NXIVM on Trial

The Times Union newspaper in Albany covered NXIVM longer and harder than almost any other outlet, and NXIVM on Trial is their podcast version of that reporting. Editor Casey Seiler, reporter Robert Gavin, and producer Jessica Marshall discuss the legal proceedings, trial developments, and behind-the-scenes details across 32 episodes. This is the show for people who want the nuts and bolts of the federal case: the extortion charges, the sex trafficking allegations, the courtroom testimony. The hosts bring a local reporter’s familiarity with the upstate New York scene where NXIVM operated, which gives them context that national outlets missed. They also provided running commentary on HBO’s The Vow documentary, fact-checking it against their own years of reporting. The podcast has a 4.2 rating from over 300 reviewers on Apple Podcasts. Fair warning: the audio quality is a recurring complaint in listener reviews, with remote interview segments sometimes sounding tinny and hard to follow. A few reviewers also felt the hosts took too lighthearted a tone for subject matter this serious. But if you can get past the production issues, the actual journalism underneath is solid. These reporters were covering Keith Raniere before most people had ever heard the name NXIVM, and that institutional knowledge shows in every episode.