanks to a lot of excited Tweets. The series is eight episodes in; I've caught up with them all. There's even a podcast about the podcast. I've caught up with that too. I'm hooked.

In Serial, a journalist is investigating a real-life murder case from the 1990s. She's interviewing people, picking through mobile-phone records, replaying the court case that ended up with a conviction and a life-sentence – and asking if they got the right man. The storytelling is superb; almost to the point that it feels uncomfortable to be so interested in something so horrible that really happened. Writer Linda Grant has described Serial as 'essential listening for writers' and a 'cultural phenomenon.' I'm trying to think if I've heard anything else like it, and I can't. Journalist David Hepworth reckons there is nothing else like it and that this podcast is doing something that radio just couldn't.