New York Times, Serial Launch True Crime Podcast ‘The Idiot’ (Exclusive)

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The New York Times and Serial Productions are launching a new true crime podcast based on a family member of New York Times Opinion columnist M. Gessen.

The five-part podcast, The Idiot, is hosted, written and reported by Gessen, who describes disliking their cousin, Allen, growing up, and then being shocked to find out he was arrested for trying to put a hit out on his ex-wife. The podcast follows Allen across the globe, from the Gessen family property in Cape Cod to Russia, Zimbabwe and then to federal prison in California. 

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All five episodes will be available March 26 on all platforms. 

“What I love about this story is that M. has the kind of impatient contempt for the main character that one can truly only have about their own family member,” said Julie Snyder, executive editor of Serial Productions. “They have reported on people who’ve committed terrible crimes, including terrorists and dictators, but they found themself at a loss when it came to understanding their own cousin.”

Ira Glass, host of This American Life, is an editor on the series, and called The Idiot “deeply personal” as well as a true crime podcast that “reinvents the form.”

Gessen joined The Times as an opinion columnist in May 2024. They won a George Polk award for opinion writing and have authored 11 books, including The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, which won the National Book Award in 2017.

The New York Times acquired Serial Productions, the creator of the podcasts Serial and S-Town, in 2020. Since teaming up, the company has launched several shows including Nice White Parents, about the role parents play in school systems, The Improvement Association, a true story about election fraud allegations in North Carolina, and The Kids of Rutherford County, a series produced with ProPublica and WPLN Nashville Public Radio that won the 2023 George Polk award for investigative reporting in podcasting.

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