Imagine it’s 1988 and you’re driving your dad’s twenty year old fixer-upper. The windows are rolled down, you’re alone and listening to Art Bell’s classic “Coast to Coast” radio show. There’s two people talking through static about strange and unusual happenings. You may get the same sense of hanging out with your fellow weirdos when you listen to Dan Zupansky’s podcast True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History and the Authors That Have Written About Them.
Dan (pictured above) speaks to each true crime author at length about their books. Some of the books are about famous and shocking killers, but the real focus is on the writers and their investigative interests large and small. Dan is always well prepared for his interviews. He often times knows more about the details of the cases from reading the materials than the book’s author!
Where does Dan, himself the author of Trophy Kill: The Shall We Dance Murder, find time to read all the books for “True Murder” podcast? He chooses to be well prepared for interviews which doesn’t give him a lot of time for editing and sound quality. The does-it-himself, cabin-in-the woods vibe that enlivens this podcast adds to the charm for many. “True Murder” is not flawless. The A.M. radio feel and “low road” production only make it better. Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes you can’t really hear the author being interviewed. However…
There is a plague of cookie-cutter podcasts. Many sound the same with interchangeable hosts- grown men and women giggling their way through the concerns of the day. Dan in his deadpan “just the facts ma’am” way is focused on helping the author tell their often intense and disturbing true crime stories in enough detail that make you want to read that book!
Just listen to the podcast’s intro. If the creepiness doesn’t draw you in, there’s always Radiolab.
TruMur 