Phoebe Judge & Lauren Spohrer AKA Criminal
Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle
Discussion
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
Hi! We are Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, creators of the true-crime podcast, Criminal. We started the show in January of 2014, and funded it out of pocket for the first year. We'd edit and record before and after going to our day jobs. In January 2015, we joined Radiotopia from PRX. Just this month, we've increased production to twice a month, and finally quit our jobs to make the show full-time. We've both worked in public radio for a long time, and are very excited to be our own bosses. Ask us anything.
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Lauren Rosenthal
@laurenthal · radio producer / freelance whale
@laurenspohrer Hey, guys! I've been a huge fan of your show from the beginning, and never quite understood how you pulled it off while still holding down day jobs in radio. Do you have any tips for station-based producers who want to launch their own podcasts on the side (other than "just do it (tm)")??
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
@laurenthal Hey Lauren! Thanks so much for listening! I don't really know how we did it either, in hindsight, but I will say that there were 3 of us and we only put out one episode a month. So, I'd suggest starting with a conservative goal. We gave up a lot of weekends and nights and even some early, early mornings to meet and edit, and I think we were compelled to work that hard because we were excited about the idea for the show.
Major the Bull
@majorthebull · Debutante
@laurenspohrer Hi there.. long time listener, first time chatter. Has involving yourself in someone else's crime story ever caused you personal problems? Do you worry about this?
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
@majorthebull Hi Debutante! So far, we haven't had any issues like this, but I do occasionally wonder if it's kind of weird for me to be spending X number of hours a night googling horrible things. Sometimes I imagine what my search history would look like to the NSA :)
Major the Bull
@majorthebull · Debutante
@phoebevjudge Do you have a pre-recording vocal regimine that keeps you sounding so smooth?
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Phoebe Judge
@phoebevjudge
@majorthebull @phoebevjudge Ha. Yes--seltzer and lots of blowing my nose.
Alex Carter
@alexcartaz · Operations @ 60dB. Ex-PH Podcasts 😻
Hi @laurenspohrer! How did you both become so interested in crime? =)
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
@alexcartaz Hi Alex. I didn't even know how interested I was in crime until I realized I had collected a ton of old noir novels and then one summer I watched every single episode of Law & Order SVU in a huge binge. But the idea for the show was pretty simple -- we wanted to make something that wasn't already being done in a public radio style (this was pre-Serial).
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
Hey Guys! What is your process for making an episode and how has it evolved?
BTW Lauren you want to reply under the person's question where it says "reply"
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
@eriktorenberg Hey Erik, the process is pretty long. We spend a lot of our time looking for stories that really surprise us, or that get us thinking in a new way, and then we usually contact the person and have a pretty long phone conversation with them to see if they'd be a good fit for the show. If they are, we record the interview, and then we transcribe it. We use our favorite parts of the transcript to construct a script, and then we have a bunch of rounds of ruthless edits. I wrote a lot about our process here: https://catapult.co/stories/what...
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
Hi! What prominent unsolved crime most intrigues each of you?
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Phoebe Judge
@phoebevjudge
@phoebevjudge @ems_hodge Just kidding. I don't know there are so many crimes that I am totally intrigued by. We are working on a missing persons case right now in a tiny little town and no one but the people in the town have ever heard of it and that is what I am thinking about a lot lately.
Alex Carter
@alexcartaz · Operations @ 60dB. Ex-PH Podcasts 😻
@phoebevjudge @ems_hodge I secretly wished this was the focus of serial season #2!
Lauren Rosenthal
@laurenthal · radio producer / freelance whale
@phoebevjudge @ems_hodge Do you ever encounter any resistance when you try to report on crime in small or rural communities? If you do -- or I guess, even if you don't -- what do you to make people feel comfortable opening up?
Ky Vy Le Duc
@kyvy · filmmaker
Hey there. I love your podcast. :) I want to know more on how you find the stories to work on. How do you begin? What are usually the starting point?
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
Hey Ladies! Thanks for being here :)
I've met so many people over the past few months that LOVE criminal, including myself. If you had to recommend just a few episodes for a new listener to start with, what would they be?
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Phoebe Judge
@phoebevjudge
@jacqvon I think we both have totally different favorite episodes. I always tell people that Ep. 1 is a pretty good start because the topic is just so wild. I really love Ep. 4 about the mother/daughter coroner team. I also think the episode we did called The Fifth Suspect is pretty powerful. And we did an episode this summer about Petrified Wood theft in Arizona that people seemed to like a lot.
Aurelia
@uhhhreally
How does one become their own boss?
I started blogging on a true crime podcast. I definitely prefer and envision myself working in that freelance setting. I would like to do something peripherally related to Criminal, even if it's just a blog, that garners a devoted attraction. Since I'm inexperienced, what's your advice on working hard?
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Lauren Spohrer
@laurenspohrer
@uhhhreally Hi Aurelia - what's your blog called? Share the link! We never, ever thought Criminal would become our full-time jobs, so we're still getting the hang of it. It's great in some ways, but being your own boss also means that you can drive yourself up the wall asking "is it good enough?" We don't have an editor or boss-figure who stamps it "complete," the way we did in our public radio jobs. So I'd say that if you find the thing that you're really, really excited about -- you will want to work around the clock to make it as good as you imagine it can be.
Aurelia
@uhhhreally
@laurenspohrer https://aureliaisblogging.wordpr... All entries minus one about online dating (lol) focus on Missing Maura Murray. My blog is called Aurelia is Blogging.