Serial

The podcast that launched an entire industry. Sarah Koenig's 2014 investigation into the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of Adnan Syed became the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 million downloads. It hit 340 million total downloads and turned "podcast" from a tech nerd term into a household word. Syed's conviction was ultimately vacated in 2022, partly due to the public pressure Serial generated. Season 1 remains the gold standard for investigative audio storytelling.