Podcast charts the life and times of Greece’s most-wanted man
Within 48 hours of its premiere in July, true-crime podcast “Outlaws: The Good Thief” shot to number 10 in the US and number 1 in Greece. Produced by New York-based Kaleidoscope and podcast publisher iHeartPodcasts, with Athens-based The Greek Podcast Project, the eight-part investigative series charts the life and times of Greece’s most-wanted man. Over a 20-year span, Vassilis Palaiokostas orchestrated some of the country’s most inventive bank heists and escapes – and became something of a folk hero in the process.
‘Everything is rigorously researched and grounded in facts, but the story is so cinematic in itself that it really feels like watching a movie’
“The Good Thief” is one of the first podcasts of its kind to reach international listeners, and one of the show’s producers believes more will follow. “There are so many exciting stories from Greece that deserve to be explored and shared abroad,” says podcast producer and journalist Daphne Karnezis, who founded production company The Greek Podcast Project on this exact premise. Among Greek and English-language productions for a host of companies from This is Athens and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, to Skroutz and Toposophy, Karnezis’ Athens-based team was responsible for researching, reporting on the ground and lending production support for the series. For over a year, The Greek Podcast Project followed the fugitive’s trail from Athens to remote mountain hideouts. “One of the highlights was traveling to Trikala and meeting Palaiokostas’ former accomplice and mentor, Kostas Samaras,” says Karnezis, whose team also spoke with police chiefs, former classmates, journalists and politicians to understand the truth about Palaiokostas.
“Everything is rigorously researched and grounded in facts, but the story is so cinematic in itself that it really feels like watching a movie,” adds Karnezis, explaining the importance of immersive sound design and high-quality script-writing when it comes to making a podcast stand out. “This show took us 18 months to produce, the kind of production timelines I haven’t seen enough of when it comes to podcasts in Greece,” says Karnezis, who believes more ambitious projects need to come out of Greece, although the pace has been picking up. “It’s an exciting time, and things are changing. Another player, Melon Media, has been doing a great job in their productions, including true-crime podcast ‘Poios Skotose ton Costa Taktsi?’ (‘Who Killed Costas Taktsis?’). There are so many incredible stories in Greece to be told, so I not only hope our podcast and this story inspires, but also that more people decide to tell these stories of action, intrigue, mystery and humanity.”
Beyond the action that comes with covering the story of a man who escaped by helicopter from Korydallos – Attica’s maximum-security prison – not once but twice, the podcast, which released its fourth episode this week, asks deeper questions too: “Is Vassilis, a man who allegedly stole from the rich to give to the poor, a real-life Robin Hood? Where’s the fine line between myth and reality? And is there really such a thing as an ethical crime? Why does his legend still have such a hold on people? That’s what I love about the podcast, you discover a lot about Greek culture and society too, both then and now.”
New episodes are released every Wednesday on all podcast platforms.
Listen here.
