Serial
Our newest podcast, “The Last 12 Weeks” is out now. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts. Serial Productions makes narrative podcasts that have transformed the medium. Sign up for our newsletter at nytimes.com/serialnewsletter to find out about new shows, get behind the scenes stories, and see photos and videos you can’t see on a podcast. To get full access to Serial Productions shows, and to other New York Times podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, subscribe at nytimes.com/podcasts. Have a story pitch, a tip, or feedback on our shows? Email us at [email protected] "Serial" began in 2014 as a spinoff of the public radio show "This American Life." In 2017, we formed Serial Productions when we launched the podcast “S-Town.” Since then, Serial Productions has produced every season of “Serial” along with shows like “Nice White Parents,” “The Trojan Horse Affair,” “The Coldest Case in Laramie,” “The Retrievals” and more. In 2020, we joined the New York Times Company. Our shows have reached many millions of listeners and have won nearly every major journalism award for audio, including the first-ever Peabody Award given to a podcast.
Get AI-powered summaries of Serial
Never miss key insights. Receive episode summaries straight to your inbox.
Recent Episodes
The Last 12 Weeks - Ep. 5
Jun 18, 2026Days before the execution, the defense team scrambles to respond to an unexpected ruling, while the lead lawyer makes what may be his final visit to David Wood on death row. Everyone waits to find out...
Summary Preview
This final episode of The Last Twelve Weeks chronicles the intense final days before David Wood's scheduled execution in March, following his defense team's frantic legal maneuvering and ultimately successful effort to secure a stay. The episode captures the emotional toll on lawyers, the condemned man, and victims' families as courts issued unexpected rulings. Months later, the CCA ordered a hearing on Wood's innocence claims, though questions about the death penalty's arbitrariness and the case's ultimate resolution remain unanswered.
- The Final Visit Before Execution
- Greg's Vigil at the Holiday Inn
The Last 12 Weeks - Ep. 4
Jun 18, 2026To justify sentencing David Wood to death, prosecutors argued that he was a convicted rapist turned serial killer. And yet, Wood has insisted all along that isn’t true. We head to death row to hear hi...
Summary Preview
This episode of The Last 12 Weeks focuses on death row inmate David Wood, scheduled for execution in 22 days. The podcast examines his character by presenting two contrasting perspectives: testimony from Christy, a rape victim from his past, and an interview with David himself on death row. The episode grapples with fundamental questions about who David Wood is and what he's capable of, as his lawyers argue he's innocent of the desert murders while acknowledging his prior rape convictions.
- Christy's Story: The 1986 Rape
- The Geography of Guilt
The Last 12 Weeks - Ep. 3
Jun 18, 2026In the final weeks before the execution date, the defense team has to decide just how far it’s willing to push people to save David Wood’s life. The team’s deliberations lead to a key witness on his d...
Summary Preview
This episode of The Last 12 Weeks follows defense lawyers racing against time—just 42 days before David Wood's scheduled execution—as they pursue alternate suspects, attempt to secure recantations from jailhouse informants, and even approach the victim's mother in hopes of stopping the execution. The lawyers navigate morally complex situations while confronting the enormous pressure of trying to save their client's life, including visiting a dying man in hospice, tracking down alternate suspects who confessed decades ago, and ultimately filing a massive 371-page habeas corpus petition with little chance of success.
- Tracking Down Eddie Barton: The Alternate Suspect Who Confessed
- The Randy Wells Dilemma: Confronting a Dying Jailhouse Informant
The Last 12 Weeks - Ep. 2
Jun 18, 2026The way the state constructed the case, there’s no one big shiny piece of evidence for the defense to knock down. Instead, there are a million little threads to pull at. With less than two months unti...
Summary Preview
This episode follows defense attorneys Greg Warchuk, Naomi Fenwick, and Jeremy as they race to find new evidence to save David Wood from execution, with just 58 days remaining. The team investigates multiple leads including a woman who believes her father committed the murders, searches for alternate suspects like Michael Plyler, and discovers a crucial witness named Ramona who claims police coerced testimony and ignored evidence pointing to other suspects.
- The Challenges of a Circumstantial Case
- A New Lead: Michelle Bradley's Alternative Suspect Theory
The Last 12 Weeks - Ep. 1
Jun 18, 2026In 1992, David Wood became El Paso’s most notorious convicted serial killer. He has been on death row ever since. More than 30 years later, his lawyers have just a few months to argue his innocence a...
Summary Preview
This is the premiere episode of 'The Last Twelve Weeks,' a series documenting defense lawyer Greg Warchuk's race against time to stop the execution of David Wood, a Texas man on death row for six murders. With only 87 days until the scheduled execution, Warchuk believes Wood is innocent and urgently seeks DNA testing and support from the incoming El Paso District Attorney. The episode introduces a case from the 1980s involving the 'Desert Killer' murders and explores new evidence from a jailhouse witness claiming the prosecution's case was fabricated.
- The Phone Call That Changed Everything
- Greg Warchuk Takes the Case
The Last 12 Weeks - Trailer
Jun 16, 2026In 1992, David Wood was convicted of murdering young women and girls and burying them in the desert outside El Paso. He has been on death row ever since. “The Last 12 Weeks” takes you behind the scene...
Summary Preview
This is a promotional trailer for 'The Last Twelve Weeks,' a new investigative podcast series from Serial Productions, The Marshall Project, and The New York Times. Sarah Koenig introduces the show, which follows capital defense lawyers racing against time during the final weeks before a scheduled execution in Texas, as they work to prove their client—a convicted serial killer—is actually innocent.
- Introduction and Sarah Koenig's Criminal Justice Background
- The Premise: A Death Row Countdown
The Idiot - Chapter 5
Mar 26, 2026Allen will almost certainly be released in a few years. What should M.’s family do with a guy who refuses to own up to his own crime? Can he be re-integrated into the family? Should he be? While M. ...
Summary Preview
In this final episode of The Idiot, host M. Gessen confronts the aftermath of Alan's conviction for attempting to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife Priscilla. With Alan halfway through his prison sentence, the family must grapple with his eventual release and potential reintegration. The episode explores the opposing trajectories of healing and denial: Priscilla rebuilding a stable life for herself and her children, while Alan's mother Lena continues to destabilize that security through boundary violations and denial. Ultimately, Gessen decides to confront Alan directly about his continued lies and what accountability might require.
- Family Fractures and the Question of Forgiveness
- Priscilla's New Life: Independence Through Sacrifice
The Idiot - Chapter 4
Mar 26, 2026Allen finally agrees to talk … and talk and talk, for 35 hours of interviews. M. wants to understand Allen on his own terms, to try and figure out how this scion of bohemian intellectuals ended up hir...
Summary Preview
In this deeply personal episode, journalist M. Gessen examines their cousin Alan's sentencing for hiring an undercover FBI agent to kill his ex-wife Priscilla. Through extensive prison interviews, Gessen explores Alan's transformation from a struggling Soviet immigrant to a McKinsey consultant, and attempts to understand how he arrived at such a desperate solution. The narrative weaves through Alan's difficult immigration experience, his need to be useful and solve problems, his relationship with his overbearing mother Lena, and his tumultuous marriage to Priscilla—ultimately revealing a man trapped between his love for his son O, his inability to win Priscilla's love, and his mother's controlling presence.
- The Sentencing: Maximum Penalty
- Breaking the Ice: Prison Conversations Begin
The Idiot - Chapter 3
Mar 26, 2026M. attends Allen’s trial in San Francisco. The FBI’s star witness, an agent who went by “David," plays his undercover recordings of Allen. They reveal how Allen’s scheme to deport Priscilla turned int...
Summary Preview
In this episode, journalist M. Gessen attends the federal trial of their cousin Alan Gessen, who was arrested for hiring someone to kill his ex-wife Priscilla. Through surveillance recordings and FBI testimony, the prosecution reveals how Alan negotiated with an undercover agent to have Priscilla murdered for $50,000. The episode explores the family's struggle to reconcile their memories of Alan with the damning evidence, while M. Gessen wrestles with their own unexpected desire for justice despite typically opposing harsh sentencing.
- The Trial Begins: A Family Confrontation
- The FBI Investigation: From Money Laundering to Murder
The Idiot - Chapter 2
Mar 26, 2026M. seeks out Allen’s ex-wife, Priscilla, who tells her side of the story. It begins with a whirlwind romance but quickly turns to chart Allen’s betrayal: taking her son from Russia and stranding Prisc...
Summary Preview
This episode chronicles the harrowing story of Priscilla, whose international romance with Alan Gessen turned into a nightmare of custody battles, alleged orchestrated attacks, and ultimately a murder-for-hire plot. After meeting in Zimbabwe in 2011, their relationship spiraled into a toxic cycle culminating in Alan kidnapping their son O from Russia in 2019. What followed was a years-long battle across three countries involving violence, imprisonment, and legal warfare, ending with Alan's arrest for attempting to hire someone to kill Priscilla.
- The FBI's Early Morning Knock
- The Whirlwind Romance and Red Flags
The Idiot - Chapter 1
Mar 26, 2026For decades, M. simply disliked Allen. They saw him as a fool, a pompous “international businessman” who bragged about shady deals and drove fancy cars while living in Eastern Europe and Africa. But o...
Summary Preview
In this intimate and shocking first episode of 'The Idiot,' journalist Masha Gessen recounts how their elastic, immigrant family absorbed cousin Alan and his mother Lena after they arrived from Moscow with Alan's five-year-old son—but without his mother Priscilla. What begins as a seemingly messy custody dispute transforms into something far darker: Alan's arrest for hiring someone to murder Priscilla. Gessen navigates the uncomfortable territory of being a double agent, helping Priscilla locate her son while maintaining family relationships, only to watch the situation escalate from international parental kidnapping to an alleged murder-for-hire plot.
- The Elastic Family and Alan's Arrival
- Alan's Character and Questionable Past
The Idiot - Trailer
Mar 19, 2026The New York Times writer M. Gessen is widely known for their award-winning writing about totalitarianism, terrorism and the erosion of human rights. Now, M. is examining a more personal target: their...
Summary Preview
This is a promotional trailer for an upcoming podcast series called 'The Idiot' from Serial Productions and the New York Times, hosted by M. Gessen. The show, launching March 26th, is a five-episode investigative series about Gessen's cousin Alan and a shocking family crime. While Gessen is known for writing about serious topics like totalitarianism and human rights, this podcast takes a personal turn, combining dark subject matter with humor as Gessen tries to understand what their cousin was thinking.
- Series Introduction and Host Background
- The Show's Unique Tone and Format
The Preventionist - Ep. 3
Oct 30, 2025What’s the harm of “better safe than sorry” in cases where abuse is ambiguous? One mother’s story is our answer to that question. Our newest podcast, “The Preventionist” is out now. Search for it wh...
Summary Preview
This episode follows Amanda Surinofsky's harrowing journey through the child welfare system after her newborn son was injured in what she claims was an accident involving her toddler. Despite Amanda's explanation, Dr. Deborah Asernio-Jensen's child protection team diagnosed abusive head trauma, leading to the removal of all five of Amanda's children for nearly four years. The episode explores the devastating impact of family separation, questions the certainty of medical diagnoses in abuse cases, and reveals Amanda's ongoing struggle to reunite her family—including a custody battle for her youngest son who has been in foster care so long he barely knows her as his mother.
- Hospital and County Officials Defend Their Actions
- The Night Everything Changed