The most thrilling podcasts of the “true crime” genre are those that deal with a mystery still unsolved. When a case is closed, the listener is rewarded with a complete story arc, but they don’t quite participate in the investigation, or in the excitement that comes from immediate—and ongoing—drama. The Professor, a four-part series hosted by the journalist Simon Willis, takes place in the present. It follows the story of William Veres, a Hungarian art dealer who was arrested in 2018 for his alleged participation in a smuggling ring. Veres is said to have stolen artwork from Italy valued at $20 to $40 million. He disputes these charges. In The Professor, Willis tracks Veres’s ongoing attempt to clear his name, which Veres hopes to do by working with Italian officials to recover Caravaggio’s Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, a masterpiece that was looted from an oratory in Palermo in 1969. If Veres can successfully navigate the nebulous art-underworld and track down the painting, it might be enough to save him from prison. —Jack Sullivan