大象传媒

Podcasts have caused a spectacular amount of innovation; altering the way dramas, chat shows and comedies are made. But perhaps it’s the investigative and true crime stories that have seen the greatest change. It was the American show, that first put podcasts on the map and this type of show has continued to proliferate and inspire. Here are just a few of the many great investigative podcasts to broaden your mind while keeping you on the edge of your seat.

Girl Taken

Girl Taken is an epic, powerful and unsettling journey into the dark heart of the migrant crisis. 大象传媒 journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier turned good Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were dealing with the heartbreaking but fairly straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. But the following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life-altering, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10-part hunt, involving closed borders and broken promises, for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.

Listen to Girl Taken.

Beyond Today: Deadliest Day

Dealing with one big question from one big news story of the day, Beyond Today provides vital context to complex current affairs stories. In their Deadliest Day off-shoot, they delved more deeply into a single tragic day in the Afghan conflict that was to have far-reaching consequences for all involved. Five members of the same patrol were killed by a series of Improvised Explosive Devices. In the 10 years since the attack, two more members of the patrol have died. Claire Read looked into the trauma of that tragic day and the effect it’s had on those left behind.

Listen to Deadliest Day.

File on 4

This multi-award-winning current affairs juggernaut has been airing on Radio 4 since 1977. The show has not just highlighted injustices and scandals in society, but its thorough, faultless reporting has changed lives significantly. An investigation into sudden infant death syndrome led to the release of Sally Clark who had been wrongfully convicted of the murder of her two infant sons. Using some of the 大象传媒’s top reporting talent, in recent years the programme has tackled subjects such as the Post Office IT scandal, county lines drugs gangs, radicalism and climate change.

Listen to File on 4.

A fascinating glimpse into the often time-consuming, tedious, dangerous lengths that reporters have to go to during the course of an investigation. The Tip Off looks at the work involved in one particular story, talking to the journalists concerned about their methods; where the story originated, how they found their sources, why they felt the story was worth investigating and the lessons learned along the way. Episodes have covered topics such as The Troubles, Islamic terrorism, knife crime and domestic violence. Perfect for journalism nerds.

Some crimes are just so confusing and compelling that a Hollywood movie based on the facts would appear completely farfetched. One such crime is investigated in-depth by the Last Seen team who try to make sense of the whole bizarre situation. In 1990, several incredibly valuable artworks were taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. None of the pieces have been recovered and no one has ever been convicted of the crime. Last Seen assembles all the current information available concerning the crime and tries to ascertain what exactly happened. Along the way they come across an astonishing array of colourful characters and jaw-dropping developments.

Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel

This story from the 大象传媒’s Intrigue strand certainly lives up to the title. In this complex and captivating true crime story, the death of a British man eventually leads to the toppling of a Chinese political dynasty. A tangled web of lies and illusion, it’s a classic crime story incorporating sex, violence, money and, surprisingly, ballooning in Bournemouth.

Listen to Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel.

While it claims to be a show about internet culture, the beloved, iconic Reply All really concerns all human life with its foibles and failures and deserves to sit alongside any number of investigative giants. The recent episode concerning a half-remembered song, The Case of the Missing Hit, has been called ‘’ and is as compelling and emotional as any true crime yarn. But many of this gem’s episodes are mini masterpieces and remind us that not all investigations have to concern murder and mayhem. The mysteries of simply being a human deserve delving into as well.