There's no beat more likely to get you an audience and a paycheck. It's trend-proof and recession-proof. Yes, true crime is freakishly popular right now, but it was never unpopular. Audiences have been showing up for gangster stories and murder stories and heist stories and scam stories steadily, for at least a hundred years, and probably a lot longer. It's big business.

But it’s a business that can come with a personal cost for its practitioners. How can you dig into the darkest parts of the human psyche, the most notorious crimes, and not feel guilty?

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor)

Further information:

• The Human Scale: Murder, Mischief and Other Selected Mayhems
• Michael Lista’s website

Additional music by Audio Network

Sponsors: Canva, Squarespace, Peloton

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.  

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.