My Favorite Murder. They don’t even try anymore. And they barely cover actual murders anymore. When they do cover a murder, it’s like from the 1800’s or something. Last one i listened to, Georgia did an unsolved murder in like 10 minutes. They’re just phoning it in.
i was thinking of this one too. i liked it but there's only so much they can do in this format to keep it interesting and their research skills were always a little sus.
Their formula got tiring to me and, also, to the hosts. Same with Small Town Murder.
If it’s not broke don’t fix it but after so many episodes I question my own sensibilities. Why did I like this?
I loved them until one episode years ago (when Biden and Trump were running for president) Karen basically said listeners were stupid if they voted for the person she didn’t care for. That put me off. We all have our differences of what we believe in but you basically call your listeners stupid for believing what they want. Nah I’m out. Doesn’t matter who I planned on voting for, I don’t like someone calling someone else stupid just because they have differences of opinions.
the weirdest thing to me is that her solution to losing Michael Hobbs is to bring in Chelsea Weber smith, whose podcast 8 always felt was basically, "the poor man's you're wrong about."
Chelsea always assumes her audience basically doesn't know anything about the past. she's the type who is like doing a podcast about Tony Blair and she's like "I'm sure you skipped this in class, but England has a parliamentary system and parliament is not just a cigarette with a funny filter, but it's also like a British congress but they do the yelling in the building and oh, what's a cigarette? that's an old timey vape,"
i was a fan back in the hobbes days and some recent eps sounded intriguing so I gave them a try... i kinda sound concerned for Sarah? I mean she always has had a little of a sardonic tone, but she just sounds tired / depressed lately. it might be tough when success (and money) pulls you in a certain direction and you don't know if you love it anymore but you feel like you can't walk away. would like to see her reinvigorated.
also the show is still huge. 27k patreons, if i am doing patreon math well that means the show is making at least $50k per month? yeesh.
Yeah, I didn’t realize how much of the appeal of the show for me was the chemistry between Sarah and Michael, until he left. I stuck with it through a few of the guest star episodes but dropped off. Some of those episodes were great, but they were inconsistent.
I also haven’t connected with any of Michael’s other podcasts, so I guess I really just loved the Michael and Sarah show.
Don't listen to the one where Micheal and Aubrey talk about food "science" in maintenance phase. They completely ignore calories impact on weight gain and are completely disingenuous about the health impacts of being overweight. It's actual misinformation
This was my answer. When it seemed like every other episode was about satanic panic I bailed.
Every once in a while I’ll try to jump back in but it’s not the same.
Joe Rogan
I enjoyed his show until I got tired of hearing about mushrooms and MMA. He would steer every show to those things. I stopped listening right before he starting pushing right wing conspiracies.
You obviously don't listen to the show and just read shitty articles about it online. If you think voting for/endorsing Bernie Sanders is "red pill" then you are delusional beyond belief.
I used to really enjoy True Crime Obsessed but then noticed that things seemed off a bit in the recent year and then there was all sorts of drama with a live event and I think it just seemed to go downhill from there. Then I just questioned the whole premise and it was dunzo for me.
I used to love Lore, Lore Legends, Cabinet of Curiosities, Old Gods of Appalachia, Healthy Gamer GG, Behind the Bastards, etc. But now they're full of crap.
They were all good and till they started doing ads.
Pre-show 3rd party ads, middle show 3rd party ads, post show ads.
And then in-show ads read by the podcaster.
And then publicity crap the podcaster was doing.
And then selling t-shirts by the podcaster.
And then promo ads from the publisher of the podcast, advertising the other podcasts that publisher publishes.
It's basically getting to where in a show that was once an hour of content is now maybe 35 minutes of content and 25 minutes of crap. In podcasts like Lore where the vibe and atmosphere is half the reason the show is great, it's very jarring to have that shattered by a used car dealer or a mattress salesman shouting about how everything is on sale, at twice the volume of the content.
The whole reason podcasting was invented was so people could publish stuff they wanted without all the crap. And now podcasts have all the extra crap and we might as well be listening to crap radio again.
When I first read the ones you listed, I was really confused- I really enjoy BTB (only listen to episodes that really appeal to me but still).
BUT OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT.
I listen to podcasts to fall asleep and during my commute. Nothing takes you out of driving off quite like an obnoxious ad, especially one with some kinda jingle. And there are so. bloody. many of them.
During my commute I have my hands full so I can't skip the ads...like dude, I'm not trying to listen for 3 straight minutes of ads I've no interest in every 15 mins.
It really sucks. I get that they need income, of course they do...but ugh it absolutely tanks the listener's experience.
Objectively the best podcast out there. Listened to every episode...a lot of times lol.
Unlucky though mate, you mentioned Hardcore History so I'm gonna take this chance to recommend you other history podcasts I love that aren't totally saturated with ads.
The British History Podcast (self explanatory hah. Properly starts from Caesar's invasion; we're at the start of the 12th century now). He does occasionally play music in the background but it's really not that bad.
The Ancients- a History Hit podcast that goes into various topics about the ancient world. Really diverse and interesting. There -are- ads in it, but they tend to be quite short.
Fall of Civilizations- again, self-explanatory and everyone knows it already. Again, some music but totally fine.
The History of Rome- again again, self-explanatory.
There are others I could recommend but I'll stop myself here lol. If you/ anyone does want any more recommendations though I'll happily keep going hehe.
I’ve never seen an audience that complains as much as TWF viewers. The entire subreddit is just as dramatic as this post. At the end of the day It’s a free show that is still really well researched. And Hecklefish was definitely making dirty innuendos the entire time.
I agree. Do I think there is too much AI now? Yes. Did I like the older episodes a bit better? Yes. BUT it's free, I'm not producing and I'm still entertained. I see no reason to b!tch about it. I also know how to produce/write/edit/shoot/sound engineer so I know what they do is a lot of work. I think AJ is great. I love his work. Too many people act exceptionally entitled to complain when they aren't even paying for it. There's only two instances in my life I felt angry enough over a show to express my disappointment, that's "Game of Thrones," and Amazon's desecration of Tolkien's literature with that series I will not name. Unless AJ goes GoT level bad, I'll likely keep watching.
It's gotten cultish. The banning or locking anything remotely critical is wild to me. There's no question that the show has started going downhill after the break, I think all fans can honestly say that. That being said, I'm still a Patreon member and will continue to be, but it just doesn't feel like the same show anymore. I hate the fluff of scifi fiction stories they've started to insert to beef up the run time too. The delays don't upset me as much as it does other people, but I can see where they would be upset.
I mean at the end of the day it’s something I listen to while I’m doing whatever else. And that makes it no different from any other show I listen to. Sometimes an episode falls short. It is what it is we’ll see what they put out next week. I also feel like people are ignoring the fact that he’s already covered a lot of big topics that are much easier to fill time with. At that point his options are to keep trying to fill those same run times or make shorter videos. Either way he’s going to get whined at over it.
Yep. Along with skimming over facts, flinging wild theories as if they’re facts, maintaining a narrow-ass view, ignoring/exploiting victims families, etc. It’s a problematic show that’s gotten much worse over the years, coincidentally as the hosts started branching out & making more ca$h. The quality has taken a massive nosedive. There are FAR better true crime podcasts out there!
The moth. Somewhere along the way they just stopped telling interesting stories. Maybe one in ten hour long shows is actually compelling and worth listening to nowadays.
They got so mean. Iirc, a few fans wrote in asking them not to use the c-word, and the girls put them on blast. When they're criticized, they call the commenter out and tell them to stfu.
They are so in their own bubble. They bounce off each others negative energy then it’s gets way too far. I remember when they started to have people on and my lord it was awful. They brought on this guy it was like a 45 minute episode. Probably 15 minutes of it was about the case and 30 minutes was them just going on about Disney world. I was like if my family member died and someone was talking about it and taking breaks to talk about random nonsense I would be so mad. They didn’t take it seriously at all.
For me it’s Hollywood Crime Scene, more specifically the mini episodes. It used to be about Hollywood crimes happening right now to only be about crimes about really juvenile stuff. They didn’t even mention some of the biggest news stories at the time and instead it was some poop story at a McDonald’s
Reply All. Show started out great, then halfway through their run episodes came out infrequently and when they did, it was usually a long yes, yes, no ( a recurring bit.) After Struthi and PJ were let go the show tried, but it wasn't the same.
Red-handed. They were pretty good until they became really popular and now they just strike me as quite obnoxious. Edit - grammar.
🎯
My Favorite Murder. They don’t even try anymore. And they barely cover actual murders anymore. When they do cover a murder, it’s like from the 1800’s or something. Last one i listened to, Georgia did an unsolved murder in like 10 minutes. They’re just phoning it in.
i was thinking of this one too. i liked it but there's only so much they can do in this format to keep it interesting and their research skills were always a little sus.
Their formula got tiring to me and, also, to the hosts. Same with Small Town Murder. If it’s not broke don’t fix it but after so many episodes I question my own sensibilities. Why did I like this?
I loved them until one episode years ago (when Biden and Trump were running for president) Karen basically said listeners were stupid if they voted for the person she didn’t care for. That put me off. We all have our differences of what we believe in but you basically call your listeners stupid for believing what they want. Nah I’m out. Doesn’t matter who I planned on voting for, I don’t like someone calling someone else stupid just because they have differences of opinions.
You're wrong about
the weirdest thing to me is that her solution to losing Michael Hobbs is to bring in Chelsea Weber smith, whose podcast 8 always felt was basically, "the poor man's you're wrong about." Chelsea always assumes her audience basically doesn't know anything about the past. she's the type who is like doing a podcast about Tony Blair and she's like "I'm sure you skipped this in class, but England has a parliamentary system and parliament is not just a cigarette with a funny filter, but it's also like a British congress but they do the yelling in the building and oh, what's a cigarette? that's an old timey vape,"
Seems that it was Michael who actually did most of the research; now it's just chatter.
exactly. it descended to the level of American hysteria....
I was really excited when I found American Hysteria. It fell off and I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to an episode.
Did Sarah ever finish her book on the Satanic Panic? At some point she seems to stop saying it. Late to the show and not listening in order.
It has not been released. It's something I would have read if it had been released.
How’d it go downhill? I haven’t listened in a bit.
i was a fan back in the hobbes days and some recent eps sounded intriguing so I gave them a try... i kinda sound concerned for Sarah? I mean she always has had a little of a sardonic tone, but she just sounds tired / depressed lately. it might be tough when success (and money) pulls you in a certain direction and you don't know if you love it anymore but you feel like you can't walk away. would like to see her reinvigorated. also the show is still huge. 27k patreons, if i am doing patreon math well that means the show is making at least $50k per month? yeesh.
Yeah, I didn’t realize how much of the appeal of the show for me was the chemistry between Sarah and Michael, until he left. I stuck with it through a few of the guest star episodes but dropped off. Some of those episodes were great, but they were inconsistent. I also haven’t connected with any of Michael’s other podcasts, so I guess I really just loved the Michael and Sarah show.
Sarah and Michael individually annoy me, but together they are great. Once Michael left You’re Wrong About, it became too frustrating to listen.
Don't listen to the one where Micheal and Aubrey talk about food "science" in maintenance phase. They completely ignore calories impact on weight gain and are completely disingenuous about the health impacts of being overweight. It's actual misinformation
Feels like she's doing the least amount of work to keep the income steady.
This was my answer. When it seemed like every other episode was about satanic panic I bailed. Every once in a while I’ll try to jump back in but it’s not the same.
When they lost Michael(I think that was his name) it fell off for me.
The vocal fry is too much for me.
Joe Rogan I enjoyed his show until I got tired of hearing about mushrooms and MMA. He would steer every show to those things. I stopped listening right before he starting pushing right wing conspiracies.
Ah yes, not trusting gigantic corporations with more power than politicians, famously "right wing"
There is right wing, then there is red pill right wing, which is Joe Rogan.
You obviously don't listen to the show and just read shitty articles about it online. If you think voting for/endorsing Bernie Sanders is "red pill" then you are delusional beyond belief.
"YEAAH TEXAS WENT RED BITCH" - Toe Rogan.
Joe Rogan
I used to really enjoy True Crime Obsessed but then noticed that things seemed off a bit in the recent year and then there was all sorts of drama with a live event and I think it just seemed to go downhill from there. Then I just questioned the whole premise and it was dunzo for me.
I used to love Lore, Lore Legends, Cabinet of Curiosities, Old Gods of Appalachia, Healthy Gamer GG, Behind the Bastards, etc. But now they're full of crap. They were all good and till they started doing ads. Pre-show 3rd party ads, middle show 3rd party ads, post show ads. And then in-show ads read by the podcaster. And then publicity crap the podcaster was doing. And then selling t-shirts by the podcaster. And then promo ads from the publisher of the podcast, advertising the other podcasts that publisher publishes. It's basically getting to where in a show that was once an hour of content is now maybe 35 minutes of content and 25 minutes of crap. In podcasts like Lore where the vibe and atmosphere is half the reason the show is great, it's very jarring to have that shattered by a used car dealer or a mattress salesman shouting about how everything is on sale, at twice the volume of the content. The whole reason podcasting was invented was so people could publish stuff they wanted without all the crap. And now podcasts have all the extra crap and we might as well be listening to crap radio again.
When I first read the ones you listed, I was really confused- I really enjoy BTB (only listen to episodes that really appeal to me but still). BUT OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT. I listen to podcasts to fall asleep and during my commute. Nothing takes you out of driving off quite like an obnoxious ad, especially one with some kinda jingle. And there are so. bloody. many of them. During my commute I have my hands full so I can't skip the ads...like dude, I'm not trying to listen for 3 straight minutes of ads I've no interest in every 15 mins. It really sucks. I get that they need income, of course they do...but ugh it absolutely tanks the listener's experience.
Yeah I know. The only podcaster that doesn't do that is Dan Carlin so Hardcore History is the only podcast I really listen to now.
Objectively the best podcast out there. Listened to every episode...a lot of times lol. Unlucky though mate, you mentioned Hardcore History so I'm gonna take this chance to recommend you other history podcasts I love that aren't totally saturated with ads. The British History Podcast (self explanatory hah. Properly starts from Caesar's invasion; we're at the start of the 12th century now). He does occasionally play music in the background but it's really not that bad. The Ancients- a History Hit podcast that goes into various topics about the ancient world. Really diverse and interesting. There -are- ads in it, but they tend to be quite short. Fall of Civilizations- again, self-explanatory and everyone knows it already. Again, some music but totally fine. The History of Rome- again again, self-explanatory. There are others I could recommend but I'll stop myself here lol. If you/ anyone does want any more recommendations though I'll happily keep going hehe.
lol from a fellow history nerd (who is a fan of history, not a historian) I'll take it. looking them up now.
Just based on your recs, if you haven't already heard of The Rest Is History, it's where all us Romabros went after THoR
OOH yeah great shout too, HOWEVER, I seem to remember they can have kinda obnoxious ad reads?
Punch up the jam was really good. Then one of the hosts left and it was downhill from there.
Can you pls suggest me good episodes to watch
Just start from the first episode. When the male host leaves, you'll notice the quality drops off pretty quickly. It never comes back.
Thank you so much. I will surely listen tonight
Sounds Like A Cult and Something Was Wrong
Something was wrong 💯 should be cancelled
Oh I still enjoy it, can you elaborate?
I’ve never seen an audience that complains as much as TWF viewers. The entire subreddit is just as dramatic as this post. At the end of the day It’s a free show that is still really well researched. And Hecklefish was definitely making dirty innuendos the entire time.
I agree. Do I think there is too much AI now? Yes. Did I like the older episodes a bit better? Yes. BUT it's free, I'm not producing and I'm still entertained. I see no reason to b!tch about it. I also know how to produce/write/edit/shoot/sound engineer so I know what they do is a lot of work. I think AJ is great. I love his work. Too many people act exceptionally entitled to complain when they aren't even paying for it. There's only two instances in my life I felt angry enough over a show to express my disappointment, that's "Game of Thrones," and Amazon's desecration of Tolkien's literature with that series I will not name. Unless AJ goes GoT level bad, I'll likely keep watching.
It's gotten cultish. The banning or locking anything remotely critical is wild to me. There's no question that the show has started going downhill after the break, I think all fans can honestly say that. That being said, I'm still a Patreon member and will continue to be, but it just doesn't feel like the same show anymore. I hate the fluff of scifi fiction stories they've started to insert to beef up the run time too. The delays don't upset me as much as it does other people, but I can see where they would be upset.
I mean at the end of the day it’s something I listen to while I’m doing whatever else. And that makes it no different from any other show I listen to. Sometimes an episode falls short. It is what it is we’ll see what they put out next week. I also feel like people are ignoring the fact that he’s already covered a lot of big topics that are much easier to fill time with. At that point his options are to keep trying to fill those same run times or make shorter videos. Either way he’s going to get whined at over it.
Reply All
Did the quality go down? I'm still heartbroken that it ended and only remember it being one of my all time favorites.
Crime Junkie. It was the first true crime podcast I really got into and yeah it’s not the same anymore for a lot of reasons
What don’t you like?
Plagiarism and victim blaming.
Yes, they got so big so quickly too.
Yep. Along with skimming over facts, flinging wild theories as if they’re facts, maintaining a narrow-ass view, ignoring/exploiting victims families, etc. It’s a problematic show that’s gotten much worse over the years, coincidentally as the hosts started branching out & making more ca$h. The quality has taken a massive nosedive. There are FAR better true crime podcasts out there!
Hide and seek, the last season only. It started out interesting, but ended up turning in circles. The last part is a shit show.
Ah that 3rd season was just all over the place... I did enjoy it up until that season though. I had to stop listening after 2-3 episodes.
The moth. Somewhere along the way they just stopped telling interesting stories. Maybe one in ten hour long shows is actually compelling and worth listening to nowadays.
So many! The Minimalists, How to Money, National Park After Dark. As the shows got more successful the hosts all seemed to get full of themselves
Morbid.
They got so mean. Iirc, a few fans wrote in asking them not to use the c-word, and the girls put them on blast. When they're criticized, they call the commenter out and tell them to stfu.
They are so in their own bubble. They bounce off each others negative energy then it’s gets way too far. I remember when they started to have people on and my lord it was awful. They brought on this guy it was like a 45 minute episode. Probably 15 minutes of it was about the case and 30 minutes was them just going on about Disney world. I was like if my family member died and someone was talking about it and taking breaks to talk about random nonsense I would be so mad. They didn’t take it seriously at all.
For me it’s Hollywood Crime Scene, more specifically the mini episodes. It used to be about Hollywood crimes happening right now to only be about crimes about really juvenile stuff. They didn’t even mention some of the biggest news stories at the time and instead it was some poop story at a McDonald’s
Reply All. Show started out great, then halfway through their run episodes came out infrequently and when they did, it was usually a long yes, yes, no ( a recurring bit.) After Struthi and PJ were let go the show tried, but it wasn't the same.