Shane WatersI find the story
I find the story
you can't see yet.
I made the first true-crime podcast in 2008, then taught myself to build the software the work needed. Today I design AI products people trust and ship them myself, run a six-show true-crime network, and help businesses run lighter.
Tell the truth. Build the thing. Show up for the person.
A journalist finds the question nobody is asking. A builder ships the answer nobody has built. One person, doing both for eighteen years.
Read the full story →The Shows · since 2008
I made the first true-crime podcast. Now it's a network of six.
It started in a dorm room with a microphone and the crimes nobody on campus was talking about. Eighteen years later, Myths & Malice spans true crime, history, and the unexplained, with a team that holds one standard: tell it right, or do not tell it.
Start hereNew to the network? Foul Play is the front door: historical true crime, told with atmosphere and respect for the victims.
Foul Play
Historical true crime, victims first
Obscura
The darkest cases you've never heard of
Hometown History
The stories your hometown never told you
The Haunted Bunker
Where mysteries hide
Asian Madness
True crime from across Asia
Rotten to the Core
The darkest stories hiding in plain sight
Listen on Apple →Browse all six showsand Sophia, the AI concierge I built for a national crime event owned by a major media company
The Work · product design
I design AI that people trust, and I ship it myself.
I make AI products for people who run real businesses and never wanted to run software, then I build them to production in React. No handoff. A sample of the work.
Real-time
A live land auction, resolved on screen
Bidders take a tract, a combination, or the whole farm. A new combination used to take minutes on a spreadsheet; the board now shows the room the new standings in seconds.
The hard part: zero hesitation for operators who had never used software, with real money moving.
Conversational AI
An AI that refuses to guess
Sophia answers thousands of event-goers, grounded so a brand can stand behind every word.
The hard part: making refusal feel trustworthy, not evasive, in front of a live audience.
Who is speaking Sunday?
Not announced yet, so I would not want to guess.
AI trust
AI you can stand behind
A citation-trust layer: every claim traced to a real source, with a human approving inside the flow.
The hard part: making AI output a professional will put their name on.
Margin · AI consulting
AI and automation that give a business room to breathe.
You started your business to do the work you are great at, not to drown in busywork. Margin gives that time back, with AI and automation built around how you actually work, with you the whole way.
The more soul a task needs, the less AI we put in it. Math and compilation, automate. Judgment and relationships, those stay human.
Method
We diagnose before we prescribe
We start by understanding your business, then build what fits. A method, not a magic box.
Operators
Built for people, not software teams
Tools a non-technical owner can run without thinking about them, in plain language.
Trust
AI you can stand behind
Checkable, controllable, and on-brand. The work a client or funder will actually rely on.
Recent build: a live auction board for a farm-management team, hours of bid math turned into one screen anyone in the room can read.
Built by Shane Waters and Sara Byers.
I also speak and coach. Keynotes on podcasting, AI, and storytelling, and executive coaching for founders.Speaking & press →
One throughline
Tell the truth. Build the thing. Show up for the person.
Eighteen years of finding what people miss, in stories, in systems, and in each other.