Top Government Podcasts

On a January night in 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike and two other teenagers lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to a secluded area near the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They taunted, beat, and slashed Colleen, carving a pentagram into her chest, before Christa picked up a piece of concrete and smashed Colleen’s skull, killing her. Those salacious details stood out during a national Satanic Panic over ritual abuse and suburban cults. The Knoxville News Sentinel later accused Christa of killing “for love and Satan.” She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution—one of the youngest women ever to be sentenced to death in the United States.

Thirty years later, Christa is still alive, incarcerated at a Nashville prison and the only woman on death row in Tennessee. She has spent much of her adult life in solitary confinement. In the decades since the murder, evolving understanding about brain science and trauma have cast Christa’s wildly violent act—and death sentence—in a new light. We now know that the brain of an 18-year-old remains underdeveloped and impulsive. Christa has a horrific history of abuse, violence, and family neglect; the first time she attempted suicide, she was 9 years old. That kind of trauma can arrest healthy development, leading some young adults down a disastrous path. 

As Christa approaches her final appeals, a team of state and federal defenders are urgently trying to save Christa’s life. Her date of execution could be set any time. If executed, she will be the first woman killed by Tennessee in almost 200 years. Should a woman who committed a violent crime as a damaged teenager be granted a chance at rehabilitation? And is justice best served through retribution or mercy?

Global investigations from the BBC. Gripping stories from around the world – delve into a World of Secrets.

Latest season:

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared. The mothers and children were left without support. We join the quest for justice.

Also, previously on World of Secrets:

The Darkest Web: Two US special agents infiltrate the dark web to rescue children. With access to the elite global team who hunt down people creating and trading in child sexual abuse materials.

Death in Dubai: A woman falls from a tower block and her name starts trending. But behind the online rumours lies an even darker reality.

And The Abercrombie Guys: Investigating sexual exploitation claims against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch.

*FREE Episodes Released every Monday during active seasons. Paid Brevity+ Subscribers get Early Release, Ad Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and access to the War Room on www.theguiltpodcast.com

In this hit investigative podcast, Ryan Wolf investigates some of Australasia's most enduring unsolved criminal cases.

Season Six

On August 28th 1999, 16 year old Jessica Gaudie was babysitting in Nambour, Sunshine Coast, Australia, when she vanished without a trace. In 2001 Aboriginal tracker Derek Sam was convicted of her murder, but denies his involvement and will not lead Police to Jessica's remains. 26 years later Ryan is on the ground in Australia looking for answers, and finds that he's not just looking for one missing woman, he's looking for three.

Season Five

In November of 2021, while the world was in lockdown. Dave Davan, a farmer in the rural far north community of Herekino found two bottles of wine in his mailbox. Assuming they were a gift he drank them, little did he know one bottle had been laced with the deadly poison Paraquat. In December Dave lost his short battle and sadly passed away. Three years on his murderer walks free. Ryan journeys to the remote and isolated far north to find the answer to the question: Who Killed Dave Davan?

In Season Four of GUILT - The Night of the Bonfire, Ryan heads Down Under, to Melbourne Australia to search for the truth. What happened to Alana Cecil?

New episode will be coming soon. Subscribers will get early access, bonus episodes and ad free listening.

Season Three

In 1989 two Swedish backpackers, Heidi Paakkonen and Sven Urban Hoglin arrived in New Zealand for the trip of a lifetime. And never went home. They were last seen alive together in Thames on April 7th 1989. One year after their mysterious disappearance Urban Hoglin's body would be found and confirmed a brutal murder. But to this day Heidi's body has never been found. Season 3 of GUILT will see Ryan attempt to finally bring an end to this mystery and send Heidi home to her family where she belongs. Ryan will uncover never before heard witnesses, fresh evidence in a Season of the podcast that really has to be heard to be believed.

Instagram: ryanwolfnz & brevity_studios

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Wisconsin is no stranger to high-profile cases and horrific murderers, from the notorious Jeffrey Dahmer to the perplexing Ed Gein. But on a cold night in February 2022, a new name was added to the list of Wisconsin’s worst: Taylor Schabusiness. From the outset, the details of the case shocked even the most hardened detectives and traumatized young rookies. Using Law&Crime Network’s gavel-to-gavel coverage, Severed Affair provides an in-depth narrative of the disturbing case. The Law&Crime original podcast uses exclusive audio and court footage to piece together the gruesome story.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Severed Affair ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

This podcast deals with all things broken-yet-fixable in Vermont! We discuss policies and resources relating to agriculture, the environment, housing, transportation, food, and the local economy. Guests will include Vermont community members, farmers, law makers, educators, and business owners. On each podcast we will deep dive on a topic of interest, share relevant resources relating to funding and public participation opportunities, share little known facts about weird laws in Vermont, and discuss ideas on how to fix the broken-things! Brought to you by Jennifer Byrne from the White River Natural Resources Conservation District and Airon Shaw from the Vermont Professionals of Color Network. Learn more: www.whiterivernrcd.org & www.vtpoc.net

What can we learn about making social and political change from talking to professional change-makers? This work takes a combination of persistence, shrewdness, and luck. On the Battles We Pick podcast, skilled advocates and organizers talk about how they deal with the various challenges they confront. 

Theme music by generous permission of recording artist Stephen.

Nerd-level talks with Judges, Justices, and attorneys about Civil Trials and Appeals, mostly in Houston but throughout Texas.

An award-winning podcast about the land, water, and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. Each episode is a mini-documentary for your ears, with narrative, sound-rich journalism that's deeply rooted in a sense of place.