Beyond Betrayal | The Making of 'The Crimes of Margo Freshwater'
Betrayal Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
iHeartPodcasts | Glass Podcasts
4.6 • 655 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Curious about what it really takes to unravel a decades-old fugitive story? Andrea sits down with Cooper Moll, host and reporter of Glass Podcasts and Sony Music Entertainment's new series The Crimes of Margo Freshwater, for an in-depth conversation about the making of the show.
They dive into the behind-the-scenes challenges of tracking down Tonya McCartor, formerly known as Margo Freshwater, securing her first-ever interview, navigating the moral gray areas of reinvention and guilt, and turning a true crime story into a nuanced, human-centered narrative. Cooper shares unexpected twists from the reporting process and why this tale of identity, deception, and second chances hits so close to home for the Betrayal community.
If you haven’t listened yet, binge The Crimes of Margo Freshwater now. It’s an original from Glass Podcasts and Sony Music Entertainment, with episodes available on The Binge, exclusively on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to The Crimes of Margo Freshwater here.
For more from Andrea and the team, email us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts.
Follow our newsletter and join the Betrayal community at betrayal.substack.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.9 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.5 | I have the incredible Cooper Mall here with me today to talk about the crimes of Margo |
| 0:11.6 | Freshwater. |
| 0:13.0 | Cooper, thank you for joining me today. |
| 0:15.5 | Thanks for having me, Dre. |
| 0:16.3 | I want to talk a little bit about your new project, Glass Podcast, New Project, The Crimes of Margo Freshwater, because we both had our hand in it in one way or the other, but it's something that I feel like we've dedicated a lot of time to. |
| 0:31.2 | And I just am excited to share a little bit about the story with the betrayal audience. |
| 0:37.3 | For people that don't know, this is a story about a set of circumstances that led a woman |
| 0:43.2 | to go to Tennessee and meet somebody that resulted in a crime spree, a murder spree, and |
| 0:52.5 | a number of people ended up dead. |
| 0:55.2 | And so it's a complicated thing to approach because there are people that lost their lives. |
| 1:00.2 | Walk me through because this story was something that at class we were developing for like a few |
| 1:06.0 | years. |
| 1:06.5 | It was always percolating in the background. |
| 1:08.5 | There was something gravitating me, my colleague Ben, my colleague Carrie, towards Tanya, |
| 1:16.0 | aka Margo. |
| 1:17.2 | When you came onto it, you were meeting this material with like fresh eyes, like new, like you didn't know much about it. |
| 1:23.8 | So tell me what it was like to interact with the story for the first time and what |
| 1:29.1 | stood out to you that made you think I need to be part of this. I think for me, I've always |
| 1:34.3 | been interested in double lives or people who have to create another identity. And not always |
| 1:42.8 | because they're being malicious or they're being deceitful, but out of necessity. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts | Glass Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts | Glass Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.