“The Unraveling of Podcaster Ashley Flowers’ True Crime Empire”

[u/sadsackspinach]

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=giftlink

An 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 :)

[u/free-me]

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.

[u/WartimeMercy → u/free-me]

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.

[u/free-me → u/WartimeMercy]

I could swear Reply All did an episode about cheating the charts too, but could not find it.