‘The Trunk Murder’ by ‘Dagblad van het Noorden’ is one of the fifty best podcasts ever made. Listeners voted ‘Bob’ from Audiocollectief Schik to first place in this VPRO election.
How many different podcasts are there? No one knows exactly, but according to… pointer, the platform for investigative journalism of KRO-NCRV, there must be around 4.3 million. You need about 9 years to listen to all Dutch episodes from 2023.
The competition was therefore fierce in the elections for ‘the best podcast ever’, organized by the VPRO. More than 4,400 people compiled their favorites list and voted for the 6-part series Bob of the Flemish-Dutch Audio Collective Arrange for first place.
Bob tells the story of 85-year-old Elisa, who recently can only talk about her old childhood sweetheart Bob and the child she was forced to give up to a monastery. Is Bob a huge secret that she has carried with her all her life, or the fantasy of a woman with dementia?
Family history
In The plantation of our ancestors (Prospektor/VPRO/NPO), number 2 on the list, Maartje Duin delves into her family history. She discovers that her ancestors were co-owners of a sugar plantation in Suriname and contacts the descendants of the enslaved on that plantation.
The top 3 is completed by The fire in the mansion by Simon Heijmans and Marion Oskamp (NTR/NPO). In 2003, major landowner Ewald Marggraff died due to a fire in his country house in Vught. After his death, there is no trace of Marggraff’s enormous painting collection and his fortune of 160 million euros.
Murder of Ralf Meinema still not solved
Also The Trunk Murder by Dagblad van het Noord, Finished at number 50, it is one in the ‘true crime’ genre. The five-part podcast from 2019 is about the still unsolved murder of 31-year-old Ralf Meinema from Klazienaveen. His body was found in the trunk of his Mercedes on March 31, 2017. In the podcast, Bas van Sluis and Renate Winkel try to shed light on this dark case. The Trunk Murder has now been listened to 1.5 million times.
The best-scoring English-language podcast is in 16th place on the list. That is S-Town, a story about an old clockmaker in the southern US. Also the leading American podcasts Heavyweight (17) and Serial (23) score high.
Listen to The Trunk Murder below, op Spotify and Apple Podcasts or via your favorite podcast app.
Tags: Bob takes gold podcasts election DVHN scores high Trunk Murder
