‘Serial’ Podcast Might Delve Into Bowe Bergdahl’s Disappearance

It looks like the Serial podcast has a whole new case to uncover. For the second season of Serial, BuzzFeed reports that they might have found a follow-up story to the case of Adnan Syed.

It’s said they’re going for a case that’s a little more high profile, seeing as Syed’s case has been brought into pop culture through the phenomena of the podcast. Now, it’s said Serial will try to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

If you don’t remember, Sgt. Bergdahl was held hostage by the Taliban until America government waged a prisoner swap. That said, the trade was criticized because some believe that Bergdahl intentionally left his command. Bergdahl then went on record in saying that he left to expose the bad condition of his service unit. In May, he was charged with desertion.

According to Maxim, reports started to circulate that Serial host Sarah Koenig could be looking into this case. Maxim reported that Koenig was spotted with one of the producers of Serial at Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing at Fort Sam Houston in Texas just last week.

According to the report, several soldiers believe that Sgt. Bergdahl left under different circumstances than he claims. “They are convinced his reasons for leaving the outpost were far less honorable. Bergdahl was eventually charged with both desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.”

Not only was Koening at the hearing, but according to initial reports, a few people from Bergdahl’s unit were interviewed. One soldier, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Maxim of the case, “Anyone who tries to benefit from Bowe’s situation has little interest in the truth. What happened in 2009 is both troubling and politically incorrect… my concern is that the truth is being diluted by those looking to gain from Bowe’s story.”

The production manager for Serial was reached for comment by Maxim and gave the following statement.

“We’d very much appreciate if fellow journalists would give us some room and not feel the need to attempt to dig into and try to figure out what you think we might be doing, especially since we’re actively reporting stories, and having a bunch of wild speculation out there makes our job reporting harder. Doesn’t feel very menschy. In any case, here’s what I can tell you: The Serial staff is currently working on several things simultaneously: Season 2, Season 3, and some other podcast projects. For now, we’re not talking publicly about anything that we’re working on.”

Do you think Serial should delve into the case of Sgt. Bergdahl?

[Photo by U.S. Army via Getty Images]