Phoebe Judge Pulls Double Duty with Criminal and This Is Love

“I’m Phoebe Judge, and this is Criminal.”

Those words, voiced in an endearing fashion in a slow, deliberate, and incredibly smooth voice are said during nearly every episode of the episodic true crime podcast, Criminal. Judge, the host of Criminal, has a voice fellow podcaster Helen Zaltzman described “like hearing a really low woodwind instrument” on a recent episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz. Judge’s voice, however, almost doesn’t quite match the subject matter. Pairing a voice that would be well-suited for guided meditation … but discussing some atrocious and gruesome crimes. The balance somehow works though.

Talking to Judge on the phone, I’m surprised by not only the similarities in her voice but also her speech pattern. Her responses to my questions are well crafted, almost predetermined. It’s easy to get sucked in to her responses, like listening to a podcast in real-time.

Both Judge and longtime Criminal producer and co-creator, Lauren Spohrer, worked together on a public radio show before it cancelled. Viewing this abrupt change as an opportunity, they decided it was time to start their own venture. The freedom of creating their own project was an enticing draw. Judge says, “We didn’t have to answer to anyone. We could make it about whatever we wanted. We could put it out as frequently or infrequently as we wanted.”

After settling on a crime-focused podcast, which in a pre-Serial world was still relatively untouched, they started working on the stories. Judge had migrated from producing to hosting while on the public radio show, and Spohrer would handle the production. They intentionally titled their podcast Criminal to be an all-encompassing term that allowed them to take their podcast in a myriad of directions. “We never feel pigeonholed by the word “criminal”, because the approach we take is broad and varied. We can be doing a story one week that’s the saddest thing in the world, but the next week the story might be actually very funny or very odd or strange.”

Since they launched Criminal in January 2014, true crime podcasts have continued to flood and dominate the medium. The added competition hasn’t forced Judge to change their approach. She states, “I can honestly say we haven’t changed anything.” Judge continues, “I think we’re going to do the best we can with the show we originally created. This doesn’t mean we stop doing good work. We are constantly pushing ourselves in the types of stories we do and the topics that we take on, but we know this type of format for our show. I don’t think we are going to shift our format because we see other podcasts are coming about that are different than ours.”

The rise in podcast popularity and the years of experience Judge and Spohrer racked up did lead to other opportunities. After more than four years and over 90 episodes, the Criminal team decided to try their hands in a completely new genre. While continuing to produce Criminal, they launched their next venture, This Is Love. The new podcast tells heartfelt stories that tug on every emotional fiber. Judge embraced the task, “[We] felt time to challenge ourselves and to really stretch our wings a bit and see if we could take on something brand new.”

The challenge wasn’t the only motivation though. Judge and Spohrer wanted to do their part to add some joy to the world, “We also thought that it was a good time in the world to be putting out somewhat hopeful stories, stories that made you feel good or made you think in a different way about life.”

The emotional reactions to This Is Love aren’t lost on Judge, in fact, it’s part of what they set out to accomplish. Judge tells of listener feedback, “They didn’t want to listen to any of these episodes in public, because they kept crying. But what I loved about it is that it wasn’t the crying, it’s rather that people are having such a visceral emotion to these stories about topics that maybe were very far from their own lives.” A quick Twitter search confirms the crying is universal.

Juggling two popular podcasts seems like a daunting task for a small team. Judge substantiates this when asked how she does it. “I could lie and say it was very easy, but it’s been an awful lot more work for [producers] Nadia Wilson and Lauren Spohrer.” Judge continues, “There is something about the rush and thrill about putting out something brand new, which I think buoyed us up and allowed us to remain really focused on Criminal at the same time as doing this totally new thing. It was exciting, because we didn’t know if it would work.”

Though now that season one of This Is Love is in the books (season two launches in the Fall), there’s no resting for the team. “I’m challenged every day. I’m challenged just as much as when we put out the first episode. The challenge is finding the story and writing the story and keeping an audience. I feel as threatened today as losing all of our audience as we did when we put out the first episode. Nothing has changed about that. Nothing has gotten easy.”

feature image credit: Juli Leonard