A murder rumor in rural Alabama unravels into a clockmaker's suicide and estate feud.
S-Town begins with John urging Brian to investigate a rumored killing in his Alabama town. The case shifts quickly into death, family conflict, loyalty, legal trouble, and the messy question of who gets to tell another person’s story.
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S-Town is a closed, nine-episode narrative journalism series produced by Serial Productions with The New York Times, reported and narrated throughout by journalist Brian Reed. The story follows Reed's on-the-ground investigation in Bibb County and Woodstock, Alabama, which starts with a tip from John B. McLemore about a supposed unpunished murder and, after McLemore's own suicide partway through the series, becomes an intimate portrait of McLemore's life, obsessions, and the small town around him. Recurring figures include Tyler Goodson, McLemore's younger companion and informal protege who ends up facing felony charges and a contested inheritance, and Rita, McLemore's cousin who leads the opposing side of the estate dispute; other returning voices include Woodstock town clerk Faye Gamble and McLemore's lawyer Boozer Downs. The format is documentary-style narrative journalism built from field recordings, on-the-record interviews, and Reed's own narration, not a studio interview or panel show. Recurring themes across chapters include rural poverty, small-town rumor and reputation, probate and estate disputes, mental health and suicide, and McLemore's personal fixations with clockmaking, climate change, and social resignation. Later entries in the feed are not part of the original story — they are trailers Reed used to promote his follow-up investigative series, The Trojan Horse Affair and Question Everything, both of which turn a critical eye on journalism ethics and institutional accountability. The audience is listeners of deeply reported, single-subject audio documentaries about overlooked American communities, in the vein of Serial and This American Life. There is no recurring-guest structure; instead the same small set of real people reappear as the story develops over the season. Because the narrative involves a real person's death, some chapters include first-person accounts of the suicide itself.
Made for: Listeners who want deeply reported, single-subject narrative journalism about real people and small towns, in the style of Serial or This American Life.
What sets it apart: Unlike most true-crime-adjacent shows, S-Town abandons its murder premise early and becomes a character study of one man's life, death, and estate, told as a single closed season rather than an ongoing case format.
S-Town is a podcast hosted by Brian Reed from Serial Productions, a New York Times company. The story follows a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But when someone else ends up dead, the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man's life. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A discarded murder claim becomes a precise, unsettled portrait of John and the conflicts that survive him.
S-Town begins with Brian Reed testing an alleged murder, then keeps reporting after the allegation proves false. Its serialized chapters turn toward John, his death, and the people left contesting his wishes and possessions.
A rumored murder opens the door; a clockmaker's life is what keeps you inside.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A dusk-lit chapter that turns a simple drive into a quiet study of secrecy and care.
Chapter VI starts small: John and Brian drive through Bibb County at dusk, stop at the courthouse, the library, and Little Caesars for John's mother, and let an ordinary errand carry more weight than it should.
A study in obsession, repair, and the uneasy space between them.
Chapter 4 sets a bedroom scene in Alabama against a clock restoration, and the contrast does most of the work. The room is crowded with CDs, unopened Furbies, a serious sound system, and a 53-page manifesto that runs from climate change and decline into violence and pornography,…
A hospital bedside becomes the story's sharpest battlefield.
Chapter III narrows S-Town into a tense, deeply human fight over care and control. Mary Grace, Tyler, and the cousins stay at the center, and the hospital bedside turns from concern into a sharper argument about who gets to speak for her, where she should live, and what should…
A Facebook warning and a warrant put Tyler's family under real pressure.
Chapter 5 is less a detour than a tightening of the screw: a Sunday evening Facebook message, a warrant for Tyler, and a family left bracing for the chance that he will be in jail Monday.
A murder claim opens into a careful, unsettling portrait of John's care for Tyler and the town around him.
Chapter II begins with John's answer about Capron Burt, then drifts through a truck stop errand, Roger Price, and Tyler before settling into the harder part of the story.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
Patrick Radden Keefe investigates whether the CIA secretly wrote a Scorpions hit.
Jake Halpern and the Snowball team track a con artist who defrauded a family.
A city-by-city true-crime documentary, from Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick scandal to mob confessions.
Documentary seasons on power, corruption, conflict, and Canadian public life.
S-Town host Brian Reed uses this trailer to announce his new podcast, Question Everything, which examines journalism from the inside.
Brian Reed, creator of S-Town, uses this episode to announce and trailer his new investigative series, The Trojan Horse Affair, produced by Serial and the New York Times.
Chapter III of S-Town opens with host Brian Reed learning of John B.
Chapter V of S-Town follows reporter Brian Reed as Tyler Goodson faces nine felony charges including theft and forgery stemming from items he took from the late John McLemore's property.
Chapter II of S-Town follows journalist Brian Reed as he unravels the truth behind the alleged murder that brought him to Bibb County, Alabama — discovering the victim never actually died.
Brian Reed’s last night in Bibb County starts in a car.
John opens his Alabama bedroom to me.