You Can’t Make This Up

 We tweet, we like, and we share — but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? The documentary-drama, The Social Dilemma, explores the dangerous impacts of social networking by talking to the Silicon Valley insiders who know it best. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On...) speaks with the film's director, Jeff Orlowski. This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch the whole series before listening on...

Fear City: New York vs The Mafia, chronicles the rise and fall of New York’s most powerful Mafia families from the perspective of the FBI agents and prosecutors who risked their lives to take them down. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On...) speaks with the director, Sam Hobkinson. This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch the whole series before listening on. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our guest was recorded in his home and not in a studio...

Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary film explores the tragic disappearance of Shanann Watts and her two young daughters in Frederick, Colorado. It becomes clear that Shanann’s husband wasn’t the man he appeared to be. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On...) speaks with the film's director, Jenny Popplewell. This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch the whole series before listening on...

For more than three decades, Unsolved Mysteries engrossed audiences with true tales of missing persons, unsolved murders, and paranormal occurrences - touching on a wide range of stories from UFO sightings to the Kennedy assassinations. Over 260 cold cases have been solved because of tips from viewers of the show. Now, some of the most chilling mysteries are still waiting to be solved in Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 2, now streaming on Netflix...

When a woman is found dead in a luxury hotel room in Oslo, Norway, it initially appears to be a suicide until several pieces of evidence begin to suggest otherwise. She has no identification. She registered at the hotel under a false name. There was no blood on her hand or the gun that killed her. No one even reported her missing...

In 1965, repeat sex-offender Lester Eubanks confessed to killing 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener and was sentenced to death. However, Lester's sentence reverted to life in prison when a 1972 Supreme Court ruling abolished the death penalty. While in prison, he joined a program allowing inmates to leave the grounds. Around a year later, while on a Christmas shopping trip to the mall, Eubanks escaped. He remains a fugitive nearly 50 years later...

Nearly ten years ago, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded devastated the northeastern coast of Japan.  It generated a tsunami that at its peak reached 131 feet high. Close to twenty-thousand lives were lost. Twenty-five hundred more remain missing. Then, in one of the worst-hit cities, people began to experience strange phenomena. Taxi drivers spoke of “ghost passengers.”  Some even talked of being possessed by lost spirits...

On an icy, winter night nearly 10 years ago, police found 55-year-old JoAnn Romain’s abandoned car outside her church in a Michigan suburb. They assumed she drowned in a nearby lake by suicide. But her body was recovered 70 days later in the Detroit River 35 miles away from where police allege she had entered the water. Her family suspects foul play. They have a list of suspects and will not stop until they find the truth about what happened to their mother...

 In 1989, two-year-old Christopher Dansby and 19-month old Shane Walker were abducted from the same Harlem playground within months of each other.  Police and locals were put on high alert, but no trace of the missing toddlers was ever found. Three decades later their families have not given up hope. "Stolen Kids" is the final episode of Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 2. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, our host Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On...) speaks with director Jessica Dimmock...

In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On...) speaks with Trial 4's director Rémy Burkel. This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch the whole series before listening or reading on. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our guest was not recorded in a studio. We appreciate your understanding of the change in audio quality. Trial 4 is a timely, sweeping story about criminal justice, police power, and systemic racism in America...