For my podcast blog, I chose to use the season one of the Serial podcast on the Adnan Syed case. When I listened to the first episode for this class, I was hooked and genuinely wanted to finish the podcast to discover what my thoughts were at the end of the podcast based on all the given information. This podcast goes back through the story of a missing girl by the name of Hae Min Lee who went missing and was murdered. Her ex Adnan Syed ended up receiving the blame for the murder on account of one person’s story against him. However, there was no DNA evidence or any physical evidence that ties him to the murder other than that, so it is simply one person’s word against the other. That is what was so intriguing to me is that he was prosecuted solely on that. This podcast uses a main narrator to help guide the audience through the different stories and details but also uses interviews to help give different perspectives on who these people were and what really happened. The podcast also uses music when shifting who is talking or after a big piece of information is introduced to let the audience gather their thoughts for a few seconds before moving on to the next idea. Sarah Koenig (the narrator) gives the broader rundown on certain details to introduce new factors that play a big role in the case and then brings in different people to interview to either back up what Adnan tell her on the phone or contradict his feelings towards the case. One of the main things that has been very frustrating and hard to figure out who is lying is that Adnan claims that he doesn’t remember what happened on that day since it was so long ago and seemed like an ordinary day, whereas the man who tested against him in court (Jay) seems to remember every detail about that day. It is a two way street that I have been debating in my head because it makes me feel almost that Jay could have been the murderer. If Adnan didn’t do it then there is no way he would remember what he was doing during that hour of a random day when Hae was killed but at the same time, he could easily say that to get out of it if he had murdered her. However, if Jay had committed the murder and wanted to frame Adnan then he would have a very elaborate story that he would remember super well to tell the cops/jury to seem consistent. But at the same time, if Adnan had told Jay those things about killing Hae then it makes sense that he would remember those details since it was a significant day. Either way one of them is lying and it is really hard to determine who. It would make sense that Adnan would have more of a reason to do it but at the same time it seems very out of character for him to follow through on it. Overall, there is no definitive evidence but I am looking forward to gathering more information and formulating my own thoughts on the case.
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