The acclaimed Dropout podcast returns to chronicle legal proceedings against the Theranos founder. Plus: good cops go bad in a new series with shades of The Wire
The Dropout (available from 31 August)
The polo neck wearing, deep voice-imitating, Stanford dropout turned entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes – who fell from grace when her billion-dollar blood-testing company was hit by allegations of fraud – is a memorable figure. Her story has reverberated around popular culture in recent years, notably on this gripping and acclaimed show from ABC News, which is now being made into a television series starring Amanda Seyfried. This week, the podcast returns to coincide with Holmes’s upcoming trial, with new episodes released each Tuesday as legal proceedings continue.
Hannah J Davies
Bad Cops
“Why do good cops go bad?” So asks This American Life alumna Jessica Lussenhop in this new show from the BBC World Service, a creepily compelling reported series with shades of The Wire. Lussenhop takes listeners into the world of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, initially set up to deal with the surfeit of illegal guns in the US city and led by a group of “supercops” who managed to get illegal weapons off the streets in record numbers. However, a chance discovery by a fellow police officer would lead to an FBI investigation of the unit’s inner workings. HJD