In the Dark, hosted by Madeleine Baran, is an award-winning investigative-journalism podcast that started in 2016. Its first season looked at the mysterious abduction of Jacob Wetterling in rural Minnesota and the lack of accountability that sheriffs face when they fail to solve cases. Season 2 examined the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. In 2020, In the Dark released a special report on the coronavirus pandemic in the Mississippi Delta. In 2023, In the Dark joined The New Yorker and in 2024, it released “The Runaway Princesses,” a four-part series that asks why the women in Dubai’s royal family keep trying to run away. Season 3, released in 2024, asked why no one was punished for the killings of twenty-five civilians in Haditha, Iraq.
In the Dark won the Pulitzer Prize for audio for Season 3. The podcast is a three-time Peabody Award winner and, in 2019, became the first podcast to win a George Polk Award, one of the top honors in journalism. The program has also received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
New Yorker subscribers get early, ad-free access. In Apple Podcasts, tap the link at the top of the feed to subscribe or link an existing subscription. Or visit newyorker.com/dark to subscribe and listen in the New Yorker app.
If you have comments or story tips, please send them to inthedark@newyorker.com.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
The Journey Update: The D.A. Brings Charges
Three weeks after we released “The Journey,” Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang were arrested, and local prosecutors charged them in a child-abuse case. The F.B.I. is now looki
Oct 13 30 min
The Journey, Episode 5: The Children
Will the children be returned to the couple’s mansion? As the judge reaches a decision, Ava examines a confidential court file and makes a startling discovery.
New York
Oct 13 55 min
Season 2 Update: Curtis Flowers Has Died
We received tragic news this week from Winona, Mississippi. Curtis Flowers was found dead in his home at age fifty-six.
Photo by Ben Depp
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Oct 9 8 min
The Journey, Episode 4: The Courts
One of the surrogates secretly takes home the baby she carried. And, in an unprecedented circumstance, it seems like she might have the chance to keep her.
New Yorker s
Oct 6 55 min
The Journey, Episode 3: The Industry
It takes a village to create such a large family. Ava uncovers how the stunning lack of regulation in the surrogacy industry enabled the couple’s plans.
New Yorker subsc
Sep 29 58 min
The Journey, Episode 2: Intended Parents
Ava investigates what is going on inside the Arcadia mansion. What is the couple actually up to? And why do they want so many kids?
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Sep 22 58 min
The Journey, Episode 1: Gifts
A woman in Texas agrees to carry a child for a wealthy couple in California. She thinks she’s helping a family in need. Then she becomes a whistle-blower.
New Yorker sub
Sep 15 59 min
Trailer: The Journey
Why did a mysterious couple collect babies in a Los Angeles mansion? A five-part series from In the Dark, hosted by the New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman, investigates.
Sep 8 2 min
Blood Relatives, Episode 2
Heidi visits an unlikely group of detectives: the victims’ extended family. Their sleuthing upended the police’s original theory of the case.
New Yorker subscribers get
Oct 28 2025 59 min
Blood Relatives, Episode 1
On August 7, 1985, five family members were shot dead in their English country manor, Whitehouse Farm. It looked like an open-and-shut case. But the New Yorker staff writ
Oct 28 2025 49 min
Trailer: Blood Relatives
Five family members, murdered. A sixth in prison for life. It’s one of Britain’s most infamous crimes. But did the justice system get it wrong? “Blood Relatives,” a six-p
Oct 21 2025 2 min
Season 2 Update: Five Years Later
After nearly twenty-three years behind bars, Curtis Flowers was freed, in part due to In the Dark’s reporting. Now he’s back in Winona, Mississippi, where his saga began.
Oct 8 2025 48 min
Season 3, Episode 3: Sounds Like Murder
We travel around the U.S. to find the Marines who were on the ground in Haditha on the day of the killings.
To get episodes early and ad-free, visit newyorker.com/dark.
Aug 6 2024 45 min
Season 3, Episode 2: I Have Questions
A trip to a Marine Corps archive reveals a clue about something that the U.S. military is keeping secret.
To get episodes early and ad-free, visit newyorker.com/dark.
Jul 30 2024 39 min
Season 3, Episode 1: The Green Grass
A man in Haditha, Iraq, has a request for the In the Dark team: Can you investigate how my family was killed?
To get episodes early and ad-free, visit newyorker.com/dar
Jul 30 2024 46 min
Trailer: Season 3
A crime committed. A crime forgotten. A crime unpunished.
Season 3 of In the Dark, coming July 30th. Listen early and ad-free at newyorker.com/dark.
Learn more about
Jul 16 2024 2 min
The Runaway Princesses, Episode 2: Escape
Princess Latifa is desperate to help her sister Shamsa, who’s been captured, drugged, and imprisoned on her father’s orders. She makes a plan to flee Dubai.
"The Runaway
Feb 6 2024 48 min
The Runaway Princesses, Episode 1: Sisters
As sex workers flee Sheikh Mohammed’s U.K. estate bruised and weeping, no one is held to account. British authorities look the other way after one of the sheikh’s own dau
Jan 30 2024 43 min
Trailer: The Runaway Princesses
The wives and daughters of Dubai’s ruler live in unbelievable luxury. So why do the women in Sheikh Mohammed’s family keep trying to run away? The New Yorker staff writer
Jan 23 2024 3 min
An Announcement
Big news! In the Dark has a new home and a new team of partners. The podcast now comes to you from The New Yorker—the legendary home of extraordinary journalism.
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In
Mar 9 2023 11 min
Chart trend
Position in the overall Apple Podcasts chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#49#97SepOctNov
#2
all-time peak
8
days in the top 3 since Dec 2024
Chart positions
Where In The Dark ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Nov 5, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
If you are patient enough to listen to one episode a week, as they are released, then it’s free to listen to.
I see so many reviews saying you have to pay to listen to the rest of the series so I just had to add this. If you just can’t wait to listen to the unreleased episodes, then you can pay to binge them. Pretty much all podcasts are set up in this way now. You get great content for FREE! It’s amazing. Please don’t complain about the fact that you don’t get it all at once for free. Don’t they deserve some $$ for the great work they do?? I’d say so. So be patient or cough up the moolah to binge. Enough with the blasphemous reviews claiming you MUST pay.
Shannon Mck. · Oct 2026
Excellent quality work. These stories are told so well, with facts but also with heart. I’ve learned (and felt) so much
24lernin71 · Oct 2026
Reporting is good (though the tangent on lack of regulation ran a bit long) but weekly drops made it tough for me to stay engaged. I binged the first three episodes, then slowly lost interest as the remaining were released. I don’t think a weekly distribution works for episodic content these days. Even streaming platforms release 2-3 episodes with each drop.
CindR214 · Oct 2026
Sharply done! Excellent work and incredibly eye opening to the world of surrogacy. I love true crime/investigative journalism and for what it’s worth coming from me have tons of respect for Ava K. She is a brilliant storyteller I can’t wait to hear more from her. I won’t state my personal opinions on surrogacy, but it’s definitely changed since listening to this thoughtfully done podcast.
cisca_mc · Oct 2026
I found this entire story appalling. At its core, it seems to be a debacle driven by greed, exploitation, and a disturbing disregard for human life. Everyone involved bears responsibility for allowing this to happen. The only truly innocent parties are the children, brought into a world where they appear to have been treated as commodities rather than human beings deserving of love, stability, and care. The comparison to animals raised on factory farms is difficult to escape.
This story is precisely why surrogacy needs far stricter regulation and oversight. Rather than turning such a disturbing situation into podcast entertainment, the focus should be on accountability, prosecution to the fullest extent of the law wherever crimes have occurred, and meaningful legal and social reforms to ensure this never happens again. These children deserve justice, and society owes them far more than a five-part podcast.
gogoyogini11 · Oct 2026
I was really enjoying in the dark and got into it and then BOOM! you have to pay to continue to listen. Super frustrating because I wouldn’t have even started it to begin with if I knew a subscription would be required down the road! Disappointed.
suggestions for you · Oct 2026
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Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of In The Dark, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
