From mystery novels to crime documentaries taking over all streaming services, it is no surprise how fast true-crime podcasts have been gaining popularity. Crime-loving fanatics turning online sleuths have become the new trend as these in-real-life Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys combine their passion and internet skills to gain more knowledge about famous crimes.

Anna Dinino is no different. As someone who loves listening to podcasts during her long commute to and from school, she quickly was intrigued by making her own “passion project.”

Dinino, a sports management sophomore, began her very own true-crime podcast called “Crime Bistro Podcast” earlier this semester.

Dinino writes, records and produces her podcast by herself in her house from her personal laptop. She releases new episodes every Thursday to her website. You are also able to stream her podcasts from Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and YouTube.

She caught an “inspiration bug,” as she called it, after binge-watching videos of Kendall Rae on YouTube. She admires how well of a storyteller Rae is and often reflects on her work.

“This is something I really like to do,” said Dinino, “so I hope that the interests that I have in it and the amount of time spent preparing each episode does show through and people can at least appreciate that.”

With the help of Google, Dinino shares that there are a lot of resources available to those who are interested in learning how to pick up on this task for themselves. Beginning from scratch, she knew nothing about recording and producing. With research, she purchased the required equipment and editing software and is teaching herself as she goes.

“My first couple podcasts were pretty nerve-wracking to record and I definitely see a vast improvement, I think I learn with each episode and get a little better,” Dinino said.

She mentions in her third episode, “The Princess Diana Conspiracy” sharing it was a lot of fun during the research process, as she was able to read many theories, conspiracies and conflicting material. As time has passed, she said that she has had the opportunity to finetune her researching skills, organize timelines and collect data.

“A lot of the things I have come across is there is a lot of armature internet sleuths, I guess you could call them, that put out their own articles or stuff on their own websites and a lot of it tends to be different than what is in police reports and other stuff that I am currently looking into. So, you kind of have to [wean] your way through what is the correct information and what isn’t.”

Dinino is not shying away from stepping outside of the box. She said that she is trying to implement some material taught to her in her psychology course at the University of New Haven into her podcasts. By taking notes and researching more of the psychological aspect of serial killers, she hopes to be able to implement this into future podcasts. In addition, she hopes to one day release a podcast highlighting popular conspiracy theories.

Her podcasts have been gaining popularity as she was recently interviewed by The Glastonbury Citizen, which is a newspaper from her hometown. She mainly uses the podcasts on Instagram to promote upcoming podcasts and releases.

In regard to passing on advice to other aspiring podcasters, she said, “I would also say being really patient with yourself is important, it was really easy for me to get frustrated trying to figure out how to set up a website and edit properly since it was all completely new, but time and lots of [Googling] will definitely get you there”

For her upcoming weekly release, on Oct. 28, she will be covering the Yuba County Five disappearance from 1978. She is also releasing a bonus episode on Halloween discussing the Amityville House.