9 Podcasts to Get You Pumped About the New Season of Serial

Go back to where it all began with Serial's parent podcast, This American Life. The award-winning show is one of the most popular in the country, and for good reason. Each week, host Ira Glass announces a theme and reporters tell a variety of different stories that pertain to it. The topics can range from animal sacrifice to middle school, and often the show will be dedicated to telling just one story in its entirety. I recommend starting with an old episode called "House on Loon Lake." It's dramatic and filled with mystery, just like Serial.

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If you love the creepy nature of Serial, we have a good suggestion. Those familiar with Reddit have probably happened upon the NoSleep section, a thread dedicated to fictional but terrifying stories. Well, some genius made a podcast out of it. Every week or two (it's not particularly regular), there's a new episode that features several contributors reading the most chilling stories from the site. Believe it or not, they're even creepier to hear at night driving alone than reading on your laptop under the covers.

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If your favorite episodes of Serial are the ones that describe the crime in morbid detail, True Murder is the podcast for you. In each episode, author Dan Zupansky interviews fellow crime writers about their books. You can get the inside scoop on killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy straight from the people who know the most about them.

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Another podcast dedicated to true crime is Criminal. There are 31 episodes so far, and each is as fascinating as the last. The investigative episodes focus on everything from a woman claiming the "PMS defense" when accused of murder to a crime ring that steals flytraps. It's weird, well produced, and not at all easy to turn off.

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If you just love Serial and Serial alone, that's OK too, because podcasts about it sprung up during its run. Slate started a special edition of its spoiler podcast just for the show, called Serial Spoiler Specials. They've recapped and picked apart episodes five through twelve of Serial, plus a handful of specials. So if your friends are sick of talking about the show, you can just listen to this to get your fill of theories.

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If you like the serialized nature of Serial, you might want to try StartUp. It's also an offshoot of This American Life, and it is hosted by another TAL reporter, Alex Blumberg, who sets out to start his own business . . . in podcasting. It's very meta, and if your favorite part of Serial is the storytelling, you'll probably enjoy this too.

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Strangers isn't as mysterious as Serial, but it is just as gripping. Each episode (released weekly) tells the story of two strangers whose lives intertwine, and sometimes there are episodes that are just about host Lea Thau. For example, three episodes in a row are dedicated to her quest to find out why she's single. All the stories are real and just as extraordinary as Adnan's case.

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