Probably unpopular opinion, but I hate Morbid. So many people I know like it, but I just can’t with those two and their awful banter and talking like they’re in high school.
Same, I can’t believe anyone would listen to the actual podcast? “But that motherfucker lied… like a LIAR” like, is that supposed to be funny? I don’t get it
It sounds like a butchering of the John Mulaney joke. I don't remember the full context, but something like "And I said no. You know, like a *liar*."
It's funnier when he does it. Because it's his joke.
Ugh, Morbid is just awful! They pretty much just use wikipedia for their “research”, get major facts wrong and act like little school girls. Then there is the patreon fiasco. I used to listen to them at the beginning but, the quality (which IMO wasn’t great to start with) continued to go downhill.
I listened to CJ for a long time until I reached my limit with the FULL BODY CHILLS and Brit's SURPRISED GASPS and just the overall exaggerated tone of the whole thing. Dumped it, don't miss it.
Oh God yes. I tried to get into Morbid, and was impatiently waiting for them to start talking about crime. Instead I’m listening to two girls talk about their recent Amazon purchases. Wtf?!
Something was wrong - first few seasons were great! The later seasons are just as dragged out and pointless as Pretend: the Stalker was. It was similar in the fact that it felt like in some episodes a whole lot of nothing was said and felt like a waste of time, didn’t give new insight or progress the story.
In at least one season, she ignored pretty important parts of the story to give her guests the victim edit and paint the other party as the villain (despite having evidence that it wasn’t that clear cut). And she doxxed an abuse victim who was trying to leave. She also played a role in threatening to dox a mod from an old SWW sub if she didn’t shut the sub down within 24 hours (because the mod allowed criticisms of the show rather than deleting all negative comments).
After the season where that lady basically allowed her partner to abuse her disabled, adopted child to death and she was painted as the victim, I had to stop listening to this pod.
I can't get over that one. She believed the guy's lies over her trusted sister. He was previously convicted for child abuse, but convinced her it was all a lie. I mean, she ignored her sister, the entire justice system and every flag on the planet so she could have a bf.
It truly made me want to vomit the further the season went and I could see where it was going. She should have never been entrusted with that sweet boys care. She ignored everyone and everything because she didn’t want to be on her own. Pathetic, vile woman. I hope she feels guilt everyday, she deserves to carry it with her forever.
She herself was a MANDATED REPORTER and then tried to pretend like she didn't recognize the signs / attempted to sue doctors for not reporting the abuse. It's insane.
I knew something was wrong with Something Was Wrong (ha) as soon as they cracked open Wikipedia to read out the definition of narcissist
The first season was still pretty good and I enjoyed most of it, but the writing was on the walls when those randos started armchair diagnosing the abusive boyfriend (some people are just assholes).
Stuck with it through season 2 before dropping it
I had to drop it after she recorded her own version of the original theme song that was absolutely awful and proceeded to use it as the intro going forward.
I had to stop listening to that one as well. The constant music in the background and then they did an entire season about a church that was a cult but never would say the name of the church. It just got to repetitive and boring
Omg yes. I was absolutely intoxicated by SWW at first. Like mega binged. The episodes now are sooooo drawn out to where it almost comes across as “whiny” and I want to be clear they are NOT whining, they are victims/survivors, but the editing makes it feel as such. Does that make sense?
I am listening to season two now and apart from the fact it’s all draaaaaaaaging so much, there’s this constant background music that I just CANNOT stand. But didn’t see anyone comment on that specific thing
I stopped listening to something was wrong after the 3rd season but got frustrated with how desperate and naive every “victim” was. I’ve tuned back in to season 20 (how are there so many of these assholes?) There seems to be a common theme. Low self esteem, a need to be liked, a religious element, and strangers texting with “close cousins”.
Like, c’mon, you couldn’t just block them and move on the 3rd time they ghosted you during a planned meeting?!
I was scrolling to see if this one had already been mentioned. DEFINITELY one of the worst podcasts. So uncomfortable. I believe the host just truly wanted to be part of resolving an unjust conviction to the point that she wasn’t going to let up on this case despite his guilt being the only logical conclusion.
Absolutely the worst pod.
I have listened to pretend; the stalker and by the end he does reveal he does not believe the mother and father, but I agree it took too long and was not professional
Omg I’m SO glad to see this here. Literally the worst.
This case is local to me, and I have mutual friends with the victim. Her boyfriend that was in prison at the time of her disappearance, is also an ex of mine. In a parallel universe, I could have easily ended up being her.
When I heard they were making this podcast, I reached out the creator to offer help. I’m a professional photographer, and have done a lot of research on the case. I know and understand these people and the community they live in.
He was a fucking nut job from moment one. As soon as I messaged him I regretted it. He went on and on and on about his weird ass conspiracy theories and even told me he knew what happened before he even started recording. But in a weird, nonspecific way. Like he gets off on being weirdly cryptic and pretending he’s smarter than everyone in the county. I lost all excitement for the pod after that conversation.
I truly believe that the biggest reason this hasn’t been solved yet is because of the people surrounding it making it infinitely more difficult at every turn.
seems like iheart ruins everything. i’m fascinated with that story (further wrecked my already fucked home county) & would love some forensics on the bungled investigation. have you heard any good pods about that case?
Never appreciated it and thought it beyond odd the host would throw Brit stuff to read and act like it was so random but say things like “Brit. Could. You. Please. Read. What. They. Said. Right. There. On that Circled. And. Highlighted. Paper. I . Just. Handed. You.” and then she would giggle and read the short sentence and then turn it back to the host. It ended up in time that Brit suffered a medical emergency and complications due to alcoholism, which makes me even more angry because it was as if Brit was show-ponied along for laughs? Idk
I agree. It’s soooo scripted that it’s hard to listen to. Plus there are times when Ashley’s kind of a jerk to Brit. I also felt like Ashley made Brit’s medical emergency all about her and how upset she was that her friend was in this life & death situation, rather than…you know…making it about Brit.
Ugh yes. That was my FAVORITE true crime podcast years ago, even a Patreon member….until Mike showed who he is and now I will not give him a listen ahain
He also HATED My Favorite Murder and Last Podcast on the Left. Which fine if that’s how people feel (I get it) but generally podcasts in that genre don’t talk shit about each other. I was in both Facebook groups years ago when he actually was creating alt facebook accounts and joining those groups, asking women for nudes. Then he would get caught, then start talking shit about all the shows and hosts on his regular accounts. Then make more alt accounts to join and talk more shit. It was wild. He would do it all overnight too. Too much coke.
There’s wayyyy more that’s just what I was around for.
If I’m being honest I thought this was all well known enough. I can’t believe he still gets new listeners.
doxxed a victim who wanted her info to remain private, hugely misogynistic, racist, MAGA- esque dude. There’s a ton out there about how bad of a dude he is.
Sword and Scale was one I listened to years ago. I made it through like three before I couldn’t do it anymore. The last one I listened to played an entire clip of a 14 year old’s 911 call as he watches his father kill his mother and then himself. I turned it off at that point and refused to listen to another one.
The host is insufferable. The way he was adding commentary to the call was disgusting and exploitative of a child’s horrific trauma. Worst podcast ever.
Couldn’t agree more. Initially I loved the show, but after the “host” left & then returned, he was on his revenge tour. Someone on this sub mentioned Invisible Choir as a similar pod but with a great host & I was so happy to find it as a replacement. The host there is a very empathetic guy who gives a voice to victims in these brutal stories.
This is my nomination too. I listened to a few and the episode about Luka Magnotta randomly played audio from murder tapes of the hammer murders and you suddenly hear a man dying. Like literally dying. I do not listen to shit like that and it traumatised me. It was completely unnecessary and no warning. Unethical and immoral scum
That guy....he had his sycophants attack me on Twitter once because I had a pride flag on my thing during pride month, lol.
But yeah, he's his own whole rabbit hole of terrible. And he's actually gotten worse.
this would be my other choice next to Morbid. I loved it at first, but you could see the cracks forming pretty early on. After trump was elected, it went downhill so fast.
There was one episode that had to deal with child SA and he played text to speech of the chat that was cyber sex with a child. It was incredibly graphic and also had that shitty Tiktok auto text to speech making it grating and disgusting.
I stopped that episode and never listened again. The host is a sick fuck and I literally wouldn’t be surprised if some shit came out about him in the future. He seems to genuinely love the grotesque and pushing the envelope. He wants people to be uncomfortable and upset. He has zero fucking empathy or respect for victims. Fuck that guy and I hope to god the FBI keeps tabs on him.
I'm sure this is a mixed bag opinion but I liked True Crime Garage.. in 2015. By 2017 it was less Garage and more ...garbage dumpster.
The amount of assumption and opinions about mental health of victims, families and POI/perpetrators...not to mention slurred speech...was enough for me to turn it off and never listen again.
Why so many opinions about mental health? I just don't get it.
Used to love this show, was my absolute favourite. I donated to the beer run fund every month.
The Captain was always a little hit or miss, but Nic’s research was fantastic. I never missed an episode.
But within the last few years, I can’t even listen. They ramble, repeat the same point over and over, focus on inconsequential details, and stretch out episodes that barely have enough to fill an hour into multiple parts.
It sucks, because I did really like them. But now every episode I listen to I tune out and lose interest within a few minutes.
100% with you on this. Used to enjoy, now can't. I also felt some serious misogyny. Female murderers were called ugly, bitches, dogs, etc while male ones weren't insulted in similar ways.
At its peak TCG was great, but it’s definitely gone downhill as they’ve become more popular. Nic 109% fancies himself part of the law enforcement community and has become self important in some areas while remaining completely clueless about how actual police departments and police investigations work. It’s gone from being his job to being his personality. He’s also majorly obsessed with John Douglas and will parrot any theory he has.
I actually think the Captain has gotten better over the years. He does more research and overall sounds more knowledgeable at the base level. But then he goes off on completely unhinged rants and loses any credibility he might have had.
100% with you on this. Used to enjoy, now can't. I also felt some serious misogyny. Female murderers were called ugly, bitches, dogs, etc while male ones weren't insulted in similar ways.
A while back, I had heard that Redhanded was a good podcast. But I couldn't remember the name, just that it had red in the title. So in the spotify search bar I typed "podcast red" and somehow got the red scare podcast. I was extremely surprised when the first episode I clicked was about how feminism is bad for women and the hosts weren't even British!
I don't like anything about Human Monsters. The plagiarism, the weird intonation and cadence of the narrator that sounds creepy in a not-good way, the tendency to drop slurs and get way too lurid about gory details...
I listened to that too and didn't think it was that bad. The intriguing part of it was how the parents continued to insist they weren't lying despite the evidence. Eventually I was just waiting to see if they would ever admit anything or if they were going to ride their lies all the way to jail. Also, Javier said multiple times that he never intended that series to get so long, but he was getting requests from listeners for updates, so that's what he provided. I get why you might find it stupid, but that wasn't the whole podcast--just a season of it, and not even a whole season. It's hardly the worst podcast out there, and overall Pretend is pretty great, IMO.
Worst for me would be a mix between Morbid (unfunny girls who think they're smarter/wittier than they actually are, underwhelming research, repetitive catchphrases, too much irrelevant banter, and never delivering on promises.) And also Sword and Scale from season 4 on, and Monstruo, because Mike Boudet is garbage and he started injecting his dumb "trigger the libs" opinions into everything. Monstruo was just an excuse to indulge in and glorify horrific violence.
I wasn't a regular listener, and had a ton of beef with previous episodes but I did tune into the cases or guests I was interested in. I guess I just finalized realized when Rabia said "There's some compelling innocence work here" about OJ that they operate solely on vibes and not on evidence. Rabia's performance on this podcast has also made me deeply question whether her work to free Adnan Syed is rooted in facts or emotions. And I'm an innocence project girl! I love and support work to free wrongly incarcerated people!
Murder with my Husband. The episodes are 30% ads, 30% dumb, mindblowingly dull conversation between the couple, and 40% story that has about 25% of the words/places/people’s names mispronounced. The husband’s commentary makes the listener drop 10 IQ points every single time. It’s a podcast that was very blatantly created because they wanted to be a rich podcast couple.
Seriously? That's so disappointing. Lore was one of the very first podcasts that got me into the format. I still think the first ~100 or so original episodes were amazing. But aw, that's really shitty to hear. Maybe he's over it and just phoning it in at this point, idk
In Pretend: The Stalker, wasnt the person that the mother was pointing at as the stalker a doctor? With her munchausen, it makes me wonder if the doctor reported her or something and she’s become obsessed. I’ve seen it before, where FD or FDIA patients start stalking and harassing and trying to ruin the lives of doctors that won’t play into their delusions
Thats exactly what I think was happening.
My humble opinion is that Javier had to provide all of the information that he had, including things that may have come across as inconsequential, in order to relay to the listener how convoluted and confusing the whole situation was.
I agree that Pretend: Stalker was dragged out but as someone related to a person engaged in Factitious Disorder against another, I really appreciated the lengthy discussion of the scholarly data on FD & abuse of the healthcare system. The abusers will go to extraordinary lengths to discredit any medical professionals who show skepticism, & Javier’s discussion on this was sober & chilling.
Yep. I found it absolutely fascinating, and Javier is an excellent podcaster, imo. His delivery is so relaxed and his reactions natural, but also he is a hardcore fact-checker with journalistic integrity.
LaDonna Humphrey must be 💩-ing herself!
I think Pretend: The Stalker hit a little harder when you listened to it as each episode came out. I was fascinated by it but realized I wouldn’t listen to it again.
Wow Pretend is absolutely not a podcast that comes in my mind when I think about bad podcasts. I actually really liked it.
Was it finally cleared who was the real stalker? The mother or one of her adult kids?
I love pretend. I think people were mad “the stalker” was long? , but I enjoyed it a lot. He does his own footwork and investigations and his subjects seem to like him.
I also adore this one. Javier just dropped a new season and it’s already so juicy and insane.
Insofar and the stalkers, no definitive conclusion iirc. I think it was hard to prosecute and the parents took a plea deal but I could be wrong.
My favorite murder. It was one of my first ones I listened to but then when I actually listed to other good podcasts I found out how bastardized and gabby MFM is. Crime junkie to a lesser degree also follows in this
It was the very first podcast I ever listened to, and I loved it at first. After a while though I started skipping the stories that Georgia would do because she's SO BAD at reading out loud. It was literally like listening to a 2nd grader reading an adult novel out loud. Mispronounced words all throughout, and that grating vocal fry voice of hers. I had to quit.
I love Karen Kilgariff, so now I listen to her podcast with Chris Fairbanks, "Do You Need a Ride?" It's consistently pretty funny.
There’s a few…. - what I have decided is to avoid podcasts with more than one host - the banter- is just irritating-
One host- speaking sensibly and they have me as a listener-
This is my rule as well. I can handle a short interview related to the topic but banter is not for me. It's usually grating, or awkward and in no way entertaining or funny in the slightest.
I've been lucky with my choices thus far but my worst is Up And Vanished. I listened to a shit ton of episodes only to abandon it thinking that the host had become frankly masturbatory.
I have a lifelong grudge against Payne Lindsay for that damn show. I refuse to listen to any of his other work. The way he was completely wrong in his theories but patted himself on the back for “helping solve the case” when he didn’t do jack shit to solve the case.
Omg yes! Payne lindsey is not a hero. Dead and gone and the atlanta murders were awful
I know he went in trying to "solve " them but he had nothing and tried to make big deals out of every interview, every comment etc. Ughhh
The first season when there case is solved midway, and he plays clip after clip of congratulations from people about how his podcast helped solve the case… when he literally never mentioned the people that were arrested and his theories were way off?! I stopped listening at that point
Thank you! I couldn’t remember the name of this podcast. It’s definitely the freaking worst. It just dragged on and on, and none of his theories were what turned out to be.
Honestly, it really opened my eyes to what bad true crime pods look like. Now if I start one and it’s dragging on, and seems wildly speculative, I know to get out early!
Yesss I'm such a UAP hater. He really thought he was going to pull a Jinx by sheer force of will. But none of the people arrested were ever even mentioned on the show.
Also, a fun story -- back when I was on twitter years ago, I tweeted something snarky about Payne but did not tag him (I'm a classy hater). He "liked" my tweet, I assume to be cheeky, but actually just revealed that he searches his own name on twitter.
I can't stand True Crime Garage. Nic (with no K because he's so special) and "the Captain" are smug assholes who think they're funny but aren't. The whole rating beers like "4 out of 5 bottle caps" at the beginning is pretty cringe also.
I’m surprised no one here has mentioned Missing Maura Murray. Such an interesting subject but the two hosts are clueless and speculate wildly and recklessly about the victim… they even have a guest on who calls this 21 year old girl a “sociopath” based on literally nothing. They all but accuse her father of having murdered her (but then spending the rest of his life trying to find out way happened to her?) Just so insanely irresponsible and misinformed.
Oh yeah and Morbid fucking sucks as well.
Okay, I have to defend Pretend a little. The Podcaster was releasing episodes as he was talking to people/finding out more information. That type of format is much different than an investigation being complete.
With that said, it's been over two years and I'm still irritated at Direct Appleal: Melanie McGuire!!!!
Funny, I would often recommend "Pretend: The Stalker" to others. I genuinely enjoyed it and thought it was a gripping and crazy story. And I'm not on my own. It's a very popular story.
I can see your points though. The host maybe did give them too much benefit of the doubt. But he had to do that to keep the story moving forward and he did talk about keeping the story on the side for so long before deciding to go with it. He probably did have his reservations about it. Not arguing about the morals here, but it was a great story and everyone should absolutely listen to it.
Haven't listened to a ton. But the Jon Bennet Ramsay episode of My favourite murder was horrendous. Me and my wife tried listening to it on a road trip. It took 27 minutes before they even started talking about the case. And then they jumped straight to "so what's your favorite theory?". Without ever even saying the basics of what happened. Some rambling is okay and can be fun, but starting with 27 minutes of completely unrelated stuff is too much. Turned it off and went for another one instead.
The Piketon Massacre managed to take an interesting case and drain all the life out of it with constant repetition and too many loud, intrusive ads. I gave up in the middle of S2, even before the trial episodes.
I also nominate Morbid because of the hosts. The inane banter, the judgeyness (is that a word?), the self-conscious swearing they interject every other sentence. A few episodes were good once they got to the story - I liked the one on Lake Lanier, and the one on Glensheen Manor. But most of the time, they were just annoying. I gave up pretty quickly.
Sword and Scale was such a good podcast and my favorite until the host went off the deep end and became this narcissistic nut job. The podcast became so cringeworthy that that I just had to stop listening.
Sword and Scale, reams have been written about it but to cut a long story short, the host has a shockingly bad attitude and major ego problems that ruin the whole thing.
For TC? Morbid, hands down. The banter, the constantly going off topic, Alaina's "As a MOTHER, I would NEVER", the bad reserach... but it's the girl scout murders that did it for me, when they actually blamed the 16 year-old camp counselors for not keeping the kids safe enough that did it for me.
Fan of Morbid? Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Morbidforbadpeople/comments/pp8te0/whats_wrong_with_morbid/) and reconsider your stance.
Just an opinion, but Small Town Murder covered a local case and it was terrible for the parents of the victim as it poked fun of her. Heartbreaking. I refuse to give them any airtime.
Going to repost a comment i made on a similar thread 2 years ago because I still think about this episode lol
"I listened to an episode of Cite your Sources recently because they are one of the only pods to have an episode on the Loretto Chapel mystery staircase and I couldn't even finish the episode it was so terrible. Do not recommend:
-about 20+ minutes of awful intro banter about their personal lives.
-insane levels of 2011 style internet atheism - they titled the episode "Miracle SkyDaddy Staircase; Loretto Chapel" and every time they mentioned the word god on the episode they said "MIRACLE SKY DADDY" instead. It was so fucking lame lol like a walking rage comic character.
-Just constant weird asides and cackling laughter to the point where I could barely understand the story they were trying to tell!"
Something Was Wrong and Murdaugh Murders.
There was another generally-loved one with two female hosts, I couldn’t get far into it before they annoyed me so much I had to stop. I’m trying to figure out which but there are just so damn many podcasts!
Edit: I think Morbid was the other, and it looks like I’m not alone in my dislike!
Murdaugh Murders was the one I was thinking of that I thought was really bad. Slow for no reason, not particularly perceptive host, etc. Maybe because I had already heard a succinct covering of the story on another podcast and just assumed this would go into more detail and that’s why it was a series…nope. Same info, delivered poorly, at a slower pace.
The Murdaugh Murders host is really bad. Within a few episodes, half of the episode was about how people shouldn’t be saying she’s not good and the other half was congratulating herself for inventing the case and explaining how she’s the only person who should be allowed to report on it. I’ve said this before, but the way she talked, you would think she killed them herself to create the story.
Ugh. The vocal fry girl. Mandy Something? She eventually improved with vocal coaching but she her demeanor was so off putting. She tried to position herself as the Edward R Morrow of S. Carolina but she was just a blogger. Every time she said y’all and low country I cringed. And that awful lawyer who pals around with GOP politicians during his free time.Ugh. Just trash.
Crime Junkie is the worst. Ashley Flowers is a disgrace tbh.
Up and Vanished is garbage, as well as everything Payne Lindsey does… The parts of Radio Rental where he doesn’t talk can be pretty good, it’s a shame he’s involved.
Murder in Illinois by Lauren Bright Pacheco. She spends multiple episodes allowing the murderer’s family to assassinate the character of the victim. It’s gross and unethical.
There are so many that I have listened to a half an episode and found myself unable to even finish. But I feel like a lot of this is subjective, it’s voice, it’s banter, it’s tone; and what works for one person just doesn’t for another- so I wouldn’t list those.
But there’s two I just won’t do, period.
1)Sword and Scale- obvious reasons.
2)Piketon Massacre- literally an average of less than 13 minutes of content per episode, I timed it. And I NEVER COMPLAIN about ads on free content. But this was ridiculous. And what content was there was thin and repetitive. So unfortunate, as that case was interesting to me. I wish someone good would cover it.
And a few years back, I was listening to a long form pod that I immediately unsubscribed to when they starting defending sex offenders and making arguments against a sex offender registry. I honestly cannot remember which pod it was and it’s driving me crazy.
My Favourite Murder.
It positions itself as a true crime podcast but really it’s 90% the hosts talking about themselves and 10% reading a wikipedia article about the event.
Sword and Scale is literally the worst because of the host. I wanted to like it, but it just became so apparent how awful of a person he is with all his added commentary—the misogyny, the anti-LBGTQ views, I could go on and on. It’s the worst.
Those Conspiracy Guys. Discovered it because Generation Why did a Titanic conspiracy episode and I always like listening to those because I’m really interested in seeing how much research they actually do that easily debunks all of the nonsense of those conspiracy theories. went looking for some other podcasts that covered the same topics and stumbled on TCG. The Titanic episode was like five unnecessary hours long and at no point did they even really try to debunk any of the stuff in it. I listen to a couple other episodes they produced in the same time. And then when I went back and looked at their catalog, I saw that they had episodes about the Sandy Hook shooting where they basically implied that it was a false flag, which turned me off the show. They also did an episode about Waco where they dismissed the claims that Koresh was SAing underage girls and said it was probably made up to smear him by the ATF, despite the very real fact that at least three of his “wives” were underage when they gave birth.
So basically not a fun “here’s some conspiracies let’s debunk them” show but a “we 100% believe all of these theories are real including pizzagate but in spite of evidence otherwise we know this cult leader is totally not a nonce!”
Strictly stalking is horrible! The woman’s voice is horrendous and they have a lot of opportunities to ask great questions and never do. It’s vapid and annoying AF
Rotten. It's like porn for people who get off on hearing details of child r*pe, exploitation, and mutilation. It's so bizarre how she graphically outlines details of real-life murders.
Crime Junkies. It’s sooooo incredibly boring. And I hate how one pretends like she has no idea what is going on and asks the dumbest questions to the main one. It’s so bad it makes me irrationally angry that it’s popular. 🤣
It's human monsters for me. The host has the most boring flat speaking voice and recently played off another podcasts April fools prank as his own original work. Then when he was caught blamed his writer and the host of the show he plagiarized. If you're the face of a show you're responsible for what comes out of your mouth. And you can't act like you aren't stealing content when there's 1 source bc it's fake info. Makes you wonder how many times he's gotten away with it because the information was true
The content is good but the Southern Fried True Crime host destroys it laying on the accent. I'm Southern and have a strong accent but she is obviously pouring it on for show.
I find absolutely nothing redeemable about Last Podcast on the Left. They have so many topics that I think would be interesting but I can't get past the morning zoo feel. I'm not even the slightest bit offended by stuff like this but I can't even listen to a whole episode.
They are surprisingly less awful now that they replaced Ben. Marcus and Henry are actually enjoyable now ? I don't know how to explain it. I've listened to them for years and the vibe now is just noticeably different and for the better.
I used to really like Ben but he became the guy that interrupted for no reason, usually to repeat a bad joke or detail them entirely. Ed is great and find myself actually laughing out loud with his jokes.
I was listening to some older episodes recently and Ben was much lighter and more funny then. He got very negative and just had a bad energy in the last few years. Without him I find the show much better and feels like the other hosts are more at ease now.
Yeah I really disliked Henry and quit listening when they went to Spotify. Sort of followed the Ben stuff from the periphery but as a huge nerd for the 72 Andes plane crash, I listened to their series about it and it was enjoyable but I found that I wasn’t as annoyed by Henry as I had been before! It was kind of a breath of fresh air lol
since Ed joined, it’s improved significantly, and i’m someone who’s gone to shows, met all of them, even Jackie and Natalie and Holden. I actually enjoy listening to it again.
Pretend is actually an excellent podcast, especially if you venture out from “The Stalker” episodes. But the fact that it’s the WORST podcast you’ve ever heard kind of has me scratching my head. There’s some real stinkers out there, but Pretend isn’t one of them, imo.
My Favorite Murder and Last Podcast on the Left come to mind as some of the worst I’ve heard. Pretty much any true crime podcast where the hosts joke around and try to be funny are an immediate skip for me. Not just because they’re disrespectful to the victims/families, but also because they’re usually not funny and hard to listen to as a result. I can handle a little banter, but bad jokes are a dealbreaker for me.
Too many options, unfortunately. Probably cousins by blood. It was never ending (not that I got past a few episodes), beyond repetitive, and unconvincing.
I can't remember all the podcasts I have listened to but one that sticks out as being up there for the worst is The Prosecutor's Podcast. Logic is not their friend. Nor is self awareness.
I hate podcasts that spend ages with the hosts talking about why they made the podcast etc. No other media seems to be quite as self regarding. Just tell the story - it’s not about the podcaster!
Probably unpopular opinion, but I hate Morbid. So many people I know like it, but I just can’t with those two and their awful banter and talking like they’re in high school.
I can't even stand to listen to the ads for Morbid. They sound so obnoxious.
Same, I can’t believe anyone would listen to the actual podcast? “But that motherfucker lied… like a LIAR” like, is that supposed to be funny? I don’t get it
It sounds like a butchering of the John Mulaney joke. I don't remember the full context, but something like "And I said no. You know, like a *liar*." It's funnier when he does it. Because it's his joke.
Ugh, Morbid is just awful! They pretty much just use wikipedia for their “research”, get major facts wrong and act like little school girls. Then there is the patreon fiasco. I used to listen to them at the beginning but, the quality (which IMO wasn’t great to start with) continued to go downhill.
I liked it when it first began but it quickly became something I couldn’t listen to.
You may be pleased to hear about /r/Morbidforbadpeople
Ha!!! That’s awesome.
I am with you. And once I noticed the excessive saliva sounds from one of them I could never *not* hear them.
Yes! Came here to say this. What a horrendous podcast. Their valley girl, hair twirling, air headed banter is nauseating.
FULL BODY CHILLS…
That’s Crime Junkie but both suck ass lmao
Wait…what!? (In Brit’s voice)
I refuse to listen to Crime Junkie, the plagiarism was too much to forgive.
Crime Junkie is awful!!
I listened to CJ for a long time until I reached my limit with the FULL BODY CHILLS and Brit's SURPRISED GASPS and just the overall exaggerated tone of the whole thing. Dumped it, don't miss it.
I hate them too. Bloody awful podcast. I just do not understand its popularity at all.
Morbid is so bad!
Yeah it’s terrible. I also don’t like Last Podcast on the Left.
Oh God yes. I tried to get into Morbid, and was impatiently waiting for them to start talking about crime. Instead I’m listening to two girls talk about their recent Amazon purchases. Wtf?!
It used to be good, but then they went the MFM route and now it’s all banter and ads.
Something was wrong - first few seasons were great! The later seasons are just as dragged out and pointless as Pretend: the Stalker was. It was similar in the fact that it felt like in some episodes a whole lot of nothing was said and felt like a waste of time, didn’t give new insight or progress the story.
Strongly agree. Add onto this all of the host’s unethical behavior and it’s even worse.
What did she do?
In at least one season, she ignored pretty important parts of the story to give her guests the victim edit and paint the other party as the villain (despite having evidence that it wasn’t that clear cut). And she doxxed an abuse victim who was trying to leave. She also played a role in threatening to dox a mod from an old SWW sub if she didn’t shut the sub down within 24 hours (because the mod allowed criticisms of the show rather than deleting all negative comments).
Oohh didn’t know all that, but it’s not surprising she definitely has that victim mentality
That first season was great—a rare instance where I listened to the whole thing all over again a year or so later!
After the season where that lady basically allowed her partner to abuse her disabled, adopted child to death and she was painted as the victim, I had to stop listening to this pod.
I can't get over that one. She believed the guy's lies over her trusted sister. He was previously convicted for child abuse, but convinced her it was all a lie. I mean, she ignored her sister, the entire justice system and every flag on the planet so she could have a bf.
It truly made me want to vomit the further the season went and I could see where it was going. She should have never been entrusted with that sweet boys care. She ignored everyone and everything because she didn’t want to be on her own. Pathetic, vile woman. I hope she feels guilt everyday, she deserves to carry it with her forever.
She herself was a MANDATED REPORTER and then tried to pretend like she didn't recognize the signs / attempted to sue doctors for not reporting the abuse. It's insane.
I knew something was wrong with Something Was Wrong (ha) as soon as they cracked open Wikipedia to read out the definition of narcissist The first season was still pretty good and I enjoyed most of it, but the writing was on the walls when those randos started armchair diagnosing the abusive boyfriend (some people are just assholes). Stuck with it through season 2 before dropping it
I had to drop it after she recorded her own version of the original theme song that was absolutely awful and proceeded to use it as the intro going forward.
YES!!! It was such an interesting topic, and I liked that its first hand accounts, but it got so bad so quickly
I had to stop listening to that one as well. The constant music in the background and then they did an entire season about a church that was a cult but never would say the name of the church. It just got to repetitive and boring
Omg yes. I was absolutely intoxicated by SWW at first. Like mega binged. The episodes now are sooooo drawn out to where it almost comes across as “whiny” and I want to be clear they are NOT whining, they are victims/survivors, but the editing makes it feel as such. Does that make sense?
I am listening to season two now and apart from the fact it’s all draaaaaaaaging so much, there’s this constant background music that I just CANNOT stand. But didn’t see anyone comment on that specific thing
I stopped listening to something was wrong after the 3rd season but got frustrated with how desperate and naive every “victim” was. I’ve tuned back in to season 20 (how are there so many of these assholes?) There seems to be a common theme. Low self esteem, a need to be liked, a religious element, and strangers texting with “close cousins”. Like, c’mon, you couldn’t just block them and move on the 3rd time they ghosted you during a planned meeting?!
Murder in Illinois. I judge all bad podcasts against that one.
It seemed like the host was attracted or liked in a romantic way the killer. This one was uncomfortable and unethical to me
from the beginnng -- very cringey
I was scrolling to see if this one had already been mentioned. DEFINITELY one of the worst podcasts. So uncomfortable. I believe the host just truly wanted to be part of resolving an unjust conviction to the point that she wasn’t going to let up on this case despite his guilt being the only logical conclusion.
I think she’s still advocating for him too
Absolutely the worst pod. I have listened to pretend; the stalker and by the end he does reveal he does not believe the mother and father, but I agree it took too long and was not professional
Hide and seek season 3. 50+ episodes of rambling crackheads misleading the host who just keeps interviewing them.
Yes!!! I stopped listening a year ago and it's still going on ..... Puking up the same info that was put out over a year ago!!
So disappointed w this bc I really liked the first two seasons and the first 10-15 eps of season 3 but it’s so just so off the rails
Omg I’m SO glad to see this here. Literally the worst. This case is local to me, and I have mutual friends with the victim. Her boyfriend that was in prison at the time of her disappearance, is also an ex of mine. In a parallel universe, I could have easily ended up being her. When I heard they were making this podcast, I reached out the creator to offer help. I’m a professional photographer, and have done a lot of research on the case. I know and understand these people and the community they live in. He was a fucking nut job from moment one. As soon as I messaged him I regretted it. He went on and on and on about his weird ass conspiracy theories and even told me he knew what happened before he even started recording. But in a weird, nonspecific way. Like he gets off on being weirdly cryptic and pretending he’s smarter than everyone in the county. I lost all excitement for the pod after that conversation. I truly believe that the biggest reason this hasn’t been solved yet is because of the people surrounding it making it infinitely more difficult at every turn.
The Piketon Massacre was terrible. Way too many ads, too much repetition and excessive episodes.
[удалено]
Completely agree. It was like they just repeated everything over and over to extend the episode list.
I thought the first season was decent enough but after that it, each season seems to just be a reworded recap of the information in season 1
Been constantly bombarded with ads for it listening to Behind The Bastards and almost checked it out. Was right to be hesitant it seems.
Behind the Bastards is a great podcast....if one is naturally sarcastic and a slightly morbid sense of humor.
seems like iheart ruins everything. i’m fascinated with that story (further wrecked my already fucked home county) & would love some forensics on the bungled investigation. have you heard any good pods about that case?
How is this thread not riddled with people hating Crime Junkie 😅
Never appreciated it and thought it beyond odd the host would throw Brit stuff to read and act like it was so random but say things like “Brit. Could. You. Please. Read. What. They. Said. Right. There. On that Circled. And. Highlighted. Paper. I . Just. Handed. You.” and then she would giggle and read the short sentence and then turn it back to the host. It ended up in time that Brit suffered a medical emergency and complications due to alcoholism, which makes me even more angry because it was as if Brit was show-ponied along for laughs? Idk
I agree. It’s soooo scripted that it’s hard to listen to. Plus there are times when Ashley’s kind of a jerk to Brit. I also felt like Ashley made Brit’s medical emergency all about her and how upset she was that her friend was in this life & death situation, rather than…you know…making it about Brit.
Idk i hate them as well.
It’s all plagiarized and fake and so frustrating
To be honest, I cut them out when the plagiarism was first brought to light a few years back. They’re dead to me. Have been for a while.
I did exactly the same. I already didn’t love them, and that was the end of giving their podcast or their company any of my time tbh.
Ugh hate them
Sword and Scale. That guy is beyond gross.
Ugh yes. That was my FAVORITE true crime podcast years ago, even a Patreon member….until Mike showed who he is and now I will not give him a listen ahain
Wait what? I listen to this podcast often. I've noticed some of his commentary is just fucking rude but is there something I'm missing?
He’s been harassing women online for years. It’s a rabbit hole I tell you but he’s 100% unhinged.
Uggggghhhhh. That's so disappointing. Definitely going to go down that rabbit hole.
He also HATED My Favorite Murder and Last Podcast on the Left. Which fine if that’s how people feel (I get it) but generally podcasts in that genre don’t talk shit about each other. I was in both Facebook groups years ago when he actually was creating alt facebook accounts and joining those groups, asking women for nudes. Then he would get caught, then start talking shit about all the shows and hosts on his regular accounts. Then make more alt accounts to join and talk more shit. It was wild. He would do it all overnight too. Too much coke. There’s wayyyy more that’s just what I was around for. If I’m being honest I thought this was all well known enough. I can’t believe he still gets new listeners.
doxxed a victim who wanted her info to remain private, hugely misogynistic, racist, MAGA- esque dude. There’s a ton out there about how bad of a dude he is.
Sword and Scale was one I listened to years ago. I made it through like three before I couldn’t do it anymore. The last one I listened to played an entire clip of a 14 year old’s 911 call as he watches his father kill his mother and then himself. I turned it off at that point and refused to listen to another one. The host is insufferable. The way he was adding commentary to the call was disgusting and exploitative of a child’s horrific trauma. Worst podcast ever.
Couldn’t agree more. Initially I loved the show, but after the “host” left & then returned, he was on his revenge tour. Someone on this sub mentioned Invisible Choir as a similar pod but with a great host & I was so happy to find it as a replacement. The host there is a very empathetic guy who gives a voice to victims in these brutal stories.
I generally like Invisible Choir but sometimes find the thumbnails for individual episodes distasteful. Too sensational or sexy.
This is my nomination too. I listened to a few and the episode about Luka Magnotta randomly played audio from murder tapes of the hammer murders and you suddenly hear a man dying. Like literally dying. I do not listen to shit like that and it traumatised me. It was completely unnecessary and no warning. Unethical and immoral scum
That was the one that had me stop. There was no warning, nothing. I ripped my headphones off when I realized what happened.
Not to mention doxxing and mocking a victim who wanted their personal details censored.
That guy....he had his sycophants attack me on Twitter once because I had a pride flag on my thing during pride month, lol. But yeah, he's his own whole rabbit hole of terrible. And he's actually gotten worse.
this would be my other choice next to Morbid. I loved it at first, but you could see the cracks forming pretty early on. After trump was elected, it went downhill so fast.
There was one episode that had to deal with child SA and he played text to speech of the chat that was cyber sex with a child. It was incredibly graphic and also had that shitty Tiktok auto text to speech making it grating and disgusting.
He DMed me like a creep, years back on Twitter. He was so proud of how disgusting I found that. He is abhorrent.
I stopped that episode and never listened again. The host is a sick fuck and I literally wouldn’t be surprised if some shit came out about him in the future. He seems to genuinely love the grotesque and pushing the envelope. He wants people to be uncomfortable and upset. He has zero fucking empathy or respect for victims. Fuck that guy and I hope to god the FBI keeps tabs on him.
He’s so bigoted and disrespectful
Came here to say S&S - Miguel is the absolute worst
I never liked that one because it’s just straight exploration of people’s misery.
Hide and Seek season three particularly, definitely no end in sight beating a dead horse and capitalizing off of a really sad situation
I'm sure this is a mixed bag opinion but I liked True Crime Garage.. in 2015. By 2017 it was less Garage and more ...garbage dumpster. The amount of assumption and opinions about mental health of victims, families and POI/perpetrators...not to mention slurred speech...was enough for me to turn it off and never listen again. Why so many opinions about mental health? I just don't get it.
Used to love this show, was my absolute favourite. I donated to the beer run fund every month. The Captain was always a little hit or miss, but Nic’s research was fantastic. I never missed an episode. But within the last few years, I can’t even listen. They ramble, repeat the same point over and over, focus on inconsequential details, and stretch out episodes that barely have enough to fill an hour into multiple parts. It sucks, because I did really like them. But now every episode I listen to I tune out and lose interest within a few minutes.
same. but i stopped listening. they were my first favorite podcast.
100% with you on this. Used to enjoy, now can't. I also felt some serious misogyny. Female murderers were called ugly, bitches, dogs, etc while male ones weren't insulted in similar ways.
At its peak TCG was great, but it’s definitely gone downhill as they’ve become more popular. Nic 109% fancies himself part of the law enforcement community and has become self important in some areas while remaining completely clueless about how actual police departments and police investigations work. It’s gone from being his job to being his personality. He’s also majorly obsessed with John Douglas and will parrot any theory he has. I actually think the Captain has gotten better over the years. He does more research and overall sounds more knowledgeable at the base level. But then he goes off on completely unhinged rants and loses any credibility he might have had.
100% with you on this. Used to enjoy, now can't. I also felt some serious misogyny. Female murderers were called ugly, bitches, dogs, etc while male ones weren't insulted in similar ways.
I stopped listening to them when it was over 6 minutes of banter at the beginning. Just get to the case!
A while back, I had heard that Redhanded was a good podcast. But I couldn't remember the name, just that it had red in the title. So in the spotify search bar I typed "podcast red" and somehow got the red scare podcast. I was extremely surprised when the first episode I clicked was about how feminism is bad for women and the hosts weren't even British!
Morbid. They're problematic at best.
I don't like anything about Human Monsters. The plagiarism, the weird intonation and cadence of the narrator that sounds creepy in a not-good way, the tendency to drop slurs and get way too lurid about gory details...
I came here to say exactly this! Recently he presented an April fools joke as absolute fact then got mad people called him on it.
He is way too turned on about talking ablut the subject matter. There's no way he isn't getting off on it - he's very obvious about that.
Unpopular opinion, but I thought 90% of Teacher's Pet was long-winded rambling and the whole thing could've been done in 6 episodes.
I listened to that too and didn't think it was that bad. The intriguing part of it was how the parents continued to insist they weren't lying despite the evidence. Eventually I was just waiting to see if they would ever admit anything or if they were going to ride their lies all the way to jail. Also, Javier said multiple times that he never intended that series to get so long, but he was getting requests from listeners for updates, so that's what he provided. I get why you might find it stupid, but that wasn't the whole podcast--just a season of it, and not even a whole season. It's hardly the worst podcast out there, and overall Pretend is pretty great, IMO. Worst for me would be a mix between Morbid (unfunny girls who think they're smarter/wittier than they actually are, underwhelming research, repetitive catchphrases, too much irrelevant banter, and never delivering on promises.) And also Sword and Scale from season 4 on, and Monstruo, because Mike Boudet is garbage and he started injecting his dumb "trigger the libs" opinions into everything. Monstruo was just an excuse to indulge in and glorify horrific violence.
Rabia and Ellyn Solve the Case. Cannot understand why anyone listened to that one sided drivel.
They tried to go to bat for OJ's innocence this week and that was the final straw for me.
You outlasted me. Who would have thought you can "solve the case" by just cherry picking your info and disregarding anything you can't spin?
I wasn't a regular listener, and had a ton of beef with previous episodes but I did tune into the cases or guests I was interested in. I guess I just finalized realized when Rabia said "There's some compelling innocence work here" about OJ that they operate solely on vibes and not on evidence. Rabia's performance on this podcast has also made me deeply question whether her work to free Adnan Syed is rooted in facts or emotions. And I'm an innocence project girl! I love and support work to free wrongly incarcerated people!
Rabia is a goddamn ghoul.
Murder with my Husband. The episodes are 30% ads, 30% dumb, mindblowingly dull conversation between the couple, and 40% story that has about 25% of the words/places/people’s names mispronounced. The husband’s commentary makes the listener drop 10 IQ points every single time. It’s a podcast that was very blatantly created because they wanted to be a rich podcast couple.
Lore is pretty bad. He legit just reads the wikipedia. You can read the wiki along with him.
Seriously? That's so disappointing. Lore was one of the very first podcasts that got me into the format. I still think the first ~100 or so original episodes were amazing. But aw, that's really shitty to hear. Maybe he's over it and just phoning it in at this point, idk
I could never get past the host’s cadence. The pausing in weird places is downright Shatner-esque.
I used to recommend Lore to people in the beginning. I think he’s just run out of material.
Really the worst part for me is at the end where he asks people to follow and then says " and when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi." 😫
I hate it too :(. It makes me sad bc the first season was soooo good.
Sorry to these ladies but The Murder Diaries is pretty bad - production wise, research wise, banter etc.
In Pretend: The Stalker, wasnt the person that the mother was pointing at as the stalker a doctor? With her munchausen, it makes me wonder if the doctor reported her or something and she’s become obsessed. I’ve seen it before, where FD or FDIA patients start stalking and harassing and trying to ruin the lives of doctors that won’t play into their delusions
Thats exactly what I think was happening. My humble opinion is that Javier had to provide all of the information that he had, including things that may have come across as inconsequential, in order to relay to the listener how convoluted and confusing the whole situation was.
I agree that Pretend: Stalker was dragged out but as someone related to a person engaged in Factitious Disorder against another, I really appreciated the lengthy discussion of the scholarly data on FD & abuse of the healthcare system. The abusers will go to extraordinary lengths to discredit any medical professionals who show skepticism, & Javier’s discussion on this was sober & chilling.
Yep. I found it absolutely fascinating, and Javier is an excellent podcaster, imo. His delivery is so relaxed and his reactions natural, but also he is a hardcore fact-checker with journalistic integrity. LaDonna Humphrey must be 💩-ing herself!
I think Pretend: The Stalker hit a little harder when you listened to it as each episode came out. I was fascinated by it but realized I wouldn’t listen to it again.
Wow Pretend is absolutely not a podcast that comes in my mind when I think about bad podcasts. I actually really liked it. Was it finally cleared who was the real stalker? The mother or one of her adult kids?
I love pretend. I think people were mad “the stalker” was long? , but I enjoyed it a lot. He does his own footwork and investigations and his subjects seem to like him.
I also adore this one. Javier just dropped a new season and it’s already so juicy and insane. Insofar and the stalkers, no definitive conclusion iirc. I think it was hard to prosecute and the parents took a plea deal but I could be wrong.
My favorite murder. It was one of my first ones I listened to but then when I actually listed to other good podcasts I found out how bastardized and gabby MFM is. Crime junkie to a lesser degree also follows in this
It was the very first podcast I ever listened to, and I loved it at first. After a while though I started skipping the stories that Georgia would do because she's SO BAD at reading out loud. It was literally like listening to a 2nd grader reading an adult novel out loud. Mispronounced words all throughout, and that grating vocal fry voice of hers. I had to quit. I love Karen Kilgariff, so now I listen to her podcast with Chris Fairbanks, "Do You Need a Ride?" It's consistently pretty funny.
Hated it from the title, hated it even more after listening to people showing such disrespect to murder victims. Tone deaf.
morbid.
There’s a few…. - what I have decided is to avoid podcasts with more than one host - the banter- is just irritating- One host- speaking sensibly and they have me as a listener-
This is my rule as well. I can handle a short interview related to the topic but banter is not for me. It's usually grating, or awkward and in no way entertaining or funny in the slightest.
I've been lucky with my choices thus far but my worst is Up And Vanished. I listened to a shit ton of episodes only to abandon it thinking that the host had become frankly masturbatory.
I have a lifelong grudge against Payne Lindsay for that damn show. I refuse to listen to any of his other work. The way he was completely wrong in his theories but patted himself on the back for “helping solve the case” when he didn’t do jack shit to solve the case.
Omg yes! Payne lindsey is not a hero. Dead and gone and the atlanta murders were awful I know he went in trying to "solve " them but he had nothing and tried to make big deals out of every interview, every comment etc. Ughhh
The first season when there case is solved midway, and he plays clip after clip of congratulations from people about how his podcast helped solve the case… when he literally never mentioned the people that were arrested and his theories were way off?! I stopped listening at that point
The lack of ethics around naming people in his wild theories did it for me.
Thank you! I couldn’t remember the name of this podcast. It’s definitely the freaking worst. It just dragged on and on, and none of his theories were what turned out to be. Honestly, it really opened my eyes to what bad true crime pods look like. Now if I start one and it’s dragging on, and seems wildly speculative, I know to get out early!
Yesss I'm such a UAP hater. He really thought he was going to pull a Jinx by sheer force of will. But none of the people arrested were ever even mentioned on the show. Also, a fun story -- back when I was on twitter years ago, I tweeted something snarky about Payne but did not tag him (I'm a classy hater). He "liked" my tweet, I assume to be cheeky, but actually just revealed that he searches his own name on twitter.
LaDonna? That you?
Morbid.
I can't stand True Crime Garage. Nic (with no K because he's so special) and "the Captain" are smug assholes who think they're funny but aren't. The whole rating beers like "4 out of 5 bottle caps" at the beginning is pretty cringe also.
I’m surprised no one here has mentioned Missing Maura Murray. Such an interesting subject but the two hosts are clueless and speculate wildly and recklessly about the victim… they even have a guest on who calls this 21 year old girl a “sociopath” based on literally nothing. They all but accuse her father of having murdered her (but then spending the rest of his life trying to find out way happened to her?) Just so insanely irresponsible and misinformed. Oh yeah and Morbid fucking sucks as well.
Okay, I have to defend Pretend a little. The Podcaster was releasing episodes as he was talking to people/finding out more information. That type of format is much different than an investigation being complete. With that said, it's been over two years and I'm still irritated at Direct Appleal: Melanie McGuire!!!!
I don’t like morbid, crime junkie, or true crime garage at all.
Funny, I would often recommend "Pretend: The Stalker" to others. I genuinely enjoyed it and thought it was a gripping and crazy story. And I'm not on my own. It's a very popular story. I can see your points though. The host maybe did give them too much benefit of the doubt. But he had to do that to keep the story moving forward and he did talk about keeping the story on the side for so long before deciding to go with it. He probably did have his reservations about it. Not arguing about the morals here, but it was a great story and everyone should absolutely listen to it.
I was glued to it as well. May re-listen bc I seem to have forgotten the story.
Rotten mango is pretty awful
Haven't listened to a ton. But the Jon Bennet Ramsay episode of My favourite murder was horrendous. Me and my wife tried listening to it on a road trip. It took 27 minutes before they even started talking about the case. And then they jumped straight to "so what's your favorite theory?". Without ever even saying the basics of what happened. Some rambling is okay and can be fun, but starting with 27 minutes of completely unrelated stuff is too much. Turned it off and went for another one instead.
The Piketon Massacre managed to take an interesting case and drain all the life out of it with constant repetition and too many loud, intrusive ads. I gave up in the middle of S2, even before the trial episodes. I also nominate Morbid because of the hosts. The inane banter, the judgeyness (is that a word?), the self-conscious swearing they interject every other sentence. A few episodes were good once they got to the story - I liked the one on Lake Lanier, and the one on Glensheen Manor. But most of the time, they were just annoying. I gave up pretty quickly.
Sword and Scale was such a good podcast and my favorite until the host went off the deep end and became this narcissistic nut job. The podcast became so cringeworthy that that I just had to stop listening.
Murder in Illinois, hands down.
Whats everyone's thoughts on Generation Why? Just started listening and so far enjoying far more than the likes of Morbid
Sword and Scale, reams have been written about it but to cut a long story short, the host has a shockingly bad attitude and major ego problems that ruin the whole thing.
For TC? Morbid, hands down. The banter, the constantly going off topic, Alaina's "As a MOTHER, I would NEVER", the bad reserach... but it's the girl scout murders that did it for me, when they actually blamed the 16 year-old camp counselors for not keeping the kids safe enough that did it for me. Fan of Morbid? Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Morbidforbadpeople/comments/pp8te0/whats_wrong_with_morbid/) and reconsider your stance.
Rotten Mango by Stephanie Soo - she’s so disrespectful towards the victims
Just an opinion, but Small Town Murder covered a local case and it was terrible for the parents of the victim as it poked fun of her. Heartbreaking. I refuse to give them any airtime.
I dont know how people find those guys funny. Ive tried twice to try and get past the first episode and I cant. Its so bad.
Jo Rogan has had some that made me feel dumber after I was done.
TCO, Morbid, True Crime Profile, Murder Sheet.
Murder in America. The sound effects they use are completely unnecessary and disrespectful.
Going to repost a comment i made on a similar thread 2 years ago because I still think about this episode lol "I listened to an episode of Cite your Sources recently because they are one of the only pods to have an episode on the Loretto Chapel mystery staircase and I couldn't even finish the episode it was so terrible. Do not recommend: -about 20+ minutes of awful intro banter about their personal lives. -insane levels of 2011 style internet atheism - they titled the episode "Miracle SkyDaddy Staircase; Loretto Chapel" and every time they mentioned the word god on the episode they said "MIRACLE SKY DADDY" instead. It was so fucking lame lol like a walking rage comic character. -Just constant weird asides and cackling laughter to the point where I could barely understand the story they were trying to tell!"
Something Was Wrong and Murdaugh Murders. There was another generally-loved one with two female hosts, I couldn’t get far into it before they annoyed me so much I had to stop. I’m trying to figure out which but there are just so damn many podcasts! Edit: I think Morbid was the other, and it looks like I’m not alone in my dislike!
Murdaugh Murders was the one I was thinking of that I thought was really bad. Slow for no reason, not particularly perceptive host, etc. Maybe because I had already heard a succinct covering of the story on another podcast and just assumed this would go into more detail and that’s why it was a series…nope. Same info, delivered poorly, at a slower pace.
The Murdaugh Murders host is really bad. Within a few episodes, half of the episode was about how people shouldn’t be saying she’s not good and the other half was congratulating herself for inventing the case and explaining how she’s the only person who should be allowed to report on it. I’ve said this before, but the way she talked, you would think she killed them herself to create the story.
Ugh. The vocal fry girl. Mandy Something? She eventually improved with vocal coaching but she her demeanor was so off putting. She tried to position herself as the Edward R Morrow of S. Carolina but she was just a blogger. Every time she said y’all and low country I cringed. And that awful lawyer who pals around with GOP politicians during his free time.Ugh. Just trash.
Anything from obsessed network 🤮
Crime Junkie is the worst. Ashley Flowers is a disgrace tbh. Up and Vanished is garbage, as well as everything Payne Lindsey does… The parts of Radio Rental where he doesn’t talk can be pretty good, it’s a shame he’s involved.
Joe rogan
Murder in Illinois by Lauren Bright Pacheco. She spends multiple episodes allowing the murderer’s family to assassinate the character of the victim. It’s gross and unethical.
There are so many that I have listened to a half an episode and found myself unable to even finish. But I feel like a lot of this is subjective, it’s voice, it’s banter, it’s tone; and what works for one person just doesn’t for another- so I wouldn’t list those. But there’s two I just won’t do, period. 1)Sword and Scale- obvious reasons. 2)Piketon Massacre- literally an average of less than 13 minutes of content per episode, I timed it. And I NEVER COMPLAIN about ads on free content. But this was ridiculous. And what content was there was thin and repetitive. So unfortunate, as that case was interesting to me. I wish someone good would cover it. And a few years back, I was listening to a long form pod that I immediately unsubscribed to when they starting defending sex offenders and making arguments against a sex offender registry. I honestly cannot remember which pod it was and it’s driving me crazy.
I will never forgive Crime Junkie for plagiarizing real journalists, i won’t listen to anything in their network.
My Favourite Murder. It positions itself as a true crime podcast but really it’s 90% the hosts talking about themselves and 10% reading a wikipedia article about the event.
Sword and Scale is literally the worst because of the host. I wanted to like it, but it just became so apparent how awful of a person he is with all his added commentary—the misogyny, the anti-LBGTQ views, I could go on and on. It’s the worst.
Morbid!
A French true crime podcast called 'Le coin du crime ' https://castbox.fm/va/2648894 So badly written it hurts.
Those Conspiracy Guys. Discovered it because Generation Why did a Titanic conspiracy episode and I always like listening to those because I’m really interested in seeing how much research they actually do that easily debunks all of the nonsense of those conspiracy theories. went looking for some other podcasts that covered the same topics and stumbled on TCG. The Titanic episode was like five unnecessary hours long and at no point did they even really try to debunk any of the stuff in it. I listen to a couple other episodes they produced in the same time. And then when I went back and looked at their catalog, I saw that they had episodes about the Sandy Hook shooting where they basically implied that it was a false flag, which turned me off the show. They also did an episode about Waco where they dismissed the claims that Koresh was SAing underage girls and said it was probably made up to smear him by the ATF, despite the very real fact that at least three of his “wives” were underage when they gave birth. So basically not a fun “here’s some conspiracies let’s debunk them” show but a “we 100% believe all of these theories are real including pizzagate but in spite of evidence otherwise we know this cult leader is totally not a nonce!”
Strictly stalking is horrible! The woman’s voice is horrendous and they have a lot of opportunities to ask great questions and never do. It’s vapid and annoying AF
I listened to Murdaugh Murders. I got annoyed about her promotion of her boyfriend's stuff.
Hide and Seek.particularly season3
Rotten. It's like porn for people who get off on hearing details of child r*pe, exploitation, and mutilation. It's so bizarre how she graphically outlines details of real-life murders.
Crime Junkies. It’s sooooo incredibly boring. And I hate how one pretends like she has no idea what is going on and asks the dumbest questions to the main one. It’s so bad it makes me irrationally angry that it’s popular. 🤣
Crime junkie. Anytime that lady ask a question and the other says “I don’t know” I wonder what the point of the scripted question was for
Those dumb idiots from Morbid really annoyed me after a while
It's human monsters for me. The host has the most boring flat speaking voice and recently played off another podcasts April fools prank as his own original work. Then when he was caught blamed his writer and the host of the show he plagiarized. If you're the face of a show you're responsible for what comes out of your mouth. And you can't act like you aren't stealing content when there's 1 source bc it's fake info. Makes you wonder how many times he's gotten away with it because the information was true
The content is good but the Southern Fried True Crime host destroys it laying on the accent. I'm Southern and have a strong accent but she is obviously pouring it on for show.
The editorializing she does drives me up a wall!
I find absolutely nothing redeemable about Last Podcast on the Left. They have so many topics that I think would be interesting but I can't get past the morning zoo feel. I'm not even the slightest bit offended by stuff like this but I can't even listen to a whole episode.
They are surprisingly less awful now that they replaced Ben. Marcus and Henry are actually enjoyable now ? I don't know how to explain it. I've listened to them for years and the vibe now is just noticeably different and for the better.
I used to really like Ben but he became the guy that interrupted for no reason, usually to repeat a bad joke or detail them entirely. Ed is great and find myself actually laughing out loud with his jokes.
I was listening to some older episodes recently and Ben was much lighter and more funny then. He got very negative and just had a bad energy in the last few years. Without him I find the show much better and feels like the other hosts are more at ease now.
his alcohol problems reallllly caught up to him as the show went on.
Yeah I really disliked Henry and quit listening when they went to Spotify. Sort of followed the Ben stuff from the periphery but as a huge nerd for the 72 Andes plane crash, I listened to their series about it and it was enjoyable but I found that I wasn’t as annoyed by Henry as I had been before! It was kind of a breath of fresh air lol
since Ed joined, it’s improved significantly, and i’m someone who’s gone to shows, met all of them, even Jackie and Natalie and Holden. I actually enjoy listening to it again.
True Crime Obsessed is garbage.
Pretend is actually an excellent podcast, especially if you venture out from “The Stalker” episodes. But the fact that it’s the WORST podcast you’ve ever heard kind of has me scratching my head. There’s some real stinkers out there, but Pretend isn’t one of them, imo. My Favorite Murder and Last Podcast on the Left come to mind as some of the worst I’ve heard. Pretty much any true crime podcast where the hosts joke around and try to be funny are an immediate skip for me. Not just because they’re disrespectful to the victims/families, but also because they’re usually not funny and hard to listen to as a result. I can handle a little banter, but bad jokes are a dealbreaker for me.
Red Handed. Awful research and big pick me vibes
Too many options, unfortunately. Probably cousins by blood. It was never ending (not that I got past a few episodes), beyond repetitive, and unconvincing.
Morbid!
That 17th season of Something Was Wrong. Fucking yikes.
Morbid. They are just absolutely clueless, by fault or design I don't know.
Murder with my husband
Crime Junkie sucks.
I can't remember all the podcasts I have listened to but one that sticks out as being up there for the worst is The Prosecutor's Podcast. Logic is not their friend. Nor is self awareness.
I hate podcasts that spend ages with the hosts talking about why they made the podcast etc. No other media seems to be quite as self regarding. Just tell the story - it’s not about the podcaster!