Should True Crime Be Tasteful?
For Aaron Habel and Justin Evans, true crime podcasting began as a hobby. The two started recording Generation Why in 2012, after Evans served jury duty on a murder trial. When the 2014 success of Serial drove new listeners toward Generation Why, Habel and Evans knew the podcast had transformed into something more than a hobby: they were telling stories of murder and disaster knowing that the people concerned would be in the audience. It’s as if your pastime of building balsa wood airplanes somehow landed you behind the controls of a 747 full of passengers.
“We record knowing that family members of the victims may be listening,” says Habel. “We find ways to get the information to you where you understand what happened, without having every graphic detail explained. That’s really our goal: that fine line between understanding and making sure we don’t come off as exploitative.”
A woman is murdered. To understand what happened, do you need to know that she was stabbed? If a suspect’s DNA is found on a knife, perhaps so. Then, do you need to know that the victim was sectioned into parts after her death? Again, if the suspect is convicted because he owned the reciprocating saw used to do the sectioning, perhaps you do. Is it vital for the listener to know that the victim’s death was prolonged, or that, during the attack, she inexplicably began to yell, “I’m sorry”…
