



8 episodes
by The New Yorker · English
In the Dark, hosted by Madeleine Baran, is an award-winning investigative-journalism podcast that started in 2016. Its first season looked at the mysterious abduction of Jacob Wetterling in rural Minnesota and the lack of accountability that sheriffs face when they fail to solve cases. Season 2 examined the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. In 2020, In the Dark released a special report on the coronavirus pandemic in the Mississippi Delta. In 2023, In the Dark joined The New Yorker and in 2024, it released “The Runaway Princesses,” a four-part series that asks why the women in Dubai’s royal family keep trying to run away. Season 3, released in 2024, asked why no one was punished for the killings of twenty-five civilians in Haditha, Iraq. In the Dark won the Pulitzer Prize for audio for Season 3. The podcast is a three-time Peabody Award winner and, in 2019, became the first podcast to win a George Polk Award, one of the top honors in journalism. The program has also received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. New Yorker subscribers get early, ad-free access. In Apple Podcasts, tap the link at the top of the feed to subscribe or link an existing subscription. Or visit newyorker.com/dark to subscribe and listen in the New Yorker app. If you have comments or story tips, please send them to [email protected].









Bonus episode updating the criminal case against Sylvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, the couple at the center of a nationwide surrogacy scandal.
13 Oct 2026 · 31m · 11 chapters
Final installment of The Journey (Episode 5, “The Children”) about what happened to Sylvia Zhang and Guangdong “Guojun” Chen’s many surrogate-born children after Los Angeles child welfare repeatedly…
13 Oct 2026 · 55m · 28 chapters
Update on Curtis Flowers, the wrongfully convicted man featured in Season 2 of In the Dark, who died in his Mississippi home earlier this week at age 56.
9 Oct 2026 · 9m · 5 chapters
The episode follows surrogacy disputes that turn into custody battles, focusing on “The Courts” and how patchwork state laws and “best interests of the child” standards collide with contracts.
6 Oct 2026 · 56m · 18 chapters
The surrogacy industry’s lack of regulation, using the “Mark surrogacy” case as a central example of how intended parents and agencies can exploit loopholes—leading to surrogates being misled and…
29 Sep 2026 · 59m · 17 chapters
A San Gabriel Valley mansion in Arcadia (“fortress” feel) where police and the FBI investigate Sylvia Zhang and Guojun/Guo Junxuan, a couple accused of running a “baby factory” via surrogacy while…
22 Sep 2026 · 58m · 17 chapters
Gestational surrogacy “Journey” that turns into an investigation into a suspected child-trafficking/child-endangerment scheme involving intended parents Guojun Xuan and Sylvia Zhang, and the Los…
15 Sep 2026 · 59m · 20 chapters
Investigation into a Los Angeles County mansion under police scrutiny for a possible “baby factory.” Detectives found a classroom-like dining area with shaved-headed toddlers and children, while a…
8 Sep 2026 · 3m · 2 chapters