Best Darker With Daniel Podcasts (2025)

1
164: Ritual - The Pensacola Massacre Part 01 25:04

10h ago25:04

25:04

Listener, the story I am about to tell you is about greed, power and control exerted in the coldest way imaginable. On a normal day in July 2015 in Escambia County, Florida, three members of the same family got up in the morning and set about their daily routine. They didn’t know the brutality that was going to be rained on them, snatching away the…

1
John Bardes, "The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930" (UNC Press, 2024) 48:57

3d ago48:57

48:57

The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (UNC Press, 2024) reveals that Americans often assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. Mustering tens of thousands of previously overlooked arrest and pr…

1
Secrets of the Killing State 1:13:40

5d ago1:13:40

1:13:40

In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it provides a “humane” death. In reality, however, not one of those things is true. Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal In…

1
Black Label: Khan Tusion - Mark Handel 31:38

5d ago31:38

31:38

Since the late 90s Khan Tusion has held the crown as the boogie man of the adult industry. He showed up in 1999 and immediately made a stamp as being particularly cruel. It was the dot com boom and adult websites were created in the thousands. Khan specialized in pushing limits and avoiding consent. Women showed up to shoots only to leave crying an…

1
Cheryl Thompson, "Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict and Freedom, 1812-1895" (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2025) 1:18:32

7d ago1:18:32

1:18:32

Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812-1897 (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2025) traces the origins of theatre, dance, and concert singing in Canada and their connection to British and American song and dance traditions. When theatrical acts first appeared in the late eighteenth century, chattel slave…

1
Keith Merith, "A Darker Shade of Blue: A Police Officer's Memoir" (ECW Press, 2024) 1:15:54

10d ago1:15:54

1:15:54

A transparent first-hand account of a Black officer maneuvering through three terrifying yet rewarding decades of policing, all while seeking reform in law enforcement When 16-year-old Keith Merith finds himself pulled over, berated, and degraded by a white police officer, he’s outraged. He’s done nothing wrong. But the officer has the power, and h…

1
Keith Merith, "A Darker Shade of Blue: A Police Officer's Memoir" (ECW Press, 2024) 1:15:54

10d ago1:15:54

1:15:54

A transparent first-hand account of a Black officer maneuvering through three terrifying yet rewarding decades of policing, all while seeking reform in law enforcement When 16-year-old Keith Merith finds himself pulled over, berated, and degraded by a white police officer, he’s outraged. He’s done nothing wrong. But the officer has the power, and h…

1
Case 001 - The Ape Canyon Siege 4:02

10d ago4:02

4:02

In this inaugural case file, Jack Malone—grizzled investigator for the Bureau of Occult and Historical Investigations—digs deep into the shadows of American folklore. It’s 1924, and five miners claim they were attacked by a group of towering, hairy beasts in a remote Washington canyon. Gunfire. Boulders. A night of terror. Was it Bigfoot? Mass hyst…

1
Stacy Horn, "Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York" (Algonquin Books, 2019) 34:22

11d ago34:22

34:22

Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York's Blackwell's Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archiva…

1
163: CarlH - Internet Monsters 21:24

13d ago21:24

21:24

Reddit user CarlH is distinguished as Redditor of the day. A title reserved for quasi celebrity reddit users. CarlH enjoyed spending his free time teaching reddit users programming. Regarded as one of the most beloved users on the site. These days his name rarely, if ever comes up… Why is that? Our Sponsors: * Check out Avocado Green Mattress: http…

1
American Gangster 24:35

15d ago24:35

24:35

American Gangster (2007) is Ridley Scott’s homage to The French Connection: it’s got the right cars, clothes, and colors and is based on another true story of an obsessed cop trying to take down a drug kingpin. The feature (or the bug, depending on how you look at it) is Denzel Washington in the title role. Is an actor so charismatic that everyone …

1
162: Marc Fogle - Cause and Effect 26:55

20d ago26:55

26:55

Listener, today's story is a study in consequences—the kind that sneak up on you in the silence after a mistake. We begin with a personal tale: a moment of breaking, a walk into the night, and the cold realization of what it costs to leave something behind. But it’s in the second half where things truly darken. In Vancouver, Washington, CDL driver …

1
Ben Snyder on Spy Plane: Inside Baltimore’s Surveillance Experiment 1:01:34

22d ago1:01:34

1:01:34

In this 100th episode (!!!) of Peoples & Things, host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Benjamin H. Snyder, Associate Professor of Sociology at Williams College, about his recent book, Spy Plane: Inside Baltimore’s Surveillance Experiment (University of California Press, 2024). Spy Plane examines how the city of Baltimore, Maryland, came to adopt a corporate…

1
L. Sasha Gora, "Culinary Claims: Indigenous Restaurant Politics in Canada" (University of Toronto Press, 2025) 1:00:20

22d ago1:00:20

1:00:20

Culinary Claims: Indigenous Restaurant Politics in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2025) by Dr. L. Sasha Gora explores the complex relationships between wild plants and introduced animals, Indigenous foodways, and Canadian regulations. Blending food studies with environmental history, the book examines how cuisines reflect social and political…

1
Black Label: Life is NEET 30:05

27d ago30:05

30:05

Listener, In this episode, you will hear the tragic story of Sha 'Shabi' Aslam, an internet personality who struggled with depression and dark fantasies. Known for his activity on 4chan's R9K board and his 'incel' identity, Shabi shared disturbing posts about his personal life and suicidal thoughts. Join Black Label for more premium darker episodes…

1
Jeffrey P. Rogg, "The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:04:58

29d ago1:04:58

1:04:58

Intelligence is all around us. We read about it in the news, wonder who is spying on us through our phones or computers, and want to know what is happening in the shadows. The US Intelligence Community or IC, as insiders call it, is more powerful than ever, but also more vulnerable than it has been in decades. It is facing the threat of rival intel…

1
Brittany Friedman, "Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons" (UNC Press, 2025) 50:52

1M ago50:52

50:52

In Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons, Dr. Brittany Friedman delves into how the California Department of Corrections deployed various official, clandestine, and at times extralegal control techniques—including officer alliances with imprisoned white supremacists—to suppress Black political movements, revealing the …

1
161: Osean McLintock - Struggle 20:29

1M ago20:29

20:29

Listener, this episode takes a sharp look into the fatal police encounter with 26-year-old Ocean McClintock, a man caught between chronic physical pain and spiraling mental health issues. You’ll hear the tense escalation from a single 911 call to the moment a vulnerable suspect is shot inside a patrol car, and the host questions whether this traged…

1
Coll Thrush, "Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific" (University of Washington Press, 2025) 32:13

1M ago32:13

32:13

The Northwest Coast of North America is a treacherous place. Unforgiving coastlines, powerful currents, unpredictable weather, and features such as the notorious Columbia River bar have resulted in more than two thousand shipwrecks, earning the coastal areas of Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island the moniker “Graveyard of the Pacific.” Beginni…

1
Daniel Karpowitz, "College in Prison: Reading in an Age of Mass Incarceration" (Rutgers UP, 2017) 1:17:10

1M ago1:17:10

1:17:10

Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different. In his book, College in Prison: Reading…

1
Andrew Forbes, "McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction" (Invisible Publishing, 2024) 1:01:58

1M ago1:01:58

1:01:58

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Andrew Forbes about his phenomenal novella, McCurdle’s Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024). Southern Ontario, 1892. The Ashburnham Pine Groves are a semi-professional baseball club in the South Western Ontario Base-Ball Players’ Association, sponsored by the Grafton Brewery, make…

1
160: Jorge Cardenas - Rage 20:43

1M ago20:43

20:43

Listener, in this episode, rage explodes in a suburban parking lot and leaves a trail of bullets, shattered glass, and blood. You’ll hear how a routine domestic dispute morphs into a volatile standoff, costing one man his life and leaving a sheriff’s sergeant wounded. We’ll explore the chilling 911 call, the desperate gunfight, and the unsettling t…

1
Gina Leola Woolsey, "Fifteen Thousand Pieces" (Guernica Editions, 2023) 36:48

1M ago36:48

36:48

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with author Gina Leola Woolsey about her stunning biography, Fifteen Thousand Pieces (Guernica Editions, 2023). On Wednesday, September 2nd, 1998, an international flight carrying 229 souls crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia. There were no survivors. By Friday, Sept 4th, thou…

1
159: Daniel Gish - Holly Jolly 20:39

2M ago20:39

20:39

Listener, in this episode, we enter a tense suburban night where a father with a gun to his head shatters the very notion of shelter. You’ll hear raw body cam audio capturing the fear and chaos as a family’s home becomes a battleground, ending in an officer’s split-second choice to protect those who still believe in a safe haven. This is a story ab…

1
Stuart Ward, "Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain" (Cambridge UP, 2023) 1:15:16

2M ago1:15:16

1:15:16

How did Britain cease to be global? In Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2023), Professor Stuart Ward tells the panoramic history of the end of Britain, tracing the ways in which Britishness has been imagined, experienced, disputed and ultimately discarded across the globe since the end of the Secon…

1
158: Linden Cameron - The Son Part 02 21:29

2M ago21:29

21:29

Listener, this episode picks up where we left off—moments after 13-year-old Linden Cameron is confronted by officers and shot multiple times. You’ll hear the harrowing chase, the immediate aftermath, and the long road to recovery for both Linden and his mother. This tragedy raised questions about the handling of mental health crises and the use of …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Darker With Daniel Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide