Episode 75: Rabia Chaudry’s Journey Before and After Serial
This is our final episode of the year!
I started this podcast back in 2017 after listening and being inspired by the first season of Serial, the most downloaded podcast of all time. I could not think of a better guest to round out this year than the women who brought Adnan Syed's case to light, Rabia Chaudry.
Rabia Chaudry is a Pakistani-American attorney, author and podcast host. A childhood friend of Adnan Syed, subject of the podcast Serial (2014), Chaudry subsequently wrote a book about his case called Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial (2016), which became a New York Times best seller.
Chaudry co-hosts 3 podcasts- Undisclosed, a podcast on Syed's case and many others, which has now 360 million downloads, The 45th, which followed the crazy that was Trumps presidency, and The Hidden Djinn, showcasing the folklore and history behind the legends of the djinn, and connecting the tales through Islamic, Christian, and Jewish sources. She is also an Executive Producer of a four-part HBO documentary "The Case Against Adnan Syed."
She tells me how she feels about Serial now looking back and how she is still not giving up hope, how Adnan and his family are doing now and the case as it stands, and her personal theory on what really happened.
We also talk about her personal struggles at home during her first marriage and how law school saved her, the Safe Nation Collaborative, which she founded, and it's focus on CVE (countering violent extremism), Undisclosed, the biggest wrongful conviction podcast in the world, which has now helped exonerate nearly a dozen defendants, and her future innocence work with the Aspen Institute/ADL Civil Society Fellow.
Rabia's second book, "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom", a memoir on food, fat, and family, is due to be out in 2022.
There was so much to talk about, I have a feeling there may be a part two to this! So please enjoy my final episode of 2021 with Rabia Chaudry.