Nancy Grace · Bill Hader · The Shrink Next Door
Plus: Lone Star Justice, "Emily Doe," and public arrest records
the true crime that's worth your time
If you’re trying to get a friend or family member into true crime, The Shrink Next Door could be a good gateway pod. The six-episode series is a collaboration between podcast company Wondery and Bloomberg, an outlet best known for its financial reporting. But don’t let the latter org’s dusty rep scare you off -- the show, hosted by longtime journo Joe Nocera, is a twisty, near Hitchcockian account of alleged mind control by Dr. Isaac Herschkopf, a well-known New York psychiatrist.
Nocera says that he bought a Hamptons home next to Herschkopf’s back in 2010 (that I could get over my envy of a journalist with a Hamptons getaway is a testament to both my growth as a human and the power of this pod), and witnessed many a star-studded party there. It was only later that he learned that home didn’t belong to Herschkopf at all, and was actually the residence of Marty Markowitz, a textiles magnate who Nocera had mistaken for the home’s maintenance man.
According to Markowitz, Herschkopf had been his shrink for about 30 years, nicknaming him “Easy Mark Markowitz,” putting him to work, and claiming that he was the only protection Markowitz had from bullies and con men. In the five episodes we’re heard so far (the finale drops on June 11) we hear from Markowitz and his friends and family, as well as from two other Herschkopf patients (both using pseudonyms). Email exchanges between Nocera and Herschkopf, who declined to participate, are also read aloud.