{"podcast":{"title":"MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories","slug":"mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842","podcast_index_feed_id":4894842,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/dloY8UYJ","website_url":"https://ballenstudios.com/","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/3c9c3c2a-a53f-40bd-9d24-bdb387b03fb1/eae76d2b-6d10-4d80-b309-a724ac0340f0/3000x3000/large-sxm-cover-mr-ballen-3000x3000-final.jpg?aid=rss_feed","author":"MrBallen","episode_count":515,"summary":"MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories is a true crime and mystery podcast that presents strange, dark and mysterious content delivered in story format. The program is hosted by John Allen a.k.a. MrBallen. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes 7-days early and ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T16:17:17.056076+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842"},"episode":{"title":"Fan Favorite - \"Murder and Meditation\"","slug":"fan-favorite-murder-and-meditation","published_at":"2026-03-27T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842/fan-favorite-murder-and-meditation","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842","url":"https://ballenstudios.com/","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/814143cd-09c6-426f-920a-7be9b3dc1506/episodes/bb812a12-94ce-41b4-b435-6893c0c404ee/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=814143cd-09c6-426f-920a-7be9b3dc1506&awEpisodeId=bb812a12-94ce-41b4-b435-6893c0c404ee&feed=dloY8UYJ","summary":"Today's story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 359. One September afternoon in 2003, a woman in Tucson, Arizona, heard a knock on her front door and answered it. She was surprised to see a Tucson police detective standing on her front steps, and even more surprised when the detective started asking a bunch of questions about her next door neighbor. The woman was a law-abiding citizen, and she didn’t know anything. The detective gave her his business card and asked her to call him if that changed, but as she closed the door, she was pretty sure she would never have any reason to talk to him again. That was until a few days later, when she looked out her front window and saw two sweaty men jump out of a van and walk up the steps into her neighbor’s house. She watched for a few minutes, with her heart racing, realizing that what she was watching might very well be the coverup of a murder. She let the curtain fall and ran to her purse, to dig out the detective’s business card.","meta_description":"Today's story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 359. One September afternoon in 2003, a woman in Tucson, Arizona, heard a knock o…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2459,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842/episodes/fan-favorite-murder-and-meditation/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mrballen-podcast-strange-dark-mysterious-stories-4894842/fan-favorite-murder-and-meditation.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}