Catch Up on the 'Serial' Podcast Before Next Week's Finale

Serial probes the 1999 conviction of a high school senior who was charged with the murder of
his ex-girlfriend.

The Serial podcast has drawn in millions of listeners since it debuted in October with new episodes every Thursday. The show, a production of WBEZ Chicago, tells the story of Hae Min Lee, a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, who disappeared on January 13, 1999. A month later, her body turned up in a city park. She'd been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for the crime, and within a year, he was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Adnan's friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae's body. But Adnan has always maintained he had nothing to do with Hae's death. Some people believe he's telling the truth. Many others don't.

Sarah Koenig, who hosts Serial, first learned about this case more than a year ago. She sorted through box after box (after box) of legal documents and investigators' notes, listening to trial testimony and police interrogations, and talking to everyone she can find who remembers what happened between Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee fifteen years ago. What she realized was that the trial covered up a far more complicated story, which neither the jury nor the public got to hear. The high school scene, the shifting statements to police, the prejudices, the sketchy alibis, the scant forensic evidence - all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person's character? How can you tell what they're capable of? In Season One of Serial, she looks for answers.

Before the finale airs next Thursday, catch up on the first 11 episodes of Serial below: