The Unabomber: The Man, the Myth, and the Manifesto
From The Harvard Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes Magazine, writers Jem K. Williams '25 and Maya M. F. Wilson '24 take a closer look at the public image of the Unabomber. The serial bomber, caught in the 1990s, continues to remain a fixture in the imaginations of countless podcast hosts, documentary makers, and journalists — why? As they break down the common stories used to explain his path to violence and examine the aftershocks of the publication of his manifesto, they’ll explore the dark spaces of the internet, the true crime industry, and the responsibility of the media as a whole.
|| Winner, 2023 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards for Narrative Podcast ||
Producer - Frank S. Zhou '26
Editors - Amber H. Levis '25, Io Y. Gilman '25, and Frank S. Zhou '26
Fact-Checker - Sammy Duggasani '25
Original score by - Benjy Wall-Feng '25
Cover Design by - Sami E. Turner '25
Other editors include -
Managing Editor Brandon L. Kingdollar '24 and Associate Managing Editor Meimei Xu '24
With help from -
Joey Huang '24, Jina H. Choe '26, Sedina A. Ackuayi '25, and Charles Fishman '83, with special thanks to Joey Huang.
Photos courtesy of “Every Last Tie.”
Audio recordings of New York Times headlines, Alston S. Chase ’57’s article in The Atlantic, and Ted Kaczynski’s writing are recreations, not original recordings.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 10 minutes
- Episodes
- 5
- Years Active
- 2023
The Stories We Tell
“What do you get when you mix Harvard, homemade bombs, and a deep-seated fear of technological advancement?” In this episode, JKW and MMFW introduce Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. They ask why, severa…
I: The ‘Unknowable’
In this episode, JKW and MMFW start from the beginning talking to Ted’s brother, David, and his neighbor, Jamie Gehring, to dive into the Unabomber’s many “origin stories.” Some point to his particip…
II: Catch and Release
In Sept. 1995, Ted Kaczynski published his manifesto in the Washington Post. JKW and MMFW talk to Donald Graham, the publisher of the Post at the time, to learn about how the Post came to its decisio…
III: One Person's Revolutionary
In this episode, JKW and MMFW interview extremist experts Graham Macklin and Joshua Farrell-Molloy to talk about how the Unabomber has captured the attention of eco-fascists. They speak with Mick Gro…
IV: Picking Up the Pieces
What is the role of the media in all of this? That is, what is our role? MMFW and JKW finish up the series by talking about the benefits and the harms of Ted’s media coverage, and they reflect on how…