Compelling, Educational, Essential

I began listening to a range of true crime podcasts in 2020, but over the course of those years have winnowed the podcasts I listen to consistently that are true crime or true crime-adjacent to three, and two of them involve Laura Richards. She is compassionate, authoritative, refreshing, thoughtful, sincere and most of all, instructive. Crime Analyst, in particular, is my favorite of the three, and I’m not sure I should even describe it as “true crime” as it does not glorify or sensationalize criminals and their deeds, but rather seeks to impart an understanding of the kinds of personality traits and underlying social structures that underly criminal behaviors, particularly with regard to power imbalances. History podcasts consume must of my time, but I will always make space for Crime Analyst because Laura Richards approaches her topics with the kind of compassion and professional rigor that characterize the best historians, and because I invariably learn something new - even about cases that have cycled incessantly through podcast and other media. Somehow, despite her topics which invariably require trigger warnings, she also manages to be a soothing and comforting narrator.