Justin Brooks is the author of You Might Go To Prison, Even Though You're Innocent. He is also the director of the California Innocence Project, which has freed 36 wrongly convicted people from over 570 years of wrongful imprisonment. But what sort of toll does that work take on the people who do it? And what do you learn along the way? This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

True crime has become a massive industry that takes real life suffering as grist for the content mill. Is it possible to tell such stories in an ethical way? How did we even get here? To answer these questions, we're diving into history to see where true crime came from, how it evolved, and where it is today. Along the way, we'll be talking with victims, podcasters, filmmakers, critics and other true crime luminaries. This is part 1 of Blood Money, a five-part miniseries.  "Packington's pound" music courtesy of Valery Sauvage aka Luthval on YouTube This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

In part 3 of Blood Money, we're stepping inside the content machine. Filmmaker Brian McGinn and author Nicki Egan take us through the incentives and pitfalls facing any true crime content creator. This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

In part 2 of Blood Money, we're stepping into the ground zero where all true crime stories originate: with the victims. Kris Pedretti, Christine Marie, and Sarah Turney help us explore what it means to be at the center of a true crime story, and how the media can be another source of trauma. Content warning: sexual assault and sex trafficking. This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

True crime has spawned a fandom like no other, with controversial merch, conventions, and online sleuths. Sarah Turney, Jen Tisdale, Paul Holes, and Katherine Laidlaw help us disect this fandom, and see the costs and consequences of true crime obsession. This is part 4 of Blood Money, a five-part miniseries. This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

In part 5, the final installment of Blood money, we're looking to the future to ask: how can true crime be more ethical? What does true crime with a conscience look like? Many of our previous guests, and few new ones like Mark Olshaker and Jon Ronson offer some thoughts on where the genre is heading, and how we might all shape it for the better. This podcast is presented by New Thinking. For more information, please visit www.newthinking.com

We've got some updates for you, a preview of BLOOD MONEY, our upcoming miniseries about the history and ethics of true crime, and we answer your questions, about trauma gremlins, smiling through hell, and how to deal with bad faith arguments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Joe Berlinger packed up his things to go to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, he thought he was going to make a documentary about a satanic ritual murder. Instead, he found a witch hunt determined to condemn three innocent boys. Over the next two decades, Joe and his partner Bruce Sinofsky made three documentaries about the case. Those films played a critical role in the eventual release of the West Memphis Three. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the time he was sixteen, Jason Baldwin had already felt the sting of prejudice from his community in West Memphis, Arkansas. Kids at the trailer park where he lived had long been shunned by more well off residents of the town. Still, nothing could have prepared him for how vicious these prejudices would turn once the bodies of three eight year old boys were found murdered. Jason and two of his friends were convicted of the murder despite a complete lack of physical evidence. If not for the case coming to the attention of two documentary filmmakers, the West Memphis Three would likely still be in prison today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Vasquez was just nineteen when she and three of her friends were accused of a horrific crime that they were completely innocent of. Their case was swept up in the mass hysteria about satanic cults that had seized the country in the 80s and 90s. It would take twenty four years for Anna and her friends to be fully exonerated, including over a decade in prison. But Anna's story didn't end with her release from prison or even with her exoneration. After prison, Anna found love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people are pretty bad at having difficult conversations. We don't get much practice--the internet makes sure that we mostly see content from people we agree with. When we do see opposing viewpoints, it's usually in the form of hateful comments. But when Dylan Marron started receiving a deluge of online abuse in response to his viral video series, he did the opposite of what most people do. He gave his detractors a call.  Photo credit: Mindy Tucker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer felt trapped--her two sons were addicted to drugs, in and out of jail and rehab, and living on the streets. What had she done wrong as a mother? How could she save them? Was trying to save them her own addiction? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When our guest today, Christian, was checked into a psych ward in the midst of a manic episode a few years ago, he had no prior history of mental illness. He'd certainly never had delusions of the kind that had come to consume him over the last few days. As it turned out, the culprit for the drastic change in Christian's mental state was not one people would normally think of. His manic episode with psychotic features had been induced by cannabis.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few people can say that they have remade themselves as completely as Lee Turnbull. He went from being a violent young man in London to being a happy, well-adjusted soccer coach in the States. Getting there required not just a change in his lifestyle, but a dramatic change in his values. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Adolf Hitler was a genocidal autocrat, he was a young art student who loved his mother. Before Vladimir Lenin was a Marxist revolutionary, he was the privileged son of loving parents, radicalized by his older brother. And before Joseph Stalin was a ruthless dictator, he was an abused child who was terrified of his father. Why should we know or care about these details? In the face of the crimes these men committed, their early lives seem irrelevant. But Brandon Gauthier argues that it is important to try to have empathy for even the most hateful historical figures. Only by understanding evil, he says, can we stop it from happening again. Brandon stopped by Labyrinths to tell us about his book, Before Evil, that explores the lives of these men before they became the murderous despots we remember them as today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have heard Molly Bloom's name from tabloid headlines about a "poker princess" or from the 2017 movie, Molly's Game. But Molly has a deeper story to tell. Though her life has taken an unusual number of twists and turns--from poker millionaire to convicted felon to bestselling author--Molly's reflections on it all are universal. They include her thoughts on material gratification, on being represented (and misrepresented) by others, and on finding power within yourself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Ballew never expected or even particularly wanted mainstream success. But when his band, the Presidents of the United States of America, hit it big, he had to reckon with what success meant to him and figure out how to say no when everyone around him wanted him to say yes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Bobby Kumparak adopted Lucy, a French bulldog, he had never thought of a dog as a member of his family. But Lucy was different. The bond Bobby and his wife, Angela, shared with Lucy was more than owner and pet. So Bobby and Angela were utterly devastated when Lucy was stolen from their backyard one night. In the quest to find Lucy, they learned that the issue of pet theft is much bigger than most of us realize. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twenty years ago, Roz Savage was a management consultant living in London with her husband. From the outside, it looked like a good life, but Roz was miserable. Until she blew up that life and found a new one on the other side of the ocean. She'd just have to row for three and half months to get there.   (episode art created with AI by Mid Journey) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few months ago, we sat down to do something we'd never done before: a live Labyrinths episode! And we knew there was no better place to do it than our home, Vashon Island. Most people haven't heard of our rural island near Seattle, but we know that it's a rich community of eccentrics with a lot of stories to offer. Today, we've brought you three stories of plane crashes, lost pets, and local journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Itiel Dror is used to facing resistance to his work. It comes with the territory when you're a neuroscientist studying cognitive bias in experts: no one wants to believe they have biases they're not aware of. But the pushback to a paper he published last year was extreme even by Dr. Dror's standards. After the paper came out, the ensuing backlash even threatened his job. Check out Dr. Dror's latest paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.14697 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Andrew Gold explores the extreme in his podcast On the Edge, where he’s interviewed controversial people, including a former white supremacist, an ex-crime boss, and a self-professed psychopath. He joins Amanda and Chris to talk about the most taboo topic he's delved into yet: non-offending pedophiles. Forewarning: this episode grapples with the subject of child sex abuse. Listener discretion is advised. You can find Andrew Gold's podcast On the Edge here: https://podfollow.com/on-the-edge-with-andrew-gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, we brought you through the labyrinths of infertility and pregnancy, but what happens after birth? What happens when you find yourself utterly alone in that 4th trimester, a shadow hanging over you and your child? Amy Kuber brings us through her post-partum darkness and how she found the light again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it possible to succeed when you fail? Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton did just that, and so has modern adventurer and mountaineer Alison Levine, leader of the First American Women's Everest expedition, Levine has survived subzero temperatures, hurricane force winds, and sudden avalanches. She's had plenty of triumphs, but she's learned just as much, if not more, from her failures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Chris get lost in the wide world of puzzles with AJ Jacobs, author of the The Puzzler: One Man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life. And pay close attention, because this episode has a puzzle embedded within it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we first met Jens, he was still serving a life sentence for a double homicide he didn't commit. We devoted a whole season of our prior podcast, The Truth About True Crime, to his case (link below). Now, after 33 years in prison, he's free, and rebuilding his life in his native Germany. We flew to Hamburg to meet him in person for the first time and to learn how he's been navigating the labyrinth of freedom. https://art19.com/shows/the-truth-about-true-crime/episodes/e42542d4-58fb-42bf-a08e-ac9d7a29e144 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Wilson traveled the world over the course of her modeling career. But one photoshoot always...haunted her. She was accustomed to be valued for her beauty, but that fateful day, she was used as a weapon. Find Emily on Instagram @emilykatwilson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a young teen, Maya Shankar was on a path to becoming a professional, world-class violinist, until an accident changed the course of her life, leading her to become a behavioral scientist. Amanda, Chris, and Maya nerd out about cognitive biases and how they affected Amanda's wrongful conviction, what shapes our behaviors and identities, and why it's so hard to change minds. Check out Maya Shankar's podcast, A Slight Change of Plans: https://apple.co/3IpVlkU Read Amanda's essay about the cognitive biases that affected her wrongful conviction: https://bit.ly/3tgbWBi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final installment of our miniseries, Chris takes an ego-obliterating dose of mushrooms, and Amanda pokes her head through the looking glass for the first time. But first, we get advice from Michael Pollan, Robin Carhart-Harris, Paul Stamets, and Sam Harris. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Psilocybin isn't just a psychedelic compound, it's the product of a mushroom. In Part 6 of our miniseries, renowned mycologist Paul Stamets takes us through the wide world of fungi, our mutual evolution, the latest research on microdosing, and gives us a mycelium’s eye view of our place in the universe. (Photo credit @brokenbanjotrav) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the self? How can we find tranquility without reaching past the present moment? And what does all this have to do with psychedelics? Sam Harris--philosopher, neuroscientist, author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up meditation app--helps us see the landscapes of mind that psychedelics reveal, and how mindfulness and ethics are crucial to achieving the furthest reaches of human wellbeing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1955, a Mazatec shaman introduced a westerner to sacred mushrooms. That event has had tremendous ripple effects. In part 4 of our miniseries, we speak with Dr. Bia Labate about the deep indigenous roots of the psychedelic renaissance and what is missing from the western biomedical narrative around these powerful substances. (Artwork by Karina Muscarina for Chacruna Institute) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2020, Oregon didn't just decriminalize drugs, it legalized a framework for safe and equitable psilocybin therapy. In part three of our miniseries, we look at the politics of psychedelics and the activists who, in the midst of celebrating this unexpected political triumph, were met with personal tragedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's growing evidence that psychedelics can be useful tools for mental health and wellbeing. In part 2 of our miniseries, neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris takes us on a tour of the pioneering research into how psychedelics affect the brain, and what it may mean for society if more of us are able to shake up our snow globes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The psychedelic renaissance is here, but will it last? In this 7-part series, Amanda and Chris deep dive into the history, neuroscience, politics, and power of psilocybin mushrooms, along with their relationship with mindfulness and the fabric of life on earth. Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind, and This is Your Mind on Plants, gives us the lay of the land, from the dangers of therapy abuse to the potential for personal and societal transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hang onto your hats! Third trimester is a wild ride with an early rush to the hospital and fears of dying in childbirth. Emily Oster, author of the Family Firm, helps Amanda and Chris through their anxieties about the physical trauma of birth and its mental aftermath. If you haven't been in a delivery room since the day you were born, you're in a for an intimate experience. This is part 3 of 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Amanda and Chris enter their second trimester, they face anxieties about the genetic testing of their fetus, and Amanda is feeling less like a Goddess and more like "The Incubator." As before, Dr. Emily Oster, author of Crib Sheet, helps them sift through these worries and emotions. This is Part 2 of 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After an early miscarriage, Amanda and Chris began their journey into parenthood anxious to understand the data about their actual risks so they could make informed choices. Dr. Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better, helps them sift through all the conflicting pregnancy advice, while Amanda and Chris offer an intimate view into their unexpected emotional reality. This is Part 1 of 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brent Spiner is not the android Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but so many seem to want him to be that fictional character. Contending with a doppelganger version of yourself is something Amanda knows well, and if you have any online existence, you too will be implicated by the questions Brent Spiner explores in his new book, Fan Fiction, a mem-noir thriller about the nature of identity, celebrity, and how we form our sense of self in relation to the avatars that represent us and that we inhabit.  https://bit.ly/3j1pwo0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What role does beauty play in criminal justice? Why was everyone so fixated on Amanda's eyes while she was on trial for murder? Can beauty be a privilege and a curse? Amanda and Chris unpack these questions with Zara Stone, author of Killer Looks, a book that reveals the forgotten history of plastic surgery in prisons. Find Killer Looks at: https://bookshop.org/books/killer-looks-the-forgotten-history-of-plastic-surgery-in-prisons/9781633886728 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda was accused of orchestrating a sex-game gone wrong that ended in murder. But what does a sex-game gone right look like? To find out, Amanda and Chris connect with Mistress Cyan and Goddess Genesis and enter the world of BDSM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sperm counts are dropping; miscarriage rates are rising. Renowned environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan alerts us to the global infertility crisis, while Amanda and Chris find something to hope for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The labyrinth of infertility has many dead ends. The miracles of science are not a guarantee, and even adoption can be an insurmountable challenge. At what point does a couple give up and accept that they will never have children? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly half a million babies are born each year thanks to assisted reproductive technologies like in-vitro fertilization. But modern science is a double-edged sword, providing hope to the hopeless, but at the cost of financial peril, physical pain, and sometimes, endless frustration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a club nobody wants to join, and one few people talk about. These brave women are helping destigmatize pregnancy loss, and searching for hope after their bodies have betrayed them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Chris thought it was a straight-line from unprotected sex to baby. They were painfully wrong. They relive their miscarriage and step into the labyrinthine world of infertility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pandemic is ending; the world is reopening. What should we leave behind, and what should we resurrect? And what about raging parties? Amanda and Chris jump into the deep end of social life and meet some strangers in this brave new world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Olshaker is a writer masquerading as a detective, tracking down serial killers with John Douglas (Mindhunter), and tracking down infectious diseases with Dr. Michael Osterholm (Deadliest Enemy). Those worlds have more in common than you'd think! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Obie Anthony served 17 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. On Oct 4th, 2011, he was released, the very same day as Amanda, his exoneree twin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long before Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl Hines was thirty, waitressing, and stuck in a rut, her biggest acting credit, a small role on Swamp Thing. Would she ever be successful, or happy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jack was a rising stand-up comic and single dad, but then he started crumbling, piece by piece, due to an unknown illness. Amanda and Chris learn how he lost himself, and how he found himself again as the world fell to pieces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Flom leads a double life. He's a founding board member of the Innocence Project, but also the CEO of Lava Records, with wild tales of rehab and rockstars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Chris tell their own meet-cute story, read some love poems from their book, The Cardio Tesseract, and talk with Amanda's grandparents, Bill and Mildred, about the secret to sustaining a 67-year love affair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The day Amanda got out of prison, a former FBI agent was there to help her escape Italy. Special Agent Steve Moore takes Amanda & Chris on a tour of his 25 year career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda went to prison despite having a spotless record. The irony! Now she interviews Chris about all the times he's broken the law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When defense attorneys Shannon Smith and Molly Blythe agreed to represent Olympic doctor Larry Nassar, who pled guilty to sexually abusing young gymnasts, they were accused of betraying womankind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is still on fire, sort of. Amanda and Chris offer some thoughts on the New Year, and a hint of what to expect from Labyrinths in the coming months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Chris step through a crack in the space-time continuum with LeVar Burton, who is simultaneously Kunta Kinte, Geordi La Forge, and the host of Reading Rainbow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda's friend Tom finds himself separated from his pregnant girlfriend by a pandemic, politics, and thousands of miles of Pacific ocean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guitar legend Dave Navarro lost his mother to a murder when he was 15 years old. The trauma has been haunting him ever since, but there's hope in connecting with other members of the Trauma Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two parents struggle to support their 20 year old son after he's accused of something terrible. But are the authorities in the wrong here? They turn to Amanda and Chris for guidance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Nov 1st, 2007, Rudy Guede raped and murdered Meredith Kercher, and blamed Amanda Knox. On December 7th, 2020, after serving 13 years of a 16 year sentence, Guede was released from prison. How does Amanda feel about it all? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in power have secrets, and sometimes, nefarious schemes. But how should we calibrate our skeptic’s filter? Amanda and Chris are guided into the land of conspiracy by author Jon Ronson, who once tracked down the secret rulers of the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when freedom of religion and feminism clash? Amanda and Chris traverse the cultural minefield of radical Islam with Yasmine Mohammed, who escaped an arranged marriage to an Al-Qaeda operative to become a feminist and atheist advocate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our nation is more polarized than ever during the pandemic. But why? Could the answer be found 50,000 years ago? Amanda and Chris search for the root cause with Tim Urban of Wait But Why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1977, Roman Polanski raped 13-year old Samantha Geimer. But strangely, the rape itself wasn't as bad as what followed. Amanda and Chris join Samantha to sift through the trauma of thirty years of exploitation by the justice system and the media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda knows what it's like to be judged by decade-old distortions of her behavior. But how does that kind of thinking shape society? Join Amanda and Chris as they untangle crime, racial prejudice, and judgment with best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you do with a second chance, especially if you never had a first one? Amanda and Chris connect with Tarra Simmons, who clawed her way out of poverty and prison, and never stopped climbing. She's now trying to pull the rest of us up with her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humanity itself is stuck in a labyrinth. And an Asian man who likes math is determined to help us navigate the blind corners ahead. Join Amanda and Chris as they dig into universal basic income, media incentives, and election madness with Andrew Yang. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could Hell be a Caribbean cruise? Amanda and Chris lose themselves on a pleasure boat, and fellow cruisers help them find their way again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices