My Least Favorite Murderer with Rachel Monroe

Another Day with Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle

News, Arts, Performing Arts, Business, Society & Culture, Politics

4.6 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Rachel Monroe (@rachmonroe) joins Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) to break down the lack of truth in true crime. Using Rachel’s book, Savage Appetites, Rachel and Ana explore stories of women totally consumed by true crime to draw larger conclusions about the cultural phenomenon. They also delve into the genre’s rise in times of uncertainty, and what its popularity reflects about the current political and social climate. Then, they touch on the dicey racial dynamics within true crime communities, which often prioritize white, female victims, even though most crimes in America don’t fit that narrative. Rounding out the discussion, they detail more harmful and toxic aspects of crime fandom, including the dangers of online vigilante detectives and obsessive online fan pages. Let’s all agree we want to see Despair: The Musical! CW: Mild descriptions of violent crime that may be disturbing to some listeners. Not by Rachel, but a marvelous companion essay about Ted Bundy by the incomparable Sarah Marshall, The End of Evil: https://believermag.com/the-end-of-evil/ Rachel’s review of Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: https://www.bookforum.com/print/2602/how-true-crime-became-self-help-21996 Thanks to our sponsors! Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service that delivers your favorite clothing, shoes, and accessories, directly to you. Stitch Fix has the brands you know and love, plus exclusive styles you won’t find elsewhere. After completing your style profile, your expert personal stylist will send you a handpicked box of items based on your style and preferences. They even have men’s and kid’s boxes, too! Get started today at StitchFix.com/friends and get an extra 25% off when you keep everything in your box! ThirdLove is the industry leader with 70 sizes, including its signature half-cups sizes. Hands down this is the most comfortable bra you’ll own. Tagless labels means no itching, plus straps that won't slip, ultra-soft smoothing fabrics, and lightweight, super thin memory foam cups. ThirdLove knows there’s a perfect bra for everyone, so right now go to THIRDLOVE.com/FRIENDS now to find your perfect-fitting bra… and get 15% off your first purchase! ARC is a new way to achieve professional-level teeth whitening at home for just 30 minutes a day. To help our listeners get a whiter, brighter smile, ARC is offering $15 off your purchase of a Blue Light kit when you visit Arcsmile.com and use promo code FRIENDS at checkout. Cats are natural born predators - that's why the guys at Petronics invented Mousr, a fully autonomous robotic mouse. Right now, my listeners can save 20% by visiting petronics.io/friends and using code FRIENDS at checkout.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Anna Marie Cox and welcome to With Friends Like These.
0:08.4	At first, listen, you may not think a book about America's true crime obsession is a good
0:15.6	fit for this show, which is often about racial justice and equity and trying to do the right
0:22.0	thing and doing the right thing for yourself and other concerns that are somewhat at least
0:28.7	political. What does date line have to do with racial justice? How are the manson murders related
0:35.2	to immigration policy? Why would entertaining ourselves with my favorite murder contribute
0:42.1	to the worst parts of the Trump era? My friends, all of those questions will be answered.
0:50.2	My guess this week is Rachel Monroe. She's a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author
0:54.3	of Savage Apatites, four true stories of women crime and obsession. It's a book about true crime
1:01.8	and it's a book about the people who consume true crime. It's about white women as perfect victims
1:08.2	and mass incarceration and what counts as violence in America.
1:14.4	Coming right up, Rachel Monroe.
1:19.6	Rachel, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.
1:22.8	I am excited to talk about your book. It hit all of the things in me, all of the both pleasure
1:31.7	areas and self-conscious areas, I guess. Those can be the same things sometimes.
1:37.4	I think I'm glad to hear that. Yes, I think. Yeah, no, that's a good response to a book. I think
1:41.9	if someone told me that's how they responded to something I wrote, I would be happy.
1:46.6	And let's share a little bit of what you wrote. I understand you brought an excerpt for us. Would
1:52.0	you like to read it, please? Sure. Yeah, this is from the introduction of the book.
1:58.2	For most of my post adolescent life, I've periodically sunk into what I've come to think of as a
2:03.1	crime funk. I was the kind of gloomy child who filched her mother's people magazines to read not
2:08.6	about the celebrities, but about the killers and kidnappers and suspicious overdoses. As I got older,
	...

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