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Feb 2022
12m 29s

The Good and the Bad of TV Forensics

NPR
About this episode
Raychelle Burks is a forensic chemist and an associate professor at American University. She's also a big fan of murder mysteries. Today, we talk pop culture forensics with Raychelle and what signs to look for to know whether or not a tv crime show is getting the science right. (ENCORE)

What else bothers you about TV accuracy? E-mail the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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