Last year, America was enthralled by Serial, an investigative podcast that put a new spin on radio style storytelling.
Over the course of 12 weeks, listeners were immersed in the case of Adnan Syed, a Baltimore native in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. We won't get into the specifics, but know this, the first season of Serial was one of the biggest podcasts of all time. It's been downloaded an astonishing 80 million times and bagged a Peabody Award.
Fans have been eagerly awaiting the next big story, and now we finally know what it is.
An exclusive report from Maxim magazine reveals that Serial season 2 will focus on the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an army soldier who vanished from his post in Eastern Afghanistan in 2009.
Berghdahl was held captive by the Taliban aligned Haqqani Network for nearly five years until his release in a prisoner swap in May of 2014. He claims he was abducted by the insurgents, but reports from his fellow soldiers indicate that his situation is not what it seems.
The Army has charged him with desertion and endangering troops who searched for him. Berghdahl may face a court martial after the results of a preliminary hearing are known.
The case is certainly a hot issue at the moment. Mark Boal, an executive producer on the Bin Laden assassination film Zero Dark Thirty, is co-producing this season of Serial together with This American Life.
The team behind the podcast has refused to confirm whether Bergdahl will indeed be season 2's subject telling Maxim:
'We'd very much appreciate if fellow journalists would give us some room and not feel the need to attempt to dig into and try to figure out what you think we might be doing, especially since we're actively reporting stories, and having a bunch of wild speculation out there makes our job reporting harder.'
