Makers Of ‘Serial,’ ‘This American Life’ Announce New Podcast

Image by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

By Talya Zax March 14, 2017

If you love “This American Life” and “Serial,” you’re in luck: This morning, the creators of those two podcasts announced that in two short weeks they’ll release a new podcast, “S-Town.”

Better yet? All of the episodes will be released on March 28, so you can binge-listen to your heart’s content.

What’s the story? So far, the producers have sketched out just enough of the story to signal its luridness.

“John despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it,” the podcast’s website teases.

“He asks a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.”

A brief preview for the podcast begins with a journalist discussing the challenges of repairing old clocks. After discussing how clock refurbishers look for so-called “witness marks” — “actual impressions and outlines and discolorations left inside the clock of pieces that might have once been there” — the journalist admits he only knows all this because, once, “an antique clock-restorer contacted me and asked me to help him solve a murder.”

Murder? Antiquing? A journalist speaking in sheepish tones, and an Alabaman speaking in outraged, twanging ones? What more could our podcast-loving hearts desire?

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount