Talking Dateline: Conversations at CrimeCon

Dateline NBC - NBC News

In this special edition of Talking Dateline, host Josh Mankiewicz shares a live conversation from CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas, where he discusses his

Key takeaways

• Dateline's shift to in-depth murder cases was not initially planned but became a powerful connection with audiences seeking emotional and factual depth.
• Covering crime offers profound insight into human emotions like love, hate, greed, and lust—making it a uniquely revealing form of journalism.

Main topics

• The evolution of Dateline's crime coverage
• Journalistic storytelling and emotional depth in true crime

Notable quotes

"Without good mental and physical health, you have nothing."

"I wish I had started this sooner. There's a lot of untold stories out there."

Conclusion

Josh Mankiewicz reflects on how Dateline's focus on crime has evolved into

Transcript preview

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It is a funny, candid conversation. I hope you'll give it a listen. Join us for the drink, listen, and follow now wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:11) Hey everybody, it's Josh Mankiewicz, and today we have a special edition of Talking Dateline. This week, instead of going behind the scenes of a particular episode, we want to take you back to a live conversation from CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, I'm known at CrimeCon as the mayor of CrimeCon. I did not give myself that title. I actually would be thrilled if I could get rid of that title and somebody else could take it, but at the moment, I haven't, so I'm not the self-appointed mayor. I'm appointed by others. So at this session of CrimeCon, I sat down with Ellison Barber, who was an NBC News correspondent, but also the host of the Netflix original podcast called Allegedly. That's produced by our colleagues at NBC News Studios. Now, Ellison and I sat down and discussed all things Dateline. Everything from how Dateline began covering murder cases, to how I got my own start, to my colleague and my frenemy. Keith Morrison. I don't even like to say his name out loud. We talked about all of that. So here we go. Hi, everybody. I cannot see you because of these lights, but I hear you out there. So one of you. Speaker 1 (2:33) made me the key to CrimeCon City key. It says mayor on it here. I just want you to know I have it and it's a cherished possession. Although I do believe that the mayor of CrimeCon, like other offices that we all hold dear, should probably have term limits. Anyway, but thank you and wonderful to see everybody. Speaker 3 (2:59) Let's talk Dateline. Yes. When you think about your career, why did you want to start covering these cases and focus on crime in the first place? Speaker 1 (3:08) I did not want to start covering these cases. Really? Who made you? Our now retired executive producer, a guy named David Corvo. Speaker 1 (3:20) Said to me one day like we're gonna you know I've been at Dateline ten years and we'd done as many of you probably remember we were doing all kinds of stories within an hour and we were doing like five or six stories within those 60 minutes and they were all unrelated and he said to me we're gonna start trying to do these these sort of Murder cases over over an hour. I don't think you are what we're doing that everything like he's gonna want to watch that So clearly, yeah, you want to come to me for ideas about where America is going. And now, like, look where we are, right? So I certainly did not see this coming. But then I went to Reno, Nevada, and I did the story of Brianna Dennison, Speaker 2 (4:08) who Speaker 1 (4:09) had vanished and then subsequently was found, murdered, and then we did the story again. there had been that sort of giant change to it. And that was sort of the first, I think that was the first hour on a murder case that I did. And the reaction from the audience, there was not any mistaking that. And that was when I, and also I got some satisfaction out of covering that story in a way that I had not anticipated. And then we were kind of off and running because all the other stories were getting a sort of, you know, similar response. And it was a... I suddenly realized we had sort of tapped into something that I had not seen out there. So I can't really take any credit for this because this was not only was not my idea, I thought they were nuts. Why Speaker 3 (4:54) have you stayed with it? How has that changed for you? Speaker 1 (4:56) You Speaker 3 (4:57) know... Speaker 1 (4:58) When I started in journalism, which was 50 years ago, I was first I was working on the assignment desk in the middle of Speaker 3 (5:06) the Speaker 1 (5:06) night and weekends and that kind of thing. And the first job that I was promoted to, I was at ABC News. And I was the off-air reporter covering the U.S. House, which I did for three years back in the late 70s. And I really thought at the time that sort of covering Washington was the be-all and end-all of journalism, and that if I was lucky, you know, I'd be the White House correspondent someday, something like that. But I was a political reporter for a long time. And then I came to Dateline and did these other kinds of stories for a couple of years, and then we started on crime and the criminal justice system. And I saw how that connected with people in a way that Washington coverage didn't. Speaker 1 (5:46) But that was a way of sort of like recognizing, I sort of came to recognize how, you know, if you want to understand human emotion, if you want to understand, you know, love and hate and greed and lust and the things that drive people, then you need to be covering crime, which I didn't realize, but it's unquestionably true. And it's been, it's been. Very, very, very satisfying. It has been. Speaker 3 (6:16) You had the first live event in Nashville. Tell us about that. I mean, I imagine some of the people here have been there as well. What was that like for you? Are there going to be more? Speaker 1 (6:27) Yes, there are going to be more. There's going to be another one. I don't know exactly when it's going to be. I don't think it's going to be in Nashville again. I think it's going to be somewhere else, but I'm not sure where that is. But look, it's, I mean. It was like sort of concentrated crime con because a lot of people are here