This is exactly right.

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They definitely are two people that I think sort of met their match as far as really being obsessed with their image and the way that their family sort of presented to the outside world as this sort of perfect couple with these beautiful children.

I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a nonfiction author and journalism professor in Austin, Texas.

I'm also the co-hosts of the podcast, Buried Bones on Exactly Right.

And throughout my career, research for my many audio and book projects has taken me around the world.

On Wicked Words, I sit down with the people I've met along the way,

amazing writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters

who have investigated and reported on notorious true crime cases.

This is about the choices writers make, both good and bad,

and it's a deep dive into the unpublished details behind their

stories. Most of us have heard about Sherry Popini. She's the woman who faked her own kidnapping

in 2016, which terrified her husband and soon sparked outrage in her Northern California community.

Michael Beach Nichols is the director and

producer of the Netflix series The Perfect Wife, the mysterious disappearance of Sherry Popini.

And he tells us about his experience spending time with Sherry's husband, Keith, for the documentary

series. So this is a story I think that's been told. A lot of people are familiar with it.

A lot of people aren't. But I think that your perspective here, knowing all the players,

and it's so nebulous at times the story gets confusing of Sherry Papini and certainly their personalities I want some clarity on. So this is,

you know, we're going to unravel this as a mystery first, but, you know, this story I think is

fascinating whether you know it or not. Yeah, absolutely. When I actually first started,

...