Intrigued by S-Town ! Disturbed by Tickled ! And the Owl Theory takes flight!

What do you do in the middle of blizzard? Record a podcast, of course. First, the trailer for the new Serial spin-off "S-town" dropped! What will the seven episode series be about? We don't know, but Sarah Koenig's crew gave us an interesting taste and OF COURSE we had to talk about it.Plus, despite taking an Alford plea last month, the Michael Peterson case is not quite over. The subject of the exceptional miniseries "The Staircase" is looking into the theory that his wife was actually killed in the stairwell during an owl attack. The claim had been downplayed by Peterson's defense team, and was the focus of episode 1 of the podcast "Criminal," but now they want experts to examine the feathers found with Kathleen's body. At this point does Peterson have anything to lose...or anything to win?Then it's probably the most unusual documentary ever discussed on the podcast. "Tickled," a journalist's look into videos of the sport of "competitive endurance tickling," is NOT the lighthearted romp the title might imply. Instead, the doc takes dark and unexpected turns as the reporter tries to uncover who is behind this secretive video empire and the attempt to ruin all foes in their way. In the Crime of the Week: Moms + school dropoff lane + maybe too much "Big Little Lies" = gun play. Time to send the parents to time out.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.