ESPN Set To Air First Serialized True-Crime Podcast Series on May 22nd

ESPN has done a lot in the podcast world over the last year. Most importantly, they took their popular 30 for 30 film series to the audio world. Last summer, they released five episodes a week apart, each telling a different sports-related story. Then four months later, they dropped a four-episode second season, complete with bonus interviews galore.

For season three, although they’re not calling it that, 30 for 30 will raise the stakes again. Rather than tackle a new story each episode, they’ll follow in the footsteps of Serial and S-Town by telling one true-crime-type story over several episodes.

ESPN’s first serialized podcast will be five episodes that tell the real-life story of Bikram Choudhury, the guru, and founder of Bikram Yoga. Choudry has seen his life crumble recently, with sexual assault claims, shady dealings, and fraud allegations, while his creation (Bikram Yoga) continues to grow in spite of it.

Per ESPN’s official press release, Julia Lowrie Henderson, who tells the five-part story, will interview Bikram practitioners, teachers, studio owners, and women tied to the abuse allegations.

Jody Avrigan, who is synonymous with 30 for 30 podcasts at this point, spoke about the new venture in their press release.

 “This story checks all of the 30 for 30 boxes. It’s full of compelling characters, big ideas, and offers a lot of lessons for how we think about sports, gender, power and community. Because the story is so layered, it’s worthy of the multi-episode treatment — a new format for us that we’re very excited to experiment with.” -Jody Avrigan, Host and Producer of 30 for 30.

All five episodes will be released at the same time on May 22nd so we can all binge them in one sitting.