HSS455 Guilty or Innocent: Serial Podcast Up Close Day: Fridays Time: 10:45 – 11:45 Room: Paolini Age range: 14+ Instructor: Deborah Mueller

This class is based on Serial, a podcast from the creators of This American Life (a weekly public radio program). The podcast, which reopens the investigation into the 1999 strangling death of a Baltimore high-school student, Hae Min Lee, and her former 17-year-old boyfriend, Adnan Syed, now serving a life sentence for the crime, has sparked a following straight out of the golden age of radio. The podcast’s twelve episodes feature interviews with former witnesses, detectives, lawyers and classmates of Adnan, and they challenge followers to wrestle with his guilt, the criminal justice system and the events that unfolded around the day that Lee was last seen alive. As we listen to the podcasts – both in class and, at times, at home -- we will try our hands at being amateur detectives and lawyers. We won’t just follow along with the investigation, but we’ll dig in for ourselves, looking at evidence, sifting through testimony, piecing together timelines and coming to our own conclusions about the witnesses, investigation and, ultimately, Adnan’s guilt or innocence. We’ll focus on critical reading and analytical skills, and improve public speaking skills with group projects like creating our own podcasts or presenting mock closing arguments. And along the way, we will learn a lot about criminal law, our criminal justice system, and the rights afforded to us.

Schedule: The class will follow the podcasts sequentially and what we do each week will depend in large part on how involved we get in each episode. Some episodes will be covered in one class period, others will be split over several, especially those that include investigation or projects.

Important notes: Profanity warning: Because portions of actual interviews are often included, please be advised that profanity (including, on occasion, the “f-word”) shows up in some of the episodes. When possible, advance notice will be given. The podcast can be streamed for free from serialpodcast.org, and is also available from the iTunes store.