Audible have signed Ronan Farrowthe award-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author, to a multi-project deal. Farrow’s first podcast under the pact premieres this spring.
Farrow hosts “Not a Very Good Murderer,” which is described as “a wild, genre-bending investigative podcast.” It will be released on March 20, 2025, exclusively on Audible as the first project from the new collaboration. Based on years of reporting, the series follows Farrow as he sets out to control a political leadership and instead stumbles into a series of cold cases in one of America’s wealthiest gated communities – and an “explosive relationship” with the “colorful central source who hold the key to solving them.”
“Not a Very Good Murderer” is “a driving thriller and a tragicomic character study that captures how secrets reverberate through families and communities,” according to Audible. The series provides an “uncensored portrait of what it takes for a journalist to fact-check a high-stakes story involving unreliable sources, at a moment when the concept of truth can feel threatened.”
Farrow’s “The Catch and Kill Podcast,” which won the 2020 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Podcast, has been downloaded more than 9 million times to date. The audio series was an offshoot of his book “Catch and Kill,” which documents sexual misconduct by media industry figures including Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. Farrow has also been nominated for Peabody and Grammy awards for her work with podcasts and audiobook narration. He is a contributing writer to the New Yorker and was a producer on HBO documentary films “Surveilled”, on the growing business of commercial spyware, and “Endangered”, who followed journalists through the pandemic.
Farrow, in a statement about the Audible deal, said: “I’m really looking forward to telling stories through this relationship. We need companies willing to platform investigative journalism – and, more broadly, companies willing to put nuanced, complicated , original stories in the world. It starts with ‘Not a Very Good Murderer,’ which defies neat categorization and I think people will find it surprising in many ways.”
“Ronan Farrow is a generational talent in the field of investigative journalism,” said Rachel Ghiazza, Audible’s chief content officer. “For years, I’ve read and listened in awe of his ability to illuminate hard truths with rare insight and nuance. ‘Not a Very Good Murderer’ finds this narrative marvel at the cutting edge of his powers, deftly peeling back the layers of his most eccentric subject so far. I’m proud to welcome Ronan to Audible to continue the stories he’s most passionate about.”
Farrow’s project for Audible joins a growing number of investigative podcasts from Audible, including Jon Ronson’s “The Debutante” and Leon Neyfakh and Prologue Project’s “Think Twice: Michael Jackson” and “Backfired” series.
Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Audible has secured a series of development deals with other leading industry creatives and companies including President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street, Daniel Dae Kim’s 3AD Productions, Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video Enterprises and James Patterson Entertainment. In total, Audible’s catalog contains more than 1 million audio titles.
For the New Yorker, Farrow wrote stories exposing abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, CBS executives including former CEO Leslie Moonves and then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Additionally, Farrow’s reporting on Donald Trump’s alliance with the National Enquirer was the first federal indictment against a US president. He was also among the first to identify then fugitives from the law among the January 6 rioters. Farrow’s work for the New Yorker has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the National Magazine Award and the George Polk Award, among others. He previously worked as an anchor and investigative reporter at MSNBC and NBC News.
