News / Notes / Previews

We’re thrilled that the second season of Strangeland: Murder in Maple Shade made it to the top 5 shows on Apple Podcasts.

Thanks to our partner audiochuck, and thank you to everyone for listening.

March 17th, 2023

Western Sound shows made a number of year-end best of lists. Two of our favorite mentions come from The Atlantic on Strangeland, and Variety on Lost Hills.

The Atlantic: Strangeland is a true-crime show that involves some familiar threads: evidence gathering, suspect lineup, investigation critique. But hosts Sharon Choi and Ben Adair avoid the predictable, turning the show into a thoughtful meditation on race, culture, and immigration. In 2003, in Los Angeles’s Koreatown, a woman named Chi Hyon Song, her 2-year-old son, and her nanny, Eun Sik Min, were murdered. Though someone was convicted of the triple homicide, the show casts doubts on that verdict. Choi, who is Korean American, translates and provides cultural context about how Koreans tend to view obligations to family, to neighbors, and to strangers. Strangeland isa brilliant example of how true crime can contain surprising depth.

Variety: Season 2 of the true-crime series, hosted by New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear, focuses on the suspicious drowning in January 1981 of Verna Johnson-Roehler and her young son, Doug, while boating 30 miles off the coast of Malibu. Verna’s husband, Fred Roehler, was the sole survivor and only witness. Initially, the deaths were ruled accidental. But a phone call from a Malibu neighbor changed everything. Was Fred a monster, masquerading as the perfect Malibu dad — or was an innocent man convicted by his gossiping neighbors?

But more important than any year-end list is the support and loyalty of our listeners. And our sources for entrusting us to tell their stories.

Here’s to a healthy and prosperous new year!

December 30th, 2021

Season two of Lost Hills (“Lost Hills: Dead in the Water”) just hit number 1 on Apple Podcasts! Very stoked for our partners at Pushkin who’ve really gotten behind our show and helped it to succeed.

It’s very exciting for a second season to reach number 1 and reach even more listeners than our first! Happy holidays to all!

And — it’s our second #1 this fall!

December 11th, 2021

We released Strangeland this week and it’s already hit #1 on the Apple Podcasts chart!

Big thanks to everyone who helped us tell this story, especially our partner / distributor, audiochuck! Thanks so much for listening!

November 11th, 2021

Our new show, Lost Hills, produced with Pushkin Industries, has hit #1 on the Apple Podcasts charts. Thanks to everyone who spoke with us about this story, all the folks who help us get it out to the world, all the listeners (especially those who left reviews!) —and especially Dana and the Western Sound team who’ve worked tirelessly to make it what it is.

Thank you to all of you!

March 26th, 2021

We made Talk Sync to help us make better podcasts.

Talk Sync turns interviewees’ phones into high quality mobile recorders with almost-idiot-proof built-in sharing.

Now, we’re releasing it to the public so anyone can use it. Try it free and see what you think!

November 3rd, 2020