About This Episode
Serial Productions — the production company behind one of the most influential true crime podcasts in history — is back with a new project. In May 2026, it emerged that the company is working on a new series called The Good Whale, which is expected to follow the narrative and journalistic style that Serial has become renowned for.
Serial Changed an Entire Genre
When the first season of the Serial podcast was released in 2014, something unusual happened in the media landscape. Host Sarah Koenig and her team told the story of Adnan Syed — a young man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee — in a format that combined in-depth journalism with serialized storytelling. Millions of listeners around the world held their breath from episode to episode, and the concept of "binge-listening" suddenly became a reality. The Serial podcast left a permanent mark on how true crime is told.
Since then, Serial Productions has delivered projects such as the acclaimed S-Town, which was simultaneously a piece of reportage, a portrait and a philosophical meditation on a life in Alabama, as well as Nice White Parents, which examined racial dynamics within the American school system. What all of these projects share is a high journalistic standard and an ability to find the human stories behind complex systems.