Sarah Koenig didn’t expect her new podcast, Serial, to get so much press, but she says the attention helped keep her on her toes: “It was just a constant reminder of how careful we needed to be,” Koenig tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross.
Serial is Koenig’s reinvestigation of the murder of Hae Min Lee, a Maryland high school student who was strangled in 1999. Her body was discovered buried in a park in Baltimore. Her schoolmate and ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted of the murder and is serving a life sentence. Nearly 16 years later, he continues to maintain his innocence. Syed’s conviction was based on testimony from his friend, Jay — identified only by first name in the podcast — who said he helped Syed bury the body.
Since its launch in October, Serial has become the most popular podcast in history. Online the story took on a life of its own, as podcast listeners — wrapped up in the “whodunit” aspect of the case — began tracking and discussing the evidence presented in each episode. Serial is a spinoff of This American Life, where Koenig was a producer for 10 years. The first season of 12 episodes ended on Thursday.
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