Small Town Murder

Listen: Stitcher

I didn’t expect to like Small Town Murders, a comedy-crime anthology podcast that visits a different small town each week to tell the story of a true crime that shaped that place. (Because I’m a terrible person who dislikes both comedy and true-crime. Oh, and podcasts that last more than an hour.)

The stories are good, the hosts are funny — but what I really like is the intro to each episode. Each episode begins with the hosts profiling the week’s small town using demographics on marriage rates, unemployment, education, religiosity, and race. They describe the main economies of the town, its distance from the nearest city, its history and heroes, and real estate prices.

When they’re done, the listener has a real sense of place — and over time, learns to appreciate the variations of small-town America —whether it be a beach town on the Pacific with a sea-food based economy, a manufacturing town in the South riddled with confederate flags, or a resort town in Washington.

It helps that the hosts are two comedians, and that the profiles don’t feel like reports, so much as long, but informative riffs, about a place, and often at the good-natured expense of it.