Sarah Koenig Returns with Second Season of 'Serial'

Sag Harbor’s Sarah Koenig dropped the first episode of the new season of her hit podcast Serial on Thursday, and it is already a trending topic and topping the iTunes charts.

Serial, which is a spinoff of the popular NPR radio program This American Life with Ira Glass, tells a nonfiction story is a serialized format. The first season concerned the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, who was found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend. Through interviews with Syed and others, and investigative journalism, Koenig explores whether Syed, who has maintained his innocence since 1999, was wrongfully convicted.

The new season is about a much more high profile case: Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl being charged with desertion. Bergdahl was a Taliban captive for five years and was only released when the Obama administration agreed to a prisoner exchange. Critics of the exchange say dangerous militants—Guantanamo Bay prisoners—should not have been freed to secure the release of a deserter who may have had Taliban sympathies. Some have gone as far as calling Bergdahl a traitor. Serial will investigate whether Bergdahl did, in fact, desert.

The episode can he heard at serialpodcast.org and on iTunes.