From Serial to In the Dark: the true crime podcasts that changed their subjects’ lives

Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast Serial, departs the courthouse after a judge overturned his conviction. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

On Monday, a Baltimore judge vacated the conviction of Adnan Syed, a man who spent 23 years behind bars for a crime he claims he did not commit.

Eight years ago, journalist Sarah Koenig made Syed the focus of her This American Life spinoff podcast Serial, in the process making Syed an unlikely celebrity and catapulting the world into what would be known as the “golden age of podcasting”.