The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. 

Season 7 - The Burden: Bad Cops

Baltimore, Maryland likes to call itself Charm City. But you have to wonder: Is the nickname ironic?  Consider one of the city's star cops, a sergeant so accomplished that he earned his own nickname, the Golden Boy.  But Golden Boy led a double life. Said one of those who encountered him in the street.  "I was robbed by the Baltimore City Police….with a gun … armed robbery."  No one believed the allegation. Then a GPS tracker was discovered where it shouldn't have been; next, a wiretap went up on a cop's phone. An FBI agent couldn't believe what she was hearing. Are these guys  gangsters? And then … an insider turned witness. "Like Rambo said, burn it down. And that's what I did."  Welcome to Charm City, where it was sometimes difficult to tell the protectors from the predators.

Season 6 - The Burden: Lives of Crime

Ever wondered what it’s like to live on the edge? 
To not follow the rules? 
To live outside of the law? 
On Lives of Crime you'll hear true stories from criminals themselves, narrating moments from their lives and expounding upon the crimes they’ve committed. This first person narrative podcast series creates an intimate connection between criminal and listener. It’s true crime without intermediaries. Presented without judgment, each episode features a single voice - a person with a criminal past - telling us the deeply personal details of their lives. We hear about their crimes, sure, but Lives of Crime goes beyond that. We hear the stories that shaped them, the moments that made them, the details that changed the direction of their lives for good or for ill.
True Crime Told by true criminals. 

Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance

On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder,  and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.”  David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire inves...