If you’re not listening to Serial, the off shoot of WBEZ’s This American Life, you need to get on it. The podcast, hosted by Sarah Koenig, is forging new paths in the art of storytelling, audio broadcast, and true crime reporting.

This season of the story recalls the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland and Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend who was convicted of her murder and is currently serving a life-long sentence. The story comes to Koenig’s attention when Rabia Chaudry, a friend of Syed, writes to her explaining the situation and her belief that Syed was wrongfully indicted.

Koenig, a producer on This American Life, took this story and ran with it, creating a season-long story on one narrative. Each episode averages about 40 minutes, giving Koenig time to deeply explore the case, from the timeline of the murder, the witness and main players, and the plot points throughout the day of Lee’s murder.

The beauty of Serial is not the resolution or exoneration of Syed. Rather, it is her storycrafting. Analyzing Serial should be a two front approach, thinking of the murder and guilt or innocence of Syed and the second being Koenig’s storytelling. The parent podcast, This American Life, spends about one hour on a couple of stories. Serial will take about a dozen or so episodes to tell a single story. That may drive away potential listeners — but it shouldn’t. It gives the listener time to stew in the world of Woodlawn High School, to ponder on the various themes Koenig espouses, and to make one’s own meaning out of the facts.

Serial’s medium is its, albeit small, downfall. The story can be confusing. There are currently 23 characters in the narrative, including Koenig and her producer, each with nuance and importance to the story. There are times people and important facts are constantly thrown at the listener, without an immediate visual cue to register that nugget of information.

Granted, the Serial website has some visual pieces to it, including a helpful character map and primary sources cited in the podcast. The site will definitely draw listeners thirsting for more information on the case and the story.

Critics have praised Serial, articulating that the show is saving the medium of the podcast. Serial was the fastest ever podcast to reach 5 million downloads, making it the number one podcast in the world, as of today’s date. As reviewers have said, Serial is particularly fascinating because it is at the vanguard of media. No other podcast or audio broadcast is doing what Serial does.

Serial is released every Thursday morning (though they took a break for Thanksgiving). Currently, the podcast is on episode nine. One of the most fascinating component’s of Serial is that even Koenig isn’t certain where it will end. She told Slate’s Mike Pesca that she is about “70 percent” sure where the story will end, but that the production team works on a week-to-week basis, making a concrete end, at this point, uncertain.

Whether or not this season of Serial will end in a nicely wrapped resolution is unclear. What is certain, Serial is breaking new and interesting ground, thematically and in context of media.