Introducing: The Generation Why Podcast

How one father, determined to reclaim his daughter's memory, brought down Alex Jones.On December 14, 2012, Robbie Parker's daughter Emilie was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, a tragedy that changed Robbie's life and the country forever. By the next day, Alex Jones was on air claiming the shooting was a hoax.So begins Parker's David and Goliath story, a tale of hope and resilience amid hatred and division. While Robbie and his family spent the next decade attempting to grieve, Jones's fans harassed them, calling them crisis actors. The hatred pushed Robbie inward, disconnecting him from the world and his family. Four years after Sandy Hook, an Infowars listener accosted Robbie three thousand miles away from Newtown, Connecticut, repeating the same lies Alex Jones had spread for years.Soon after, seventeen students were murdered at Florida's Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School. Robbie and his wife spoke with one of the victims' parents and learned they were also being bombarded with hateful messages. He realized he could no longer avoid this terrifying reality, and with the help of Sandy Hook parents, lawyers, and supporters, Robbie stood up to Alex Jones in court to heal and reclaim his daughter's memory.A Father's Fight is more than a memoir; it's a stirring portrait of an unbreakable human spirit. It's a testament to a father's love and perseverance in the face of insurmountable grief. A FATHER'S FIGHT: Taking on Alex Jones and Reclaiming the Truth about Sandy Hook-Robbie Parker

4 Aug 1h 7min

Baby-faced teen Giovanni Macedo is desperate to find belonging in one of LA’s most predatory gangs, the Columbia Lil Cycos—so desperate that he agrees to kill an undocumented Mexican street vendor. The vendor, Francisco Clemente, had been refusing to give in to the gang’s shakedown demands. But Giovanni botches the hit, accidentally killing a newborn instead. The overlords who rule the Lil Cycos from a Supermax prison 1,000 miles away must be placated and Giovanni is lured across the border where, in turn, the gang botches his killing. And so, incredibly, Giovanni rises from the dead, determined to both seek redemption for his unforgivable crime and take down the gang who drove him to do it.With The Rent Collectors, Jesse Katz has built a teeth clenching and breathless narrative that explicates the difficult and proud lives of undocumented black market workers who are being extorted by the gangs and fined by the city of LA—in other words, exploited by two sets of rent collectors. THE RENT COLLECTORS: Exploitation, Murder and Redemption in Immigrant LA—Jesse Katz

28 Jul 1h 8min

For Yves Trudeau, the blood was all business. An assassin for the Hells Angels in the ’70s and ’80s, Trudeau was known as Apache, the Mad Bumper, and the Mad Bomber. As a contract killer, he did his job so well that the bikers sometimes lent him out to other organized-crime empires in Montreal, including the east-end French gangs led by the deadly Dubois brothers and the upstart Irish Mafia in the west end.Yves Trudeau remains one of Canada’s most prolific serial killers. When he narrowly missed being assassinated because he was in drug rehab, he turned government informant and confessed to his crimes, which included killing forty-three people. But as a witness, Trudeau was a disaster. And the sweetheart deal he got with little jail time for his murders caused outrage.Award-winning writers Julian Sher and Lisa Fitterman tell the incredible story of how this assassin escaped the police and the justice system for over a decade.A compelling and revealing account of corruption, incompetence, and murder, Hitman is based on extensive research and exclusive new interviews with police, lawyers, and bikers who knew Yves “Apache” Trudeau. HITMAN: The Untold Story of Canada's Deadliest Assassin-Julian Sher and Lisa Fitterman

21 Jul 56min

Something Big tells the story of the infamous Brown’s Chicken massacre, a brutal case that captivated Chicagoland after remaining unsolved for nearly a decade.Customers know Brown's Chicken for its crispy buttermilk fried chicken and flaky biscuits. The Illinois-based franchise has a reputation for delicious but simple comfort food. But through no fault of its own, the words "Brown's Chicken" are also synonymous with one fateful night in January of 1993.“A Real Hometown” is the trite but apt motto of Palatine, Illinois, a quaint middle-class suburb west of Chicago. On a snowy Friday evening, the staff and owners of the city’s local Brown’s Chicken franchise were closing up when two final customers arrived just past 9 p.m. As the night drew on and the employees hadn’t returned home, the families of the owners and workers began to worry, prompting police to investigate. When they entered the dark building, police were shocked to find seven bodies stacked in the restaurant’s freezer and fridge. The killers, of course, were long gone. In the months that followed, the horrendous story rocked Chicagoland and the case remained unsolved for nine years.The Brown’s Chicken massacre is one of the most infamous cases in Illinois history, yet it is often misremembered. In Something Big, Patrick Wohl gives a new account of the story, taking readers behind the scenes and sharing the perspective of the people who lived it.SOMETHING BIG:The True Story of the Brown's Chicken Massacre, A Decade-Long Manhunt, and the Trials That Followed-Patrick Wohl

14 Jul 58min

The latest collection from true crime master Michael Benson looks at some of the ghastliest murders in Rochester, N.Y., history. One of them takes place in Genesee County, but it's a good one. Stories include: The Davis Street Fiend: The Murder of Tessie Keating; Shallow Grave at Holy Sepulchre: The Murder of Anna Schumacher; The Linden Lunatic: The Murders of "Ruth", Frances Kimball, George and Hattie Whaley, and Benjamin Phillips; Of Bondage and Bullets: The Murder of Gertrude Smith; Trail of Blood: The Murder of George Hickey; and The Jay Street Ax Man: The Murders of Millie Marcucci and Francesca Cotogno. Plus updates on three cases Benson has written about in the past, cold cases that are cold no more: Cathleen Krauseneck, Wendy Jerome, and Victoria Jobson. SHALLOW GRAVES: Ghastly Murders, Rochester NY-Michael Benson

7 Jul 57min

Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?As Murderland indelibly maps the lives and careers of Bundy and his infamous peers in mayhem—the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, the Hillside Strangler, even Charles Manson—Fraser’s Northwestern death trip begins to uncover a deeper mystery and an overlapping pattern of environmental destruction. At ground zero in Ted Bundy’s Tacoma stood one of the most poisonous lead, copper, and arsenic smelters in the world, but it was hardly unique in the West. As Fraser’s investigation inexorably proceeds, evidence mounts that the plumes of these smelters not only sickened and blighted millions of lives but also warped young minds, including some who grew up to become serial killers.Murderland transcends true-crime voyeurism and noir mythology, taking readers on a profound quest into the dark heart of the real American berserk. MURDERLAND: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers-Caroline Fraser

30 Jun 58min

A twisting, deeply engrossing investigation into the many lingering questions surrounding the sudden disappearance of the McStays, a family of four who vanished from their suburban San Diego home without a trace—until their skeletal remains were found in the Mojave Desert nearly four years later—from New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother.On February 15, 2010, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their two young sons were reported missing from their new home in San Diego County. They left eggs and fruit rotting on the counter. Their Dodge truck sat in the driveway. Their dogs were abandoned outside without food. But investigators found no blood, signs of a struggle, or clues to their whereabouts. Did the family take an unannounced vacation? Were they running away from personal problems? Or were they victims of foul play? Nearly four years later, a motorcyclist found the McStays’ remains in and around two shallow graves, one hundred miles away in the Mojave Desert. Their skulls showed signs of blunt-force trauma, likely due to the sledgehammer buried with them. Authorities focused on Charles "Chase" Merritt, a close friend and subcontractor for Joseph’s company. Despite a lack of physical evidence, scenarios that defied logic, and numerous unanswered questions, prosecutors convinced a jury of Merritt’s guilt. After an emotional sentencing hearing, the judge imposed the death penalty. But did another possible suspect, who was ignored by investigators and ducked a subpoena to testify, get away with murder?In this twisting, deeply researched true-crime mystery, New York Times bestselling investigative journalist Caitlin Rother hunts for answers to reveal the truth behind a heinous crime that became a nation’s obsession, with a controversial trial in its wake, and lingering questions of justice.Joining me to discuss, DOWN TO THE BONE: A Missing Family's Murder and the Elusive Quest for Justice—Caitlin Rother

23 Jun 57min

FOLLOW-UP TO THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER 22 MURDERSThe truth about the deadliest criminal incident in Canadian history has remained untold—until now.Investigative journalist Paul Palango’s 22 Murders examined the April 2020 shooting spree committed by Gabriel Wortman that began in Portapique, Nova Scotia, and ended thirteen and a half hours later when Wortman was shot dead by RCMP officers. The episode left numerous serious questions in its wake—most especially why was the killer able to evade police in such limited geography for so long?Since then, the government called a public inquiry into the massacres—the Mass Casualty Commission. Though Palango unearthed a treasure trove of evidence pointing to the possibility that Wortman or someone close to him was acting as a police agent, the commission evaded all the big questions and let the RCMP off with a slap on the wrist. To this day, no one has been held accountable.In his new book, Palango continues to crack the case, delving deeper into the evidence and testimonies of the witnesses who have been ignored. Drawing on his vast experience as an investigative reporter, he has mined the thousands of pages of commission documents to reveal the wall of secrecy and deceptions constructed by the RCMP and the criminal justice system, exposing new facts that may alter the public’s perception of what really happened.A tour-de-force of reportage, Anatomy of a Cover-Up accomplishes what the commission set out to do—uncover the truth about the Nova Scotia massacres and bring long overdue justice to its victims. ANATOMY OF A COVERUP: The Truth about the RCMP and the Nova Scotia Massacres—Paul PalangoReplyForwardAdd reaction

16 Jun 1h 26min