Unit 12 - Final Project

It's Final Project Time!!!!

I will be honest, making a video freaks me out because I am really not the best when it comes to editing. Movie maker is easy enough to use but I found that when I added my videos to youtube that the audio track didn't play. The first time the audio from the original videos played and the audio track wasn't there at all. The second time I uploaded my video it uploaded as a silent film. The third time was the charm (pun intended haha) and it all worked together. I have no idea what happened and why I had problems but that's technology for you. The last thing before I go, I wanted to describe my process. I have no idea why these videos take me so long to make. I made the first one thinking it would be my final project but then after making it I realized that I didn't use much skill to create the 30 second video. I wasn't extremely proud of it. So I uploaded it and decided to use it as practice. Then after it was uploaded to youtube I had a brainstorming session (which involved a mug of tea, watching an episode of Friends on Netflix and browsing facebook) I came up with the idea for my final project video. It took me 3 hours to collect the clips. Edit each clip, then delete 3 clips because the whole video came to 7 minutes. Edit each clip even shorter and download a song that would work for the entire video. After saving it all in movie maker I uploaded it to youtube the first time. After it didn't work I went to bed because only bad things happen after 2 am. (That was for you Stina ;) The next morning I uploaded it twice more and I could finally link it to my blog. So that is my story on how I finished DS106. I wish I had logged the hours I worked on DS106 assignments because I can guarantee you it is probably about the same hours I work in one week that I spent on homework in one semester. But thats the end of my rant, enjoy my videos!

I honestly really thought my video would suck. So I came up with an idea and I rolled with it. I love the hangover and I came up with this scene,

Hangover Tiger

But after making that I said to myself that I could do better than that. So I challenged myself. I created a movie based on some of my favorite scenes from movies. I love movies, I think there is nothing better than diving into someone's story. You can get lost in it. Party scenes are some of the best scenes in movies so I decided to create an evolution of party scenes. You're welcome =)
 
Evolution of party scenes

Unit 11 - Remix & Mash-ups

Remix- To combined or edit existing materials to produce something new.

Everything is a Remix: part one

Two summers ago my dad and I went to see Heart in concert. I grew up on 70's and 80's rock. Anything my dad listened to and liked, I liked. So when I found out that Heart was going back on tour my dad and I went to PNC Bank Arts center to see them. The opener that was touring with Heart was called the Jason Bonham experience. On the way there I asked my dad if he knew who that band was. My dad laughed and began to tell me the history of Led Zepplin. I learned that Jason was the son of John Bonham and he was also a kick ass drum player. Because he is a direct relative he has the rights to play Zepplin's music. He created a band that tours and plays original Led Zepplin songs. I was excited because I had never heard Stairway to Heaven live and I was already freaking out to hear music that was written before I was even born.

After watching Part 1 of the video series I was really surprised to find that Zepplin copied a lot of songs and made them their own. Over the years many other bands have followed suit and "remixed" other songs. The law says you have to give credit to the original songwriter when you copy a song and use it as your own. Not only did Led Zepplin not give credit the band was sued 40 years later.

Part three: The elements of creativity
Creativity comes from copying. Copying is the base of creativity. Creativity comes from three steps. Copy, Transform, and combine. The story of Apple and Xerox was very interesting. I can now see that it is true that everything is a remix.


Copyright: Disney Video

I enjoyed the irony of this video. Disney actually used Brother Grimm's stories for a lot of their movies. So it is funny that a movie about copyright was made with scenes from Disney movies.

Remix/Mashup Examples:

The Buffy vs. Edward video was really funny. I always loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I hated Edward in the Twilight movies. He is so awkward and painful to watch. it was nice to see Buffy tell him off haha.

Scary Mary was awesome! Definitely the best remix video I have seen yet. The shining was good but everyone knows Mary Poppins and how happy Julie Andrews is in that movie so seeing it be made into a horror movie was super funny.

Popcorn assignment:

I tried using popcorn. I am not even sure what the assignment is. I don't like it. I found it annoying and difficult to use. After seeing others explain in class how to use it I found that it made more sense. I need to go back and try to do that movie again because I really didn't understand the assignment the first time.

Remix a DS106 assignment:

The assignment I got was Make a Storytelling Collage. My remix challenge was to make it a Yo Mama joke.

The joke "Yo mama is so fat, I took a picture of her last christmas and it's still printing."

Here is my collage:

I have to say I was uncomfortable googling "image of fat women in Christmas sweater." But I was also happy that this was the only picture that came up.



Mashup Assignments:

Mashing Friends and Emojis **

So basically I don't have anyone who wanted to help me with this assignment but then I remembered that Miley Cyrus is always sticking out her tongue so i knew I could find a picture of her that looked like an emoji. So here you go, Miley is practically an emoji.


Making a song ****

So long, I've been looking too hard, I've been waiting too long
Sometimes I don't know what I will find,
I only know it's a matter of time When you love someone,
when you love someone

Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroit
He took the midnight train goin anywhere

I've been waiting for a girl like you to come into my life
I've been waiting for a girl like you, a love that will survive
I've been waiting for someone new to make me feel alive
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you to come into my life

I don't need to be the king of the world
As long as I'm the hero of this little girl

Heaven isn't too far away
Closer to it every day
No matter what your friends say
I know we're gonna find a way

Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
Cause I'd already know

More than words is all you have to do
to make it real
then you wouldn't have to say
Heaven isn't too far away

Was it something I said or something I did
Did my words not come out right
Though I tried not to hurt you
Though I tried
But I guess that’s why they say

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

Songs:

More than words by Extreme

Heaven by warrant

Waiting for a girl like you by Foreigner

Every rose has it’s thorn by Poison

Don’t stop believing by Journey

I decided to create a love song. Songs from the 70's and 80's are my favorite type of love songs so i used some pretty popular titles. I hope it makes sense.

Unit 10 - Making Movies

 Student made Alfred Hitchcock film:

I liked this short film. I guess its because I like Hitchcock. But I can see why others wouldn't like it. Its filled with Hitchcock jokes and references. You have to know his movies and about his life to find it funny. I think it was well done. I have no idea how to do animation like that.


Making Movie assignments

Keychain daily create ***

The keychain create was fun. I remember saying that I never wanted to take a video of myself and post it but I took a chance and made a video of myself anyway. The best part is I made this video at 1 am after I had been video editing for 3 hours. It honestly took me so long to do some of the other video assignments that filming this one was a lot easier. 



Highlight Reel *****




If there is one sport I will watch it is football. I grew up watching football every Sunday with my dad. As I got older I learned the game and like everyone else in my family I became a devoted Giants fan. So its easy to say that I love Victor Cruz! I made a highlight reel for him because I missed his salsa dance this year while he was injured.



That bleeping Censor *****

Click here


I will be honest, I don't know how well I did on this one. It took me so long to figure out how to isolate a part in the clip and mute it. I watched 3 youtube videos to try and figure it out. Finally I found the right youtube video that explain MovieMaker very well. I was finally able to create  my bleeping in the scene. I used the famous Marlon Brando scene from A Streetcar Named Desire. Instead of screaming Stella I have him mooing, hahaha. 



Where do you want to go? ***

Click here

Making a travel video was fun because I love to travel. After going to Europe for the first time last year I have had such wunderlust ever since. Its actually funny that I picked this assignment because just yesterday I booked a trip to Europe for next year. In January 2016 I will be visiting Amsterdam, Paris, and London. I am so excited about this trip! I started the video with Amsterdam, then London, and Paris. I have the most pictures of these cities in my video. I have been wanting to see some of these sites for years. I finished up the video with images of Dublin, Ireland and Athens, Greece because those places are on my wish list of places to see.


I am going to be honest I found this unit to be the most difficult. I spent 5 hours just doing this part of the unit. That's not including typing up the blog post and uploading the videos. That I did on a separate day and took about 30 minutes. This was a very time consuming unit for me.

Chaplin Video

The Charlie Chaplin assignment was really time consuming. I found that it took a while to pick out the clips I wanted to use. After choosing all of the clips I recorded them on my phone. Then I found music that wold be played in the background. I think it is too loud but I wasn't sure how to fix this. Then I added the audio to the movie in movie maker. After watching a few youtube videos I learned a lot about movie maker.

Creating Daily Creates

In the spirit of DS106 I have come up with my own daily creates! I have written descriptions and completed the assignment to use as an example.


Create your Own App:

Do you ever need help with something and say, "I wish there was an app for that?" Or someone brings up something in conversation and you say, "there should be an app for that." I find myself doing this a lot. With the emergence of technology in our everyday lives apps have become not only popular but very useful. If you could create an app what would it be? Create a logo for the app and a description of what that app will do.




Re-design Book Cover Art:

Do you have a favorite book that you feel the cover doesn't reflect the story? Or is there a cover that you think needs an update? Re-design a cover for a book you like. Describe why you chose that particular design and how it reflects the book and its story.








Create Your Own App:

My app is called SOS.

SOS is a GPS app that helps friends stay together. My design is really ugly but the idea behind it is good. I came up with the idea one night while I was out with friends. This is how it would work:

-Before heading out with a group everyone opens the SOS app.
-Once the app is open it keeps tabs on your GPS location.
-You can upload friends through your contacts. This way you can see their GPS location. on the "friends" screen.
-Once everyone starts drinking and friends wander off, you can find everyone at the end of the night.
-My favorite feature of the app would be the SOS button. This is a simple tap of the screen and all the friends open on your "friends" screen will get a notification that you need help. You can use this if you get lost, see someone you don't want to talk to, or you are getting hit on by a guy you don't know how to get away from.

I designed the app logo to target girls. At first I drew a bow on the top of the logo but it looked hideous, so I made polka dots. I don't think I have ever seen a pink app so thats why I went with that color.





Redesign a Book Cover daily Create:

Here is the Book cover I made:

Here is the original book cover: 

Although the original cover has a great design I don't believe that it follows the theme of the book. I love the handwriting style font and the fact that the yellow books glow in the dark but it doesn't speak to the story. I just started reading this book Friday. After reading a chapter before bed i turned out the lights and was surprised to see the book glowing on my nightstand, it was very funny. I made a cover that I felt spoke to the story. Mr Penumbra's bookstore in my mind looks just like the cover I made. It is said in the book to have super high shelves that a ladder is needed and that some of the books go unread creating a layer of dust older than some of the newer books.

Unit 9 - Movies

Look, Listen, Analyze.

I chose a scene from Fight Club. I love Fight Club, it is a great movie based on an even better book. I chose the scene that is titled on youtube as "Don't Fuck With Us."

Look- the scene goes back and forth between focus on the guy who is tied up and gagged and Brad Pitt and the gang. It is obvious that Brad Pitt is the only actor who speaks in this scene. Everyone behind him is intimidating and staring at the camera. They don't need to say anything for the viewer to see their allegiance to their leader and their loyalty. Some wear black ski masks while others don't. Towards the end of the scene Brad Pitt leans in and the shadows on his face look menacing. You can tell that what he is supposed to be saying must be serious and scary.

Listen- While listening to Brad Pitt I found it hard to picture the scene the way it is in the movie. I can't place where I think the scene would possibly take place but I don't hear the man so I don't imagine him being present. I also don't hear the rest of the gang so it is almost as if they aren't there. Their presence in the scene makes it that much more stronger because they are a silent presence. I know that Brad Pitt is talking to someone but it is hard to figure out who. He is also angry but firm. He has a slight echo to his voice so you can tell that he is in a room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWVxI6XZAuE&list=PLAE4410DF71EC2BC2&index=14 


Fun facts from the filming of Fight Club:

-In the short scene when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.

-When the Narrator hits Tyler Durden in the ear, Edward Norton actually did hit Brad Pitt in the ear. He was originally going to fake hit him, but before the scene, David Fincher pulled Norton aside and told him to hit him in the ear. After Norton hit him in the scene, you can see him smiling and laughing while Pitt is in pain.

-Brad Pitt says he didn't want his parents to see the movie, but he couldn't convince them not to watch. They changed their minds after watching the chemical burn scene.

-To prepare for their roles, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt took basic lessons in boxing, taekwondo and grappling, and also studied hours of UFC programming. Prior to principal photography, Pitt also visited a dentist to have his front tooth chipped.

All of these facts were found on IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

I found all of these facts fun to learn. Hearing behind the scenes stories from your favorite movies is always interesting.

Film Genres

AMC Filmsite http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html Describes the different genres in which movies are categorized.

I find that Fight Club doesn't quite have a genre. At first I'm like oh it must be action. All of the fight scenes and the gang retailiation at the end must make it an action movie. But then I think no, it must be a drama. All of the psychological stuff that the narrator goes through must make it a drama. But under the genre drama it says that the movie contains no action. So I am stuck between the two.


Youtube Genres

I am not on youtube that often, considering I don't have much time in my day so I am not that well versed in the genres. This is what I came up with.

Tutorials:
Anything from make up to DIY
https://www.youtube.com/user/MichellePhan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdwS-xv5Ho

Music videos:
the real ones made by artists or creative ones made by fans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsdlk0_HuQ

Movie Trailers:
Trailers released by movie studios and then there are the fan created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUS_Q7FsfqU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZudV3om_8LQ

Lyric videos:
Song lyrics creatively made into a movie and mixed with moving objects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgJCO70yog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg92RrNhB8s

Home videos:
Videos made by average people. These are usually very funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD9NgzLhbBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPDYj3IMkRI

Clips from TV shows or movies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguStmm8bRk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDQsJdWqZA&list=PLg8A95kWOgK5qHmJ9RFG5C-hA9A-udqUi&index=5

Relaxation and meditation help:
music and guidance for relaxation and meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-llW_qCHzic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_SJfB0ihDQ

I'm sure that there are so many more genres, I just can't think of them.

Unit 8 - Stories Within the Web

Telling Stories Within the Web

Hacking the internet (& other illegal things DS106 is teaching us)

Hahaha, JK. DS106 isn't teaching us anything illegal. But technically hacking can be a crime.

To prevent any issues I only took screenshots of my work. I never published anything. The internet is a dangerous place I have learned. Coding and hacking are not things to mess around with. But I did have fun with messing up some well known websites. I also enjoyed learning a few of the sites out there that help people to hack.


First, I played a joke on Prof Lucci...

I then wanted to target a site I frequent very often...

I was only able to change two headlines on this one. X-ray goggles tends to freeze my browser and I have to start all over. That happened 3 times before I took a quick screenshot before it shut down. 

One more website just for fun...

We all love Serial and just changing one small thing (like the names of the episodes) I completely changed the theme of the site. Instead of it being objective like Sarah is, I used my opinion to make Adnan look innocent. 

Unit 8 Assignments

Take my Buzzfeed Quiz!!! ***

Which Orange is the New Black Character are you?

I had a lot of fun making this quiz. It challenged me to think out of the box. It was very time consuming but I was able to complete it and test it out. Now I know how hard these quizzes are to make.

Make a Pintrest Board ***

I had to make a Board based off of my dream vacation. I have three dream vacations, Greece, Tuscany, and Amsterdam. I pinned images from all three of these beautiful cities.

Here is my link

Make a Fakebook for a historical person ***

Grace Kelly is one of my all time favorite actresses. Her roles in Hitchcock films were perfect for her. She is one of the most famous Hollywood Starlets.

Fakebook page

Radio Inactive

Class Radio Show

As we talked about in class it is more of a podcast than a radio show. This is where I will be posting all of my assignments for our radio show.


Radio Show Poster:

Bumper:



Commercial:




Script:

Intro: Beauty pageants and why they shouldn’t exist, I’m Melissa Libbey

Women parade around in gorgeous expensive dresses, spray tanned bodies in bikinis and answer ridiculous interview questions. All for what, the chance to go to college? Here is my issue, why not save all of the money you spend on a coach, dresses and spray tans and use that towards your college education.

To understand why beauty pageants shouldn’t exist we need to look back at the history.

The first recorded beauty pageant was in1888. In1921the first ‘Miss America was crowned.

Miss America claims that pageant contestants are compensated with scholarships. John Oliver did some looking into this and he had a few comments.

[Insert clip from John Oliver show, voice recording from phone voicemail]

This is where I have a problem. What about all of the other girls that want to go to college? If they don’t meet society’s standard of beauty they are just told that they need to find another way to pay for college?

Why are we as a society awarding beauty instead of brains? Brains obviously don’t get contestants very far.

[Insert Miss Congeniality clip]

America’s greatest minds didn’t earn their diplomas because they were awarded a scholarship from the Miss America Foundation.

Young girls are told to idolize these women. Yet they promote skin cancer by spray tanning their bodies to show that bronze is beautiful. Young girls should be told to be proud of their own skin color, not to lay in the sun for hours and risk themselves to be beautiful.

[Applause] 

Yes these girls volunteer and do amazing things for organizations and charities. But the time they spend practicing their talent and routines could be spent studying for other scholarships and higher test scores.

The last time I showed up to class to take a test I wasn’t asked to first parade around the room in a bathing suit. Why do these women do it? My college application didn’t have a section where I could upload my talent.

[Insert drum/cymbal sound]

I believe the lengths that contestants go for a scholarship is crazy. These women should be focusing on their grades instead of their bodies. How are we ever going to change the way young girls look at their bodies if we don’t stop televising women who walk around on stage in bathing suits and allow others to judge them.

A scholarship is important to most college students, but I bet that most students wouldn't be willing to answer an interview question like this...

[Insert world peace clip]

I think not.

I'm Melissa Libbey and that's Why is this still a thing...

[fade out with Miss Congeniality song]

Recording of my part of the show:

***So my recording was only 4 minutes long. I know we said it should be 5 minutes. What do you guys think I should do? Should I add more dialogue? Should I record it again but speak slower? I am not sure what to do.

Serial Episode 6

Since I can't figure out how to Annotate I will use time stamps and comments within my blog.

0:48 - I love the mix of music, the automated voice message, and Adnan's voice. After this Sarah introduces herself and the podcast. I love the intro because it is familiar and simple. It gets me excited for the episode.

3:56- Adnan remembers the day because of the phone call with the police. It was a normal day to him and he wasn't worried about Hae when he found out she was missing. He really thought she was messing around and that she would be in trouble.

5:07- At first no one took Hae's disappearance seriously. Adnan's reaction was just like everyone elses. Shouldn't that be taken into consideration?

6:50- Adnan for the first time sounds a little irritated by Sarah's questioning.

10:10- I think this is such fishy information. The neighbor boy says he saw a body in the back of a car. That Adnan was the one who showed him Hae's body. Its just so weird that this girl got this information but the neighbor boy denies it.

13:09- There is way too much he said she said stuff to do with this case. Poor Sarah, there is just too much stuff to try to figure out.

17:35- I love how the state uses the cell phone records but they don't even know who all of the calls came from.

19:40- love how they paired such an important moment with dramatic music. then used the music to transition back to Sarah.

22:48- Adnan's hesitation surprises me in this episode. But he also has reasoning for everything Sarah asks him.

28:15- Sarah usually tends to jump around within the episode but this episode she is precise and goes one by one over who was involved that night after the murder. She introduces new characters as she goes through the episode. She does a great job of keeping it in a chronological order and playing testimony from Adnan.

32:46- Music is played to introduce Sarah's monologue. Sarah goes over her theories and the evidence and her opinion. Most podcasts are annoying when the hosts talks to much but I like hearing Sarah explains things.

33:34- I like hearing more personal things about Adnan, it makes him seem more real. I can't believe being in jail, it must give you a lot of time to get to know yourself.

34:50- Sarah shows her true colors here. She genuinely wants to believe Adnan. She wants to catch him in a lie because then she would know she is wrong for believing him.

39:09- Adnan gets upset over what people think about him. he is frustrated that people don't believe his innocence. This is hard to hear, because I can't imagine what it is like to be in his position.

40:13- Sarah shows her vulnerability here. She says that Adnan is a nice person. Adnan admits that Sarah really doesn't know him. He brushes her off and tries to explain why it frustrates him. that surprised me. But once I thought about it more it made sense. being in jail when your innocent (not proven) must be hard.

42:30- Sarah hints to what will be in the next episode and she makes her exit. Music plays.


**editor's note: As I was listening to this episode something popped into my mind that I haven't thought about before. Sarah's intentions which are good are to bright light to this case and find out if Adnan is guilty or innocent. She has done countless interviews and clocked numerous hours going over case documents. If Adnan's case is ever brought back to trial I wonder if any of the information that was shared on Serial can be used in a court of law. This would give the prosecution new information and evidence to use against Adnan. On the other hand Sarah has found things that Christina never used in the case. What could Serial do to a case if it is brought to court. Just some food for thought I guess.

Unit 7 - Radio show

I am guessing that this unit is for brainstorming for the radio show. I was aware that eventually we would need a topic and I have been listening to a few different podcasts other than Serial to form ideas. There are a lot of great podcasts out there. Just to name a few of my favorites: Criminal, Invisibilia, and Reply All.

What I have noticed about all of these podcasts is that they have a central theme to all of their episodes and they stick with that idea. Invisibilia I think has the most interesting premise. It is about the things we can't see. There was an episode about categories and conformity, one on fear, and another on thoughts. I found every episode to be fascinating. I would love our radio show to captivate listeners the way this show captured me.

I think our biggest problem is going to be coming up with a topic for our show. Since we arent creating a series of podcasts it is going to be hard to pick a topic that we can talk about for an hour and not bore listeners. I have also found that the best podcasts are the ones were there are live testimonials or narratives from guest speakers. I think we will need an anecdote from someone in our class and maybe we can all find ways we can relate to that. I don't know, thats all I have come up with so far but I have been thinking about it.

I am going to be honest I am hoping to be a more behind the scenes contributer to the radio show. I believe I am good at public speaking but when it comes to being recorded I find that I am very awkward. If we all have to speak than I guess I will do my best but if it is possible that I don't have to I don't mind doing the writing and strategizing for the group. 


Audio Assignments:


Dramatic Reading Recording ***1/2


I have always been a Taylor Swift fan, but that is because I like country music. When she went POP I wasn't crazy about it. But her song Blank Space is one of my favorite songs right now. It is so good. So I thought, I wonder what a dramatic reading of her dramatic song would sound like. I only did the first verse because I seriously hate recording my voice. The background music I found on youtube.


Favorite Song *1/2


This is my song that I share with my dad. The first time I heard it I was little. I was watching one of my favorite Christmas movies, Jack Frost. I cried my eyes out when this song played and my dad held me. We danced to this song at my Sweet 16 and whenever I am feeling nostalgic I play it in the car on long car rides with him. This song means so much to me. Hint hint, there is a line "Cause I've built my life around you" that gets me every time.


Line Remix***

The Hangover is one of my favorite movies and it is my favorite to quote. I always laugh at everything Alan says. He is the best character. I changed the ending to one of his most well known scenes.

Serial episode 5

This Serial podcast transcript was taken from Genius.com. This American Life or Serial.com doesn't keep transcripts from the episodes on their sites. Thank god there are so many crazy fans out there who take the time to create transcripts. Being that this isn't from This American Life I can't be sure how accurate this transcript is. My annotation will be in italic lettering.


0:20
Detective
     Jay, why would Adnan call you?

     Jay
     I’m the criminal element of Woodlawn.

Ira Glass 0:30
Previously, on Serial.

     Adnan Syed
     They said some-something like “we know what you and Jay did” or “we talked to Jay”-- and I'm like “Jay? Jay--” like I had a look of puzzlement on my face – like, like “what? What do you mean?”

     Jay
     I'm sure if I ratted him out for killing Hae, then he wouldn't hesitate to turn me over for selling drugs.

     Jennifer Pusateri
     I don't know – unless Adnan paid Jay a good sum of money, I really don't see Jay helping him.

Automated voice
This is a Global-Tel link prepaid call from Adnan Syed an inmate at a Maryland Correctional facility…

1:08- Less than a minute into the podcast we hear from many different angles of the case. Adnan, Jay, Jennifer, the detective. Its a lot for the first minute. Once the music comes on and I hear Sarah's voice I am more than hooked on what will be discussed in this episode.

Sarah Koenig
From This American Life and WBEZ Chicago it’s Serial. One story told week by week. I’m Sarah Koenig.

The first letter I got from Adnan Syed, almost exactly one year ago, included a challenge. He was writing about the prosecution’s timeline of the crime. About when and where Hae Min Lee was killed. The State contended that Hae was killed between 2:15 and 2:36 p.m. at the Best Buy parking lot, about a mile from Woodlawn High School. That’s the twenty-one minute window in which to commit the murder. Which may seem like a long time, Adnan wrote, but it is virtually impossible if you consider the following facts, which he then listed. For example, “when the final bell rings at 2:15, you can’t just leave and jump in your car,” he wrote. “There are 1500 other students filling the hallways and stairwells of a four story building.” Then you have to get out of the school parking lot, but the parking lot is encircled by the school bus loop, so you can’t get your car out until the buses fill up and leave. Which, Adnan wrote, “took about ten to fifteen minutes.”

     Adnan Syed
     I wish-- maybe I’ll try to draw a picture of it, but if you could just see how Woodlawn High School lets out at 2:15.

Sarah Koenig
That’s Adnan elaborating on his letter.

2:23- A minute after the intro and it has been introduced what this episode will cover. Sarah allowed Adnan's recording to describe what will be presented in this episode. The timeline of the murder.

   Adnan Syed
      You can’t just go to your car and leave. It’s going to take a few minutes. So it’s just a really tight-- window of time for this to have taken place. I’ve always-- in my heart-- I’ve always like-- I’ve seen it on TV before like on Dateline or Nightline where someone tries to reenact the crime. There’s a moment where there’s someone like “you know what? This crime could not have been committed according to this set of facts.” There’s always this moment where I visualize the route, it’s just-- Oh hey, were getting ready to go, right. Sorry. Hey, I gotta go. Alright bye.

     Sarah Koenig
Okay bye!

2:58- I find it very interesting that Adnan vividly remembers how Woodlawn high was like after school let out but he can't remember what happened on January 13, 1999.

Sarah Koenig
That happens sometimes. The guards come by and you’re just done, mid-sentence. Anyway, I can pick up from Adnan’s letter. He wrote that in addition, the route to the Best Buy, even though it’s close to the school, there are major intersections along the way and that there is “a ton of traffic at that time.” And then, the murder itself. How would he be able to strangle Hae, a tall, strong, athletic girl, “remove her body from the car, carry it to the trunk, and place her in there in broad daylight at 2:30 in the afternoon. And then I walk into the Best Buy lobby and call Jay and tell him to come meet me there? All in twenty-one minutes. I am one-hundred percent sure that if someone tried to do it, it would be impossible.”

Gauntlet so thrown, producer Dana Chivvis and I gave it a shot. We tried this drive, twice we tried in fact because, full disclosure, the first time we screwed it up. The second time, though, we were like a machine. So here we go. We’re at Woodlawn High School, Wednesday afternoon. After school announcements.

     Voice over school PA
     If you’re a senior and you want to apply for local scholarships, you need to go to the counseling office--

Sarah Koenig
Okay then, last bell. (chime) More than a thousand students fill the halls just like Adnan described in his letter. We figure Hae gets in her car quickly. She’s in a hurry.

Okay. It is now 2:17. The bell rang at exactly 2:15, say the fastest she could have gotten to her car is two minutes. So that’s giving the State the benefit of the doubt, right? If she’s really hustling, maybe she can get to her car in say two minutes? Remember her friend Debbie Warren said that Hae had told her right after school that she was in a rush to see her new boyfriend Don at the mall. Presumably the Owings Mills Mall where they both worked.

I think this is the last bus. We do indeed have to wait for the bus loop to clear. It takes a few minutes. We just have to sit there. We’re timing. We’re in the back of the school. Now we have to drive up around to the front of the school, up around the circle near the gym. Remember, that’s where Inez Butler-Hendrix says she sees Hae, who had come to grab a snack. Once we get there, we’re at eleven minutes, thirty eight seconds.

     Sarah Koenig
     I’m going to run in, keep timing.

5:22- Sarah is basing all of this on eye witness accounts and adnan's letter. I find it hard to be exact if she didn't know how long it normally would take for Hae to grab a snack and juice. How long was the line normally? I think it is very hard to be accurate for this part of the remake.

Sarah Koenig
I run into the gym area where the food cart was, run back out to the car, then we have to drive back out to Woodlawn drive, turn onto Security Boulevard, which does have some big intersections you have to get through. Again, we’re trying to get to Best Buy, it’s still there today, in twenty-one minutes.

     Dana Chivvis
     We’re at seventeen minutes, right about, now. We’re at seventeen minutes, we’re just crossing under the beltway.

     Sarah Koenig
     Less than a minute later… Oh yeah, see? There’s the sign. Best Buy.

Sarah Koenig
Jay’s story is that when he pulled into Best Buy, he saw Adnan at the phone booth there, at the edge of the building, wearing red gloves. Adnan motioned for Jay to follow him across the front of the building, around to the other side, to the farthest corner of the side parking lot, where Jay saw Hae’s car parked. This particular part of the parking lot, alas, it has significance. After Adnan was arrested, the detectives interviewed another friend of his, a kid named Ja'uan. Ja'uan told them he had gotten high with Adnan once, in Adnan’s car. Here’s tape of that interview.

     Detective
     --and where was this?

     Ja'uan
     Best Buy parking lot.

     Detective
     Why did you go to the Best Buy parking lot?

     Ja'uan
     Nobody’s going to be over there.

     Detective
     Was it your choice to go there?

     Ja'uan
     (unintelligible)

     Detective
     His choice.

     Ja'uan
     He said that him and Hae used to go there to spend time together.

     Detective
     Adnan and Hae would go there to spend time.

     Detective
     Did he say what they would do there? Um, when they were in the parking lot alone, no one comes to that side of the parking lot.

     Ja'uan
     I think he might have said that they had sex there before.

Sarah Koenig
In case you didn’t hear that, he says, “I think he might have said that they had sex there before.” Yeah. Ja'uan says this happened, this trip to get high at Best Buy, that it happened after Hae went missing. Meaning, if Adnan did it, he was taking Ja'uan back to the exact spot where he killed Hae. He was returning to the scene of the crime. Ja'uan says that they parked, from the sounds of it, right where Jay says Hae’s car was that day. Right where Dana and I are also parked. It takes Dana and me almost eighteen minutes to get to this spot. That leaves three minutes for the actual horror of the thing. An argument maybe, then strangulation, then he’s got to put her body in the trunk, somehow, without anyone seeing. Granted, this part of the parking lot is pretty empty, but still, it’s a parking lot in the middle of the afternoon. There are definitely cars and people near enough to make this seem like a very, very risky move.

Dana and I time it out. Counting down the quickest possible imagining of such a thing. Manual strangulation usually takes a few minutes. Then, we get out of our car, and walk over to where we think the payphone was. According to a sketch Jay made for the cops. There’s no phone booth there now.

I just want to pause here and talk about this phone booth for a minute. Weirdly, we have not been able to confirm it’s existence. The Best Buy employees I talked to did not remember a payphone back then. We spoke to the landlord at the time and to the property manager, they had no record of a payphone. They dug up a photo of the store, from 2001, no phone booth or payphone, though lots of public phones did come down between ‘99 and 2001. They looked up the blueprints for the store when it was built in 1995, nothing. The manager also said there is no record of a service agreement between Best Buy and any payphone company at that store. We checked with the Maryland public service commission. We checked with Verizon. Neither could track down records from that far back.

It seems crazy to me that the cops would have either not checked to make sure it existed or failed to mention it if somehow it wasn’t there. They never got the call record from this booth. There’s nothing in their files about it. At trial, Adnan’s lawyer brings up this phone booth when she’s trying to attack Jay’s credibility. She says to the judge, “we believe that the physical description of the actuality of Best Buy, including the location of the phone booth at Best Buy, the entrance, the existence or non-existence of security cameras,” etc., she goes on. So, I don’t know. We’re stumped on this one. But lets assume it did exist that day. The prosecutor said that they knew Hae was dead by 2:36 because there is a call at 2:36 to Adnan’s cellphone. Which Jay has. And they say that must be the call Jay told the cops about. The one where Adnan calls his own phone and says, “come and get me. I’m at Best Buy.” You can see it on the call log. It just says ‘incoming.’ There’s no phone number attached to incoming calls. This 2:36 call was five seconds long. We get out a quarter, we put it in--

 10:18- This is the most frustrating part of the entire podcast for me. The fact that there is no payphone in the best buy parking lot. The detectives never checked to see if there actually was a payphone because they just believed Jay's story. This was never investigated so now the payphone is "gone." If they had looked for the payphone in the beginning then Jay would look like a liar and this all could have ended differently. That's just my opinion but that's what I get stuck on the most, is the infamous payphone in the best buy parking lot.

     Dana Chivvis
     Dial the number.

     Sarah Koenig
     One, two, three, four, five. Stop it.

     Dana Chivvis
     Twenty-two.

     Sarah Koenig
     Twenty-two and a half minutes?

     Dana Chivvis
     Yeah.

     Sarah Koenig
     So wait. Let us just be precise about it.

     Dana Chivvis
     Twenty-one-- Twenty--

     Sarah Koenig
     Twenty-two minutes and two seconds. Yeah we just did it in twenty-two minutes and two seconds. And that was leaving about a minute and a half in the car for the actual killing part.

     Dana Chivvis
     That should probably be the minimum about of time in the car.

     Sarah Koenig
     Right. I don’t know.

     Dana Chivvis
     I mean, it seems like, yeah it could be done. But it seems far fetched.

Sarah Koenig
It does seem far fetched because there’s no room for any errors. Any pauses even. The buses, the drive, the strangulation. The moving of the body. The call. They all have to happen as quickly as they possibly can for the 2:36 call to work. But, it is possible. Or at least not impossible, which was what Adnan was saying in that first letter.

     Adnan Syed
     So you guys-- huh.

     Sarah Koenig
     Yeah.

     Adnan Syed
     So-- huh.

Sarah Koenig
When I told Adnan that Dana and I more or less did it in the time allowed, the twenty-one minutes, his overall reaction was incredulity.

     Adnan Syed
     It seems like five minutes-- from what I can remember, those buses didn’t clear in five minutes cuz I can remember sometimes we would have to wait in that parking lot, for those buses to clear. I don’t know. I just-- to me, that was always stuck in my mind, was those buses. That you have to wait for the buses. So, I don’t know. That’s kinda disheartening. I always-- I don’t know how long the crime would have taken. I don’t know how long-- I don’t know. If you guys said you did it, then you did it, but I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t know what to say, I just always thought in my mind that--

12:14- I believe that this is important to hear from Adnan. Having him find out that it is possible and that this could be why he was convicted is a great tactic for Sarah. She is proving that he could be guilty but at the same time she is showing his innocence. Who knows?

     Sarah Koenig
     This is what I’ll say is that it doesn’t make me think-- to me it doesn’t prove anything except that it’s possible. It doesn’t mean that I think you’re lying or that I think it even happened at the Best Buy, I’m just saying, if you’re going to debunk the State’s timeline--

     Adnan Syed
     No I understand--

     Sarah Koenig
     --like we weren’t able to do that. We weren’t able to debunk their timeline--

     Adnan Syed
     No I understand that. I understand that.

12:45 - there is music added in here to create a transition. The staff at This American Life is great at creating scores and using them strategically in the podcast. Every time I hear this music I listen in closer because I feel like there is going to be something important to listen for.

Sarah Koenig
However, Dana and I were not done. This was just step one of the State’s timeline. In the detective’s notes, Dana and I found a handwritten itinerary, dated March 18, 1999. So that’s three day’s after Jay’s second taped interview with police. This is the route Jay laid out for the cops. His entire driving day, on January 13. This is what we’re going to try to replicate, to see if it matches the call record from that day. Because, right? The prosecution’s story of the crime was mainly pinned to two things. Jay’s statements and the cell records. Adnan remembers that at his trial, the prosecution had a big blow up chart of the call record, the one listing thirty four calls made and received on Adnan’s cell phone that day, with blanks besides each call. Every time a witness identified a call on the list, the prosecutor would label it with a sticker.

     Adnan Syed
     So at two-- at 3:21 they would have placed a sticker, boom, call to Jenn Pusateri. It was a pretty powerful thing. Because as he was testifying, it was almost as if they were using the cell phone records as proof for all the testimony. Okay, if he said “what happened at this time?” and such and such call was made, boom, it was very, I would say, influential.

Sarah Koenig
Besides the calls themselves, they also had a list of all the cell towers that pinged each time a particular call came in or when out. “Sure,” the prosecutor said, “you might have your doubts about Jay, but the call record doesn’t lie. Jay couldn’t possibly have known which towers were getting pinged when. He couldn’t fabricate that. It would be too crazy of a coincidence.” So the cell towers, and the calls and Jay’s story, they way they all meshed, prosecutors argued, was irrefutable. Prosecutor, Casey Murphy said to the jury in her closing statement, “The most important thing for you to remember about Jay’s testimony is that it does not stand alone. It is corroborated.” She added, “The cell phone records support those witnesses say, and the witnesses support what those cell phone records say.” There’s no way around it.

14:52- This introduces the second part of the podcast. The fact that cell towers were used in the case against Adnan.

     Dana Chivvis
     Alright, ready?

     Sarah Koenig
     Yup.

     Dana Chivvis
     Okay. So I started it at-- it’s 2:51, and we’re making a right out of the Best Buy parking lot onto Belmont Ave.

     Sarah Koenig
     Alright, so lets see if we can recreate what Jay says happened that day. The next stop after Best Buy is the I-70 Park and Ride, where Jay says they leave Hae’s car for a few hours. It’s just a large commuter parking lot. Jay says he follows Adnan there, Adnan is driving Hae’s car. Jay has Adnan’s car. He’s pretty careful to let the cops know we wasn’t ever in Hae’s car. Never touched her or her stuff.

     Detective
     Did he get out of the car?

     Jay
     Yes. He got out of the car and--

Sarah Koenig
This is from Jay’s second taped statement.

     Jay
     --proceeded to go through the trunk and the back seat.

Sarah Koenig
This detail has always struck me, by the way. Jay says Adnan is going through the trunk of Hae’s car at the I-70 Park and Ride. Hae’s body is back there. In the trunk, at this point. But anyway…

     Jay
     Several items, he picked up and moved around, stuff like that, then he came over to his car, told me to pop the trunk. I popped the trunk. He placed a whole bunch of items in the trunk and then he got in the driver’s seat and we switched places, and I got in the passenger’s seat.

Sarah Koenig
It takes Dana and me eleven minutes to get to the Park and Ride from Best Buy. Then we wait a couple minutes to account for Adnan’s movements. In case you’re wondering, there were no security cameras at this Park and Ride back in ‘99. We checked with the DOT. So now it’s a little after three p.m. When Jay took the cops on this ride on March 18, to map out the timeline, he told them that after they left the Park and Ride, they went in search of weed. He says that’s when he called his friend Patrick. And this is where things start to get off course. There is indeed a call to Patrick on the call log. But it’s at 3:59 p.m. So right away, we have a time problem.

By trial, though, Jay has sorted that out, so that his story better matched the call log. He testified that he called Jenn Pusateri first, at 3:21 to find out if Patrick was home. Jenn testified that, no, Jay would not have called her to find out where Patrick was. Thats just not a thing that would have happened. But in any case, there is a call to Jenn at 3:21. Jay says that when they didn’t find Patrick at home, they switched course and headed up to Forest Park to buy weed. Dana and I drive that same route.

     Dana Chivvis
     Okay, so they buy two dimes of weed here, that’s a side note.

     Sarah Koenig
     Alright. Done and done.

     Dana Chivvis
     Done. We are making a left--

Sarah Koenig
Jay also mentions another call around this time. This call is incredibly important and I will talk more about it in another episode, I swear. But for right now, what you need to know is, in his second interview, when the cops show him the list of calls, Jay says, “Adnan spoke to some girl in Silver Spring.” Her name was Nisha. It was that girl Adnan had been flirting with. And Adnan briefly put Jay on the phone with her. And the reason this is so important is for two reasons. One, it’s the only call in this stretch of time that’s to someone Adnan knew, rather than a friend of Jay’s. And, it puts Jay and Adnan together in the middle of the afternoon, when Adnan says he was not with Jay, he was back at school. In the March 18 itinerary, there’s a note about the Nisha call. That Adnan handed the phone to Jay at the golf course on West Forest Park Avenue.

     Dana Chivvis
     Yeah that is the golf course, okay.

     Sarah Koenig
     If indeed this is the golf course he’s saying where suspect hands the phone to the witness, who is Jay, that was the Nisha call. And that does happen right now.
So the time works for this one. It matches Jay’s story. But here’s the problem. It doesn’t match the cell tower in the call record. It’s pinging a tower back near the Best Buy, west of where we are. And that is true of all these calls from the middle of the afternoon. The 3:21 to Jenn, 3:32 to Nisha, 3:48 to a dude named Phil, 3:59 to Patrick, none of these calls pinged a tower near where Jay tells the cops they were driving that afternoon. Not a one. At trial, though, even though all these midafternoon calls were identified and accounted for in Jay’s testimony, prosecutors did not point out that the cell towers didn’t match. Adnan’s defense attorney did, sort of, but reading the trial transcript, even though she notes the discrepancy, she doesn’t nail it. So it’s hard to tell what that discrepancy means. So, onward.

19:17- I find all of this information hard to digest but I also understand that this is important to the case. Now looking at the transcript it is a little easier to understand.

     Dana Chivvis
     So we are headed to the Patapsco State Park right now.

     Sarah Koenig
     Oh, you’re kidding.

     Dana Chivvis
     I’m not kidding. We definitely don’t have time don’t have time to go to Patapsco.

     Sarah Koenig
     Well, let’s see how long that takes.

Sarah Koenig
This is the next stop on the itinerary. To a place known as the cliffs at Patapsco State Park which is a good twenty minute drive from where we are right now. Adnan’s track practice starts at four p.m. If before, we were clinging respectably to the agreed upon timeline, now we’re about to just thumb our noses at the thing.

     Sarah Koenig
     Yeah, this just seems absurd. It’s three-- say it’s between 3:45 and 3:50 now in their world. If I’m Adnan and I need to be seen for track, I’m freaking out right now, that I need to get back for track to have an alibi. So what’s this “oh, lets just drive halfway across the county to go to a state park to smoke a blunt?” Just smoke in your car! It just seems like there had to be other places you could have pulled over for a quick smoke, if indeed that’s what needed to happen.

     Dana Chivvis
     There’s a shrimp sale at the Crab Crib.

Sarah Koenig
Sometimes I think Dana isn’t listening to me. Anyway, we head to Patapsco State Park, because Jay is very clear: taped statement number one, taped statement number two, March 18 itinerary. Now is when they go smoke a blunt at the cliffs in Patapsco. Dana and I trek in there.

     Sarah Koenig
     Okay, down many rough hewn steps. This is beautiful!

Sarah Koenig
You can see the river below, some train tracks, hills. Jay’s memories about this spot are specific. Dana reads from the handwritten notes from March 18.

     Dana Chivvis
     So these are the detective’s notes. It says, “Patapsco Valley State Park 1630 hour.” And then the next note is, “Sun getting ready to hit mountain tops.”

     Sarah Koenig
     1630 hour means 4:30 p.m. Sunset that day was at 5:05 p.m. so that would make sense.

     Dana Chivvis
     Then it says, “I can’t believe I did it. I’m sad but not really.”

Sarah Koenig
Here’s what Jay says they talked about, and before I play this next tape, just a warning that it’s disturbing:

     Jay
     We’re standing, overlooking a whole bunch of stuff at this cliff and he starts telling me about how it was when he killed her. How he said he wrapped his hand around her and-- her throat and she started kicking and he said he looked up to make sure nobody was looking in the car at him, and he said he was worried about her scratching him, getting his skin under any of her fingernails, and that she was trying to say something. He said that he thinks she was trying to say that she was sorry, but that was what she deserved and--

     Detective
     How long do you think you were the cliff?

     Jay
     Twenty minutes to a half an hour.

     Detective
     Other than that conversation, was there anything additional?

     Jay
     He had said to me, he wondered where to put the body at.

     Detective
     Did you make any suggestions?

     Jay
     None at all.

     Detective
     Did he name any locations?

     Jay
     None at all.

     Detective
     He didn’t say, “what about here?” You know, he didn’t name off a half dozen locations and you gave him thumbs up or thumbs down?

     Jay
     Um, I just-- he said something to... the effect of the state park where we were, a little up the river, but I told him that people walk up and down here.

Sarah Koenig
So, Jay says they talk about the murder at the cliffs. He says they talk about whether to dispose of the body right there in Patapsco State Park, he says they’re there for perhaps twenty minutes to half an hour.

Come trial, when Jay’s on the stand talking about where they went that day, this whole trip to Patapsco, it never happens. It’s just not there. That talk they have? Instead it happens in Adnan’s car, when they’re tooling around, looking to buy weed. This is a puzzle to me. It’s such a vivid scene, Jay’s describing, it’s so detailed. I have to think he included it for good reason. But it doesn’t fit the timeline. Driving out of the park, talking to Dana, I was turning this over. Why the Patapsco story at all?

23:36- Eerie music is used here to highlight Jay's inconsistencies.

     Sarah Koenig
     Yeah (laughs) it doesn’t make any sense. Plus-- it’s like trying to-- I’m trying to think of an analogy of what the uselessness of what we’re trying to do by recreating something that doesn’t fit, it’s like a-- like trying to plot the coordinates of someone’s dream or something where it’s just like “but wait! That doesn’t--” as if we’re going to be surprised every single time but it didn’t-- it doesn’t because it’s not prop--

     Dana Chivvis
     I think they call that a fool’s errand.

Sarah Koenig
At trial, Jay says Adnan gets another call as he was dropping Adnan off at school for track. “Before he left the car, he received a phone call, or placed a phone call. It was in Arabic. I don’t know who he was talking to. I don’t know what it entailed. I believe it was his mother.” Adnan and his family say he doesn’t speak Arabic, or Pashto, or Urdu. But maybe Jay could hear a foreign sounding accent on the other end of the call. And there is a 4:27 call in the log. Maybe that’s the one. But again, the cell tower it pings isn’t near Woodlawn High School.

The earliest Dana and I can get from the cliffs back to Woodlawn is 4:45 p.m. and that’s being generous. But even so, that means if Adnan still had to get changed, he is very late for four p.m. track now, which seems like a bad strategy for an alibi, doesn’t it? To be noticeably late like that. Jay says he goes next to a friends house. I’m going to call this friend “Cathy,” because she didn’t want to be identified. Jay says he gets there by 5:20 or 5:30. He says he smokes some more weed there, but it’s not long before Adnan calls him and says, “I’m done with track, come get me.” Jay goes back to Woodlawn, to get Adnan. Jay tells the cops that he gets to Woodlawn at about six p.m. and that he sees Adnan with a friend from track. The notes from March 18 say “said goodbye to track buddy, Will.”

     Will
     That day, he said bye to Will, and then-- oh man. (sigh)

Sarah Koenig
That is Will, from track.

     Will
     It’s hard to remember that one interaction.

     Sarah Koenig
     You mean I should have asked you fifteen years ago?

     Will
     Maybe five, I would have remembered. Oh man, that’s hard to remember. Gee whiz, I didn’t even know that I was a part of anything until you just told me that. Like, no one ever contacted me about anything.

     Sarah Koenig
     Really!

     Will
     Yeah, like, yeah.

     Sarah Koenig
     So the cops-- No cops ever called you and said, “was Adnan at track that day?” No attorneys--

     Will
     No!

     Sarah Koenig
     No attorneys ever called and said, “was Adnan present at track practice that day?”

     Will
     I don’t remember any of that.

26:23- This conversation just makes me see how badly investigated this case was. It was like they solely relied on Jay's testimony but didn't investigate anything he said to back it up.

     Sarah Koenig
     Will confirmed that yes, track started at four, so you had quite a bit of time from the end of school at 2:15.

     Will
     Yeah, go dig around. Play footsie with your little girlfriend. And then go get ready for practice and be ready and on time. There was never an excuse to be late for track practice.

     Sarah Koenig
     Because there was so much time.

     Will
     Exactly.

     Sarah Koenig
     And what would happen if you were really late, or you skipped or-- was there any consequences?

     Will
     Yeah, actually if you didn’t have a family emergency, you had to run extra. 400’s. Extra running the next day.

Sarah Koenig
Their coach, Michael Psy, told the cops that Adnan probably was there that day, that he thinks he would have noticed if Adnan wasn’t there. But he couldn’t be 100% sure.

The other thing Will told me was that he saw Jay pick up and also drop off Adnan for track, multiple times.

     Will
     Yeah, that was just normal. Normal to the point where no one would pay attention to it.

     Sarah Koenig
     Right. Ah! So you can’t solve this crime for us.

     Will
     I wish I could, oh my goodness!

27:38- Another thing that wasn't investigated. Jay has dropped Adnan off ofr practice multiple times. Jay always stresses that he is only aquaintences.I wouldn't have someone drive me somewhere if we weren't friends...Que more eerie music.

Sarah Koenig
Here’s another problem with the track story. Jay says he gets Adnan at about six. There’s an outgoing call at 5:38 p.m. to Adnan’s friend Krista. Someone Jay would not be calling. Which would suggest Adnan had his phone at 5:38 p.m. and the call pings a tower that is out near that guy Patrick’s house, sort of where they end up ditching Hae’s car. Not at all close to Woodlawn High School. I could keep going here, to the bitter end of the night, but I’m hoping you’ll take my word for it, that the time line has some problems.

I’m going to try very hard not to bore you right now, but I do want to talk about cell records for a sec, because I want to know whether the State used the call records accurately, and fairly at Adnan’s trial. Do the records really corroborate Jay’s story? You might have seen some recent reports about how cell phone evidence isn’t as reliable as it was once cracked up to be. The Washington Post ran a story in June, for instance, with the headline, “Experts Say Law Enforcement’s Use of Cell Phone Records Can Be Inaccurate.” Federal courts in Oregon and Illinois have ruled cell phone evidence inadmissible. The problems arise when you’re trying to say, “I can prove you were at such and such at such and such a time because of the cell tower your phone pinged.” You can’t do that with certainty, because of the way cell towers get activated, and how much territory they cover. In fact, these kind of records are mostly useful as a way to say where someone wasn’t rather than where he or she was. Like if a call pings a tower in downtown Baltimore, I’m going to be pretty confident that you’re not making that call from Annapolis, or D.C., or Patapsco State Park.

As far as I know, Adnan’s case was the first in Maryland to use cell tower technology as evidence. It was a new thing. Because I am technologically speaking, a moron, I asked Dana to find out “did the cell expert who testified at trial present the technology accurately in a way that still holds up?” So Dana sent this gripping testimony to two different engineering professors, one at Purdue, and one at Stanford University. And they both said “yes, the way the science is explained in here is right.” And the way that the State’s expert, a guy named Abraham Waranowitz tested these cell sites, by just going around to different spots and dialing a number, and noting the tower it pinged, that’s legit. That is not junk science.

But that’s a different question from, “does the science he’s explaining here, actually support the State’s case? Did the prosecution deploy that science fairly?” That’s a more complicated question with a more complicated answer. Waranowitz, the cell expert, and prosecutor Casey Murphy, did the site tests together. She took him around to various locations connected to Jay’s story. Dana explained it to me.

     Dana
     They went to the spots that matter the most in the story of the crime.

     Sarah Koenig
     Okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     So places like Jenn’s house, the Best Buy, Leakin Park where Hae was buried. Those places that are really important.

     Sarah Koenig
     Okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     Cathy’s apartment. So they do fourteen of those, right?

     Sarah Koenig
     Okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     They go out on this day in October and they do fourteen of them. Do you know how many they brought up at trial?

     Sarah Koenig
     No.

     Dana Chivvis
     They ask the cell phone expert about four of them.

     Sarah Koenig
     You’re kidding. Really?

     Dana Chivvis
     Four of them.

     Sarah Koenig
     Four of them. Because the rest of them, didn’t really help their argument. Which is their prerogative. Their job is to put on the strongest possible case, but of the four site tests they do talk about, one is a test Waranowitz does in a place called Gelston Park, which I’m not even going to explain because it’s basically irrelevant to our story. The other three places, these all happen, in Jay’s narrative, after six p.m. After Jay had picked Adnan up from track.

     Dana Chivvis
     Sort of from 12:07 until 6:07, that window of time is where Jay’s story doesn’t line up with the cell phone records. And the timeline he’s giving is not lining up with the times of the cell phone calls.

     Sarah Koenig
     So the towers, the times, and Jay’s story are not matching--

     Dana Chivvis
     Right.

     Sarah Koenig
     --anywhere in that basically six hour period.

     Dana Chivvis
     Right. Yeah.

32:09- This drives me crazy. The state does create a good case against Adnan, but I feel as if the way it is set up its almost impossible for Adnan to prove his innocence. Sarah does a great job at using others testimony to help her explain this case to the audience. If the podcast was an hour of Sarah's voice, I'm not sure if I would be as interested. She is good at explaining boring legal information and having it stick in my mind.

Sarah Koenig
Which, this is sort of what Dana and I had experienced on our drive that day, that it wasn’t plotting out. Just a word about the cell tower testimony. It took two days and it was sort of a mess. Adnan’s defense attorney, Cristina Gutierrez claims she didn’t have all the cell record evidence, she didn’t have the cell tower map, she tries to get Waranowitz’s testimony thrown out, the judge nearly agrees with her, then prosecutor Kevin Urick ends up asking for a mistrial, which isn’t granted, and all this might sound like exciting courtroom fireworks, but it just-- I cant stress enough how tedious must have been for the jury. And also possibly confusing. Waranowitz is actually a young guy. On the stand he looks kinda like George Stephanopoulos, except tired and fearful. Here’s one of the more lively moments of his testimony. Prosecutor Kevin Urick talks first.

     Prosecutor Kevin Urick
     What, if any, effect does the brands of cell phone’s have on the functioning of the AT&T wireless network?

     Cristina Gutierrez
     Objection!

     Judge
     Over ruled. If you know.

     Abraham Waranowitz
     Depends on the quality of the phone.

     Prosecutor Kevin Urick
     How might that affect it?

     Cristina Gutierrez
     Objection!

     Judge
     Overruled, and again, if you know.

     Abraham Waranowitz
     Poor performance.

     Prosecutor Kevin Urick
     How so?

     Cristina Gutierrez
     Objection.

     Judge
     At this point, I’m going to sustain and Mr. Urick unless you are prepared to lay a foundation--

Sarah Koenig
Seriously. Most if it is more boring that that. Which is why I made Dana read it all, so I didn’t have to. She explained that the cell tower tests the prosecution did bring up at trial, the ones after six p.m., the first one was about a site near Cathy’s apartment. Remember thats the call Adnan gets at Cathy’s when Officer Adcock calls asking if he’s seen Hae. Waranowitz says that one worked, that 6:24pm call is a winner. It matches the cell tower, it matches the call log, and it matches Jay’s story, Adnan’s story, and Cathy’s story too. It puts Jay and Adnan together at a certain place at a certain time. The question is, what happens after that? Jay says, after the Adcock call, they left Cathy’s and that’s when they went to bury Hae in Leakin Park. Then, they ditched her car out of Edmondson Avenue and then they headed back toward Westview Mall, where they threw evidence into the dumpsters. And if you map the cell towers that ping between 6:24pm and, say, 8:05, if you imagine each tower lighting up, they do illuminate this trail. They support the locations in Jay’s story. Waranowitz confirms this with riveting testimony that sounds like this.

     Abraham Waranowitz
     Yes.

Sarah Koenig
The most incriminating stop on their route that night is, of course, Leakin Park. There were two incoming calls, one at 7:09 and one at 7:16, that hit a tower at the northwest end of the park. I asked Dana, since the range of that Leakin Park tower reaches beyond just the territory of the park, could they have been someplace else besides digging a grave in the actual park?

     Sarah Koenig
     Could you have been at someone’s house or something?

     Dana Chivvis
     Um, it’s possible you could have been here, which-like- this is I think Patrick’s house? One of his addresses.

     Sarah Koenig
     Oh, okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     For instance. Ummm or you could have been at - these are strips. Like maybe you could have been there.

     Sarah Koenig
     Um-hmm, okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     I think they were probably in Leakin Park.

     Sarah Koenig
     Okay.

     Dana Chivvis
     Because he, it’s just, I don’t think, I that the the amount of luck you would have to have to make up a story like that and then have the cell phone records corroborate the key points. I just don’t think that that’s possible.

     Sarah Koenig
     Isn’t that sort of tantamount to saying, I think they were in Lea - I think Jay is telling the truth?

     Dana Chivvis
     I’m saying I think the cell phone was in Leakin Park.

Sarah Koenig
Right. That looks pretty bad for Adnan. Because, even though the cell towers can’t say who is with the phone or who was making the call, Adnan himself says he’s pretty sure he was with his phone at that time after track. Again, his memory is vague, it’s full of I probably would haves. But he says that from what he can remember of the evening, after he got the call from Office Adcock, he remembers dropping Jay off at some point and then he says he would have gone to the mosque for prayers. It was ramadan. He doesn’t say he lent his phone out or his car to Jay or anyone else that evening. So, according to Adnan, he was with the phone and twice that night, the phone pinged the tower near Leakin Park. So, bad for Adnan.

On the other hand, the call records also undermined what Jay tells the cops about that same trip to Leakin Park. The Adcock call at Cathy’s ends at about 6:29pm, the Leakin Park calls are 40 minutes later. But Jay says after the Adcock call, he and Adnan left Cathy’s and then they do a bunch of different things: they drive to Jay’s house for shovels, then to I-70 Park & Ride for Hae’s car, then Jay goes to McDonald’s back by school to wait for Adnan, says he’s there waiting for about 20 minutes, then they drive all around for awhile back over to Patapsco, then up Dogwood, to Security, before they finally get to Leakin Park. All that, what I just described? That takes an hour and twenty minutes. Twice as long as, in other words, than the call log accounts for.

I’m not trying to be petty here. I don’t think we should hold Jay to some crystal clear timeline. How could he possibly remember each twist and turn and phone call from that day, six weeks later?

However, if the state is saying, Adnan Syed is guilty because we have this witness and his story is backed up by cell records, well, what I see is, you have this witness but his story has shifted, rather significantly over time and you have these call records, but I don’t think they’re as iron-clad as you’re making them out to be. Because, for the most part, they don’t exactly align with your witness’s narrative. There are key moments, when they do support his version of that night. But what about the rest of the day?

38:14- Sarah does a great job of staying unbias and neutral in this episode. up until now. Her thoughts here are that Jay's story isn't correct or that the cellphone records are wrong. I'm not sure what to think but it is clear here that Sarah isn't buying it.

     Adnan Syed
     You know, it’s like it’s so unfair to me, because it’s like , it never, the the the the the umm the etched-in-stone-ness of the phone records, it never goes in my way. It’s just whenever it’s true of what the prosecutor is saying, it’s like, you know the the phone’s a tablet, whenever something I’m saying is like the Holy Grail, ‘oh we don’t know where it is,’ ‘we’re not sure,’ ‘does it really exist’ floats away. But that’s not cool though, because now what you’re saying is that you can use the cell phone records when it benefits me…

Sarah Koenig
That was the 30 minutes cut off. Adnan called back.

     Adnan Syed
     Yeah, I got cut off on a big rant. But, uh, yeah, no (Sarah laughing) but to finish up real quick...

Sarah Koenig
The rant went on. Of all the calls, the 2:36 call is the most troublesome to Adnan. It’s the one he probably thinks about the most. Because that’s the call that starts the whole chain. And he also thinks about it because he says he has an alibi for that time, the Asia letters, where she says she saw him in the library.
Here’s a weird thing about the 2:36 call, the prosecutors are very clear at trial that this is the ‘come and get me, I’m at Best Buy’ call. But they’re not basing it on anyone’s testimony. Jay never says the call was at that time. In fact, he says repeatedly that Adnan called him around 3:40 or 3:45. Jenn also says that’s about when Jay left her house that day. But there is no incoming call at or near 3:45 on the call log. So, the prosecution has to go with 2:36 because it’s the only one that sort of lines Jay’s story up with the log. It’s their only choice.

When you tease apart the State’s case, you can get tripped up on details like this. Which is maybe why prosecutor, Kevin Urick, addressed this head on in his opening statement to the jury. He told them, “look at the big picture.” The main plot points in Jay’s story have been consistent. He tells them that consistently, Jay “has always given the same story about what the defendant did where. Consistently, he tells Jennifer a consistent story, he tells police a consistent story about the defendant, he tells consistently the defendant’s involvement, the defendant’s actions on that day. He has never wavered on that point.”

That is a lot of "consistently"-s and while, maybe it’s not great oratory, it does have the advantage of being true. In Jay’s statements, while the particulars shifted, the spine of his story did not. Adnan told Jay he was going to do it, Adnan showed him the body, they buried her in Leakin Park, they ditched her car. Jay has been consistent on those points. It’s funny, there’s this part of the trial that keeps coming back to me. It’s when Cristina Gutierrez is cross-examining Jay, she’s pointing out that he lied to detectives about various things, including the location where he says Adnan showed him Hae’s body in the trunk of the car.

     Cristina Gutierrez
     Well what you told them and your act of showing them that place, those were lies, weren’t they?

     Jay
     They were not the truth, no.

     Cristina Gutierrez
     They weren’t the truth. What is the opposite of the truth?

     Prosecutor Kevin Urick
     Objection

     Judge
     Sustained

     Cristina Gutierrez
     You told them something that was not the truth.

     Jay
     No, I told them the truth.

     Cristina Gutierrez
     And then you backed… let me finish

     Jay
     I’m sorry.

     Cristina Gutierrez
     And then you backed it up, showing them a place that was not the truth, correct?

     Jay
     I told them the truth, I did not show them a location that was true, no.

Sarah Koenig
He says, ‘I told them the truth, I did not show them a location that was true.’ As oxymoronic as it sounds, I think I see what he is saying. Yes, I told some lies, but I told the truth. Overall, I told the truth. There are parts of Jay’s story that make no sense, where it seems like there must have been more going on than he’s saying. But here’s what’s also the truth, you can say the same thing about Adnan’s story too. Next time, on Serial.

42:17- Sarah is so good with her endings! She seems to wrap it all up but then she throws in a twist. She really knows how to get the listener to tune in to the next episode. The end music is also my favorite. It was written to have a upbeat tone but whenever I hear it I say "oh, wow. What is the next one about?" The music is a perfect wrap up to the episode and my shoulders always slump when I hear it because that means I went through 45 minutes of an episode and it didn't even feel like it.