ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
The Dropout follows the Theranos story while also carrying ABC Audio’s broader lane of sober, reported true crime. Its episodes move through fraud, missing-person cases, historical murders, domestic extremism, and institutional failure with a careful narrative pace.
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The Dropout is produced by ABC Audio/ABC News and is centered on the Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos fraud case, hosted primarily by correspondent Rebecca Jarvis. Its core narrative episodes trace Holmes's rise as a Silicon Valley founder, the failure of Theranos's Edison blood-testing device, the Walgreens rollout, whistleblowers such as Tyler Shultz, and the fraud trial and convictions of Holmes and Sunny Balwani. The show also runs interview-format bonus episodes, such as a conversation with actor Amanda Seyfried and showrunner Liz Merriweather about adapting the story into Hulu's limited series, touching on casting, research, and turning court and reporting material into scripted scenes. Beyond the Holmes story, the feed regularly carries introductory episodes for other ABC Audio true-crime podcasts rather than staying confined to a single case. These include Truth and Lies: Boston Strangler, hosted by journalist Dick Lair; The King Road Killings: An Idaho Murder Mystery, hosted by correspondent Kena Whitworth; The Informant, on an undercover FBI operation inside a Kansas militia; and Bridge of Lies, on the disappearance of Sarah Stern in New Jersey. These cross-posted episodes are narrative and investigative rather than panel discussion, built from police records, court testimony, and correspondent reporting. Recurring subject matter across the feed includes corporate and financial fraud, wrongful institutional trust, unsolved or cold-case murders, domestic extremism, and missing-persons investigations. Listeners drawn in for the Theranos story specifically get both the original case reporting and behind-the-scenes conversation about its television adaptation. Listeners who stay for true crime generally will encounter a rotating set of separate ABC Audio investigations rather than one continuing storyline. Production style leans on correspondent narration, archival tape such as deposition recordings and text messages, and interviews with reporters, investigators, and, occasionally, the actors and writers behind the dramatized version of events.
Made for: Listeners following the Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos case and its Hulu adaptation, plus true-crime listeners open to ABC Audio's other investigative series.
What sets it apart: Unlike single-case true-crime shows, this feed pairs its original Theranos investigation with interviews about the story's TV adaptation and doubles as a launch point for ABC Audio's other true-crime podcasts.
Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world's youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye? How did the woman once heralded as "the next Steve Jobs" find herself facing criminal charges - to which she pleaded not guilty - and up to decades in prison? How did her technology, meant to revolutionize health care, potentially put millions of patients at risk? And how did so many smart people get it so wrong along the way? ABC...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Dropout connects Theranos's corporate deception to its effects on patients, investors, courts, and the culture that amplified Elizabeth Holmes.
The Dropout makes the Theranos case legible by moving between Elizabeth Holmes's public persona, the company's technical claims, and the patients who faced the consequences.
Theranos' curtain gets pulled back, and you see the lab reality beneath the grand promise.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A restrained ABC opener on the Idaho student murders, grounded first in place, memory, and the ordinary lives cut short.
The King Road Killings opens far from the crime-scene shorthand that made the case a national obsession. Kena Whitworth starts in Moscow, Idaho, with a golden November football day, a college town filling up for the Vandals, and the King Road house as a real place where students…
A grim, measured opener that returns the Boston Strangler story to the women and the unanswered questions around their deaths.
Boston Strangler opens by pulling the story back from the infamous nickname and into the lives of the women killed in Boston in 1962. Anna Sletzers's quiet Thursday, her work as a seamstress, and the memorial service she expected to attend give the case a human weight before the…
A tense Kansas-set opener about an FBI informant, anti-Muslim extremism, and a terror plot forming close to home.
An ordinary man from Kansas, a husband and father, is pulled into an FBI effort to stop a terror attack being planned close to home. The opener grounds the case in Garden City, where a Facebook rumor about an ISIS recruiting flyer lands in a climate already charged by post-9/11…
A sharp bonus conversation about turning Elizabeth Holmes from true crime subject into television character.
The Dropout turns from verdicts and sentencing dates to the stranger work of dramatizing Elizabeth Holmes. Rebecca Jarvis brings Amanda Seyfried and showrunner Liz Merriweather into a bonus conversation about fear, obsession, and the pressure of making a convicted fraud figure…
A sharp Theranos recap that turns the Elizabeth Holmes myth into a patient-stakes fraud story.
Elizabeth Holmes' rise and collapse lands here as a fraud story that gets uglier once Theranos moves out of pitch decks and into Walgreens exam rooms. The hour traces the clean founder myth: Stanford dropout, lifesaving mission, tiny nanotainer, office-as-identity discipline.
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.
A murder rumor in rural Alabama unravels into a clockmaker's suicide and estate feud.
Documentary seasons on power, corruption, conflict, and Canadian public life.
This episode introduces the podcast 'Reclaimed: The Forgotten League,' which explores the untold history of the Negro Leagues and the black baseball players who were excluded from the major leagues before Jackie Robinson's integration.
A November day gives the episode its way in.
This bonus episode of The King Road Killings podcast covers the indictment of suspect Brian Koberger in the murders of four University of Idaho students, while previewing the upcoming five-part series investigating the case.
Boston had been warned.
This episode introduces a new ABC News podcast, Truth and Lies: The Boston Strangler, exploring the unsolved 1960s serial killer case and its enduring mystery.
A rumor reaches the FBI.
A trailer for a podcast about an FBI informant who infiltrates a militia group plotting a terror attack on Muslims in Kansas.
A bonus episode covering the sentencing of Elizabeth Holmes in the Theranos fraud case.
Rebecca Jarvis talks with Amanda Seyfried and showrunner Liz Merriweather about The Dropout after Elizabeth Holmes’s conviction on four fraud counts and Sunny Balwani’s guilty verdict on 12 counts.
Rebecca Jarvis discusses the conviction of Sonny Balwani in the Theranos fraud case on a news podcast.
The host asks listeners to vote for the show in the Webby Awards, promoting the podcast about Elizabeth Holmes' trial.
Elizabeth Holmes faces pointed questions.
This episode covers unexpected courtroom developments in the Elizabeth Holmes trial, including a surprise witness from her board of directors.
This episode covers the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, featuring a whistleblower's account and the mysterious appearance of a man named Hansen.
This episode covers the opening statements and first witness testimony in the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos.
This episode covers the jury selection process and the atmosphere surrounding Elizabeth Holmes' criminal trial for fraud related to Theranos.
This episode covers the bombshell allegations of abuse by Elizabeth Holmes just before her criminal trial for fraud.
The episode features Elizabeth Holmes' deposition testimony as the government builds its fraud case against her.
This episode covers the aftermath of Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani being charged with fraud, including community reactions from a childhood friend.
This episode details the collapse of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes' legal troubles following investigative reporting.
This episode introduces the whistleblower who first raised concerns about Theranos' deceptive practices and the impending exposure of the fraud.
This episode covers the aftermath of a scientist's suicide and Theranos's deceptive deal with Walgreens, leading to the company's public launch.
This episode details Elizabeth Holmes' struggle to keep Theranos afloat and the arrival of Sunny Balwani as a key figure.
This episode features Elizabeth Holmes' sworn testimony during the government investigation into Theranos' fraudulent practices.