Casefile

Casefile True Crime Podcast, or simply Casefile, is an Australian crime podcast that first aired in January 2016 and is hosted by an Australian man who remains anonymous. The podcast is released on a Sunday (EST) for three consecutive weeks, with a break on the fourth week. The series deals with solved or cold criminal cases, often related to well-known murders and serial crimes. Many early episodes relate to Australian cases (e.g. Port Arthur or the Snowtown murders), although notable crimes from the UK and the US are increasingly featured, and well-known cases from other countries have also been included. Unlike a number of similar podcasts, the series is scripted and narrative, relying primarily on original police or mass-media documents, eyewitness accounts, and interview or public announcement recordings. Larger and more-complex cases have received multiple-week serialised broadcasts, and case updates to previously aired cases are also provided from time to time. The series has been well received, and has won a number of awards since its debut. Production Casefile first aired on 9 January 2016 and was conceived by an anonymous Australian host who started producing the show in 2015 in his spare room. The host had just had surgery and was listening to a lot of podcasts and true-crime shows (e.g. The Joe Rogan Experience, Hardcore History, Serial, and Making A Murderer) at the time, and felt encouraged by Joe Rogan to make his own based on in-depth research and a storytelling style. According to one source, the host remains anonymous because "he wants the stories, facts, and questions to speak for themselves" and "It makes the show about the stories and that's it." According to another review, the podcast's:deliberately sparse production value became its strongest asset, plunging listeners into a pool of ambient silence with a host neither named nor contextualized. ... the podcast does not go the typical route of parading listeners through a montage of primary source material like evening news reports or interviews with now-wizened investigators; instead, the stories are unfolded slowly and methodically by the anonymous host, with just enough editorializing to make it feel like a friend or a witness is relaying the tale. In its current format, the 2021 Casefile team consists of the host/narrator, two composers, a creative director, a digital media/designer, and four researcher/writers.