Podcast Corner: Four recent shows for holiday listening
Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery.
The brutal killing of John and Joyce Sheridan, a high-society couple with personal ties to three governors, including Chris Christie, in 2014 - their bodies were found in their burning bedroom - shocks the political world. Ruled a murder-suicide, by the final episode, we’re told that a lot of people walked away from these murders. It’s expertly reported and told by WNYC’s Nancy Solomon. There’s eight episodes to sink your teeth into, all clocking in around the 30-minute mark.
The synopsis - “For 20 years, Sarah Delashmit told people around her that she had cancer, muscular dystrophy, and other illnesses. She used a wheelchair and posted selfies from a hospital bed. She told friends and coworkers she was trapped in abusive relationships, or that she was the mother of children who had died. It was all a con. Sympathy was both her great need and her powerful weapon.”
With six episodes running through some of the people Delashmit conned, the first episode, ‘Bethany’, will leave your jaw on the floor as it unfurls. If you’re on a plane, you might need to get a stiff drink in to settle your nerves.
Jamie Loftus investigates American spiritualism, a tradition of communing with the dead that takes place in camps full of mediums across the country. Examining grief, religion, and loneliness, it ponders who is drawn to the camps, how the religion came together, and why the tarot card readers and seance-havers are fighting. Wrapping up its nine-episode run at the end of June, there’s a lot in this series. With episodes clocking in from 49 minutes to tipping over an hour, Ghost Church requires your attention.
LBC journalist and broadcaster Shelagh Fogarty has just launched her new podcast. A five-parter, Fogarty takes listeners through her full account of being stalked and asks what it will take to stop this growing crime. Over the course of the series, she’ll talk with psychologists, solicitors, police officers, and other victims to better understand the effects of the crime and the action needed to end stalking. The podcast poses the questions: Are we all, in some way, complicit in women feeling unsafe, and what will it take to stop stalking?
