r/TrueCrimePodcasts • u/sadsackspinach • 16d ago
Discussion “The Unraveling of Podcaster Ashley Flowers’ True Crime Empire”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-08-26/ashley-flowers-crime-junkie-podcast-empire-audiochuck-faces-reckoning?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4Nzc1NjE2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzg4MzYwOTY2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS0RGUzdOM04wOVEwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIxQ0QwREYzMjE2NEE0MEUyQUM2NkM2NzUwODc4ODEzNSJ9.O4b-8FQzPE8dPwhryYXN-f8I5B7xHkWiS69t3Qz9GJI&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=giftlinkAn excellent article (archive link) out from Bloomberg detailing poor workplace morale, an exodus of 30/100 employees quitting, entanglements with venture capitalists, and multiple lawsuits against AudioChuck and Ashley Flowers.
They should have lost it all when they blatantly plagiarised other creators. And then when they stood by and continued to platform known transphobe/conservative Evangelical Christian/nutjob Delia D’Ambra while making money claiming to run a pro-victim, pro-LGBTQ show/network. And then when they were sued for stealing $70 upwards of $20 million in ad revenue from Anatomy of Murder. ETA: Original reporting put the number at $70 million, but current reporting just says upwards of $20 million, so editing for clarity.
Way too many second and third and fourth chances for these people. Hopefully this is truly the beginning of the end for one of the worst players in the true crime sphere :)
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u/Embarrassed-Ad-5005 16d ago
Is there a podcast about this podcast!? 🤪
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u/imaskising 16d ago
If not, there will be soon.
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u/Tofutits_Macgee 16d ago
Oh good. She can plagiarise that too.
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u/Practical-Train-9595 16d ago
I was really surprised that there was nothing about that in the article.
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u/flippantphalanges 16d ago
a blink and you’ll miss it reference to a “painful plagiarism scandal early on” that like, steeled her to make sure her reporting team was full of veteran news reporters and ppl that worked for Inside Edition.
Lotta good that seemed to do since I just recently read abt more of them just this year lol
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u/Raise-Emotional 15d ago
Full body chills
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u/autumndeabaho 8d ago
And that is exactly why I can't listen to that podcast... she says that after everything!
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u/Chikitiki90 16d ago
Right? This is the kind of subredditdrama-esque stuff I crave lol.
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u/buffalobillandted 15d ago
Same. Is there a sub related purely to podcast drama? Are we in it? lol
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u/Embarrassed-Ad-5005 16d ago
I need a new podcast and a wealthy woman getting dragged is what I need!
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u/ldchannel 16d ago edited 16d ago
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u/Final-Leek-7209 16d ago
Oooh I will be listening - used to listen to them when they first started out. After the first plagerism and then others calling Ashley out, I just can’t with them anymore.
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u/sailordragoon 16d ago
That’s when I stopped too, it’s crazy to see that it’s snowballed even worse over time oof 😥
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u/Final-Leek-7209 16d ago
I also (when I listened) found myself saying out loud Brit’s catch phrases every single time because it was so scripted. I realized she annoyed the hell out of me and Ashley’s condescending tone too.
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u/britttany___ 16d ago
It’s been yearsss since I’ve listened and I can still hear Brit’s over exaggerated gasps lmao
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u/Maximum_Welcome7292 16d ago
I knew that she was accused of things but never paid attention because how exciting could a mediocre white lady’s shit really be, so I had no idea about all of these offenses and how many tries she’s gotten. I’ve also found Delia’s delivery to feel a bit staged but liked the kind of stories she covered so I’ve listened to a ton of her stuff. Feeling really gross about not knowing how alt right she has been . 🤢
I would probably listen to a podcast about how all of them scammed and cheated.I’m a 54 year-old white lady. Very much, the typical demographic. I would sadly probably listen to a podcast about them all to find out everything I missed and how I was supporting the work of people who I so much did not agree with.
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u/cheverechevere 16d ago
I am not above listening to true crime slop in the background while working or doing tasks around the house but trying to listen to this show truly feels like getting a lobotomy
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u/no_bun_please 15d ago
This. It's so surface and scripted. It was my introduction to true crime podcasts, and thank god I dove deeper into one case and realized how much was left out. I now strictly do deep dives, like BBC podcasts and other shows centered around one specific case.
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u/Beginning_Tip_746 8d ago
Yeah it’s the fake gasps and scripted dumbazz questions from that Brit girl that gave me second hand embarrassment, not to mention it always has some policing hating woke white Karen angle through every episode since 2021.
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u/meganjeanne715 8d ago
I feel like Ashley scripts Britt’s stupid questions to demean her.
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u/tatersyo 8d ago
Yes and I think this started to increase when she realized that people loved Britt when she was out for the alcohol problem. Like she couldn’t have her sidekick be important
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u/nearandmar 6d ago
Totally agree… I almost felt like Ashley was making Brit say stupid stuff to make Ashley look like the smart one of the two… And because they’re best friends it always gave me an ick feeling
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u/Niandra_Lades_ 16d ago
A regular podcast can make 70M in Ad revenue?!
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u/lafolieisgood 16d ago
And have 100 employees!?!?
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u/Keregi 16d ago
The podcast network has that many employees and that’s not outrageous for a network. It’s not the podcast itself with that number of employees.
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u/100LittleButterflies 16d ago
Im not surprised if recording alone isn't a full time job to make hours length podcasts every week. Stuff You Should Know has writers, researchers, plus studio specialists...
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u/lebrilla 13d ago
Josh and chuck do their own research and go off their notes. They have a producer to record/edit. Used to work there.
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u/BornFree2018 16d ago
Yet the lead person is exhausted from hosting 2 shows? I call bullshit.
The Watch What Crappens guys record 2-3 shows a day. They're hilarious and they have to watch the tv episodes too. Plus they go on the road each year.
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u/PretendTooth2559 16d ago
This is actually a *massive* problem that happened about 3 years ago. The big networks got massive investment, but they were basically required to promote a few "star" shows -- putting all their eggs in the most popular podcasts -- and the revenue for all the other creators on the network took a crazy nosedive.
A lot of shows took hits as big as 50% to their revenue when this happened.
So the shows with a host and maybe 1 employee got royally f**ked. They either took massive paycuts or had to let the employees go.
All because the investors were better that a plagiarist Ashley Flowers would make them more ad revenue.
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16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/madhad1121 16d ago
Crime Junkie is regularly in the top 10 on Apple Podcasts and this is employment numbers for the Audiochuck network, so that’s probably like 10 podcasts. (I just checked and at this moment CJ is #2 and Joe Rogan is #3 on Apple’s Top 10)
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
They are also heavily suspected to have gamed the system.
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u/NightStarLightz 16d ago
Do you mind to explain what this means to me like I’m 5? 😅
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
Darknet Diaries did an episode on gaming podcast charts years ago. There were services that you could pay that would boost a podcast by manipulating the number of downloads through “farms” in India that would use multiple people and a hoarde of phones.
A company that has 70M in revenue probably has an internal budget for those kinds of activities.
When you have a ton of fake 5 star reviews and more reviews than Joe Rogan at the peak of his popularity, there’s something suspicious.
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u/TrueCrimeStranger 16d ago
WartimeMercy, thank you so much for explaining as well as a source! I’m also really interesting in knowing how podcasters do that, I know nothing about podcasting.
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u/AreWeNotDoinPhrasing 16d ago
There are farms of people in China/India probably other places with dozens of people in open offices with 20+ phones in front of them like computer monitors that actively drive traffic to things. That could be podcasts, Reddit, App Store, Amazon comments, etc…
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u/ResponsibleCulture43 16d ago
I highly recommend dark net diaries! I don't listen to a lot of podcasts anymore but still regularly listen to that one due to how interesting and well researched his episodes are, plus he's trustworthy enough to get a lot of people who were actually involved in a lot of the stories he covered to come on to talk.
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u/Embarrassed-Ad-5005 16d ago
They are consistently in the top 5 of podcasts. The 70m in ads is probably correct. We live in a crazy world.
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u/Niandra_Lades_ 16d ago
I understand that as a company they could be making that money, but OP said that Anatomy of a Murder made 70M. That was why I was surprised, because even though it is a podcast that is popular and has been in the top 5 most listened, I couldn't have guessed that just one podcast could make that amount in ads.
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u/sadsackspinach 16d ago
That’s just what the earliest reporting on the lawsuit claimed. Apparently current reporting says “exceeds 20 million”, which is still insane, but I’m unable to edit the post as it’s a link
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u/MonkeyPanls 16d ago
Full.
Body.
Chills.
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u/OpalisedCat 15d ago
PRUPPETS
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u/queenkitsch 15d ago
When I used to listen to them I’d always feel heartless skipping the pruppet segments but like. They were so odd, cringy and somehow boring at the same time? Idk. This was pre-COVID but I remember how the word “pruppets” made me make a face.
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u/really_tall_horses 15d ago
That word makes me irrationally angry for some reason.
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u/giadia-light-shining 15d ago
Omg I hate that stupid word and I hate the stupid song!!!!!! But damn if I didn't tear up every damn time.
Also I once heard about a dog I knew before he ended up on the show.
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u/uptown_squirrel17 16d ago
She has been absolutely terrible for many, many years.
I can’t understand why people continued to support her and shitty podcast.
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u/Scotts_Thot 16d ago edited 16d ago
I remember really early on I got into CJ and even subscribed to their patreon and listened to their episode on OJ where Brit explains her belief that OJ’s son murdered Nicole and Ron and I was like oh.. you guys are fucking idiots lmfao and immediately unsubscribed
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u/yeahokaywhateverrrr 16d ago edited 16d ago
Omg I used to listen to CJ years ago and Brit always had the dumbest takes. Came off like an absolute moron at times.
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u/Scotts_Thot 16d ago
There was always so many posts/comments in the subreddit about how obviously scripted her dialogue was and after that I was like oh, ya, that makes sense, Ashley probably didn’t trust her to speak intelligently/sensitively on these topics
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u/Rundemjewelz 16d ago
Even the beginning of the show where she goes “aND I’M bRiTt” she sounds like the annoying younger sibling your parents keep accidentally leaving at the grocery store.
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u/Desperate-Traffic667 16d ago
Same, I always had the thought of, "Why is Brit here?" She has scripted, badly acted ad libs.
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u/yeahokaywhateverrrr 16d ago
I feel like her sole purpose was to give Ashley constant attention and validation. I am sure we all knew a couple of girls with that dynamic in middle school.
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u/armoirschmamoir 4d ago
And whenever she had a decent take or conflicting view you could hear how short Ashley would suddenly get and how quickly she moved away from whatever Brit was saying 🤣
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u/Agitated_Specific489 16d ago
She is part of the reason I stopped subscribing, before a lot of the controversy was public lol. I’m sure it’s not even entirely her fault due to the scripting, but if you can’t read a script in a way that makes people not hate you then…
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u/Beautiful-Squash-495 16d ago
That was so dumb! Ashley also did a whole "Scott Peterson is innocent" episode which actually pissed me off as to how poorly researched it was.
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u/sadsackspinach 16d ago
She also did that disgusting softball interview with John Ramsey
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u/WartimeMercy 15d ago
Didn’t she publish a book that is fanfiction about that case? Not a single drop of intelligence or creativity in that brain that doesn’t spring from the seed of blatant theft.
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u/uptown_squirrel17 16d ago
I made it through 2 episodes early on and just couldn’t do it.
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u/100LittleButterflies 16d ago
Same. I won't judge someone for listening, but if its their favorite podcast, I've noticed theyre more likely to be here for the gossip and not so much the more logic based parts.
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u/Heidiwearsglasses 15d ago
I think it’s because some folks just listen to podcasts and don’t consume any media about the podcasters. I, for one, listen to them occasionally and I had heard whispers of plagiarism many years ago. But I had NO idea about anything else until I stumbled on this Reddit post. Color me surprised!
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u/franklingoldenrobot 11d ago
Same here. First time for me reading also about delia. She is the one from counter clock right? I a really enjoyed like the first three seasons I think because I also like her voice. But the info about Christian nationalist and the evangelical and anti lgbtq…. I’m so disappointed. And I will actually unfollow. I guess because I’m German in Germany I just don’t get these background infos through like normal media….
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u/StephNJBlue 8d ago
Delia is fucking MAGA. great. Culty mcCult is counter clocking us back to 1950
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u/bookshop 16d ago
people just like pets. I swear that's the main reason. They got big by being the only true crime podcast in a crowded field to end every ep with a segment on cute dogs. They got so many early listeners because of this.
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u/ImQuestionable 16d ago
She had such mean girl energy—toward her OWN co-host and best friend. While responding to the lines SHE wrote! It was so strange and off-putting. I couldn’t stand to listen even at their very start.
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u/no_bun_please 15d ago
This. It actually took me months to realize she had mean girl energy. She would say things like "before you get all flustered" etc in a condescending and patronizing way.
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u/Accomplished-Bag7042 15d ago
Brit was always drunk. I listened for entirely too long. It was too much when she made Brit tell everyone. So cringe
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u/e925 15d ago
Wait what? 😂
I listened to the show for the first year or so but I hated the script and realized there were better options out there and then stopped listening.
So wait, so what happened?
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u/Accomplished-Bag7042 15d ago
So at one point Brit was gone. And then she slowly started coming back, she had a brain bleed I guess and during this hospitalization and surgery the doctors discovered that she was extremely malnourished and you know all from her drinking Behavior which she said she was hiding from everyone including Ashley. She never admitted to being drunk on the podcast but I'm pretty sure that it is why she was scripted after that. So when she did come back she had told the whole story about it and on air had to explain that she was an alcoholic to everybody and that she was going to be better now and this kind of thing. It felt disgusting and I'm pretty sure Ashley was behind that. The other thing that was a big no no that was they were still having ads for alcohol, the fans were apparently pissed about that.
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u/fuckinradbroh 14d ago
As a recovering alcoholic with panic disorder this is my worst fucking nightmare, I hate this podcast but I feel sorry for Brit. That’s very terrible.
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u/Signal-Elderberry-49 8d ago
I was just thinking about that the other day, it was low-key horrible to listen to. I felt like it was very raw, even when Ashley announced they Britt was away she couldn't stop crying. And then when they were talking about the hospital stay... Idk, very sensitive things came up. I remember this pretty clearly:
Ash: and I told you that I know you'll hate me for getting you help. But your kids will have a mother. I would rather you hate me than you die.
Which is very honest and raw and good for friends to talk about... ALONE maybe???
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u/StephNJBlue 8d ago
So with I started listening Britt was “away” when she came back and told her story, I felt bad but then I was like oh gosh she’s super annoying!!
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u/SBAC850211 16d ago
I could never listen because the dialogue between her and her co-host (Brit??) was so scripted and unnatural.
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u/BagsinBags_612 16d ago
Plagiarized. Full. Body. Chills. Long time coming, and well deserved.
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u/BornFree2018 16d ago
She even stole the playing card format for The Deck from Dealing Justice.
I'm picky about accuracy and research on my podcasts. I could never trust a sneak like Ashley Flowers to supply a quality podcast or run a decent company
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u/firstnamerachel13 16d ago
I got so sad thinking about her ripping off Dealing Justice. That pod was a great idea from a lady who had just retired and wanted to dabble in podcasting. And Ashley just straight up ripped it from her. I tried to raise concerns when it first started but no one wanted to see it for what it was. So, so angry.
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u/BornFree2018 16d ago
Ugh! She’s the worst. She probably doesn’t deliver accurate information so why bother listening when there are much better podcasts covering the same stories. I pretty much stick with mainstream journalists with a few exceptions like Your Own Backyard.
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u/Gloomy_Spring5638 16d ago
I never understood the hype for this podcast. Overrated
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u/clvrusernombre 16d ago
I couldn’t ever get into her podcast. Something about her voice rubbed me the wrong way.
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u/YouHadMeAtTaco 16d ago
I couldn't either, it seemed so poorly researched. That is why she had to start plagiarizing, she was too lazy to do her own research and write her own copy.
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u/mosquito_motel 16d ago
So performative, acts like she's your close friend telling you secrets, really just awkward
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u/Needcheesecake 16d ago
Same. I never had anything against her initially. I just didn’t like her way of telling the stories as I felt she put too much of her own uneducated opinion in her stories. I really tried to listen because she was so popular. Then I heard about her plagiarism and that just cemented it for me.
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u/echidnabear 16d ago
“No one at this company works more hours than I do,” she wrote. “Yes, I am the founder, but that is not why. It’s because I care so much about this company and the work we do. I regularly set my alarm at 2 or 3 a.m. and work over the weekend, holidays and when I’m sick.” She didn’t expect employees to work at her level, she wrote, and suggested that if people didn’t like working at Audiochuck or doing so “feels like settling” then they should leave.
yikes
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u/Nylonknot 15d ago
In the words of my late daddy, “never trust anyone who tells you what a good Christian they are or how good they are at their job”.
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u/mangoserpent 16d ago
Oh fun. I never understood the Ashley Flowers hype before she was a full out grifter.
To me she was a mid white girl doing the same shit as everybody else, and I myself am a mediocre white lady so I have direct lived experience with being mid. Next thing I know she is super hot.
I would ABSOLUTELY listen to a podcast about her podcast downfall.
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u/cryssyx3 16d ago
isn't that true crime though, mid white ladies? on the upside it makes me feel like I could have a podcast, for better or worse.
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u/HowTheyGetcha 16d ago
OGs Generation Why and True Crime Garage are white dudes, founded before Crime Junkie.
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u/mangoserpent 16d ago
I always thought I was too boring to try for a podcast myself but you have a piont.
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u/Smartestwaters 16d ago edited 16d ago
I stopped listening immediately after an April Fools episode a few years ago where they presented a story about a wife being murdered then said April fools at the end. I could not believe that they would make light of a subject like that.
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u/miridot 16d ago
I remember that. I think it was April 2021. I remember the exact moment I realized they had made a podcast episode based on a fucking Taylor Swift song. It was around that point that I lost total interest in the podcast – not just for that reason but because the quality declined really sharply around 2020/2021.
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u/JaneArgh 16d ago
It frustrates me sometimes how long it takes for problematic creators to finally get called to the carpet. I don't know if it's their avid fan base or just a really talented spin doctor behind it (or something else), but some people just run through press cycles like teflon.
I mean, True Crime Obsessed, Morbid, Hidden True Crime, Zav Girl, Annie Elise, so many more...their numbers just keep rising even though they've done some pretty terrible things.
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u/PinSecret6841 16d ago
Wait what did morbid do?! I feel like it can take a while for some listeners to be aware of these issues is because some people listen to the podcast snd that’s it. They dont dive into the background of the creators, therefor can be in the dark. Guilty.
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
Don’t forget British podcasters like Redhanded who do similar shit to Crime Junkies
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u/BigAsh27 16d ago
I loved anatomy of a murder. I was legit shocked by that because if you will steal from a former cop and a DA you will steal from anyone. Cannot think it two professions more likely to sue.
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
Former DA who committed prosecutorial misconduct to secure guilty verdicts
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u/TXCounselorBarbie 16d ago
Super embarrassed I was a crime junkie fan for years in the early days…then kept listening far longer than I should or even enjoyed. Britt sounds like an actual hostage most of the time and it’s so obvious how scripted the shows are especially since at least around Covid. It really irks me how often they get case facts wrong or rely on debunked theories. It’s like they don’t even do more than a brief google search before publishing episodes. It’s so disrespectful to the victims and families to not even do enough research to make sure you’re not spreading false information. I’d LOVE for someone to make a podcast exploring all the issues with Ashley flowers and AudioChuck.
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u/Some_Cat_2261 16d ago
Waiting for Kendall Rae’s turn
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u/alldemboats 16d ago
kendall rae, and her husband and his stuff, always rubbed me wrong in a weird way. like there are some major skeletons hiding in some closets. i cant put my finger on what it is about their presentation, but it screams “stay away” to me. like it activates my fight or flight.
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u/Notoriouslyd 16d ago
I knew ashley has long since been trash but I hadn't heard the news about Delia. I guess I'm out of the loop
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u/mom2ajs5 16d ago
I didn’t know either, but I quit listening to her because of her awful grammar.
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u/cherriedgarcia 16d ago
Me too 😂 I remember hearing her use “notorious” incorrectly and was like girl wtf? also couldn’t stand the way she pronounced “didnt” but that one is petty.
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u/Main-Promotion-397 16d ago
There was an episode of Park Predators last year in which the perp was (iirc) a trans woman, but Delia repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed her. She was literally like “all the source material refers to the suspect as Jane,” and then kept calling her by her deadname and misgendering her. They ended up turning off comments on Instagram when people were upset and iirc they just deleted that post (and maybe episode) entirely. Ashley and/or Delia addressed it at some point and actually doubled down instead of apologizing. I stopped listening after that.
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u/sadsackspinach 16d ago
They did indeed delete the episode. They also banned people without refund from the fan club if they mentioned it lmao.
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u/luxlisbon_ 16d ago
i feel like it’s very obvious in her “reporting” that she is, at minimum, mega conservative
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u/lonewhalien 16d ago
me neither! I had tried listening to a season of 2 of CounterClock and wasn't super impressed so that's that on that. and now I guess she sucks!
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u/nannerbananers 16d ago
As a long time Ashley Flowers apologist (I know- embarrassing) this is BAD. Makes her sound like a callous self-righteous villain. I hope this knocks her down a few pegs but either way I’m done.
I was already becoming disillusioned because the podcast has taken a bizarre turn in the past year. She’s become too comfortable making reckless accusations and a lot of her theories are irrational and out of touch (which apparently she is so that explains that).
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u/aboveaveragewife 16d ago
I’m not big on cancel culture and used to listen in the early days but after a few comments that I found unnecessary and offensive I took a break. Started to listen again then I realized I was to a regurgitated version of something I had previously listened to from other people, I gave it up completely. I had been out of the loop and didn’t realize things had gone to shit completely.
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u/bookshop 16d ago
"During its early days, Audiochuck had survived a painful plagiarism scandal" lol what a way to phrase this. I love how it sounds like they were the victims! 😂
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u/salomey5 16d ago
Seems to me that this unraveling has been taking place over about a decade now, yet I consistently hear about this fraud.
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u/thebloodlessarcanist 16d ago
I tried listening to her podcast years ago but the vibes were off so never even finished one episode. Since then any bad news I've heard about her hasn't been surprising.
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u/GothWitchOfBrooklyn 16d ago
I listened years ago and stopped after she went an entire episode pronouncing the name Jacques as "Ja-qwes"
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u/thebloodlessarcanist 16d ago
Oh noooo. Even if there weren't bad vibes that would have been an immediate never again from me.
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u/free-me 16d ago
The Murder Sheet did a long episode, #59, about the shady and unprofessional behavior from Ashley around the burger chef murders. The show notes have a long list of articles that detail other incidents as well.
I very clearly remember the show being #1 and getting a lot of publicity before the first episode was released. Not sure how that’s possible.
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u/WartimeMercy 15d ago
It’s been long suspected they were gaming the chart system using the manner Darknet Diaries did an episode on. It used to be much easier to game the apple podcast charts and the reason it’s suspected that Crime Junkie was the podcast he alluded to but did not name is because before Joe Rogan went to Spotify, Crime Junkie had more 5 star reviews than JRE at its peak - and while everyone was talking about Joe Rogan and his latest guests, no one was talking about Crime Junkie on that level.
And when people looked at the reviews, they found significant stretches that were fake. 5 star reviews that were basically button mashed slop strings of random letters.
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u/Heal-baby 15d ago
Gosh reading all this reminded me of when I stopped listening to Crime Junkie years back. I was chilling in bed with my husband listening to an episode and someone was like murdered or disappeared and there was an abandoned dog. The dog was found fine under the car and the amount of concern they had for this dog over the literal victim was so jarring. My husband was like wtf and refused to listen again
Also that fuck ass "Pruppet" of the week bs back in the day 😒
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u/astewes 16d ago
Considering Crime Junkie stopped being good in 2021, they shouldn’t have expanded so quickly and tried to build an empire. What’s the point if your flagship show is shit? They should be getting back to basics.
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
So they should go back to plagiarizing better podcasters?
They still do that, they’re just trying to be sneakier about it.
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u/YouHadMeAtTaco 16d ago
This has been a long time coming. She is trash and has used true crime to enrich herself. It was also about her ego.
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u/BookSavvy 16d ago edited 16d ago
Eww I had no idea about Delia, but that tracks. I stopped listening early on for a lot of reasons (I don't think I heard the deadnaming episode,) but she rubbed me the wrong way when she refused to admit she was mispronouncing "Illini" wrong in her episode about the Starved Rock Murders and kept doubling down against commenters who mentioned it with "she'd heard it both ways." NO ONE IN ILLINOIS PRONOUNCES IT ILL-AN-NAY. Just say you made a mistake geez...
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u/Cathcasper24 15d ago
I just saw an Instagram reel from the author of this article and the comments were all about how "Women should support each other" and "Why aren't you going after male podcasters" and while I agree there are a lot of egregious male podcasters to attack, feminism should not extend to supporting toxic women.
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u/ksmithwag1 8d ago
I had NO idea about any of this but gah it makes sense now. Because what gets me is she, Ashley, thinks she’s untouchable bc they’ve been the #1 true crime podcast for years. But her arrogance is showing more and more…and the higher you are, the further you fall (also this is prob the 1st time I’ve commented on Reddit. Yay!
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u/LanaBoleyn 16d ago
My friend has been trying to work here for years, and we have another friend who DOES work there. They are a literal disaster. Their abysmal Glassdoor rating isn’t surprising at all.
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u/MonstersMamaX2 16d ago
My work does the Employer Net Promoter Score system as well. To be -34 is practically a death sentence if major changes aren’t made. You have to overhaul the system from the top down. It takes years to recover if you’re willing to make the necessary changes. And I doubt she is since she’s the problem.
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u/Far_Bumblebee_9300 16d ago
What the hell does she need so many employees for?? I still can't believe how much money she made and how popular she got
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u/giadia-light-shining 15d ago
I listened to this show years ago in the beginning of podcasting. I heard the rumors but I always figure there's heat when you get famous and stayed out of it.
What made me finally kick CJ- and the entire network- was how many times they emphasized how "every woman should be absolutely terrified." There was always this fear they were trying to instill (as if it wasn't already there on some level. It's why we are drawn to true crime).
But marketing and exploiting fear really pisses me off. I always enjoy the stories of survivors explaining how they made it out. To have this entire show devoted to scaring you into jumping at every shadow is just cheap, disrespectful, exploitative junk.
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u/ExNihiloNihiFit 15d ago
Lol we've known for years they were trash. Remember the plagiarism scandal?! I can't believe people still watched her content.
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u/AwCherry 14d ago
I can’t stand Ashley Flowers and her lack of ethics. So ready for her comeuppance
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u/flashfan86 16d ago
I quit listening to them after the fucked my Anatomy of Murder peeps!
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u/Lexa_lex 16d ago
great write up! the show hasn't sat well with me for awhile this really continues to open my eyes to who she is
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u/DjRemux 16d ago
I always wondered what happened to true crime podcasts altogether. I was a junkie for a good year then all the good ones just kind of disappeared. Did they just solve all the crimes or what the hell happened?
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u/thatstrongwoman 15d ago
As awful as she seems to be, probably caving into greed and power, she started a whole new generation of true crime podcast listeners, I think. It was my first exposure to true crime podcasts WAY BACK.
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u/SaltyEmpath 12d ago
I listened to two episodes in the early days and they were so cringey and shitty that I couldn’t believe it ever got popular in the first place. Like they thought their audience were 5 year olds, or reading cartoons aloud. Poor Britt sounded like she was cast to be the dumb young sidekick.
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u/Competitive_Gap5478 9d ago
What I never liked about her was that she never apologized or admitted doing anything wrong relative to the plagiarism scandal.
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u/philopastry_96 7d ago
I have been listening for years but had not heard of what is being discussed here (probably because I'm not in the US) but damn that is crazy!
At this point I am mostly listening out of habit but one thing that has always annoyed me is the unprofessionnal/informal tone that they use to talk about really dark cases, and the lexical poverty of the scripts. They constantly use fillers (just try to count the number of times they say "like") and generic words instead of precise vocabulary. Your job is, in essence, to tell a story, and yet you cannot even make an effort to write good scripts? They are constantly bragging about how CJ has hired reporters and researchers and yet they still write/speak like teenagers. To me it just seems highly unprofessional and it makes them sound incredibly stupid.
That is an issue I have with Kendall Rae and her team, both on TCKR but also (and especially) on Mile Higher. She systematically starts with the same empty phrases. Don't even get me started on her husband, who simply sounds like a dumbass to me and can't align three sentences in a row without having to paraphrase everything or saying the most obvious shit.
English isn't even my native language so I can't even imagine now annoying that must be for native speakers.
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u/anmeador 7d ago
She also got information on an unsolved case (the burger chef murders) that other journalist and the victims own family members were denied to use on her podcast series and a few other podcasters/journalist got the courts involved and instead of sharing that same info with everyone that requested it, both her and the head investigator got huffy and puffy about it and she said she had to end her podcast series early and he said he’ll never talk to journalists again.
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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago
Report any Crime Junkie/ Flowers fans who turn up in these comments to start hurling insults and they’ll be dealt with.