LIFE & CULTURE

Calling All Podcast Fans: ‘Dirty John’ and ‘Serial’ Just Dropped Major News

Clear your schedule and turn up your podcast dial

Calling all true crime podcast fans, you’re going to flip over the latest offerings from two of the best-in-class from this gripping genre: Dirty John and Serial.

Dirty John’s producers, Wondery, have released a follow-up to the cult 2017 hit, called Dr. Death and Serial has released a trailer for the forthcoming third season of the award-winning Sarah Koenig-hosted show. 

First up, here’s what we know about the Dirty John follow-up, Dr. Death. The first two episodes of the podcast are available to download right now (it’s fine, we’ll wait) and from the synopsis it sounds like we can expect big things.

Similar to the subject matter of Dirty John, which told the story of charming, manipulative con man John Meehan and his relationship with wealthy Southern Californian divorcée, Debra Newell, Dr. Death follows another charismatic-but-ultimately-deadly man, Dr Christopher Duntsch.

Dr Duntsch or Dr Death as he has been gruesomely nicknamed, is an American neurosurgeon who was sentenced to life in prison on February 20, 2017 for gross malpractice after the death and severe maiming of several of his patients while he was working in two hospitals in Texas. The Dr. Death podcast is hosted by journalist Laura Beil and looks into how this tragic situation could have happened in not one but two hospitals.

As for Serial, as loyal fans will know, the two seasons so far have told one story each season, the first about the murder of high school girl Hae Min Lee and her boyfriend, Adnan Syed, who was convicted of the crime; the second season narrated the tale of American Army soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by the Taliban and then charged with desertion upon his release. 

For the third season rather than focus on one person’s story, Serial goes inside the American criminal justice system with stories collected from a year “inside the criminal justice courts in Cleveland, Ohio,” Koenig says in the trailer.

The first episode of Serial season three will be released on Thursday September 20, with a new episode each Thursday after that.

In other podcast news, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company has revealed plans to launch a female-centric podcast network called The Beam, The Hollywood Reporter reports, with shows launching on the network in October.

This article originally appeared on InStyle.

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