Hard Knox with Amanda Knox

True crime has spawned a fandom like no other, with controversial merch, conventions, and online sleuths. Sarah Turney, Jen Tisdale, Paul Holes, and Katherine Laidlaw help us disect this fandom, and see the costs and consequences of true crime obsession. This is part 4 of Blood Money, a five-part miniseries. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on...

In part 3 of Blood Money, we're stepping inside the content machine. Filmmaker Brian McGinn and author Nicki Egan take us through the incentives and pitfalls facing any true crime content creator. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Twitter: @amandaknox | @manunderbridge IG: @amamaknox...

In part 2 of Blood Money, we're stepping into the ground zero where all true crime stories originate: with the victims. Kris Pedretti, Christine Marie, and Sarah Turney help us explore what it means to be at the center of a true crime story, and how the media can be another source of trauma. Content warning: sexual assault and sex trafficking. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, a...

True crime has become a massive industry that takes real life suffering as grist for the content mill. Is it possible to tell such stories in an ethical way? How did we even get here? To answer these questions, we're diving into history to see where true crime came from, how it evolved, and where it is today. Along the way, we'll be talking with victims, podcasters, filmmakers, critics and other t...

We've got some updates for you, a preview of BLOOD MONEY, our upcoming miniseries about the history and ethics of true crime, and we answer your questions, about trauma gremlins, smiling through hell, and how to deal with bad faith arguments. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Twitter:...

When Joe Berlinger packed up his things to go to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, he thought he was going to make a documentary about a satanic ritual murder. Instead, he found a witch hunt determined to condemn three innocent boys. Over the next two decades, Joe and his partner Bruce Sinofsky made three documentaries about the case. Those films played a critical role in the eventual release of the...

By the time he was sixteen, Jason Baldwin had already felt the sting of prejudice from his community in West Memphis, Arkansas. Kids at the trailer park where he lived had long been shunned by more well off residents of the town. Still, nothing could have prepared him for how vicious these prejudices would turn once the bodies of three eight year old boys were found murdered. Jason and two of his...

Anna Vasquez was just nineteen when she and three of her friends were accused of a horrific crime that they were completely innocent of. Their case was swept up in the mass hysteria about satanic cults that had seized the country in the 80s and 90s. It would take twenty four years for Anna and her friends to be fully exonerated, including over a decade in prison. But Anna's story didn't end with h...

Most people are pretty bad at having difficult conversations. We don't get much practice--the internet makes sure that we mostly see content from people we agree with. When we do see opposing viewpoints, it's usually in the form of hateful comments. But when Dylan Marron started receiving a deluge of online abuse in response to his viral video series, he did the opposite of what most people do. He...

Jennifer felt trapped--her two sons were addicted to drugs, in and out of jail and rehab, and living on the streets. What had she done wrong as a mother? How could she save them? Was trying to save them her own addiction?  Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Twitter: @amandaknox | @manu...

When our guest today, Christian, was checked into a psych ward in the midst of a manic episode a few years ago, he had no prior history of mental illness. He'd certainly never had delusions of the kind that had come to consume him over the last few days. As it turned out, the culprit for the drastic change in Christian's mental state was not one people would normally think of. His manic episode wi...

Few people can say that they have remade themselves as completely as Lee Turnbull. He went from being a violent young man in London to being a happy, well-adjusted soccer coach in the States. Getting there required not just a change in his lifestyle, but a dramatic change in his values. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.c...

Before Adolf Hitler was a genocidal autocrat, he was a young art student who loved his mother. Before Vladimir Lenin was a Marxist revolutionary, he was the privileged son of loving parents, radicalized by his older brother. And before Joseph Stalin was a ruthless dictator, he was an abused child who was terrified of his father. Why should we know or care about these details? In the face of the cr...

You may have heard Molly Bloom's name from tabloid headlines about a "poker princess" or from the 2017 movie, Molly's Game. But Molly has a deeper story to tell. Though her life has taken an unusual number of twists and turns--from poker millionaire to convicted felon to bestselling author--Molly's reflections on it all are universal. They include her thoughts on material gratification, on being r...

Chris Ballew never expected or even particularly wanted mainstream success. But when his band, the Presidents of the United States of America, hit it big, he had to reckon with what success meant to him and figure out how to say no when everyone around him wanted him to say yes. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxr...

Before Bobby Kumparak adopted Lucy, a French bulldog, he had never thought of a dog as a member of his family. But Lucy was different. The bond Bobby and his wife, Angela, shared with Lucy was more than owner and pet. So Bobby and Angela were utterly devastated when Lucy was stolen from their backyard one night. In the quest to find Lucy, they learned that the issue of pet theft is much bigger tha...

Twenty years ago, Roz Savage was a management consultant living in London with her husband. From the outside, it looked like a good life, but Roz was miserable. Until she blew up that life and found a new one on the other side of the ocean. She'd just have to row for three and half months to get there.  Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patre...

A few months ago, we sat down to do something we'd never done before: a live Labyrinths episode! And we knew there was no better place to do it than our home, Vashon Island. Most people haven't heard of our rural island near Seattle, but we know that it's a rich community of eccentrics with a lot of stories to offer. Today, we've brought you three stories of plane crashes, lost pets, and local jou...

Dr. Itiel Dror is used to facing resistance to his work. It comes with the territory when you're a neuroscientist studying cognitive bias in experts: no one wants to believe they have biases they're not aware of. But the pushback to a paper he published last year was extreme even by Dr. Dror's standards. After the paper came out, the ensuing backlash even threatened his job. Check out Dr. Dror's l...

Journalist Andrew Gold explores the extreme in his podcast On the Edge, where he’s interviewed controversial people, including a former white supremacist, an ex-crime boss, and a self-professed psychopath. He joins Amanda and Chris to talk about the most taboo topic he's delved into yet: non-offending pedophiles. Forewarning: this episode grapples with the subject of child sex abuse. Listener disc...

Last year, we brought you through the labyrinths of infertility and pregnancy, but what happens after birth? What happens when you find yourself utterly alone in that 4th trimester, a shadow hanging over you and your child? Amy Kuber brings us through her post-partum darkness and how she found the light again. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths o...

Is it possible to succeed when you fail? Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton did just that, and so has modern adventurer and mountaineer Alison Levine, leader of the First American Women's Everest expedition. Levine has survived subzero temperatures, hurricane force winds, and sudden avalanches. She's had plenty of triumphs, but she's learned just as much, if not more, from her failures. Get earl...

Amanda and Chris get lost in the wide world of puzzles with AJ Jacobs, author of the The Puzzler: One Man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life. And pay close attention, because this episode has a puzzle embedded within it! Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/...

When we first met Jens, he was still serving a life sentence for a double homicide he didn't commit. We devoted a whole season of our prior podcast, The Truth About True Crime, to his case (link below). Now, after 33 years in prison, he's free, and rebuilding his life in his native Germany. We flew to Hamburg to meet him in person for the first time and to learn how he's been navigating the labyri...

Emily Wilson traveled the world over the course of her modeling career. But one photoshoot always...haunted her. She was accustomed to be valued for her beauty, but that fateful day, she was used as a weapon. Find Emily on Instagram @emilykatwilson Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Tw...