Spectacle: True Crime

A podcast series that marvels at the sheer magnitude of the human spirit and the lengths we will go to preserve the most sacred of things – life. Join primitive survival expert and United States Marine Corps Veteran, Donny Dust, as he hosts the brand-new series from Sony Music Entertainment, Rescue. This 20-part weekly podcast series explores the stories behind incredible rescue missions from all...

Betrayal on the Bayou is a podcast about a former DEA agent Chad Scott, who for almost two decades, stopped at nothing to put drug dealers behind bars. He controlled a web of snitches and played people like pawns. His successes earned him awards from his superiors, but his willingness to bend the rules made enemies of his fellow agents and gave him a terrifying reputation on the streets. He was th...

From Dean of Black Twitter, Michael Harriot, comes a Black history podcast like you've never heard before. Using a recipe that includes detailed research, barbershop humor and a little seasoned salt, a parade of cookout-certified celebrity guests helps Michael Harriot serve up a compelling, hilarious, and more accurate version of Black history that was conveniently whitewashed from your social stu...

This season, we’re getting into 1950s Hollywood, ground zero for a cultural transformation that would upend every aspect of Americans’ lives. A movie theater in every city, a TV in every living room, and a Post-war America determined to be happy at any cost. Also, during this period… a slew of untimely Hollywood deaths. The rules of the road for the next seventy years were being written in real-ti...

Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a podcast about a family on the fringe who convinced tens of thousands of people across the globe to buy a miracle liquid made of poison, the international conspiracy they ignited, and the people who fought to take them down. Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a Neon Hum Media, Bloomberg & Sony Music Entertainment production. Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of Smoke...

Sharing a preview of a new Sony Music Entertainment and Pushkin podcast, Death of the Artist. For more than 35 years, accusations of murder shrouded one of the art world’s most storied couples: Was the famous sculptor Carl Andre involved in the death of his up-and-coming artist wife Ana Mendieta? Host Helen Molesworth revisits Mendieta’s death, taking a closer look at how she might have fallen out...

True crime podcasts have developed a devoted female following. It’s made fun of in SNL skits and coined cutesy phrases on t-shirts like “true crime, glass of wine, bed by nine.” The thing is, some of the most popular true crime podcasts are largely led by white women and focused on white victims. And that white lens... well it impacts how they view violent crime, policing and what justice looks li...

This week on Spectacle, forensic sciences. Shows like CSI or Forensic Files make us believe that fingerprints, bite marks or tool marks can close the case. But in reality, aside from DNA, none of it is legit. In fact, it’s been publicly called out by the National Academy of Sciences for lacking scientific merit but regardless, it’s still used in criminal cases around the country – leading to misle...

If you’re turned on any streaming channel, from Netflix to Hulu to HBO Max, true crime dominates. As of late, what’s especially popular are shows and movies that give true crime the arthouse movie treatment. There's killer cinematography, an A-list cast and a gripping story. The thing is... these stories are often based on tragic events in the recent past. The victims, the families of the victims...

It's not often that cases get the justice they deserve, unfortunately. But in the Law & Order: SVU universe, victims always get justice delivered by a certain superwoman detective. In this week’s episode, Host Mariah Smith looks into how this popular crime procedural show serves as a feminist fantasy -- led by its hero Olivia Benson -- and how the show has set up an unrealistic perception of polic...

On this week’s episode of Spectacle, our obsession with certain missing women. When Gabby Petito disappeared in September 2021, the world went crazy. It was covered on the news regularly and ordinary folks joined in the investigation as well, scouring her Instagram for digital clues. But why do women like Gabby get so much attention... while others, especially Black women, get little to none? We t...

From tech bro scammers to fake heiresses, there’s a scammer story for everyone... nearly everywhere. In this week’s episode, Host Mariah Smith digs into our fascination with conartists with the podcast that kicked off the latest craze... Dirty John. Featuring interviews with Los Angeles Times Reporter Chris Goffard and Huffpost Reporter Caroline Bologna. A Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainme...

In this week’s episode, host Mariah Smith digs into the phenomenon of citizen sleuths. It’s nothing new but with the internet, it’s exploded in the last few years… most notably in 2021 with the disappearance of Gabby Petito. We’ll dig into how citizen sleuths work and the impact this work has on them with Don’t F**k with Cats’ Deanna Thompson. And ICYMI co-host Rachelle Hampton tells us the good a...

When you turn on the nightly news, what usually leads? Often… It’s violence. A shooting. A 5-car pileup. The portrait of a missing girl. Sometimes it’s not even local. It’s 300 miles away. But the salacious details… they hook you. Host Mariah Smith digs into how violent headlines shape our views on culture and crime. And it doesn’t just hurt the people consuming these stories. It hurts the people...

In its 30 years and counting, the news magazine show Dateline has created an unbeatable formula for true crime. Its mysteries are stranger than fiction. Keith Morrison gently probes. Questioning if what we know… is really what we know. It’s a template that’s so reliable, it’s comforting. In this episode, host Mariah Smith digs into how the news magazine show set the template for true crime, includ...

In the 1990s, a true crime phenomenon took over our lives – the televised trial. For the first time, we weren’t just getting snippets with takes from journalists and pundits. We were watching gavel-to-gavel coverage. Certain cases stuck with us, such as the 1994 trial of the Menendez Brothers and 1995 trial of OJ Simpson. In this episode, host Mariah Smith will dig into how these cases brought us...

In this week’s episode, we’ll dissect our problematic sexualization of serial killers. Yeah, it’s kinda sick that #HotTedBundy is a thing. We’ll talk to criminologist Dawn Cecil and Vox culture reporter Alissa Wilkinson on the fascination around Bundy, the Netflix film that broke Twitter and how we can do better in telling these stories. You won’t want to miss it. A Neon Hum Media and Sony Music E...

Host Mariah Smith is back for season 3 to dissect a messy obsession. This is Spectacle: True Crime. In our pilot episode, we look at how the 2014 podcast Serial changed the true crime game. And how it’s a callback to an OG in the genre, the 1965 true crime novel In Cold Blood. We’ll dissect how Truman Capote got a wee bit too close with killer Perry Smith and how good Phillip Seymour Hoffman was i...

Why is it that after a long, hard day of work we want to unwind with a glass of wine and… murder? From In Cold Blood to Serial, America is obsessed with true crime. The genre has simultaneously stoked our most primal fears, reaffirmed our safety, and transformed us into armchair prosecutors. As a culture we pay close attention, both to piece together the puzzle but also to understand the twisted h...

Host Brent Holmes brings S1 host Mariah Smith on to talk true crime. In this episode, the two dish on three outrageous true crime stories to come out of Las Vegas. They'll dig into Heather Tallchief’s $3.1 million dollar casino heist, the problematic valorizing of LV casino legend and alleged murderer Benny Binion, and the serial killer you probably have never heard of: Samuel Little. Plus, we get...

The Las Vegas residency hasn’t always had the best reputation. Cher, a resident singer herself, once told a journalist that Las Vegas was an “elephant graveyard, where talent goes to die.” But Cher and others have proven that’s not the case. Celine Dion went to Vegas when her career wasn’t exactly peaking and she broke records as the highest grossing resident artist of all time. And then in 2013,...

In Vegas, during a fight weekend, everyone in town knows why you’re there. There’s a camaraderie. It's like no other city in the world. But how did Las Vegas become a boxing mecca to rival New York or Chicago? In this episode, host Brent Holmes talks to Fight Town author Tim Dahlberg and GQ contributor Alex Pappademas on the evolution of Vegas as the boxing epicenter of the country, and the larger...

Films like Ocean’s 11 fulfill this fantasy of beating the house. But in reality, it’s a lot more complex. Because casinos are well-oiled machines. They’re watching everything. Not only that, they’re designed to subconsciously guide you where they want you to go – from the carpet design to the shape of a chair to the decibel level of the slot machine. It’s all carefully curated to keep you there an...

“What Happens Here, Stays Here” became the motto of Las Vegas in 2003. But for many, the 2009 movie The Hangover solidified that slogan. The guys in the film have a bachelor party replete with trashed hotel rooms, tigers in bathrooms and blackout nuptials. There’s a lot of toxic bro tropes – homophobic slurs, objectifying women. In this episode, media scholar Patricia Ventura and journalist and ex...

Las Vegas, for many, is a place where you can play by your own rules and get away with it too. And for Hollywood Madame, Heidi Fleiss, Nevada was the place where her dreams of creating an all-male brothel could come true, but it wasn’t that easy. Even though brothels are legal in parts of the state, its relationship with sex is still fraught. Las Vegas, "Sin City," thrives on selling a certain typ...