Sponsor: Texas Monthly's New, Epic Examination of a Haunting 31-Year-Old Murder Case

Our sponsor this week is Texas Monthly, which has just published a truly incredible piece of journalism. Michael Hall, whose work has appeared on Longform many times, spent a year investigating one of the most confounding criminal cases in Texas history. In the summer of 1982, three Waco teenagers were savagely murdered for no apparent reason. Four men were ultimately charged with the crime. One was executed, two others were given life sentences, and a fourth was sent to death row only to be released after six years. They all may have been innocent.

Over the next two weeks, Texas Monthly will serialize Hall's 25,000-word piece, "The Murder at the Lake," which looks at the case from five distinct perspectives. Part One is available now; you should read it.

Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, has also written for GQ, Philadelphia and SELF.

"I think that people are, by their nature, good and want to act rightly. So I'm very interested in why people do these things that result in really bad actions. My lack of outrage actually is one of the things that probably helps me in my reporting because I really am propelled by this pure curiosity. ... I just want to know, 'Where did that come from?'"

Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episode.

Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Going Clear, is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

"If I had the chance to interview Osama Bin Laden, should I kill him? It’s a fair question. Suppose we’re having dinner — should I stab him with the bread knife? Do I have a moral obligation to kill him? Or do I have a moral obligation as a reporter to simply hear him?"

Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episode.