M. Gessen

I came to know, or at least think I know, what was going through Alan's head.

I even came to feel a kind of affinity for him.

I mean, it got to the point where on the morning after my own wedding, I picked out some photos of O and L to send to Alan in prison so he would see how beautiful they looked.

All it took to get there was 35 hours of phone conversations with Alan.

Some of the strangest interviews I've ever conducted.

That's next time on The Idiot.

The Idiot was reported and written by me, M. Gessen, and produced by Daniel Guillemette with Andrei Barzemka and Lika Kramer of LibroLibro Studios.

Our editor is Julie Snyder.

Additional editing by Ira Glass and Sarah Koenig.

Research and fact-checking by Ben Phelan and Marisa Robertson-Texter.

Original score by Alison Leighton-Brown.

Additional music from Dan Powell and Marion Lozano.

The show was mixed by Phoebe Wang, with additional mixing by Katherine Anderson.

Additional production by Fia Bennett.

At Serial Productions, Ndeye Chubu is our supervising producer.

Mac Miller is our associate producer.

Video production by Sean Devaney.

Art direction from Kelly Doe.

Art by John Curran.

Credits music by Bob Dylan.