As a podcast, Dirty John is a tough listen. Not in the sense that the substance of the story that it’s trying to tell is a difficult one, though it certainly is. I mean that literally: The podcast is a crude construction, and its choices often come to the detriment of the actual narrative it’s trying to unfurl and ideas it’s itching to explore.
Which is a damn shame, because the Dirty John story, as reported by Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard in a six-part written feature, is a stunner. If you were to give up on the podcast midway through its first episode and switch over to the feature, you’d find a deep, complex tale of domestic abuse and psychological violence that’s rigorously reported, deftly written, and smartly laid out.
The narrative begins in October 2014, and it follows the case of Debra Newell, a successful interior designer in Southern California who gets sucked into a…
