In 2019, Olympic dressage trainer Michael Barisone shot his student Lauren Kanarek at his Hawthorne Hill farm in Long Valley, New Jersey. In 2022, a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Inspired by Netflix's "Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill," Tara and Nicole explain what the insanity defense actually means medically and legally. They cover how states define legal insanity, why the defense succeeds far less often than people think, and why "not guilty" doesn't mean walking free. The hosts also revisit the cases that shaped public perception: Lorena Bobbitt, John Hinckley Jr. and Andrea Yates. They also touch on Lindsay Clancy, whose postpartum psychosis defense ended in a mistrial last month. Grab a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity cocktail and join us for this one.

Sources:

• Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill – Netflix
• Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity – US Law Explained
• Insanity Defense – Wikipedia
• Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity – Psychology Today
• Michael Barisone and Lauren Kanarek Tell Their Sides – People
• 5 Unsettling Details About the Attempted Murder of Lauren Kanarek – Primetimer
• Famous Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Cases – Legal Clarity
• Cases Where Insanity Defenses Have Been Successful in the US – New York Post
• Lindsay Clancy Trial: How the Insanity Defense Differs in Mass. – Northeastern Global News
• Judge Declares Mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's Murder Case – NPR

This week, Tara and Nicole dig into the psychology of stalking — starting with the Hulu docuseries Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, which follows a woman held captive in a soundproof box by the man who pursued her for more than a decadebefore she found a way to escape and had to decide whether to pursue lesser charges or fight for full justice against her captor. They trace the same fixation across pop culture — Netflix's Baby Reindeer, the 2007 documentary Crazy Love, Netflix's You, and the 2025 film Obsession — before pulling back to the clinical picture: what stalking actually looks like, how often it happens, and why it's so often minimized. On the medical side, they break down the CDC's data on stalking as a public health issue, including how common covert surveillance tactics like tracking and monitoring really are, and the mental health toll on survivors — PTSD, hopelessness, anxiety. They also revisit the 1989 murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, whose case helped create the first U.S. anti-stalking laws, and close with the real story behind Baby Reindeer as told by creator Richard Gadd. Cocktail this week: The Celery Stalker. hulu

Sources & further reading:

• Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror (Hulu)
• Stalking Samantha (Disney+)
• Baby Reindeer — Wikipedia
• Crazy Love (2007 film) — Wikipedia
• Obsession (2025 film) — Wikipedia
• The True Story Behind Baby Reindeer — People
• Stalking — Office for Victims of Crime
• Stalking — CDC Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
• Stalking — Psychology Today
• Eva LaRue on Surviving Stalking
• Rebecca Schaeffer — Wikipedia
• Rebecca Schaeffer's Murder — All That's Interesting
• Celery Stalker cocktail inspiration — Epicurious