Small talk first, then the case file opens.
Kris and Honda warm up with small talk about mugs, gum and deadlines, then turn to real cases such as the Delphi murders and Jennifer Pan's faked student life. The case details are researched and specific, while the reactions are unguarded, practical and easily sidetracked.
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Hidden Among Us is built from two very different kinds of talk. The first is the warm-up, where Kris and Honda wander wherever the moment goes: whether anyone really likes white mugs, a Starbucks 50-year anniversary cup used for coffee drunk cold, mid-semester deadlines, a Christmas song nobody can quite get right. News drifts in as well, with one warm-up turning to Joe Biden being sworn in, caught as breaking news in the small hours. Some of the most revealing moments are about the show itself, like Kris texting Honda late at night to say a case write-up had run to seven pages, then correcting it to nine. Honda points out that Kris calls every case interesting. Then the second kind of talk starts. The excerpts range from Delphi, Indiana, where the bodies of Abigail Williams and Liberty German were found near the Monon High Bridge Trail, to a quiet Luton street where Sameena Iman's car turned up with no fingerprints in it and the driver's seat pushed too far back for her height. Another case follows Jennifer Pan, who kept up the appearance of studying at Ryerson University and later the University of Toronto, down to buying textbooks and taking notes on pharmacology videos. A New Year's special turns to John Edwards Robinson, who posed as a wealthy businessman and philanthropist and kept cashing a missing woman's pension checks for seven years. The narration is heavy on dates, ages and places. The reactions are anything but formal. Told of a woman who used ripped-up curtains and plastic bags as diapers, the conversation stops to walk through what a baby's changing routine should involve, from wet wipes to lotion. Robinson's scheme draws a plain question about why no social worker caught it. Jennifer Pan's charade gets a flat verdict: tiring and excessive. Slip-ups stay on the recording, as when a tangent about star signs derails the Delphi case details and ends in the admission that the episode is 'full of dumb dumb moments'. In the excerpts, the paranormal side shows up in the holiday specials, which carry two subjects in a single title: '70: Christmas Special (The Murder of Sameena Iman & The Huldufólk of Iceland)' and '71: New Year’s Special (John Edwards Robinson & The Demon Cat of D.C.)'. Elsewhere the titles read like a case list, from '74: The Kidnapping of Shannon Matthews' and '73: The Delphi Murders' to '33: Gary Heidnik'. For a first listen, '72: The Case of Jennifer Pan' shows the format clearly, pairing a detailed account of an elaborate lie with blunt, everyday reactions. Sign-offs invite listeners to send in stories of their own, which fits a show that sounds more like a conversation than a broadcast.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants real crime cases told with researched detail but met with gut reactions and friendly digressions, rather than a tightly produced documentary tone.
What sets it apart: The gap between careful case notes and the unpolished, practical reactions to them gives the show its character. Its holiday specials also name a criminal case and a paranormal subject together in one title.
Lock your doors and burn some sage as three best friends share hair-raising true crime and paranormal stories. Join us every Monday!
The white mug gets questioned before the kidnapping case; you're in for Kris and Honda's catch-up.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid, conversational review of Shannon Matthews's home life, shaped by social-service warnings and evidence of serious child neglect.
Episode 74 looks at Shannon Matthews by first taking stock of the home around her: Karen's six children, five different fathers, and neglect severe enough for the children to be placed on an at-risk register.
A conversational Delphi timeline tracks two girls from a routine hike into a missing-person search.
Hidden Among Us frames the Delphi case around the day Abigail Williams and Liberty German went to the Monon High Bridge area in Delphi, Indiana, and did not meet Liberty's father afterward. Its clearest work is in the early timeline: the 1:35 p.m. drop-off, Liberty's 2:07 p.m.
A student lie hardens into routine through fake notes, invented cover, and the strain of keeping a false life intact.
Jennifer's false life gives this episode a clear, unsettling shape. She tells her parents she is studying at Ryerson University after claiming a $3,000 scholarship, then later says she has been accepted into a pharmacology course at the University of Toronto.
A conversational New Year special frames Robinson's deception through the frightening ease with which people can vanish from view.
Hidden Among Us starts episode 71, a New Year special, in a loose 2022 register before settling into Robinson's pattern of presenting himself as a wealthy businessman and philanthropist.
A Christmas Eve episode moves from shopping chatter into a suspicious disappearance, then closes with an Icelandic elf detour.
Christmas reaches Hidden Among Us through a brief last-minute-shopping lead-in before the episode settles into Samina Iman's disappearance and suspected murder.
Spooky cases with a loud mouth.
Two friends, real crimes, and a running bingo card.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
Hidden Among Us episode 74 follows the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews, who was reported missing on 19 February 2008 after last being seen near Westmoor Junior High School and the Dewsbury Sports Centre swimming pool.
Hidden Among Us episode 73 centers on the Delphi murders of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, whose bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana on February 14, 2017.
Hidden Among Us episode 72 covers the case of Jennifer Pan, beginning with the November 8, 2010 911 call after a home invasion in which Big Pan was killed and Han Pan was shot in the shoulder and face.
Hidden Among Us episode 71 opens with New Year’s banter about “2022” and manifesting goals before shifting into John Edward Robinson, described as an American serial killer, con man, kidnapper, and forger tied to three murders in and around Kansas City.
Hidden Among Us episode 70 pairs a Christmas shopping conversation with the murder of Samina Iman, a 34-year-old Costco marketing manager who disappeared after leaving for Birmingham’s Malmaison Hotel on Christmas Eve 2014.
Honda presents the 2000 murder of Mikio, Yasuko, Nina, and Rei Miyazawa in Setagaya, Tokyo.
A handwritten note found at Camp Scott two months before June 1977 threatened to kill three girls in tent one.
Honda recounts how Hope College students made Who Killed Janet Chandler, a 2004 documentary about Janet Chandler’s 1979 murder.
Three friends share a true crime story and discuss recent events like the inauguration.
Three friends share true crime and paranormal stories, with a casual, humorous tone.
The hosts introduce their first episode without a co-host, discuss changes to make the podcast more crime-focused, and manifest good energy for the new year.
Three friends celebrate reaching 2000 downloads and announce a hiatus, with housekeeping banter typical of their true crime and paranormal storytelling podcast.