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Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, a weekly trip back to the Golden Age of Radio where we rub elbows with the era's greatest private eyes, cops, and crime-fighters. Since 2013, I've been podcasting everything from cozy mysteries to police procedurals, spotlighting characters ranging from hard boiled gumshoes to amateur sleuths. 

Be sure to tune in each Sunday for adventures of a radio detective and the behind-the-scenes stories of their shows. Join me as we spend time with Sam Spade, Johnny Dollar, Sgt. Joe Friday, and more!

May 31, 2026

Our month-long spotlight series on mystery writers concludes with John Dickson Carr, master of the locked room mystery who was recently referenced in Wake Up Dead Man. We’ll hear some thrillers penned by Carr for Suspense as well as episodes of his own mystery anthology series Cabin B-13. From Suspense, it’s “The...


May 28, 2026

For this month's bonus episode, we're back on Baker Street for my five favorite radio adaptations of Sherlock Holmes adventures penned by Arthur Conan Doyle. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in "The Speckled Band" (originally aired on Mutual on November 12, 1945), and Bruce and Tom Conway star in "The Adventure of...


May 24, 2026

Our spotlight mystery writer of the week is Dorothy L. Sayers, the English writer, poet, and essayist whose work evolved and advanced the detective genre with characterization and humor. She’s best known for the adventures of aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, and we’ll hear one of his exploits adapted...


May 17, 2026

Our month-long salute to mystery writing legends continues with the queen of crime herself - Agatha Christie. She wrote over sixty novels, dozens of short stories, and created two of the genre's most beloved sleuths - Hercule Poirot, the fastidious and brilliant Belgian detective, and Miss Marple, the kindly amateur...


May 10, 2026

Our month of classic mystery writers continues with Dashiell Hammett - the former Pinkerton operative whose celebrated characters include Sam Spade, the Continental Op, and Nick and Nora Charles. Radio shows based on his sleuths were some of the most popular on radio until Hammett became a casualty of the Red Scare....