The investigative podcast that became a cultural phenomenon is finally coming back with a brand new season. 
 
 Serial initially explored the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and the subsequent imprisonment of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed. Its sophomore season followed American Army soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years by the Taliban and later charged with desertion. Now, the series is set to tackle the entire criminal justice system by illustrating a year inside Cleveland criminal courts for season 3. 
 
 Hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig, the Peabody Award-winning Serial has more than 16 million downloads per episode, making it the most popular podcast ever released. With such a wide reach, Koenig chose to use the show’s tremendous platform to expose shocking behind the scenes details of criminal court procedures. The radio personality and reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi spent a year working on the forthcoming season, for which they were given permission to record inside courtrooms, judges’ chambers, back hallways, and attorneys’ offices. The show will take listeners through the sometimes unsettling ways in which crimes are investigated and tried. 
 
 “Every case Emmanuel and I followed, there came a point where we thought: No, this can’t be how it works,” said Koenig in a press release. “And then we were like, Oh! Oh my god. This is how it works! This is how it happens! People who work in the system, or have been through the system, they know this. But millions more people do not. And for the past year I’ve had this urgent feeling of wanting to kind of hold open the courthouse door, and wave people inside. Because things are happening — shocking things, fascinating things — in plain sight.” 
 
 The first two episodes will debut on Sep 20, with each additional episode premiering weekly on Thursdays. Several stories will be highlighted over the course of the season, with some being wrapped into a single episode and others unveiled over multiple installments. 
 
 Serial is heading back to court—this time, in Cleveland. Season Three, coming September 20. https://t.co/0O60tPrtxS — Serial (@serial) September 5, 2018 
 
 Get a sneak peek of the new season at the link above. Listeners can hear Serial for free via podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Pandora. 

 The team behind podcast hit “Serial” are premiering the latest season of the investigative series — digging into the inner workings of Cleveland’s criminal-court system — later this month. 
 
 The first two episodes of “Serial” season 3 will debut Sept. 20, with subsequent episodes to be released weekly on Thursdays. Instead of telling a single story over the course of the show, as the first two seasons did, the third run will follow many different stories with some spanning two or even three episodes. 
 
 When “Serial” first launched in 2014, the spinoff of NPR’s “This American Life” became an overnight podcasting success. In the first season, Sarah Koenig narrated an investigation into the 2000 conviction of Adnan Syed for the murder of his girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in Baltimore. (The show led to a judge’s ruling granting Syed a retrial, which remains pending.) Season 2 of “Serial” documented the story of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier who was captured by the Taliban. The first two seasons of “Serial” have been downloaded more than 340 million times. 
 
 Now, with season 3, “Serial” tells the stories of ordinary cases as they wind through the justice system in Cleveland. Producers said they chose Cleveland because they were given an unusual level of access to record inside courtrooms, judges’ chambers, hallways and attorneys’ offices. For the latest season, Koenig and reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi — an Ohio native and former “This American Life” fellow — spent more than a year in the city, looking at small criminal cases like marijuana possession and disorderly conduct and more serious ones including felonies. The duo say they documented various manipulations, distortions and justifications that they say produced a disparity between what people did and what they were punished for. 
 
 Related 'Serial' Podcast Exposes Epic Dysfunction in Cleveland’s Criminal Justice System YouTube Stars Alisha Marie, Remi Cruz Launch Dishy New Podcast (EXCLUSIVE) 
 
 The show comes from Serial Productions, formed by the podcast’s original producers in 2017, and is partnered with “This American Life,” which is produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media. The executive producer of “Serial” is Julie Snyder, who also created the company’s “S-Town” podcast with Brian Reed that launched last year. 
 
 “Every case Emmanuel and I followed, there came a point where we thought: ‘No, this can’t be how it works,’” Koenig said in a prepared statement. “People who work in the system, or have been through the system, they know this. But millions more people do not. And for the past year I’ve had this urgent feeling of wanting to kind of hold open the courthouse door and wave people inside. Because things are happening — shocking things, fascinating things — in plain sight.” 
 
 Ira Glass, host of “This American Life” who serves as an editor for “Serial,” commented that even the early drafts of season 3 left him with “this dumbass, fanboy ‘OMG it’s ‘Serial’! feeling” that reflected Koenig’s “deeply ‘Serial’-ish, super-methodical, annoyingly well-reasoned investigation into the deeper truths that underlie all the stories.” 
 
 “Serial” season 3 will be available as a free download via apps including Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, and also will be available free on Pandora via an exclusive streaming partnership. After subscribing, listeners will automatically receive all episodes as they are released. The new season is exclusively sponsored by jobs site ZipRecruiter. 
 
 The third season of “Serial” is expected to be around 10 episodes, but that’s subject to change. Listen to the audio trailer for season 3 at serialpodcast.org. 
 
 Pictured above: Emmanuel Dzotsi (l.) and Sarah Koenig
– Serial is taking on the criminal courts. Breaking from its format for the first two seasons of focusing on a single story, the investigative podcast will follow several cases from inside the Cleveland criminal court system for its third season, per Entertainment Weekly. Some stories will be wrapped up in one episode while others will span multiple episodes. "For the past year I've had this urgent feeling of wanting to kind of hold open the courthouse door, and wave people inside. Because things are happening—shocking things, fascinating things—in plain sight," says host Sarah Koenig, who joins reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi on the trip inside courtrooms, judges' chambers, and attorneys' offices. The first two of 10 expected episodes are out Sept. 20, per Variety.