What’s the real story?

During the closing stages of apartheid in South Africa, one individual was obsessively pursuing a lethal “anti-crime” campaign. Known as Louis van Schoor, he held a security guard position, yet his approach to work involved patrolling barefoot to surprise and fatally shoot small-time thieves – an embodiment of the ‘silent but deadly’ phrase, with at least 39 confirmed fatalities attributed to this prolific killer. Van Schoor, who showed no remorse, succumbed to sepsis shortly after the BBC series was aired – though not before the reporting team managed to capture a chilling conversation with him. ANNA JONES

From the online sphere of American political satire (Gawker), Ken Layne came back to earth in 2015 to launch Desert Oracle, a now cult print magazine for strange tales of the natural desert world (raging sun, howling coyotes), the mythical and sometimes conspiratorial (military UFOs) from his home in Joshua Tree, California. In the character of a grizzly sage, he also presents some of the material in rambling weekly broadcasts. A Tom Waits voice in the tone of Mark Twain with the imagery of Nick Cave. FIONA HUGHES

The duo known as The Bowery Boys – Tom Meyers and Greg Young – are an exceptional case of early podcast creators who have managed to stay relevant. As untrained historians, they started delving into the folks and locales of New York City back in 2007, resulting in over 430 episodes if you enjoy their work. This latest mini-series finds them applying their passionate yet thorough style to the exploration of Holland, which boasts a rich history linked to the 400-year-old founding of New York. ANNA JONES

The World Service series crunches the numbers that help us get our heads around the almost unfathomable enormity of a billion. Simon Jack puts it into perspective: one million seconds equals 11 days, one billion seconds is 32 years! In each episode he and co-host Zing Tsjeng examine how an individual — newspaper proprietor to basketball player, philanthropist to drug baron — came to amass such incredible wealth. How does it relate to power? No wonder the second season has just begun. DAVID McGILLIVRAY