Koenig's 'Serial' Wins Peabody

"Serial," a podcast that has now been downloaded almost 60 million times, won a Peabody award this week from the University of Georgia. The award, considered the "Pulitzer Prize for broadcasting," was announced on Monday.  It is the first time since the awards started in 1941 that the board of jurors has chosen to give a Peabody to a podcast.

The jurors called "Serial" an "audio game-changer" and "the first unquestionably mainstream podcast."

Sarah Koenig, a summer Sag Harbor resident who spent much of her childhood in Sagaponack, developed and hosts the podcast, which was launched as a spinoff from "This American Life," where Ms. Koenig is a producer.

The first season was devoted to the story of a teenager who was sentenced to life for murder and a close examination of Maryland's case against him more than a decade later. The weaknesses in the case, uncovered by their investigation and shared in the podcast, helped lead his attorney to seek an appeal, which the state's Court of Special Appeals has agreed to hear in a decision issued in February.

The 12-episode first season of "Serial" premiered last fall and the series will return later this year with a new story.