Canadian True Crime

Americans aren’t really known for being nice. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what we are known for around the world, except for being wildly patriotic and morbidly obese. But I do know what Canada is known for. Canadians are the nice guys of the world. They have maple syrup, maple leaves, fun accents, moose, and really nice people. At least, that’s what the memes tell me.

I never really imagined crime as a primary characteristic of Canada. Which might be why the major podcasts in the true crime genre often focus on American crime. That focus is why Kristi Lee started the Canadian True Crime podcast. Or at least why she made the first episode.

Around the time that I started, there wasn’t a lot of podcasts in Canada that were focusing solely on Canadian crime. So I saw a lot of chatter about it in Facebook groups about how they wanted more Canadian cases covered, so I just decided to see if I could maybe start one…

But Kristi didn’t try and start a podcast. She just wanted to see if she could make one episode centering on her favorite case. “I wanted to make my free time a little more productive than watching Netflix all the time.” But it didn’t stop there, and the show started to take off. So I had to ask, why were people so fascinated?

People have always loved stories about other people, and these are the worst kind of stories that you can listen to about other people. And they’re both shocking in terms of, we can’t figure out how and why people do these heinous things to each other, but also we want to understand what kind of other people are out there and what kind of risks we might encounter in our daily lives. So I think a lot of it has to do with curiosity and interest and a little bit of fear and risk mitigation.

Kristi answers those curious people with the stories of solved crime that have taken place in Canada. She feels that plenty of podcasts cover unsolved crimes and thus focuses on those that have made their way through the court system, with a focus on respect toward the people affected.

I feel like the most good that I can do from my podcast entertainment product is to really try and focus the attention on the victims and the survivors who suffered through things people should not have to go through. And if their families come to listen to the episodes which, at this point, quite a few have, I want them to think that I’ve done justice to honoring the memory of their loved one.

Kristi is filling the maple-leaf-sized hole in the true crime genre and making sure to be respectful of all those affected by the crimes, all while recording in her closet for the natural soundproofing her clothes provide. But she doesn’t want to stay there and she’s excited to continue growing her show.

I’m looking forward to just covering more crimes from around Canada. There are some provinces that I haven’t covered cases from. I have some of those in the works. I have a couple of really high profile cases that a lot of people have been requesting that are also in the works…. Just really growing my show and continuing to build my relationship with other podcasters.

So, if you want to be convinced that Canada isn’t the kindest country on Earth, if you love true crime, or if you’re just excited to listen to Kristi eventually move her recording studio from the closet to the basement, Canadian True Crime is the show for you.

Chasing Pods is a Podchaser blog series dedicated to letting our readers know about podcasts they may not have heard of or provide a sneak peek into the making of their favorite podcast. We talk to podcast creators about their journey into podcasting, the creation of their shows, the ups and downs of the work, and what they’re looking forward to for their podcast

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