Matter of Fact: A play on "matter" (physics) and "facts" (news).
Where it charts
Today’s combined position on our country charts.
Ranking history
About the show
Latest episodes
-
Kristin Smart: 30 Years, a Conviction, and Still No Body
October 6, 2026 · 14 minKristin Smart was a 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman when she vanished after a party in May 1996. For 25 years, no one was charged. Then a podcast brought new witnesses forward, and in 2022 a jury convicted Paul Flores, the student last seen…
-
Christa Pike: The Execution That Failed
October 5, 2026 · 33 minChrista Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. On September 30, 2026, an appeals court stopped the execution an hour before it was due, the Supreme Court restarted it, and then two doses of the…
-
Matter of Fact Is Moving: Follow The Headline Case for True Crime
September 28, 2026 · 1 minMatter of Fact is taking a break. Our true crime episodes, the ones you listened to most, now have their own show: The Headline Case: True Crime Behind the News. Every episode takes one case in the news right now and tells it from…
-
The Million Dollar Void
September 24, 2026 · 52 minIn 1903, Pittsburgh heiress Alice Thaw married the debt-ridden Earl of Yarmouth after he refused to walk down the aisle until her family handed over one million dollars. The union proved to be a facade, as the couple lived separately and…
-
The Fallen Abbot: Corruption and Scandal in Thailand’s Royal Temples
September 23, 2026 · 58 minA 66-year-old abbot of a royal temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand, was arrested alongside his 47-year-old female assistant for embezzling over 92 million baht in temple donations and amulet sales. Investigation footage exposed the pair engaging…
-
The High Cost of Conflict: Russia and Ukraine’s Economic War
September 23, 2026 · 47 minThe Russia-Ukraine conflict has evolved into a costly war of attrition that severely devastated Ukraine's domestic economy through widespread infrastructure destruction and massive population displacement, leaving the nation heavily…
-
Echoes of Atlantis: The Fall of the Aztec Empire
September 18, 2026 · 20 minThe theory that the Mayan and Aztec ancestral home, Aztlan, was actually the lost city of Atlantis, suggesting deep cultural connections between these civilizations and ancient Egypt
-
The Toys R Us Tragedy: Betrayal of a Rising Star
September 16, 2026 · 38 minLarry Wells, a popular assistant manager at a Toys "R" Us in Hamburg, New York, was tragically found stabbed to death in the store's office during an early morning shift in June 2013. DNA evidence recovered from a discarded hat at the…