I: The ‘Unknowable’

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The Unabomber: The Man, the Myth, and the Manifesto

The Harvard Crimson

5 episodes

9 months ago

From The Harvard Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes Magazine, writers Jem K. Williams '25 and Maya M. F. Wilson '24 take a closer look at the public image of the Unabomber. The serial bomber, caught in the 1990s, continues to remain a fixture in the imaginations of countless podcast hosts, documentary makers, and journalists — why? As they break down the common stories used to explain his path to violence and examine the aftershocks of the publication of his manifesto, they’ll explore the dark spaces of the internet, the true crime industry, and the responsibility of the media as a whole. || Winner, 2023 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards for Narrative Podcast || Producer - Frank S. Zhou '26 Editors - Amber H. Levis '25, Io Y. Gilman '25, and Frank S. Zhou '26 Fact-Checker - Sammy Duggasani '25 Original score by - Benjy Wall-Feng '25 Cover Design by - Sami E. Turner '25 Other editors include - Managing Editor Brandon L. Kingdollar '24 and Associate Managing Editor Meimei Xu '24 With help from - Joey Huang '24, Jina H. Choe '26, Sedina A. Ackuayi '25, and Charles Fishman '83, with special thanks to Joey Huang. Photos courtesy of “Every Last Tie.” Audio recordings of New York Times headlines, Alston S. Chase ’57’s article in The Atlantic, and Ted Kaczynski’s writing are recreations, not original recordings.

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Documentary

Society & Culture,

True Crime

I: The ‘Unknowable’

The Unabomber: The Man, the Myth, and the Manifesto

16 minutes

2 years ago

I: The ‘Unknowable’

In this episode, JKW and MMFW start from the beginning talking to Ted’s brother, David, and his neighbor, Jamie Gehring, to dive into the Unabomber’s many “origin stories.” Some point to his participation in a psychological study at Harvard as the reason for his crimes — some point earlier, to when he was hospitalized at just nine months old. Some point to his fraught relationship with his gender. To this, Eric Benson, host of the “Project Unabomb” podcast says: “You want to find the reason that this really bad thing happened. And to me, it is ultimately kind of unknowable.”