After a long hiatus, Hal Humphreys ("The Beard") and John Nardizzi ("The Dome") are back to catch up on PI work, wins, and losses, and to share what they love to read, watch, and listen to when they’re not uncovering malfeasance or defending clients. Most of these books, shows, movies, and podcasts are related to crime and investigations. Some only marginally so. Basically, it's stuff they enjoy — as investigators and writers who love a good yarn. We'll publish their full list and some bonus recommendations in Pursuit Magazine next week — keep an eye out for that. Most of all, happy holiday season to all!

Host: Hal Humphreys

Guest: John Nardizzi

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

Technical Surveillance Countermeasures. TSCM. It's the polished term for bug sweeps. It sounds glamorous, right? But in practice, it's a field littered with hucksters and halfwits wielding gadgets that flash and beep like slot machines. And the folks who hire them are often scared, stressed, and in some cases, mentally ill.

Real TSCM professionals don't play with toys or take advantage of vulnerable clients. They have high-tech gear that only works when paired with real training and actual experience. And they to the job with respect, empathy, and professionalism.

Our guest, John Frycek, comes recommended as one such skilled and ethical TSCM practitioner. In this episode, he talks about the gear, the clients, corporate espionage, and the mysterious Havana Effect.

See Frycek's website: https://www.specialsolutionsltd.com/

Host: Hal Humphreys

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

Have you ever handled a Title IX or sexual misconduct investigation? Our guest Dan Schorr specializes in them. He’s a Harvard-trained attorney and a former sex crimes prosecutor in New York. Now he’s a sexual misconduct investigator at his own firm and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where he teaches courses on sexual misconduct and domestic violence cases.

Schorr is also the author of two novels that draw from his experiences with these kinds of cases. In the episode, we'll get a primer on Title IX and learn how he tackles unwieldy and often emotionally fraught cases. And we'll hear a reading from his latest novel, OPEN BAR.

See Schorr's website & order his books: https://danschorrbooks.com/

See his company site: https://danschorrllc.com/

Subscribe to the Title IX and Civil Rights podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-title-ix-and-civil-rights-podcast/id1542038824

Host: Hal Humphreys

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

After her mother died, Johnisha Matthews Levi was sorting through boxes of ordinary family artifacts. There among the Polaroids, diplomas, and property deeds, she found a piece of paper that forever changed how she saw her family's story.

Levi is an author and a former litigation attorney. While she was in law school, she helped represent death row inmates pursuing appeals and indigent defendants accused of murder. After finding that life-changing document in her mother's things, Levi channeled her defense investigation and mitigation experience as she investigated her own family history.

Now she's written a beautiful memoir about that quest to understand her talented and troubled father and the societal forces that forged him. Number's Up: Cracking the Code of an American Family came out in June. Listen in to hear more about how Levi researched and wrote it, and what it was like to dig into deep family secrets.

See Levi's website & order the book: https://www.johnishamatthewslevi.com/

Host: Hal Humphreys

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

"Every business faces risks. Will we get paid...Do we hire that candidate. Accept their offer. Make a deal. And then there are the risks that are not anticipated. Trust abused...."

That's a snippet from our guest Robert Gardner's company website. He's a researcher who helps companies anticipate and mitigate risks, from bad hires to compromised competitive intel. He's also a great writer with a smart and funny investigative blog. Sometimes, he lets us republish his articles for Pursuit.

In this episode, Hal talks to him about how he roots out fraud, hidden relationships, previous litigation, tax liens, and other issues companies might want to know about before doing business with someone. And they talk about AI — and how Rob uses it in his research (or maybe why he doesn't).

Robert Gardner's recent Pursuit Magazine articles:

"All the New Tricks Aren't AI Generated"

"The State of OSINT in 2025 When Do I Lose My Job to AI?"

"What Big Data Misses"

Host: Hal Humphreys

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

Mike Spencer is a former journalist, a Bay-Area private investigator, and the author of Private Eye Confidential: Stories from a Real P.I. He's been a guest on our podcast several times and is a longtime contributor to Pursuit.

In this episode, Mike talks about an unsolved murder that's connected to a case he worked in 1998. It's the "pebble in your shoe," he says — a story of justice left undone, and he cannot let it go. Over the past several years, he's been telling the story of that killing and his investigation in a podcast, "The Gary Murphy Assassination: A San Francisco Cold Case." He adds new episodes as he gets closer to the real story of that murder.

Join Hal and Mike as they talk about chasing the truth, no matter how long it takes.

Host: Hal Humphreys

Music provided by Jason White, who composed our theme.

Special thanks to Kim Green, who produced this episode.

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Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

In this podcast, you'll find episodes that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. And at PI Education's YouTube channel, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with regular briefings and webinars. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Pursuit Magazine: https://pursuitmag.com/​
PI Education: https://pieducation.com/​
Our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PIEducation​

Money's a magician. It disappears, shape shifts, and hides in plain sight. If you don't know what to look for, it may as well not exist at all.

In this episode, Hal Humphreys talks asset searches with longtime colleague and friend Marcy Phelps, a professional researcher, licensed private investigator, and Certified Fraud Examiner. She's the author of Research on Main Street, owner of Marcy Phelps & Associates, and an instructor at PI Education.

How do asset searches work? What laws govern what you can and can't do in researching assets? How do you find hidden assets without getting into legal quicksand? Join Hal and Marcy as they dive into the what, why, and how of finding the money.

See Marcy's new course on asset searches:

Check out Marcy's other fabulous courses at PI Ed:

Searching Online News for Due Diligence and Background Investigations
Research Secrets for Private Investigators
Searching Online Public Records Like a Pro
Mastering Online Public Records: Business Registrations
Mastering Online Public Records: Recorded Documents


🔔 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel to watch these episodes: /pieducation

✅ NEED INVESTIGATOR CE? We've got you covered: pieducation.com

🔥 STAY INFORMED with articles by and for investigators: pursuitmag.com


Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides high-quality online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.

At this channel, you'll find an archive of briefings and webinars that dive deep into the work and the business of private investigations. Every month, we make more free stuff for you at this channel and PursuitMag, thanks to our generous expert-colleagues who contribute their expertise. And at PI Education, you can dive even deeper into the knowledge pool of this fascinating profession, with quality multimedia courses on dozens of topics. Subscribe to stay up to date!

Jason Powell is a New York City firefighter and a debut author. His first novel, No Man’s Ghost, is an arson thriller about a firefighter’s first week on the job. It's a crime novel, and it’s kind of a mystery – a whydunit, let's say. In this episode, Jason explains why he wanted to bring to life the culture of an FDNY firehouse, how natural it felt for him to write the fire scenes, and why he decided to let the arsonist be one of his POV characters. And don't miss our lightning round, where we learn about Jason's favorite crime writers and novels.

Get No Man's Ghost anywhere you buy books. Even better, head to your favorite indie bookstore and ask for a copy there. Then keep an eye out for more of Jason's writing at authorjasonpowell.com.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel to watch these episodes: /pieducation

✅ NEED INVESTIGATOR CE? We've got you covered: pieducation.com

🔥 STAY INFORMED with articles by and for investigators: pursuitmag.com


Pursuit Magazine and PI Education are part of StoryboardEMP, a media and education company in Nashville, TN. Pursuit, a free online magazine for private investigators, explores all things investigative, from gumshoe techniques and surveillance tech to industry news and crime in media. PI Education, its sister brand, provides high-quality online continuing education for licensed PIs. Pursuit and PIed are owned and edited by husband-wife team Hal Humphreys, a PI, and Kim Green, a writer and radio producer.