In the Dark

In the Dark is an award-winning investigative documentary podcast from APM Reports, hosted by Madeleine Baran, that set a new standard for long-form investigative journalism in the podcast medium. The first season examined the 1989 kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling in rural Minnesota, a case that went unsolved for 27 years and fundamentally changed how America handles missing children cases. Through meticulous reporting, Madeleine Baran exposed how law enforcement failures and systemic incompetence allowed the case to remain open for decades. The second season investigated the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man in Mississippi who was tried six times for the same crime by the same prosecutor, revealing a shocking pattern of racial discrimination in jury selection and prosecutorial misconduct. In the Dark's investigation directly contributed to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Flowers' conviction and ultimately led to all charges being dropped. The podcast demonstrates the extraordinary power of investigative journalism to effect real change in the criminal justice system, combining rigorous fact-finding with compelling narrative storytelling that keeps listeners engaged across complex, multi-episode investigations.