Hey everybody, I am Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead Serious and I am so thrilled that you're here.

Thank you. I have been a crime and justice journalist as well as a war correspondent and general beat reporter for I think more than 37 years now.

And I've never had this kind of a very, how do I say, casual format before.

But I wanted to start this podcast. If you're new to my work, thank you for being here.

I wanted to do this because I think that when we're allowed

to speak in a different voice, we speak in a different way. We have different perspectives. And this

is a format that I've just been like starving for being off TV and being in this world. It's

just a super huge joy. And so thank you for being here.

A little bit about me, if you don't know all my background. I currently host a crime and

justice show called Banfield on the network News Nation. I have worked for court TV, many shows

for court TV. I have worked for NBC Dateline as well as the Today Show and Nightly News and all the MSNBC programs.

I had a primetime show on MSNBC in which I was mostly a war correspondent.

Spent a lot of time in Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, you name the war zone,

I was there.

Gaza, West Bank, lots of, lots of time there.

I also worked for investigation discovery.

I worked for A&E doing a show called Live Rescue.

I often do a show called On Patrol Live, following the police.

I worked for ABC News in 2020 and World News Tonight and Good Morning America.

I mean, the list goes on. And CNN, I had a show called The Legal View on CNN for a long time.

So I, at HLN, I also had a crime show on HLN called Primetime Justice. And so I've done a lot in this category, in this sphere.

And I've sort of been living, eating, and breathing true crime for a very long time and

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