Audio Gems: 5 Podcast Episodes to Download This Week

A look at the 2008 shooting of Robbie Tolan, the mysterious disappearance of a cursed ship, and the most plausible alien abduction story ever.

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Get ready to get the chills, listeners. 

Criminal: 695BGK

The latest Criminal episode focuses on the 2008 attempted arrest and shooting of Robbie Tolan, son of baseball player Bobby Tolan. Along with his cousin, Tolan was detained in his own driveway in Texas on suspicion of stealing a vehicle. A police officer at the scene shoved Tolan's mother against a wall, and when Tolan jumped up to help her, the office shot him in the chest. Tolan was unarmed, and the supposed stolen vehicle was his. Just two weeks after the Walter Scott shooting in South Carolina, this episode – and the issues it addresses – seem more relevant than ever. Released April 3.

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The Generation Why: MV Joyita-116

This episode tells the story of the cursed ship MV Joyita that went missing during the 1950s, while sailing to the Tokelau Islands. It took a search-and-rescue team a month to find the boat, and when they did, there was no sign of the 25 passengers aboard. The show's producers use peculiar clues found on the ship to construct possible scenarios of what happened to the MV Joyita, including piracy and plain, old mechanical failure. Released April 13.

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The Last Podcast on the Left: The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction

Hosts Ben Kissel, Henry Zebrowski, and Marcus Parks lend their raw humor to the most infamous – and plausible – alien abduction story of all time. Told in two parts, Barney and Betty Hill's eye-witness accounts and evidence from the case — a recording of Barney's hypnotherapy session; Betty's dream journal of aliens performing human experimentation; a mysterious STD – make this 1961 close encounter disturbingly believable. Released April 8.

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Knifepoint Horror: Bargain

Soren Narnia narrates the eerie fictional story of Lee Kingman's encounter with a mysterious stranger. Although listeners never hear the stranger's name, he makes Lee an offer he can't refuse: $1,000,000 in exchange for giving the man a ride to town, locking him in a special room, then letting him out the next morning. It doesn't sound too hard, but when Lee goes to pick up the stranger, he stumbles upon something that drives him to do the unthinkable. Released April 3.

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The Lineup Podcast: Mexico

In case you haven't heard, we've launched our own weird and creepy podcast. The inaugural episode takes listeners on a trip south of the border to Mexico, where an Incan high priestess drinks her followers blood, a writer shares a drug-fueled experience, and a man's obsession with appeasing the ghost of a young girl is taken to an extreme. Read more about the episode and how to download our podcast here.

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