Two voices trading crimes, horror films and grim history.
Crime Culture is a two-voice show in which Hayley and Kaitlin take turns: one brings the research, and the other hears it fresh and reacts. Its range runs from Sandy Hook to medicinal cannibalism to a wisecracking recap of The Human Centipede (First Sequence), with plenty of banter around the heavy parts.
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Crime Culture is built on two voices, Hayley and Kaitlin, and it covers more ground than its name suggests. Crimes are part of it. So are horror films, grim corners of medical history and a religious rite that Hollywood keeps filming. What ties them together is what happens to a dark subject once the culture gets hold of it. The format is a handoff. The two take turns owning an episode: one researches and presents, while the other hears the material for the first time and reacts as it comes. Openings wander. There are false starts, confusion over which week of the season it is, and a detour into High School Musical before anyone reaches the topic. Under the chatter sits real reading. An episode on exorcism quotes Diane Winston, identified as an expert on religion and the media at the University of Southern California, and film critic Mark Kermode on why the ritual plays so well on screen, and names The Exorcist from 1973 as the film that defined the subgenre. The cannibalism episode, which its presenter admits took several angles to crack, surveys remedies harvested from the dead, from moss grown on skulls to the blood of fallen gladiators, which Roman spectators collected as a supposed cure for epilepsy. Along the way the pair wonder aloud whether epilepsy was once a catch-all label. Horror movies get the recap treatment. The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is retold with running commentary on a tiny Nokia phone, lazy exposition and a mangled German goodbye. Another episode reads out a first-person post from someone who knowingly bought a house where a murder had happened, drawn by a price too good to refuse. The heaviest material gets a different register. In the Sandy Hook episode the jokes drop away as the pair remember victims one at a time. They quote families on favorite colors, school subjects and a girl who led grace at dinner. The sign-off asks listeners to be kind and hug the people around them. A community formed around the show, with a Discord for pet photos, crafts and recommendations and a Halloween livestream on Twitch. The final stretch ran as an October season the pair call Spooktober. The run is now complete. It ends on a farewell episode with special guests, a spooky story read aloud and direct thanks to listeners, and it leaves a full archive for anyone who finds it late.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes dark subjects talked through in a loose, jokey conversation, and who wants horror films and odd history mixed in with real cases. Also a good fit for someone happy to work through a finished archive rather than follow an ongoing show.
What sets it apart: Because the two take turns presenting, each topic lands on someone hearing it for the first time, and the range goes past cases into horror films and how a rite like exorcism became a screen staple. The show can also move from giddy tangents to a careful remembrance of victims when a case like Sandy Hook calls for it.
Hayley Langan and Kaitlin Mahar talk about true crime events and how they have influenced our culture through film, literature, music, and the way we live.
From bunyip giggles to Sandy Hook's children, your emotional dial needs a wide range.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose Halloween farewell folds community gratitude into the eerie story of a woman appearing where she should not be.
Crime Culture signs off with a Halloween episode that keeps its affectionate disorder close while still making room for a genuinely eerie story.
A relaxed look at exorcism as ritual, spectacle, and lasting horror shorthand.
Crime Culture looks at exorcism as religious ritual and pop-culture spectacle, with Hayley and Caitlin weighing whether screen versions honor the practice or let theatrical horror take charge.
Haley and Caitlin make the stranded-car setup feel like a loose, funny horror recap.
Crime Culture ends its Haley Gets High segment with Haley and Caitlin talking through The Human Centipede: First Sequence as a loose back-and-forth, not a polished recap.
A somber, compassionate episode where small details about the children carry the weight.
Crime Culture takes a quiet, grief-aware path through the tragedy by staying close to the children who died, including Josephine Gay and Dylan Hockley, and drawing from family statements and published accounts.
A murder-linked house turns a Spooktober AITA debate into a question of disclosure and responsibility.
Crime Culture uses its Spooktober slot for an AITA-style debate rather than a fully researched case, and the shift gives the episode a loose, self-aware charge.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
The hosts discuss behind-the-scenes production quirks and introduce themselves as the true crime culture podcast Crime Culture.
The hosts introduce themselves and discuss aging, then announce a gift exchange for Spooktober.
["Crime Culture ends Spooktober with Caitlin, Haley, Michael, and Elliot reading spooky stories on the show's final episode, while cat children scream in the background.", "Michael says he wrote the theme music to sit between 'Stranger Things,' 'Ghostbusters,' and 'Thriller,' and Elliot jokes that he edited every episode in Pro Tools 11 and Audacity.", "Caitlin's 'Clown Statue' follows Morgan babysitting two children in a house near the city and calling the parents after spotting a life-size clown in the bedroom.", "Other segments cover a six-year-old's cell phone photo with a hidden face, the murder ballad 'The Two Sisters' or 'The Wind and the Rain,' a haunted-house story in Eldridge Hollow, and a Google Maps tale that tracks the same blurred woman across Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, London, Venice, Zurich, and Hong Kong."]
Crime Culture’s penultimate episode, "365 - Exorcism," traces exorcism from the Greek "exorchismos" to modern horror.
Crime Culture's Haley and Caitlin recap Tom Six's The Human Centipede: First Sequence as a Haley Gets High episode, and Haley says she had never seen the movie before.
Crime Culture's Sandy Hook episode follows the December 14, 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut, and frames it as a fact-first account of a mass school shooting.
Crime Culture's Haley and Caitlin spend this Spooktober episode reading Reddit's Am I the Asshole posts about a 14-year-old vandalism case, a hidden felony, a girlfriend who ends up in prison, a murder house, and daughters named after Hayley and Mckayla.
Crime Culture hosts Haley and Caitlin classify cannibalism into forms including institutionalized, survival, pathological, medical, and gastronomic practices.
Crime Culture examines Brittany Murphy’s career from childhood performing ambitions and Clueless to roles in 8 Mile, Sin City, Girl, Interrupted, and Happy Feet.
Crime Culture's Edgar Allan Poe episode traces Poe's career from his 1809 birth in Boston and brief enrollment at the University of Virginia to his influence on detective fiction.
Crime Culture hosts Haley and Caitlin continue their countdown of the show's highest listenership outside the United States with Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the beginning of the United Kingdom.
Crime Culture episode 357, "The United Nations of Horror: Part 1," ranks international listeners outside the United States and begins with Portugal, Germany, and Spain.
The hosts discuss their Spooktober completion, Halloween live stream plans, and Secret Satan gift exchange.
Hayley and Kaitlin discuss true crime's influence on culture, starting with a personal update about their cat Bean.