UTR: Your Own Backyard

This Fathers’ Day, daughters and sons young and old will celebrate with their dads. 

Unfortunately, Stan Smart won’t be one of them. He won’t be able to visit with or receive any calls or cards from his daughter, Kristin. 

Because she has been missing for over two decades.

Host of Your Own Backyard, a documentary podcast series investigating the 1996 disappearance, Chris Lambert superbly digs into the details of Kristin Smart’s case. 

From an entertainment perspective, Lambert does a terrific job drawing the listener in right from the very beginning. You can feel his empathy for the family, and everything (even the music) in the show makes you eager to tune in to the next episode. 

Living in Central California near the area Kristin was last seen nearly a quarter of a century ago, Lambert’s genuine interest in the case is apparent. 

More importantly, podcasts such as Your Own Backyard play an important role in keeping cold cases in the public eye. In fact, on April 22, 2020, CNN reported that, “Investigators in the case of Kristin Smart found ‘items of interest’ in a search carried out [that day]” after suggesting that Lambert’s 2019 podcast “attracted public interest” in the case.

And perhaps most importantly, podcasts like Lambert’s give parents like Stan and Denise Smart another avenue to hopefully find some closure.