What we’re into: ‘My Favorite Murder’ the podcast

Published 5:00 am Thursday, November 3, 2022

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The podcast that got me into podcasts was “My Favorite Murder.” It was recommended to me by a former boss after I told her I enjoyed researching and reading about true crime cases in my free time. She said “Oh, you’ll love Karen and Georgia.”

Having never listened to a podcast before, I was unsure if I would like it. I am not a fan of audiobooks, preferring to read them myself, and I assumed a podcast would feel similar. Boy, was I wrong.

I scrolled back through hundreds of episodes to their very first one “Episode 1: My Firstest Murder,” as per my boss’s recommendation, “You won’t get any of their inside jokes, if you don’t start from the beginning.”

And I’ve been following along their podcast journey ever since. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are two chummy best friends who on each episode tell one another about a true crime case. That means you get two stories every episode.

It’s not all true crime every listen either, sometimes the ladies bring a story about a historical event, a natural disaster, etc. My personal favorites are when Kilgariff retells stories from her favorite TV show “I Survived,” and when Hardstark dives deep into a conspiracy story, or cult, and explains to us listeners how “it goes all the way to the top.”

Really the show is whatever the hosts want it to be. Going for six years now the podcast has over 300 full length episodes and hundreds of minisodes.

People may worry the combination of comedy and true crime will translate as disrespectful, but Kilgariff and Hardstark do quite the opposite. They honor and show respect to all victims in cases they cover. Laughter and jokes are their way of dealing with tragedy, pain and other upsetting things in the world. But trust me, these jokes are never at the victim’s expense.

Curious to see what it’s like? Give it a listen. You can stream “My Favorite Murder” on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Stitcher and Spotify.

I ask that you start from the beginning like I did, so you can see the evolution of the show and its hosts. Besides, how else will you learn all the inside jokes, like this one: “Call your dad, you’re in a cult.”

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