Climbing the walls in the holiday podcast drought? We’re tiding you over with some episodes you might have missed from the giant Podmasters universe. Today, a fascinating edition of our science and psychology podcast, Why? with Emma Kennedy.

On this episode… The allure of evil. Lots of us are obsessed with true crime documentaries and podcasts and can’t get enough gruesome details of horrific murder, torture and kidnapping. It’s all pretty horrible – so why are we drawn to it? Does ‘evil’ really exist? And if so, what does it look like?

Writer, journalist and broadcaster Emma Kennedy talks to forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das and the UK’s top expert on serial killers, criminologist Professor David Wilson to uncover why we are so obsessed with evil.

• Blow your mind with the current season of Why? on your favourite podcast app.

• Buy Dr Das’ book In Two Minds: Shocking true stories of murder, justice and recovery from a forensic psychiatrist and Professor Wilson’s My Life with Murderers: Behind Bars with the World’s Most Violent Men through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund our pods by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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