Transcription
[Music] Together, we can have a lot of fun. For you, chat and talk to me. These are lessons you can go, time for us to show, living name H on, and we can go for [Music] you, the world of true crime stories of fear and justice.
It's common to see a true crime show topping the Netflix charts. Whether it's the Emmy-winning Baby Reindeer or past hits like Inventing Anna, these shows have one thing in common: they keep audiences interested by diving deep into real-life mysteries, crimes, and complex human psychology. But what is it about True Crime that keeps us pressing play?
One reason that people like True Crime is related to our survival instincts. Some psychologists believe that our interest in crime may come from ancient survival needs. In the past, knowing about threats or dangerous actions helped people stay safe. Because of this, today's True Crime stories serve as warnings, helping people feel more prepared for possible dangers. Thanks to streaming services and podcasts, it's easier to watch or listen to True Crime than ever before. These True Crime shows tell suspenseful stories and open discussions about criminal justice. Their popularity shows how true crime can keep audiences engaged with topics such as morality and legal responsibility.
In summary, True Crime is likely to remain popular for a long time, keeping viewers and readers on the edge of their seats. Hello everyone, welcome to English for you. I'm Mike, and I'm Laura. It is day three of our look at true crime podcasts and shows. Very, very entertaining, slightly scary, and also educational.
These things have been around for a long time—well, not the podcasts and the TV shows; those are mostly fairly new. But even back in the 1500s, people were already reading pamphlets about murders, and and then in the 1800s, they became much more frequent. Uh, you could probably find, you know, newspapers and stories in England and other places that focused only on true crime. And then, of course, Truman Capote's famous novel from the—was it the '50s or the '60s?—In Cold Blood brought True Crime to a whole bunch of new people and became a best-selling book at the same time and sort of raised the standard for true crime stories. And now it seems they're almost everywhere. Uhm, not only are they on our television—I mean, we have a—I have a Crime and Investigation channel here along with History Channel, and and it's only true crime. I think that's the whole thing. Netflix has many popular shows, which we'll look at in a moment, and I bet you if you looked at the top 10 podcasts in any part of the world, a couple of them—at least two or three—would probably be true crime focused. So yes, it is a good time to be a true crime fan. So let's get into our story and find out all about what we can do to enjoy this very interesting and popular entertainment genre.
It says it's common to see a true crime show topping the Netflix charts, whether it's the Emmy-winning Baby Reindeer or past hits like Inventing Anna. So if you look at the most popular Netflix shows—the shows that most people around the world are watching on Netflix—many times a true crime show is up there at the top. There's Baby Reindeer that was from 2024, I believe, maybe 2023, that was very dark. I had to watch Disney after that.
Oh, really? To you know, a little too scary. Okay, well, that's a good warning. I've never seen it. So, so if you're a fan of True Crime, you might enjoy it, but maybe if you're just getting into it, avoid Baby Reindeer as your first. Inventing Anna is—watch Inventing Anna; that would be good. I think you can also enjoy them from other countries, so they have true crime in English, but then I'm sure you can find shows from other parts of the world as well. Baby Reindeer. Now, these shows—no matter what they are—these shows have one thing in common: they keep audiences interested by diving deep into real-life mysteries, crimes, and complex human psychology.
So yes, if you boil it down, if you really get down to the thing that people like about true crime, they have one thing in common; there's one thing that all of them have: they keep audiences interested by diving deep into real-life mysteries. When you dive into something, you kind of investigate it or research it; you find out more about it, probably because you're interested. Uh, so they dive real—they dive deep into real-life mysteries, crimes, and complex human psychology. Because, again, the why of crime is often the most interesting part, and to get to the why, you often have to think—understand what the person was thinking—the criminal, the murderer, the person who did the crime—what they were thinking at the time. Who would go around killing people, right? It's not a normal thing to do. So psychology is a big part of it. Psychology is basically the study of the way the human mind works—why people act and do and behave in certain ways—where people's brains might be different than others, you know, if they commit crimes, they might have some mental illness; all of that is in their psychology. If you look at the body—the muscles, the bones, the organs—that's physiology. If you look at the brain and how that works, that's psychology. But basically, it's the study of the human mind and human behavior.
Uh, for example, Sigman has always been interested in psychology and why people think certain ways and do the things they do. Psychology can help us to understand that for sure. Okay, we also saw the phrase have something in common, dive into something. I decided to dive into learning Korean and am already practicing daily. My okay, so psychology—oh, this is something I love—and yeah, like what Mike said, studying psychology helps us understand why people behave the way they do. Mhm. All right, so that's part of it, but here's the bigger question: what is it about True Crime that keeps us pressing play? That's a very interesting question. I enjoy True Crime, but once I watch one show, I'm kind of done for a while. I don't want to watch show after show after show, but obviously, true—some people do, because they keep pressing play; they find this style of entertainment very, very enjoyable, and they will watch multiple shows. I don't; I just watch one, and I think, oh, that's enough for the day. You get a little sad and scared. Okay, keep us pressing play. Why do some people do that—maybe not us? Well, let's get into the psychology, not just of the criminals, but of us, the audience, the people watching it.
It says one reason that people like True Crime is related to our survival instincts. Oh, we don't want to get killed. Interesting. So yeah, it's part of, you know, part of your sort of ancient animal brain. We sometimes call this your lizard brain, right? The part of your brain that is not much different from when we were monkeys living in trees millions of years ago. We want to survive; we don't want to be killed by dangerous things around us. In the past, the monkeys might have watched what the lions and leopards were doing so that they don't get eaten. We might watch these shows to know what murderers and killers do so we can protect ourselves. That is our natural survival instinct. It could be related to that. That also might explain maybe why women like it a bit more. Women are often—more often—the victims; we—they're the victims of violence much more than than men are, right? So it could help a woman just be safe out there in the world. Be related to something. For example, the two mysteries seemed unrelated at first, but they turned out to be related to the same crime instinct. Some psychologists, it says, believe that our interest in crime may come from ancient survival needs. There you go, our survival instincts, our survival needs. And then we read, in the past, knowing about threats or dangerous dangerous actions helped people stay safe. I would agree; in fact, I would take off in the past; I would say even now, today, in 2025, knowing about threats or dangerous actions helps people stay safe. Don't go to the place where there's a forest fire. Don't go swimming during a typhoon. Avoid the guy with the knife who's running at you saying, "I'm going to kill you," cuz that is a threat; that is a dangerous action that could hurt you, whether it's a lion in a jungle millions of years ago or, you know, a place where there's a lot of terrorism today. Don't go there. Uh, threat is a potential danger. If I'm warning you about something—if there's a red sign that says danger, do not go here, do not do that—that is a warning about a threat. It doesn't mean it will hurt you, it will kill you, but it could. So we're telling you about it. For example, the pilot landed the broken plane because flying with only one engine is a threat to everyone's safety. For example, the little puppy tried to look tough, but it wasn't much of a threat to the big cat. Back to the story, it says, because of this, today's True Crime stories serve as warnings, helping people feel more prepared for possible dangers. Yeah, if you know how people become victims of crime—you know, they did something silly like walking through a park in the middle of the night in a dangerous part of town—you might go, "I'm not going to walk through a park in the middle of the night in the in a dangerous part of town." This will be a warning to you to learn how to avoid danger. Someone did this; they got in trouble; I'm not going to do that, so hopefully that trouble won't affect me. It serves as a warning, and a warning is kind of like that red sign I told you: don't go here, don't do this, don't touch that. A threat is the possible danger; a warning is me telling you about the possible danger. I can either tell you with my my words, right? Look out, uh, or something like that, or we can put up signs; we can give people notices; pass the information on so that they know about the danger by giving them a warning of some kind. Did you see the warnings about tomorrow's typhoon? Apparently, it's going to be very powerful and dangerous, so they would be saying things like, "After midnight, don't leave your home; you could get hit by flying stuff." Okay, today's True Crime stories serve as warnings. Serve something—warning. For example, the teacher gave him a warning not to play with his phone during class again. I certainly look for like warnings and also like some cult, you know, documentaries; those are kind of scary, so I'm always like, "Oh no, I hope I won't run into those people." Yeah, warning about joining weird cults would be a good warning for people. Back to the article, it says, thanks to streaming services and podcasts, it's easier to watch or listen to True Crime than ever before. Yeah, streaming services—here's where we think of Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, things like that—and podcasts—many things that you can listen to using your smartphone or a computer—uh, it's easier to watch or listen to True Crime than ever before. You can listen to it while you're driving, while you're gym—at the gym, while you're cooking dinner, or while you're sitting on the sofa with your computer or TV. You can have 24-hour True Crime if you really want. Okay, streaming service. Okay. [Music] Says these True Crime shows tell suspenseful stories and open discussions about criminal justice. So yeah, not only will you get to know what happened—the actual crime—that's the suspenseful story that they're telling you about the crime and then the police investigation, and maybe they caught the person, but especially on the podcasts, they open discussions about criminal justice, so people will talk about it; they might invite police or other experts onto the show to ask them questions. So if you're really interested in crime as, you know, a thing in the world, I think those podcasts will have a lot more than just sort of the the blood and the scary parts and the story of the crime; they'll kind of get into, you know, other other bigger issues about crime and society with a lot of very smart people giving their opinions, and hopefully it's also all very entertaining and educational, and you can learn English if you listen to the English ones. Okay, suspenseful, criminal. For example, the criminal investigation revealed shocking secrets about the case. Mm.
It says their popularity shows how true crime can keep audiences engaged with topics such as morality and legal responsibility. So they're getting you engaged with all sorts of things, but yeah, sometimes it leads to more interesting conversations about things like morality—right and wrong, good and evil—things like that, and legal responsibility—you know, how the police and the courts work and what we as people have to to do in order to follow the law and do things like that—things that we might not know about cuz most of us have never been victims of crime like this, but we can learn about it through other experiences. So this engages people in a lot of different ways. To engage is basically to kind of be interested in something, to be joining in in something, to be part of something. If a TV show is engaging you, you're fully focused on that show, right? You didn't hear the phone ringing. Huh, what? Sorry, oh, I'm sorry, I was really engaged with this baseball game; it's almost the end, and I don't know who's going to win. So it just kind of means you're you're interested, you're fascinated, you're hooked; at that moment, you're really focused and paying attention on what you're seeing or doing. For example, the magic show kept the kids at the birthday party engaged for almost an hour. They were running around and screaming and playing and having fun, but then the magician started to pull rabbits out of his hat, and all the kids suddenly went quiet and sat there very still just watching; they were so engaged. I would be too—better than clowns, guys. Yeah, engage. Teachers often use games to engage students in learning.
In summary, True Crime is likely to remain popular for a long time, keeping viewers and readers on the edge of their seats. We could definitely say it—it's having its own moment right now; it's very popular right now. I mean, we're talking about it here in our magazine, but it will remain popular for a long time, even though it might be less popular five or 10 years from now; those podcasts will still be getting made, and shows will still be getting produced because people just like it. And that's a good way of giving us a summary of our article. A summary is basically just a short version of something containing the most important facts and points. Have you ever seen that thing on the in the internet—TLDR—too long, didn't read, right? So you write a long story about something, and then you write a short paragraph at the bottom—maybe two sentences—that's the TLDR, the too long, didn't read version: just give me the important stuff I need to know; I don't have time for all the extra details. That, in other words, is a summary—a short version of comp something with the most important and interesting facts. For example, "Sorry, I couldn't attend the meeting; could you give me a quick summary of what you talked about?" All right, and then we also had that word remain: they will remain popular for a long time. It's basically means to stay in some kind of way. For example, we could say, "The teacher asked everyone to remain quiet while the instructions were being explained to the class." Okay, we saw the word summary or in summary. Okay, in summary, exercise and healthy eating are essential for a balanced lifestyle. Remains. For example, after the heavy rain stopped, the streets remained wet and slippery for several hours. On the edge of one seat. Okay, for example, "His exciting story telling kept the story on the edge their seats." All right, this comes to the end of our show. Our for you track question: what is it, Mike? Do you agree that true crime stories can help people feel more prepared for danger? Why or why not? For sure, because they show real-life situations and how people react, so it can teach you what to do if you're in a similar situation. Again, I don't want to run into cults, guys. Okay, so for example, watching a story maybe about a robbery might make you more aware of your surroundings. Hm, very interesting point, and hopefully that is true. All right, guys, enjoy your True Crime if that's what turns you on, of course. It's good to watch, but don't watch too much; don't give yourself nightmares, and remember there aren't murderers around every corner in the real world. So if you watch those shows, you might think everything is much more dangerous than it is. Plus, here in Taiwan, it's pretty safe. Yeah, guys, do enjoy, take care. [Music] Bye-bye. Vocabulary [Music] review. Psychology. Psychology teaches us that a person's actions are often influenced by their past experiences and feelings. Threat. The strong typhoon that is developing off the coast is a threat the small village can't ignore. Warning. The government sent out a warning about the storm and closed all the schools in the area. Engage. The bright colors and funny sounds in children's TV shows are meant to engage kids. Summary. On the back cover of the novel, you should find a short summary telling you what the story is about. Remain. After Julie saw the fight, she couldn't remain silent and decided to talk to the teacher about [Music] it. Instinct. Podcast. Suspenseful. [Music]