Podcast Canon: The Outlaw Ocean expertly subverts the tropes of true crime

What makes the series such an immediate listen is down to a combination of factors. For starters, Urbina serves as the series’ narrator and the extemporaneous quality to his tracking helps to ingratiate listeners into the story. It comes off like a seafarer’s yarn, and perhaps that’s entirely apt. The writing isn’t overly sensationalized, Urbina’s delivery is crisp and frank, the music and sound design are judiciously applied—all giving listeners a sense of place and tone while avoiding lingering in the more lurid aspects. It’s this somewhat measured approach which helps to differentiate the show from its ostensible category of true crime. This isn’t some giallo production, reveling in depravity, rather it’s like an Alan J. Pakula style thriller, tense and nervy, and wondering just how high up this corruption goes. 

And the answer is, incredibly high. The thrust of The Outlaw Ocean is to try and document all of the ways the essential lawlessness of the high seas are exploited for financial gain, whether that be personal, private, financial, or governmental. In Urbina’s telling, the oceans become a sort of legal loophole, a nebulous space where anything goes, as long as the catch comes in. But it’s not something that simply ends at the shore. Listeners come to understand the ways that seafood processing impacts local economies, livelihoods, and food sources, and often for comically horrible reasons. It functions as a compendium of all the ways that the Western world is willfully ignorant to the collective suffering needed to support our culture of excess. 

Above all else though, it’s the show’s commitment to being right in the middle of the action that proves to be its x-factor. Urbina and his team have traversed the world in capturing these stories, from Indonesia to Libya, India to Uruguay, and various ports of call between, listeners are transported to locations other reporters daren’t go. This level of experiential journalism—call it gonzo if you must—elevates the stories immeasurably. Whether it’s the search for debt-bonded captive fishermen in the South China Sea, the unexpected perils of venturing into a migrant shanty town in Tripoli, or documenting illegal fishing practices off the coast of The Gambia, each story is made all the richer for the risks taken to be there.   

The series is not without its lighter moments, though they are rare given the gravity of their investigations. In one episode, Urbina is whisked by boat to the Principality Of Sealand—the micronation operating out of an abandoned army sea fort, situated off the coast of England—where he learns firsthand of the time a German businessman attempted to stage a bloodless coup. Another highlight sees Urbina travel to Greece to witness a maritime repo man named Max Hardberger take possession of a mob connected freighter. Hardberger is an incredible interview subject, a sort of seafaring James Bond who has lived 10 lives, able to wheedle his way aboard nearly any vessel and engineer its takeover. 

In a moment of North American insularity, when our attentions are glued to the actions of a solipsistic administration, a podcast like this feels vital, shedding light on the everyday plight of millions around the world. I look forward to where the show can go, should it continue. Much of the first two seasons were drawn from The Outlaw Ocean Project’s extant documentary films and print reporting, and I would love to see what could come Urbina and his team developing stories for the audio medium first. Given the events we’re living through, when the American government is conducting extrajudicial killings at sea, it is clear that there will be no shortage of harrowing stories to investigate. 

As always, we take the time to recognize the show’s team, as no podcast is made in a vacuum, especially not one like this. Seasons 1 and 2 were written and produced by Ryan Ffrench and Michael Catano, respectively. Editing and sound design on season 1 by Michael Ward, Season 2 mix, sound design and original music by Alex Edkins, and Graham Walsh. Sound recording by Tony Fowler. The project’s producers include Daemon Fairless, Fabiola Carletti, Margaret Parsons, Craig Ferguson, Joe Galvin, and Marcella Boehler. Special recognition to Joe Sexton, Mea Dols de Jong and Pierre Kattar.

Come back next month for the first anniversary of the Podcast Canon, when we will be talking about one of the medium’s most enduring what-if’s, the brief wondrous life of Starlee Kine’s Mystery Show.