Valentine's Day is the perfect time to dive into the surprising, and at times horrifying, history of contraception through the ages; from crocodile-dung pessaries and mercury-tadpole concoctions to penis sheaths made of turtle shells, humanity has come a long way in its efforts to outsmart the stork. This is the ShortHand.
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When Brendan Banfield frantically called 911 in February 2023 to report a double murder at his million-dollar suburban home in Virginia, it seemed like an extramarital sex game gone wrong.

But as police dug deeper, the deaths of Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan – the stranger found beside her – proved even weirder than they once appeared. And all the evidence pointed to a dastardly plot between Brendan and the family’s Brazilian nanny, Juliana Peres Magalhães, in a twisted web of infidelity, catfishing, and betrayal…

So did this bloodthirsty Bonnie and Clyde duo conspire to commit the grisly killings? With everyone talking about the sensational trial that wrapped up in February 2026, we’re diving into one of the most shocking cases we’ve ever covered. 

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/s4yaGloq8zk

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For all the centuries of slavery throughout human history, you might think one group came through mostly unscathed: white Europeans. But for more than a thousand years, Barbary pirates from North Africa (funded by the Ottoman Empire) prowled European coastlines, snatching unsuspecting Christian folk and taking them to be slaves in the Islamic world.

At their height, huge fleets of privateers were raiding coastal towns, sliding their ships silently up onto English beaches in the dead of night, and snatching people in their beds. Here’s the ShortHand, on the forgotten history of the Barbary corsairs.

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The ever-changing story of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, and the Countess of Chester baby deaths, has been given the Netflix treatment – and We. Have. Thoughts.

For our coverage of the full story, check out our previous deep-dive just before this one in the feed. But in this week’s second-ShortHand, we talk about missed evidence, digital anonymisation, and decide whether or not it changed our minds.

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In light of the new Netflix documentary about Lucy Letby, we're dipping into the RedHanded archives to revisit our own coverage of this controversial case – following an expert panel's findings in February 2025...

Want even more up-to-date analysis? Listen to our new ShortHand episode now: 'ShortHand: Lucy Letby – What Netflix Left Out'.

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An independent panel of experts has concluded that NO murders took place at the Countess of Chester hospital. If true, it would mean that Lucy Letby, currently serving 15 life sentences and branded the UK’s most prolific child serial killer, is innocent – and the subject of the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British memory. We go over what was covered at last week’s press conference – and whether it changed our minds on this complex case.
Watch the press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT8CO15IHMsStatistical
Smoke and Mirrors with Prof John O’Quigley: https://youtu.be/k8jkl255PWI?si=DlYAFeNgU8NFlZ-Y

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In January 2016, a coffee date between three glamorous Indonesian gal pals turned deadly – when Mirna Salihin, a wealthy and beautiful newlywed, took a sip of a Vietnamese iced coffee that had been laced with a lethal dose of cyanide. The culprit? Her ex-bestie Jessica Wongso. The motive? A toxic case of the green eyed monster: with revenge served ice cold.

At least, that’s how the Indonesian courts said it went down. But was it really that simple? 

A bungled trial, dodgy test results and a crooked legal system meant that many now believe Jessica Wongso could be innocent – no matter how guilty her smile. But what do we think? Join us as we explore the case that divided Indonesia... and left a pretty bitter taste in our mouths.

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/yc7jH8nWB4k

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From faking insanity to go undercover in an asylum, racing around the world in 72 days, and reporting from the front lines of deadly war zones, this fearless investigative reporter risked everything to expose the truth… and she did it all in a corset.

The unstoppable Nellie Bly rewrote all the rules to smash her way into the boys’ club of Victorian journalism, and blazed a trail for all the ladies who followed in her footsteps – including us.

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Behind the façade of the white-picket-fence dream and adventurous childhoods of suburban, late-70s Michigan, lay a web of depravity that law enforcement was not remotely prepared for. Over the course of just one tragic year, the town of Oakland was terrorised: four children vanished, only to turn up dead. Chillingly, one had even been fed his favourite food, just before his murder.

Was this the work of a lone killer? Or an organised, murderous child abuse operation involving a network of predators, stretching all the way to the top? After thousands of leads and countless hours of investigation, not one single arrest has ever been made. So what’s the truth? We open up the coldest case in Michigan: the Oakland County Child Killer.

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/-y8qK_BkeAw

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Not many of us need convincing that Sesame Street is good; the Muppets have been chaotic TV icons for more than 50 years. But what not many people know is just how much good it did.

Not just unmissable TV, but a revolutionary, massive-scale outreach program. One that used ad-land tactics and groundbreaking psychological research, to reset the balance of educational privilege – and teach disadvantaged, inner-city kids how to read. It’s a sunny day. We’re sweeping the clouds away. This is the ShortHand, sponsored by the letter ‘S’.

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With 2026 bringing widespread anti-government protests to Iran, and the government’s brutal crackdowns leading to thousands of people killed and arrested, we’re rereleasing our coverage on the current regime – and how we got here – through the lens of Mahsa Amini’s murder.

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On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi – “The Butcher of Tehran” and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran – died in a helicopter crash. Immediately, theories of who had killed him and why, swept the worlds’ media.

But while his passing inspired this episode, we’re also going to look at his many thousands of victims – and in particular how his actions led to the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022. It was a single death which sparked protests that challenged the mullahs of Iran like never before.

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In 2000, Christine Lundy and her seven-year-old daughter Amber were brutally hacked to death in their New Zealand home. Their husband and father, Mark Lundy, had a seemingly watertight alibi: he was over 90 miles away.

But that didn’t stop the New Zealand courts from convicting him. Twice.

With a controversial case built on junk science, shifting timelines, and a microscopic speck of what prosecutors called ‘brain tissue’ (but might have just been lunch), the Lundy saga was New Zealand’s answer to Making a Murderer.

Was an innocent man wrongfully convicted? Or did the police catch a killer who thought he’d pulled off the perfect crime?

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/kO84-yv9GCA

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