Tell Me What You Did

Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of violence, death, emotional abuse, substance abuse, and animal cruelty.

This chapter consists of a transcript of a live-streamed conversation, dated October 31st, between a man named Ian Hindley and a woman named Poe Webb. The chapter title notes that this is the second live stream they have done together. Hindley prompts Poe to identify herself. He says that this is “a very special episode” (1) of a podcast that Poe usually hosts. This time, the dynamic is reversed, with Hindley interviewing Poe. Their conversation is tense, and Hindley threatens several times to harm an off-camera hostage if Poe does not comply with his demands. Hindley reminds Poe to be honest, then prompts: “tell me what you did” (1).

The narrative shifts to two weeks prior to the events of Chapter 1. Poe is thirty and lives alone in Burlington, Vermont. She shares her isolated farmhouse with her black Labrador, Bailey. Poe is the host of Tell Me What You Did, the top-ranked true-crime podcast in America. Tell Me What You Did provides a space for people to anonymously confess to crimes they have committed. Poe conducts interviews via video call for her own safety, but only the audio of the confessions is published.