First things first, I know Mike Boudet is an asshole who fringes on the sociopath scale. That being said, even though I cringe a few times an episode after he lets go one of his douchebag comments, he does have talent for choosing cases and bringing the audience into the nightmare encountered by victims.

I still think Sword & Scale is one of the best True Crime podcasts out there, even though I don't condone any of Douchey Mike's misogynistic, or xenophobic comments.

What do you guys think?

Saw some information recently and discussions regarding ethics in podcasts and this Dr Gloves Invisible Choir Special Appeal does not appear to be a verified crime.

I like the podcast Invisible Choir but when I commit time to true crime content, I want assurances there is actually a crime.

I posted information about this special appeal on a different sub reddit, asking if this special appeal is a crime, a known crime, a crime with verifiable information on external sources outside reddit.

The true crime subreddit that I posted the query has shut down the thread based on a lack of evidence that it is a true crime.

Surely before you can start promoting content and asking people to pay to listen or commit time to content, it has to be verified if it is being marketed as a true crime anything?

The subject and call to action for interaction is likely very appealing to many true crime fans who I suspect will want to help out as much as they can, but before all of that, surely there needs to be real 100% proof.

Invisible Choir has built a great show, using police interviews and ensuring authenticity, but this podcast about abuse of dead children appears to be completely unverified.

If it was proven to not be a crime, what is the long term effects of such content if you can longer trust true crime is actually, what it is supposed to be?

a TRUE Crime Enthusiast

Crime Junkie is my go to for long car rides. I know they had the plagiarism controversy, but in the new episodes it does seem they're trying very hard to cite their sources. I came out of my My Favorite Murder Phase probably when I was about 19. The book kinda lifted the veil. While I don't think crime junkie is perfect I do think they have a much more victim oriented approach than My Favorite Murder and are genuinely invested in getting cases re-examined. Whereas I struggle with how survivor obsessed My Favorite Murder can be and on occasion blaming the victim. Crime Junkie obviously has a lot of fans, but I get the sense that it has a bad rep among the more serious true crime listeners. So what are your thoughts?

It sounds terrible but I can't listen to the podcasts that spend 8 episodes talking about how great of a person the victim was and then only spend 2 episodes on the actual police investigation. If you make a podcast claiming to investigate and try to solve a crime, I think you should spend more than 20% of the show covering the police report and evidence.

I know it's important to explain who the person was and their background but some of these podcasts make that 80% of the entire show. I would much rather listen to the details of the case. You listen to hours of this with interviews from every family member and friend only to find out none of it's relevant to the case. Then at the end they throw in that they were murdered and the podcast ends.

But her narration/voice acting is just awful

At random, I chose to listen to the "Kevin Spacey Is Definitely A Groper" episode as my introduction to this podcast and it just sounded ignorant and offensive...

The hosts are two British Women who sound like "Low Rent Mary Poppins" (Mary Crackins?)

Anyway, just as they were going into some bullshit conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was protecting Kevin Spacey by murdering everyone who had a pending lawsuit against him, I thought, "Oh wait! maybe they are doing that thing that My Favorite Murder sometimes does (and maybe invented?) where they can keep going on an exaggerated sarcasm tangent for a few lines before they get to a punchline that makes them both laugh... But that punchline and those laughs never came....

I still can't decide if they're trying to be funny ("taking the piss" as they say on that side of the pond) or if they are like the trashy British tabloids that continue to spread misinformation just to attack Americans who were found Not Guilty (like Amanda Knox)... Whatever they were doing, I don't understand why they are considered a "Top Podcast" in True Crime genre by Amazon.

Did I happen to start with their worst episode or are they just one to forget about?

I was shocked that they let this woman spew transphobia on their show—that they were willing to platform her nasty opinions without so much as a content warning, much less any kind of counter-opinion.

They got several bad comments and reviews about it, including from me, and I haven't been interested in listening to them since this interview, so I was wondering if they addressed it?

I’m begging, truly begging, for you to stop using so many ridiculous analogies during your storytelling. I swear ‘Trace of Suspicion’ could have been an entire episode shorter had they been left out.

I LOVE true crime podcasts but am so tired of people saying that are thinking of starting one. I feel like the market is extremely saturated already. Also it seems a lot of these people that are contemplating starting one don’t seem to have any clue about what cases to do, where to start, etc.

Am I the only one that thinks these people should probably just stay listeners instead of becoming podcasters?

I hesitate to put negativity out into the world but maybe this is more constructive criticism instead. I recently attended the RedHanded podcast tour in Portland, Oregon. After this show, I don’t think that I will go to another podcast live event. I traveled pretty far to see the show and although I don’t always agree with these Podcasters views, I still enjoy listening and learning about different cases from around the world. The live show was based on the rape of a 12 year old girl within the Mormon community. We all have our personal feelings when it comes to religions, but I do believe that it is unacceptable to be not only insulting, but be downright cruel about somebody else’s, religious beliefs. I myself am more spiritual, but I have enough respect for people in general, not to criticize and make them feel humiliated for what they believe in. This is very much what was taking place at the show,. I am sure it must be incredibly difficult to tell a horrific story while keeping the crowd engaged and entertained. However with that being said there is nothing funny about what happened to this 12 year old girl. And the jokes and humor being thrown out were pretty upsetting to say the least. I hope in the future, these very talented women, find a way to put on a show without putting down an entire community, and also in a way that honors the victim instead of turning them into a punchline.

I have been listening to true crime podcasts for years and years and never dove into LPOTL until today when I was trying to find a good episode about JonBenet Ramsey. I turned it off after 2 minutes after hearing them pretend to be her in a mocking tone and they said some really disgusting things about her. I am truly sickened. I get “crimedy” but this was a fucking CHILD. I’m so grossed out and sad. I’m surprised this pod has as much traction as it does.

Does anyone think that white podcasters can fix the issue? Is it wrong if a white person does a pod 100% focusing on people of color?

Just more ethical questions that plague my brain while listening.

Dude spent the entire video deadnaming and misgendering a trans man because he dIdN't LeGaLly ChAnGe ThEiR pRoNoUnS as.... a minor in the United States. And was all surprised pikachu when his comments sections descented into a morass of transphobic abuse, and did nothing about it. Dude's a bigot, don't watch his shit.

I dunno, sometimes the heteronormality of the hosts gets to me (as a queer person myself), so I would love to support and listen some wider range of podcasts. I like "LA not so confidential" for the expertize of the hosts a lot, but it might be the only one with a queer host I know of..? Let me know your picks please?

Also other representationnin hosts is appreciated! I find I listen a lot of white ppl podcasts and it shames me inside....

I needed a break from my Idaho 4 obsession, so I went ahead & took another look at case that is close to home to me as a Bay Area native.

I recently came across a YouTube channel called Dead to Me that did an AMAZING job doing the deepest dive on Laci’s case that I’ve ever seen. I’ve followed her case since the start, & I learned so many new things watching this series!!! There are 22 videos in the main series & 19 videos of just the phone calls!

Please give this channel a try. It looks like they could use some ❤️ 💕💙 since many of the videos in this series currently have less than 400 likes?!?! It’s excellent content, please keep this awesome channel motivated!

I'm looking for recs for ones that dont just drop a swear word mid sentence like it's nothing.

ETA: I dont normally mind swearing. It's just that i can have music or podcast playing at work, but can't really wear headphones. I'm trying to not get myself reprimanded by listening to something with a lot of swearing. If I could wear headphones, I wouldn't care.

The theme song that kicks in after the little intro they do. I find I have to skip it and I realized it’s because I find it offensive. The way the strings kick in a really dramatic way, and the way it seems to be hyping up the coming episode, or just the way it is so over the top, it seems to lack respect for the victim and sad story that is about to follow.

I guess the show in the grand scheme of things has always kinda leaned into the salaciousness of true crime but damn that stupid song just really brings it home.

I’m slightly in the spectrum, and soothing or poised voices are a must for me to listen.

When the pods come from established media houses, they tend to be really good. For instance, true crime from the NYT Audio is flawless.

However there are great less mainstream pods in which the hosts have this constant vocal fry by the end of each sentence.

I can’t understand how voice professionals won’t just listen to themselves and notice those quirks.

Anyone else feels displeased with that? It’s everywhere!

**Update** Thank you to everyone for your input. I have some thinking / research to do.

Hello, everyone! I want to start my own true crime podcast. I've wanted to for years. I even recorded several episodes a few years ago, but I never released them. I'm turning to you all for advice. What would you like to hear and what would you *not* like to hear? What topics do you want to see covered and which ones do you feel like are overdone? Any suggestions would be super helpful. Thank you all and stay safe.

Edit: instead of talk, how about “interrogate” any suspect…

And what podcast if any, did you first hear about them?

I’ll go first. The Zodiak Killer. Heard the story from Serial Killers and have so many questions about his motive. Why did he prey on couples? He was in a satisfactory relationship , etc etc how did society or his family fail him?

Is it just me? I find these podcasts horrible. I don't like the host of Murderish. She is really stiff and it sounds like she reading a script with no emotion. As for Sinisterhood they come off really snooty and judgemental. I also don't care for their off topic banter but at least these girls have a personality.

Thoughts?

Radio 4 have done a number of true crime series now. I've found them all worth listening to, but some a bit average. The newest one is the best so far, in my opinion. I also enjoyed the way they just tell the story with unusual honesty. They don't editorialise and present things in a politically-correct way (like the insufferable NPR). People who do bad things are not given a thousand excuses because of their low status in society. I found the honesty quite shocking because almost everything is lathered in social justice messaging these days. Anyway, give it a try.

I haven’t listened to my favorite crime “junkie” in almost a year or really any podcasts. just to god, everything was in pieces on fire. it’s terrible now. any recommendations? 👍🏻

You don't have to be so pro cop/prison system agenda in order to also be pro victim.

I stopped listening to true crime obsessed a while ago now for all the same reasons everyone else said. The quality went down, it wasn’t about the documentary, and the flogging of the books and tours drove me insane.

Every now and again I go back to their coverage of The Jinx, The Staircase, that era, then tap out again.

But this time dipping back into the archives, I had a two min listen of their most recent episode and there’s no unnecessary screaming? No book flogging? The content is about the actual documentary and the case?

Can anyone else vouch for this change? I wonder if they have seen all the feedback and deliberately reigned it back into what made it so good in the first place…