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Erik Rivenes launched his true crime history podcast in 2015 and had five people listening. Today the 48-year the school teacher has 108 episodes and averages between 40,000 to 60,000 listeners to each show. His podcast is close to supporting his entire family.
In his podcast, Most Notorius, Rivenes study’s criminals of the past.
He tells The Twin Cities Pioneer Press that when he launched he had zero expectations. With no expectations, each success has been a gratifying surprise. The Minnesota native says his interest in the darker side of history started young. “I was obsessed with gunslingers of the West.”
Back in 2015 his first guest was Twin Cities author Paul Maccabee, who wrote “John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in Saint Paul.”
Each podcast runs about an hour and features a writer who has studied a notorious criminal. The Pioneer Press states that Rivenes reads the book ahead of time and interviews the author. And now that he’s established himself as an expert who regularly publishes a show on a consistent topic of interest to an international audience, the authors (and their publicists) are coming to him.