Mystery Show: the podcast that has amateur Columbos hooked

Have you ever wondered how tall Jake Gyllenhaal really is? Not just a ballpark figure, but specifically, down to the half inch? Surprisingly it’s not a question that can be solved by Google. It was an odd bit of celebrity arcana that was open to debate on strange internet backwaters for years. Or it was until Starlee Kine stepped in at the request of one of her clients for her new podcast, aptly titled Mystery Show.

On the show, Kine, who was trained in the trenches of This American Life, solves the tiny mysteries of modern life. Why did a video store disappear the day after someone rented Must Love Dogs? How did an obscure novel end up in the hands of Britney Spears? Why would someone get an “I Love 911” license plate? Each episode tackles a new mystery and so far at least, manages to solve the case in less than an hour.

Why you should listen:

“I’ve always loved mysteries,” explains Kine. While many people have suggested she took her inspiration from Encyclopedia Brown, the tween detective who set up shop in his police-chief father’s garage and would solve crimes for a quarter, it was actually another fictional detective that inspired Kine’s love of mysteries: Columbo. “I read Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, but it’s not much of a reference point for me,” she said. “I watched it all the time when I was little. My frame of reference for a detective my whole life has been Columbo. I didn’t get the idea from Columbo, but I do really love the show.”

Instead, Mystery Show was inspired by Kine’s desire to do a show that wasn’t just another interview series or more personal storytelling, and would also keep her interested through the long hours logging tape, researching and cutting together a show. “I realized that I never get tired of mysteries,” said Kine. “I wanted to do all original reporting. I didn’t want to rehash a case that had already been reported. I wanted to be able to solve stuff.” And with the backing of blossoming podcast empire Gimlet Media, Kine was in the mystery solving business.

Each episode of the show follows along as Kine cracks a case, most of which have come from Kine’s friends: be it the one about Britney Spears holding the book written by an acquaintance, or an elaborate, engraved belt buckle that its finder wants to return to its true owner. “These are real mysteries,” said Kine. “Carson, with the belt buckle, had been telling me that he had a mystery for years, but the first time I heard it was when I recorded it for the show.” As the podcast’s popularity grows, Kine is starting to accept cases from strangers, but she won’t take every case she’s offered, for one very good reason: “Ideally I want to solve them,” she explained. “The only reason I wouldn’t solve them is if it leads to something so satisfying and surprising that it justifies it. What I don’t want to do is be like ‘Here’s a really interesting case, see how intriguing it is, oops no solution,’ which leaves you disappointed in the end.”

In order to solve all the cases, though, Kine has to be selective. “I have to find the question interesting, the solution has to seem potentially interesting, and I have to be able to see a path to solving it – and I can’t just Google it,” said Kine, laying out her case-taking criteria. For her, the thrill of solving mysteries is in the chase: “You don’t want the answer to be one phone call away. There has to be a tug, where I feel like I can solve it, even if I don’t know how.”

While being in the podcasting business is a challenge in and of itself, being in the mystery-solving podcast business is even harder, because until Kine starts working on a case, she has no idea whether or not she’ll actually be able to solve it, which means hours of work that may not result in a podcast. “I have a lot of cases that are in various stages,” she said. “There are some that I’m putting all my focus on and pursuing. There are others that I’m waiting for leads and still others that I’m only starting to look into, but I would consider them open. It’s really hard and it’s stressful.”

“The risk is that I can spend a lot of time on one, and I’ll like it a lot, and then it doesn’t get solved and I can’t do it,” said Kine. “Emotionally, it’s really hard.”

Despite the arduous nature of the series, Kine has no regrets. “I like it,” she said. “I wanted it to be hard. That’s part of why it’s satisfying. I didn’t want shortcuts.”

Despite the dead ends and the difficulties, Kine considers all of her cases to be open cases. “How can you know when a case can never be solved?” she asked. Even some of the cases she cracked are still works in progress. In the premiere episode, she solves the case of the mysteriously disappearing video store, but looking back on it, she’s slightly unsatisfied. “I think the ending of that show would be different if I made it now,” she said. “There is a part of me that wants to look into the solution of the video store a little bit more. Maybe find the mustached girl.” Constantly looking for they mystery beneath the mystery is a sure sign of a true detective.

Where to start: Video Store, Britney Spears

You can subscribe to Mystery Show on iTunes.