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The In Between Podcast with Mel Barrett

The In Between Podcast with Mel Barrett

Written by: The In Between Podcast with Mel Barrett
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About this listen

There’s the official story. And then there’s the truth.

The In Between is an investigative narrative podcast that digs into cases where the facts got buried, distorted, or deliberately ignored. Hosted by journalist and screenwriter Mel Barrett, each season unpacks one story that was never fully told, blending deep reporting, legal analysis, and raw personal narrative.

Mel doesn’t just rehash headlines—she goes digging. She’s spent over a decade uncovering new evidence in the Pamela Smart case, work that helped form the basis of a new habeas petition. In Season One, she revisits the trial that made Smart a national villain—and questions everything we thought we knew.

Season Two, From Victim to Accused: The Veronika Rodriguez Story, pulls back the curtain on a case where a 26-year-old Air National Guard member reported a sexual assault—and ended up the one in handcuffs. What happened next is more than a miscarriage of justice. It’s a warning.

This is the space between the crime and the courtroom, the headlines and the hidden truth. This is The In Between.

Join the Investigator Club for AD FREE, exclusive behind-the-scenes, and bonus content of The In Between Podcast: https://patreon.com/TheInBetweenPodcastwithMelBarrett?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

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Web: inbetweenpod.com


Mel Barrett
Social Sciences True Crime
Episodes
  • 86: Something's Off with Maggie Freleng
    Jan 15 2026

    While Rebecca's on vacation, Mel sits down with fellow podcaster, rockstar journalist, all around badass, and friend, Maggie Freleng. If you want to watch Mel fangirl all over Maggie, join us! We'll be talking about Maggie's groundbreaking work on wrongful convictions, her newest and amazing podcast, Bone Valley: Graves County Season 3, and the ethics of reporting in the true crime sphere.

    If you like us, please tip us:
    venmo: @melbarrettwrites
    cashapp: cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips

    You can now join the YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level.

    Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

    Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts

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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • 85: Something's Off with Ellyn Marsh
    Jan 15 2026

    We knew that already though.

    Join Mel and cohost, Ellyn Marsh, who is in for Rebecca who is on vacation as they talk Alan Jackson on Billy Bush, Rotten Mango interview w/Karen Read, and Microdots 24 mph in reverse?

    If you like us, please tip us:
    venmo: @melbarrettwrites
    cashapp: cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips

    You can now join the YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level.

    Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

    Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts

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    1 hr and 46 mins
  • 84: EXCLUSIVE Mel interviews Pamela Smart's attorney about her new Habeus Petition for a new trial
    Jan 13 2026

    In this episode of The In Between, Mel sits down with Pamela Smart’s attorney and her good friend— Matthew Zernhelt, on what feels like a turning point day in Pam’s case.

    Matt has spent years doing the kind of work that doesn’t fit neatly into soundbites: complex post-conviction litigation, constitutional violations, and the long, grinding fight to get a court to actually look at what went wrong. And this week, he and his team filed a new habeas petition — a last-resort legal mechanism that lets you challenge a conviction after the appeals are over, but only on specific, fundamental constitutional grounds.

    We break down what a habeas petition is (in plain English), why Pam’s case is so unusual, and why this filing is happening in two places at once: New Hampshire, where she was convicted, and New York, where she’s been incarcerated for decades under an interstate compact that creates a jurisdictional mess no one seems to have a clear playbook for.

    Then we walk through the five core arguments in the petition — including:

    • A groundbreaking scientific study on confirmation bias and “expectation-induced” hearing, showing how state-created transcripts shaped what jurors believed they heard on barely-audible wiretaps.

    • A media-tainted verdict, including evidence that a juror relied on a newspaper story during trial — information that was never presented in court.

    • An unauthorized concession of guilt by trial counsel in closing argument, and why that matters legally (not just emotionally).

    • Faulty jury instructions, including what the jury was not properly told about accomplice liability, premeditation, and what evidence they were allowed to consider.

    • A sentencing problem that still stops me cold: the claim that Pam was given life without parole as if it were mandatory — when the law didn’t actually mandate it for the charge she was convicted of.

    This is a conversation about law, yes — but it’s also about how a person gets “convicted by headline,” how institutions double down, and what it takes to reopen a case the public thinks it already knows.

    You’ll hear what happens next, what an evidentiary hearing would look like, and what a “win” actually means here — a new trial, a new sentencing hearing, or the first real shot in decades at getting Pamela Smart back to New Hampshire… and back to her life.

    (The petition is public and will be made available to listeners. The underlying study has not yet been formally published, but it’s coming.)

    If you're a fan of Mel's work, please tip her. She's a one-woman-show and is appreciative of your support. ❤️
    venmo: @melbarrettwrites
    cashapp:
    cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips

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    Watch Something's Off on YouTube

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    1 hr and 13 mins
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