Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lindsay Moryoussef and Jenn Blakeney, of the Corpus Delicti podcast, sit around Moryoussef’s dining room table April 5. Moryoussef and Blakeney are hosting the True Crime Live event in May.
Lindsay Moryoussef and Jenn Blakeney are coming up on six years of their podcast, “Corpus Delicti — The Body of a Crime,” and this month they are bringing other true crime podcasters to the area for a special event.
True Crime Live Birmingham is set for Saturday, May 6, at Wild Roast Cafe in the Bluff Park Shopping Center in Hoover from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Joining the duo at the event will be six other podcasters:
- Already Gone
- Crime on the Record, another Birmingham podcast
- Our True Crime Podcast
- Southern Gothic
- True Crime Bull Sh**
- Killin Missin Hidden
Moryoussef, a resident of Highland Lakes, and Blakeney, a resident of Ross Bridge, did their first live show in 2019. They had to pause those events during the pandemic, but now they and others in the true crime community are ready to get back to it.
It was during a podcasting event in Chicago that the idea for True Crime Live was born.
“We were all in the podcast festival in Chicago and some of the bigger names were there,” Blakeney said. “A lot of the independent podcasters got together and said, ‘Why don’t we do this?’ We didn’t want to wait until next year's podcast festival to get to hang out again, so that's what spawned these live events.”
The duo attended True Crime Atlanta in December 2022 and said they enjoyed getting to meet listeners and collaborate with other podcasters.
“The first one in Atlanta was intentionally held at a local business to try to spotlight some of these really awesome local businesses and have a more intimate setting, where we can chat with the listeners and interact and make the story more engaging,” Moryoussef said. “We like being able to sit down and hang out with people. It feels like hanging out with friends in a cool local business you might not know about otherwise.”
After missing True Crime Albuquerque in March, they decided to host one in Birmingham. They chose Wild Roast Cafe not only because they held their first live event there, but also because Moryoussef previously worked with one of the owners.
“They get the community together and also have a shop inside that supports local artists,” she said. “It’s a great Birmingham-specific business.”
Blakeney said that gathering a variety of independent podcasters gives listeners the chance to experience different ones.
“A lot of our show is supporting other independent podcasters. It's all a big community and we’re all out there trying to support each other,” she said.
Corpus Delicti has over 230 episodes and will return from a break after the event this month. Their show topics are listener-driven, and their miniseries will focus on crimes committed in the medical field, where people take the opportunity of their medical position to do harm.
Tickets for the event are $20 and available at wildroastcafe.com/events, and proceeds will go toward a surprise food box for Rocky Myers, an Alabama inmate on death row whose story has been featured on Corpus Delicti.
“This whole case has insight into the big cracks out there in the justice system,” Moryoussef said. “We are limited in what we can do for him, but we like to try to do what we can to let him know there are people out there who are listening to his case.”
