Serial is the 2014 true crime podcast widely credited with launching the modern podcast boom. Hosted by Sarah Koenig, its first episode premiered on October 3, 2014, as a production of This American Life.
The first season revisited the 1999 murder of Baltimore high-school student Hae Min Lee and the conviction of her former classmate Adnan Syed. Rather than presenting the case in one episode, Serial unfolded it as a continuing investigation, returning each week to evidence, witnesses, timelines, and unanswered questions.
Its serialized structure and unusually large audience transformed podcasting from a niche format into a mainstream storytelling medium. Serial quickly reached the top of iTunes charts, broke download records, and became the first podcast to win a Peabody Award, in 2015.
Crime Junkie and Up and Vanished are also prominent true crime podcasts, but they followed Serial's breakout. Making a Murderer is a television documentary series, not a podcast. Serial's success helped inspire a wave of investigative and true crime audio programs.