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A little over a year ago, Serial debuted, introducing the podcast-listening world to Adnan Syed, an man convicted of murdering his girlfriend when both were in high school. It was a local story, given a national stage. Serial’s second season, which premiered (surprise!) this morning, takes a markedly different approach. You’ve likely heard its story before—just not like this.
This season, Serial investigates the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier in the US Army who abandoned his post in the summer of 2009, only to be captured by the Taliban and held in captivity for nearly five years. The United States retrieved him only by trading five Taliban prisoners for his return.
It was a controversial move on President Obama’s part, and Serial’s decision to take it on—which had been widely suspected, but not confirmed—courts controversy as well. While Syed’s case had already been decided by the courts (appeal notwithstanding), the Bergdahl legal proceedings are very much midstream. He’s still facing a potential court-martial.
The uncertainty of the outcome should make for compelling listening, though, even if the bones of the case are familiar to anyone within shouting distance of cable news last year. Spending eight to ten hours on the Bergdahl case—Serial host Sarah Koenig told the New York Times that they hadn’t yet decided the number of episodes—should also provide a counterpoint to the minutes-long, soundbite-driven news cycle in which most Americans were first introduced to the story. Koenig has also teamed up with Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty scribe Mark Boal, who had previously interviewed Bergdahl extensively, to tell help uncover what exactly happened the night Bergdahl deserted, and what has happened since.
A new season means a few small changes as well. The theme music is different, and while MailChimp (Mail… Kimp?) has returned as a sponsor, it’s joined by other monied interests, which is good! More money means more Serial, and more Serial means more high-quality storytelling that you can listen to on the treadmill. What Koenig and her partners hopes stays the same is the level of success, which may be hard to match. The first season of Serial saw over 100 million downloads. This season seems off to a good start; Serial is once again the top podcast on the iTunes charts
You can download the first episode of the second season on iTunes, or listen at the Serial website, or even, for some reason, on Pandora. Future episodes will debut weekly on Thursdays at 6am ET.
