‘Dateline NBC’ correspondent Keith Morrison tackles classic fiction in his new podcast series ‘Morrison Mysteries.'.Photo:Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison’s new podcast series: Morrison Mysteries
Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison’s new podcast series: Morrison Mysteries
Keith Morrisonhas covered a wide range of topics over the course of his previous eight podcast shows — the murder of a beauty queen, the killing of a teen in her blue Mustang — but with his newest podcast series, theDateline NBCcorrespondent is putting true crime aside for once and dipping into the literary world.
Morrison Mysteries,premiering Oct. 23 on all major podcast platforms, sees Morrison narrating classic fiction — something he was skeptical at first about whenDatelinespecial projects senior producer Charmian Ling proposed the idea. The two have worked together for nearly 23 years, collaborating initially on a story about Vietnam.
“When she comes up with an idea, you pay attention to it,” Morrison tells PEOPLE. “At first, I thought she was nuts, but it grew on me.”
Morrison is starting with Washington Irving’s haunting 1820 short storyThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow,long considered one of American’s finest ghost stories.The podcast will break up the work into three episodes. After that, the veteran journalist and storyteller hints he may tackle another well-known work of fiction ideal for the holiday season.
‘Morrison Mysteries,’ featuring Keith Morrison, premieres Monday, Oct. 23.Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison’s new podcast series: Morrison Mysteries
“Their language may sound arcane at first, but they are really interesting explorations of how people do things, how they react, their foibles and their triumphs and their tragedies,” he explains.
“When you put them together the way we have and listen to them, they’re quite absorbing and they follow a narrative track that is hard to not listen to as you go. You kind of get glued to it,” he says.
That’s a lofty promise to make, but when it comes from Morrison, it’s worth giving the masterful storyteller the benefit of the doubt.
The journalist’s previous podcast series,Murder in Apartment 12,a six-episode true crime series that debuted in September investigating the death of Arkansas beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer, hit number 1 on the Apple Podcasts chart and still sits at the third spot. Many of his previous podcast series, includingThe Thing About Pam,The Girl in the Blue MustangandMurder & Magnolias,also performed well on Apple’s podcast chart.
‘Dateline NBC’ correspondent Keith Morrison.Patrick Randak/NBC
Patrick Randak/NBC
“I’ll say, ‘Are you crazy?’ Same thing I’ve said about thisMorrison Mysteries, but inevitably it’s turned out to be terrific ideas and they work,” he admits, adding, “Podcasts are especially effective, and in some ways more so than a movie or television show in that they’re very intimate. You want to be enveloped in the story, and it’s almost a better way to do that I find if you’re listening, maybe driving along or something, but your attention is focused on the words.”
“You wouldn’t believe the number of people who said I put them to sleep every night, which happy to, but it reminds me also of the old radio days when the family would gather around the radio to listen to some drama which had been prepared for them,” Morrison continues. “It’s really exactly the same thing.”
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The first three episodes ofMorrison Mysteriesreleaseon Monday, Oct. 23 on all major podcast platforms, with additional episodes dropping in the coming months tied to the holidays.
source: people.com
