Creators of a popular podcast series visited the Brainerd area today as part of a traveling series put on by Minnesota Public Radio called MPR Connects. Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark of the podcast “In The Dark” talked about their experience with the Peabody Award-winning podcast.

The first season of “In The Dark” covered the investigation into the Jacob Wetterling case. The second season, released last spring, followed the case of a Mississippi man tried six times for the same crime who now sits on death row. Baran, the lead reporter for the podcast, was joined by American Public Media Reports senior producer Samara Freemark to talk about how they choose and pursue their stories.

“I hope that it gets people thinking more about sort of the core functions of our democracy, the police, the prosecutors, the criminal justice system, so when we make decisions in our own communities we have the right kind of questions to ask and we sort of know to not always accept everything at face value,” said Madeleine Baran, “In The Dark” Lead Reporter.

The event was part of a four-part series by MPR put on throughout greater Minnesota. The speakers answered audience questions and highlighted the importance of investigative journalism. The podcast is currently planning a third season, but they have not yet announced the subject of their investigation.

“To me, it’s like the most important kind of journalism. It’s the journalism that tells people what they don’t already know and there’s so many things we wouldn’t know about if there weren’t investigative journalists, so to us it feels absolutely indispensable. It’s expensive. It takes time. It takes money, we recognize that,” said Samara Freemark, “In The Dark” Senior Producer. “But it feels very worth it to us.”

The event was MPR Connects’ last stop in the series after previously holding events in Rochester, St. Cloud, and Duluth.

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter