Synodus Horrenda is a podcast about death, dying, and the dead. [CW]
[CW: this podcast unavoidably gets pretty heavy. Topics include illness, accidents, murder, assault, and su*cide, as well as racism and antisemitism in certain episodes.]
Via meticulously researched explorations of everything from the sinking of the Titanic to the Burke & Hare murders to the death of Julian the Apostate, Synodus Horrenda interrogates our societal and cultural relationship to mortality.
Its creator manages to look unflinchingly at their subject matter without crossing the line into exploitativeness or ghoulishness, which is IMO what makes Synodus remarkable in the very crowded (and sometimes tasteless) field of true crime/horror/”daark history” podcasts. SH is arguably at its best when examining which deaths captivate us (for varying values of “us”), which ones we’re eager to forget, and why.
(For fans of the also-excellent You’re Wrong About, the SH episodes on Kitty Genovese and Terry Schiavo make interesting companion pieces to their YWA counterparts, though they won’t necessarily contain any new info if you’re already familiar with the latter.)