Why Intelligent People Become Obsessed With True Crime Podcasts (opens in new tab)

There is something almost absurdly modern about listening to a podcast about homicide while standing in line for cold brew. Not because violence is funny. Because the setting is. Human beings once gathered around fires to hear cautionary stories about betrayal, disappearance, dangerous strangers, and the hidden nature of evil. Now we hear them through noise-canceling headphones while buying oat milk and pretending we are “mostly interested in the psychology.” Which, to be fair, many people ge...