In February 2024, celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers and her husband, photographer Michael Mathers, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Petra and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and deeply in love. As much a love story as one about death, it begs the question: what did that decision do to the people left to mourn them?

In season 3 of Death of an Artist, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice Gregory set out to interview everyone who got one of Petra and Michael’s letters—as one married couple trying to understand another. Told through intimate conversations with Petra and Michael’s friends and family about their own relationships to aging, grief, death, and the friends they thought they knew, Death of an Artist weaves together a portrait of a community grappling with the Mathers’ deaths and the final words they left behind.

Search for Death of an Artist wherever you get podcasts. And get early, ad-free access to the entire season now by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.

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In Akron, Ohio, murder cases that went cold for years are suddenly being solved. But defense attorney Don Malarcik isn’t celebrating; he’s alarmed. The key evidence in these cases is coming from a mysterious AI tool called Cybercheck, a system so secretive that its founder refuses to explain the details of how the technology actually works. Allegedly, Cybercheck uses open-source data to place suspects at crime scenes without the need for witnesses — and while no one, not even prosecutors, understand how it works — it’s being increasingly embraced by U.S. police services and placing people in prison cells across the country. As Cybercheck continues to spread, Don teams up with a concerned network of lawyers, investigators, and journalists to unravel what’s really powering this so-called breakthrough in crime-solving. What they find is a tangled story of lies, unvetted tech, and a charismatic Canadian entrepreneur whose invention operates in a black box.

From the makers of Sea of Lies, this season of Uncover: The Expert Witness asks what happens when AI enters the courtroom? Who is benefitting from this mysterious technology? And who’s accountable when AI gets it wrong? More episodes of Uncover are available here.

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Deep Cover's new season, The Family Man, tells a story about how families can deceive each other and the lengths we’ll go to to protect our loved ones Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis, but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them—like how he really made his money. One night, the police showed up, raided their house, and seized boxes of evidence. Hours later, the sisters turned on the TV and saw something surreal: their father in the middle of a police chase. The local news identified him as “The Boonie Hat Bandit”. The girls were stunned. They struggled to accept the truth: Dad had been living a double life. How long had he been lying to them?  What had he done?  And who, exactly, was their father?

Find Deep Cover: The Family Man wherever you get podcasts. If you want to know how the story ends right now, binge the full season by signing up for a Pushkin+ subscriptions on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. 

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Here's a preview of another podcast, Crimes of the Times, a podcast from the Los Angeles Times Studios. The identity of the Zodiac Killer has remained a mystery for decades, but new developments may finally point to an answer. At the center is the infamous Z13 cipher, a 13-character code sent to the San Francisco Chronicle that has long defied experts. Self-taught codebreaker Alex Baber used artificial intelligence and exhaustive analysis to narrow millions of possibilities down to a single name. As his theory gained traction, former detectives and intelligence experts began testing its credibility. The result is a provocative possibility: the name hidden in the cipher may also belong to the man behind another infamous California murder—the Black Dahlia. Find Crimes of the Times wherever you get podcasts.

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A reunion between two retired detectives brings new focus to the Aujay investigation, just as Hayley and Betsy find out about another tragedy in the Punchbowl area. When a woman and her father are shot dead in deputy Engels’ home, the fatalities should’ve prompted the sheriff’s department to take a harder look at the alleged dirty deputy. But, instead, the LASD tries to bury the matter and — just like in the Aujay case — the deaths are ruled suicides. Hayley and Betsy press the department for answers about these and other suspicious deaths that occurred in Engels’ jurisdiction.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

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While the DEA showers Hager in accolades, the LASD turns against him. But Hager fights back, and drags the department’s dirty secrets out into open court. Betsy and Hayley go through thousands of pages of court documents, including internal LASD memos and recordings, to find out what the department knows about Aujay’s disappearance.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

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Brandenburg is taken off the Aujay case, but the LASD can’t stop Hager and the federal task force. With the help of wiretaps, informants, and 18 months of investigation, the team pulls off one of the largest drug stings in Antelope Valley history and nets a key witness in the Aujay case.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

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Decades before Jon Aujay’s disappearance, the Devil’s Punchbowl was infamous for something else: Bigfoot sightings. Sasquatch became a known boogeyman in the area. But beneath the folklore lies something real —- a local deputy, named Rick Engels, whose reputation inspires a different kind of fear. As detectives Brandenburg and Hager look into their colleague, they uncover a surprising connection to the Aujay case.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

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As Detective Brandenburg follows leads in the Aujay case, he finds himself with an unlikely ally. A young buck narcotics detective named Darren Hager, who’s trying to dismantle a meth syndicate run by a local biker gang. Hager discovers that his bikers have a disturbing connection to Aujay’s disappearance — and to some of his own LASD colleagues. So he brings in the big guns, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and they launch a covert task force.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

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At the time of Jon Aujay’s disappearance, California is under siege by a meth epidemic and the Antelope Valley is the epicenter. So when investigators receive tips that Aujay was killed after stumbling upon a meth lab, it seems like a theory worth looking into. But LASD detectives are quick to dismiss the leads. Questioning why the cops are so dismissive, Betsy and Hayley discover there was one cop, Homicide Detective Larry Brandenburg, who bucked the company line and refused to let the Aujay trail go cold.

Hear the full Valley of Shadows soundtrack here.

Binge the entire season of Valley of Shadows, ad-free, by subscribing to Pushkin+. Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.