Dear Reader,

In the news business, there are certain stories we call “talkers.”

You can tell when a reporter is hooked into one because they’ll get stopped at the coffee pot for details they’re digging up, or people will swivel in their chairs to listen in as new twists and turns emerge.

“You always knew, because when the story would come up in a newsroom discussion it just turned into the chatter,” said Gillian Van Stratt, director of audience development for MLive. “Somebody would say, ‘Did you see this?’ It took over the conversation in the newsroom.”

And boy, do we ever have one on tap for you now. Coming next week, MLive is launching a new installment of its podcast series “Michigan Crime Stories” with “Pinconning Paralyzer,” a wild tale of the revival of a legendary strain of marijuana that is said to have been brought to America by soldiers returning from Vietnam.

Told over four episodes, the story unspools unlikely coincidences, amazing anecdotes, and characters that seem like “Ozark” meets “Duck Dynasty” by way of Larry the Cable Guy. All suffused with a “is this real?” sense of mystery emanating out of a small town near Bay City. You can listen to the trailer here.

This podcast originated with a written story in May by MLive reporter Gus Burns. As the story was set to publish, editors at MLive – via a remote work chat channel we all use – began sharing and reacting to quotes and anecdotes from the story, each more outrageous or hilarious than the last.

“This was so intriguing – there were so many characters,” said Van Stratt, who oversees our audio offerings. “Everybody (at MLive) was basically in agreement: This is a podcast; it just makes sense. It's a story that should be told.”

The written word, as Burns showed, is still an effective and familiar medium. It’s what journalists have been honing for hundreds of years. But thanks to podcasts, we now have another powerful way to tell stories, connect to readers and listeners, and to be more convenient to consume.

You may have listened to a recent excellent example of MLive’s expansion into podcasts with “Mandatory,” a five-episode tale by MLive reporter Emily Lawler of a family business based in Lansing that has run afoul of attorneys general in 20 states for its business practices.

“Mandatory” was not only a “talker,” but it also was proving stubbornly resistant to being put into prose by Lawler.

“Every time she tried to pitch it as a story, it took so long to explain,” Van Stratt said. “You would have had to ask attention-deficit human brains to read so many thousands of words to even figure out what had gone on. It just made sense to make it spoken word.”

And with that, “Mandatory” was hatched. It was the most ambitious podcast yet by MLive, in length, complexity of unfolding the drama, and production values. It also was the first MLive story that was told completely through audio.

“Mandatory” often had the feel of “Serial,” the iconic public radio podcast that launched in 2014 and quickly became a standard for episodic storytelling. Thousands of podcasts have been launched since then, and listenership to the format is exploding. As demand grows, so will our offerings – as well as the quality of the storytelling.

“Pinconning Paralyzer” takes what we learned with “Mandatory,” and goes a step further with narrative storytelling and character development.

“This is my ‘Serial,’ this is the one that I've been waiting for,” Van Stratt said. “We’re producing a podcast where people are going to just want to dive into the next episode.”

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🎧 To hear more about podcast storytelling at MLive, and the explosion of podcasts as a medium, listen to my discussion with Gillian Van Stratt and Eric Hultgren, director of social and brand strategy for MLive, on this week's episode of the MLive Behind the Headlines podcast. Listen on Spotify HERE.

And sports fans will be happy to hear that MLive is adding another title to its podcasting lineup in early November: “Dungeon of Doom,” a Detroit Lions podcast. Hosted by Lions beat writers Ben Raven and Kyle Meinke, it is named after the not-so-affectionate nickname given to Detroit Lions media by former coach Jim Caldwell. The podcast will feature special guests, like former players, as well as analysts and the occasional conversation with Lions fans.

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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.