RedHanded

EmptyHanded is back! We’re joined by comedian Abi Clarke to discuss all things racy, risky and romantic – and read out some of the most scandalous listener-provided stories we’ve ever heard.  – Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes TikTok / Instagram Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to dive into the surprising, and at times horrifying, history of contraception through the ages; from crocodile-dung pessaries and mercury-tadpole concoctions to penis sheaths made of turtle shells, humanity has come a long way in its efforts to outsmart the stork. This is the ShortHand. -- Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episo...

When Brendan Banfield frantically called 911 in February 2023 to report a double murder at his million-dollar suburban home in Virginia, it seemed like an extramarital sex game gone wrong. But as police dug deeper, the deaths of Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan – the stranger found beside her – proved even weirder than they once appeared. And all the evidence pointed to a dastardly plot between Bre...

For all the centuries of slavery throughout human history, you might think one group came through mostly unscathed: white Europeans. But for more than a thousand years, Barbary pirates from North Africa (funded by the Ottoman Empire) prowled European coastlines, snatching unsuspecting Christian folk and taking them to be slaves in the Islamic world. At their height, huge fleets of privateers were...

The ever-changing story of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, and the Countess of Chester baby deaths, has been given the Netflix treatment – and We. Have. Thoughts. For our coverage of the full story, check out our previous deep-dive just before this one in the feed. But in this week’s second-ShortHand, we talk about missed evidence, digital anonymisation, and decide whether or not it changed our minds....

In light of the new Netflix documentary about Lucy Letby, we're dipping into the RedHanded archives to revisit our own coverage of this controversial case – following an expert panel's findings in February 2025... Want even more up-to-date analysis? Listen to our new ShortHand episode now: ' ShortHand: Lucy Letby – What Netflix Left Out'. -- An independent panel of experts has concluded that NO mu...

In January 2016, a coffee date between three glamorous Indonesian gal pals turned deadly – when Mirna Salihin, a wealthy and beautiful newlywed, took a sip of a Vietnamese iced coffee that had been laced with a lethal dose of cyanide. The culprit? Her ex-bestie Jessica Wongso. The motive? A toxic case of the green eyed monster: with revenge served ice cold. At least, that’s how the Indonesian cour...

From faking insanity to go undercover in an asylum, racing around the world in 72 days, and reporting from the front lines of deadly war zones, this fearless investigative reporter risked everything to expose the truth… and she did it all in a corset. The unstoppable Nellie Bly rewrote all the rules to smash her way into the boys’ club of Victorian journalism, and blazed a trail for all the ladies...

Behind the façade of the white-picket-fence dream and adventurous childhoods of suburban, late-70s Michigan, lay a web of depravity that law enforcement was not remotely prepared for. Over the course of just one tragic year, the town of Oakland was terrorised: four children vanished, only to turn up dead. Chillingly, one had even been fed his favourite food, just before his murder. Was this the wo...

Not many of us need convincing that Sesame Street is good; the Muppets have been chaotic TV icons for more than 50 years. But what not many people know is just how much good it  did . Not just unmissable TV, but a revolutionary, massive-scale outreach program. One that used ad-land tactics and groundbreaking psychological research, to reset the balance of educational privilege – and teach disadvan...

With 2026 bringing widespread anti-government protests to Iran, and the government’s brutal crackdowns leading to thousands of people killed and arrested, we’re rereleasing our coverage on the current regime – and how we got here – through the lens of Mahsa Amini’s murder. -- On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi – “The Butcher of Tehran” and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran – died in a helicopte...

In 2000, Christine Lundy and her seven-year-old daughter Amber were brutally hacked to death in their New Zealand home. Their husband and father, Mark Lundy, had a seemingly watertight alibi: he was over 90 miles away. But that didn’t stop the New Zealand courts from convicting him. Twice. With a controversial case built on junk science, shifting timelines, and a microscopic speck of what prosecut...

‘Anal seepage’ is one of the many potential risks to the consumer due to seafood fraud, a multi-layered conspiracy that goes as deep as the Mariana Trench. The stats speak for themselves: if you’re in the UK, there’s a 55% chance that the fish you’re eating has been deliberately mislabeled. In the US, 120 samples of ‘Red Snapper’ were tested, and only 7 turned out to be the real thing. Clearly the...

When Luigi Mangione was charged as the UnitedHealthcare shooter – it changed everything. The public knew this was a political act, but Luigi was not the crackpot vigilante many had pictured. He had no clear personal link to UnitedHealthcare (or CEO Brian Thompson) – and he had everything to lose. To many, he became a certified, revolutionary, anti-capitalist heartthrob. But there’s also a lot more...

One of the most powerful people in one of the most powerful organizations in the world, Shelly Miscavige, hasn't been seen in public in almost two decades. In the world of Scientology, Shelly was practically an apostle. Yet, since her relationship with her husband – the leader of The Church of Scientology, David Miscavige – fell apart, she has never been seen again. Where is Shelly Miscavige? Why...

Our 2026 listener survey is here – if you have 5 minutes to help inform the next year of RedHanded, we'd love to know your thoughts! https://forms.gle/jNhKVqtdyqoyF3ey9 -- Three words, written on bullet casings, instantly changed the New York City shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson from a senseless inner-city attack, into one of the most polarising, unique and culturally important eve...

Imagine a building as tall as the Empire State Building, that stretches for more than 100km through the Saudi Arabian desert. Inside are nine million people – with robot maids and a giant fake moon – living in self-sufficient pods where everything they need is a five-minute walk away. It’s part of NEOM, a futuristic megacity complex, which the Saudi government has already started building. And if...

When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers. The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged h...

As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2025. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month (plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides) head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- Remember that time a bunch of wristband-wi...

As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2025. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month (plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides) head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- When Santa Claus robbed the First National...

The important bits: At the end of this year we'll no longer be a Wondery show. New ShortHand and early-release episodes will no longer appear in Wondery+ and Amazon Music subscriber feeds after 29th December. The good news is that ShortHand will be free for everyone and living its best life on the main RedHanded feed! If you're reading this, you're already on our main feed and don't need to go any...

OJ Simpson wasn’t black, “he was OJ”. That was the narrative OJ had pushed his entire career… right up until he found himself in the dock for killing his ex-wife and a waiter. Then suddenly OJ Simpson was practically MLK himself. Last week in our first part on “The Juice”, we told you how OJ Simpson killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. In Part Two, we’re going to tell you how he went to trial, wit...

Orenthal James Simpson, aka “OJ”, aka “The Juice”: the single most famous man in American sporting history. By the early 90s he had not only established himself as the greatest American Football player who’d ever lived – but he had also transcended sport, turning himself into a charismatic advertising machine and national icon. However, in June 1994, it all fell apart – when he killed his ex-wife...

In May 1937, a chic young woman entered an empty Paris Métro carriage. Less than a minute later, she was discovered bleeding to death with a dagger in her neck. It’s a locked-room whodunnit that has bamboozled the French public for almost a century. The murder of Laetitia Toureaux unravelled her dizzying double (and triple) lives as a factory worker by day, nightclub siren by night – and a glamoro...

Add together a narcissistic gold-digger, a gullible gym bro and a police department with a flair for theatrics, and what do you get? The Dalia Dippolito saga. She thought she’d hired a hitman to kill her husband. Instead, she ended up starring in a viral sting complete with a staged crime scene, hidden cameras, and the world’s least convincing crocodile tears.  This week, we unpack the wild story...