“Its just very sad that because you speak out about these issues [Human rights] you have to live with a panic button besides your bed…”

Enes Kanter is a star player for the Boston Celtics. He is also an international fugitive. His passport has been revoked. He has not spoken to his family in over four years. He lives with constant death threats and under police protection.
His crime?

Speaking about the arbitrary detention of tens-of-thousands of people – many of them professors, journalists and judges – in current-day Turkey. For this stance, Kanter has been supported by the Human Rights Foundation and his views are validated by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

In Turkey, however, Enes Kanter’s name is an invitation for government repression. His father has lost his job and served time in jail, despite publicly disavowing his son.

We at CrimeWaves choose Enes Kanter to launch our podcast as he perfectly captures the spirit of investigation at the heart of our series.

The guiding principle of CrimeWaves is to bring the listener direct conversations with real experts: people who understand crime, corruption and investigations in a first-hand way.

Enes Kanter’s journey from an ordinary athlete to a sports star with a conscience, an official criminal record and the avowed professional goal of “its all about how many lives you changed and how many hearts you touched…” is a journey of both external and internal investigation.

        The Most Interesting and Disgusting Lunch 

The podcast was inspired by one of the most fascinating, interesting, and disgusting lunches I ever consumed. I was in the faculty canteen eating with my forensic colleagues when they began discussing a body farm. Yes, its what you think it is. I stared at my cold, soggy macaroni and listened with real intent. It was an extraordinary discussion to hear three professionals analyzing the decomposition rates of corpses and its impact on murder investigations.

I got back to the subterranean, basement lair where presumably most of the staff will shelter from any potential nuclear attack, but for now everyone calls my office. I was rushing back to the dank, underground grotto to speak to a contact about organized crime in international sport. He was fascinating, modest and deeply insightful.

I finished the conversation and thought, “I have the good fortune to have many really interesting people around me.”

Thus Crime Waves began – www.crimewavespodcast.com

            Mob, Money, Murder, 

The guiding principle of the podcast is to bring you — the listener — direct conversations with real experts: people who understand crime, corruption and investigations in a first-hand way.

Crime Waves brings you interviews with people at the center of the biggest investigations in the world: prosecutors, criminals, professors, corruptors, journalists, undercover investigators, police detectives, Olympic Gold Medalists and mobsters — all primary sources, all experts and all people with first-hand knowledge of the criminal world.

We cover all kinds of investigations from match-fixing to murders to the mafia. We show you real undercover investigators and intelligence operatives, their trade-craft and techniques. We examine all kinds of detective techniques from the traditional — blood spatters, finger prints and crime scene analysis — to the cutting-edge — separation of DNA, forensic archaeology and genealogy. Our specialty is corruption, organized crime in sports, and forensic science. Join us as we bring you true stories from some of the world’s top investigators.

                Format

There will be mini-seasons — five or six episodes each — on a particular theme.

Season 1: “Blood Sports.”You will hear about the links between the mob and the highest levels of international boxing: the couple who live in hiding after revealing to the world the extent of state-sponsored doping in the Russian Olympic teams: the story of gambling addiction that led an NBA-referee to link up with Gambino family connected associates to bet on his games; and many other exclusive episodes featuring investigators and fighters for sports integrity.

Season 2: “The Killers: How to Solve a Murder.” An array of interviews with some of the top forensic investigators in the world. All with a combination of both the practical police background – one of them was the detective that the movies and TV series Fargo was based on – and rare academic expertise. There are episodes on a successful murder investigation just before the advent of DNA and detective work: another former high-ranking investigator will speak about crime scene analysis and why he hates watching CSI; another colleague will speak about the new forensic technology that helped crack the Golden State Killer case.

There are more mini-seasons featuring a range of topics like the links between animal cruelty and serial killers; and how one of the women in the university canteen, that catalyzed this podcast, sparked an investigation that freed an innocent man from prison.

Listen to it on SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts. Crime Waves Podcast. It should intrigue, inspire and move you.