If you think about Jack the Ripper or In Cold Blood, true crime stories have always fascinated us. But the groundbreaking success of the 2014 podcast Serial sparked a new interest in these sordid stories. Hundreds of true crime podcasts followed in Serial's footsteps, telling tales of the murdered and the missing and the unresolved.

Today true crime podcasts dominate weekly podcast charts. But what makes them so popular? And is that popularity problematic?

We hear from Ashley Flowers, host of the award-winning podcast Crime Junkie, who has a new work of crime fiction out, called All Good People Here, and Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times opinion podcast The Argument.

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Why Do We Love True Crime?

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Civil War, the new A24 film from British director Alex Garland, imagines a scenario that might not seem so far-fetched to some; a contemporary civil war breaking out in the United States.

And while the film has taken heat for little mention of politics, the question of an actual civil war has everything to do with it. 

Amy Cooter is a director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her work has led her to the question that Garland's movie has put in the minds of both moviegoers and political pundits: Could a second civil war really happen here? 

Cooter joins host Andrew Limbong to discuss the actual threat of current political movements in the U.S., outside of the movie theaters.  

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Is this fictitious civil war closer to reality than we think?

Back in 1999 when Donald Trump was flirting with a presidential run, he was pro-abortion rights.  In an interview on Meet the Press with NBC's Tim Russert, the New York real estate developer said he didn't like abortion, but he wouldn't ban it.

Fast forward almost two decades, and Trump was running for the republican presidential nomination, and he had a very different stance on abortion, even suggesting in an MSNBC town hall meeting that women should be punished for seeking abortions.

Trump ultimately won the presidency with the support of white Evangelical voters, many of whom wanted to see Roe v. Wade overturned.  Six years after he won, the Supreme Court justices Trump appointed helped deliver exactly that.

Now as Trump mounts another run for the White House, abortion rights are on the ballot and winning. And Trump has once again evolved his stance on abortion.  Is it a political calculation?

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Trump's anti-abortion stance helped him win in 2016. Will it hurt him in 2024?

Salman Rushdie is probably most closely associated with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, a book inspired by the life of the prophet Muhummad. The book was notorious not just for its contents but because of the intense backlash, and the threat it posed to his safety and wellbeing. 

While Rushdie saw it as an exploration of Islamic culture, some Muslims saw it as blasphemous.  The year after it published, Iran's supreme leader issued a fatwa, ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie.

Rushdie moved to New York in 2000, and was able to resume the public life of a popular author, but that all changed on August 12th, 2022 when a young man charged at Rushdie while he was on stage at an event, stabbing him at least a dozen times.

After two years, he has chronicled his brush with death, and the aftermath in his new memoir 'KNIFE'. 

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What happened when the threat of danger became Salman Rushdie's reality?

In 1994, the world watched as genocide unfolded in Rwanda. Nearly one million people died as neighbors brutally killed their neighbors. Paul Rusesabagina is credited for keeping more than 1,200 people safe in his hotel through weeks of violence. His life and story inspired the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. 

In 2021, Rusesabagina says he was kidnapped, tried and imprisoned in Rwanda for two years and seven months over his ties to the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), a group that opposes President Paul Kagame's rule. 

After intervention from the U.S. and other countries, Rusesabagina was eventually released from prison. At the time he was released, he says he electronically signed a letter promising not to criticize the government. Ultimately, he decided to disregard that promise.

Many allies of President Kagame would argue that he has been responsible for shepherding an era of what they say is relative peace in the country. His critics say he leads an oppressive government that leaves no space for dissent. We hear from Paul Rusesabagina and his daughter Anaïse Kanimba, who are still speaking out against the Rwandan government.

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The man who inspired 'Hotel Rwanda' is still taking risks for his country

Iran launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend, saying it was in response to an airstrike earlier this month that hit Iran's consulate in Syria and killed seven Iranian military officials, including two generals.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the Syria strike, though the Pentagon said Israel was responsible.

Sima Shine is a former senior Israeli intelligence official. She now runs the Iran desk at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. She says this attack is "crossing the Rubicon" from the point of view of Iran, and explains what Israel's retaliation could be.

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Why Do We Love True Crime?

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