Crime Junkie
Audiochuck
True Crime
Examined: The Backfire Effect
by Pushkin Industries
Today: #65 in True Crime on our combined chart.
Chart positions today
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Ranking history
History builds daily. We started tracking this show on the True Crime chart recently, so the trend line appears after a second day of data.
View as table
| Date | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | #57 | #48 |
About the show
About Examined: Overlooked cases that never got the real investigation they deserved. Each season features deeply reported stories about crime, punishment, and the people inside the criminal legal system.
Nearly 40 years ago, in the parking lot of a community college in Port Huron, Michigan, a 20-year-old student named Scott Macklem was shot dead in broad daylight. His murder shocked the community. It made no sense. The police quickly found their suspect. There was only one problem: the man said he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. And he could prove it. In Examined: The Backfire Effect, journalist Josie Duffy Rice talks with eyewitnesses, investigators and local reporters to unravel a shocking story of judicial apathy and expedience — a story that leaves no one off the hook.
Latest episodes
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Episode 4: The Alibi
September 28, 2026 · 34 minAt trial, Temujin Kensu’s defense is simple — he was across the state when the crime occurred. In court, he brings multiple witnesses to testify that they saw him in the Upper Peninsula, more than 400 miles from Port Huron. But then…
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Episode 3: The Ninja
September 21, 2026 · 35 minIn November 1986, Robert Cleland was the head prosecutor in St. Clair County, Michigan. The morning after Cleland lost a statewide race for Attorney General, Scott Macklem was murdered. Cleland decided to prosecute the case himself…
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Episode 2: The Hypnotist
September 14, 2026 · 43 minTemujin Kensu spent much of his youth wandering, mainly in his home state of Michigan. In 1986 he and his then-fiancée moved to a cabin outside Port Huron, where he briefly dated someone else. A few weeks later, he and his fiancée moved…
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Episode 1: The Good Cop
September 14, 2026 · 32 minOn the morning of November 5th, 1986, students at a community college in Port Huron, Michigan, heard the sound of what many thought was a car backfiring. It was a gunshot, and it killed a student named Scott Macklem. The murder would leave…
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Trailer: The Backfire Effect
September 8, 2026 · 3 minIn 1986, a man named Scott Macklem was killed in broad daylight. Eight days later, a suspect was arrested. But now, almost 40 years later, reporter Josie Duffy Rice is re-examining this case. Has the wrong man been in prison this whole…
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Lost Hills is Becoming Examined
September 4, 2026 · 2 minLost Hills has been quiet for a bit, so we've decided to do something different: turn this feed into a home for a new kind of story, told fresh each season. Starting this fall, this feed becomes Examined — a show about overlooked cases…
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Episode 7: The Trial | Valley of Shadows
February 23, 2026 · 51 minWhile the DEA showers Hager in accolades, the LASD turns against him. But Hager fights back, and drags the department’s dirty secrets out into open court. Betsy and Hayley go through thousands of pages of court documents, including…
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Episode 6: The Big Takedown | Valley of Shadows
February 16, 2026 · 43 minBrandenburg is taken off the Aujay case, but the LASD can’t stop Hager and the federal task force. With the help of wiretaps, informants, and 18 months of investigation, the team pulls off one of the largest drug stings in Antelope Valley…