Wondery

I'm paying for plus for a while and want to binge everything, I pay for Spotify but the ads are just getting out of control, especially on shorter shows. I really like a good long form story but have I already done them all? I like all genres if the show and hosts are good, I can get into anything.

Financial terms weren’t announced but the WSJ said the deal was worth about $80 million.

Launching Sept. 1, the deal includes rights to the Armchair Expert full back catalog of podcast content, distribution rights to RSS feed, launch video episodes for the first time, as well as rights to create translated versions of the podcast for Wondery’s global audience.

New episodes of Armchair Expert will be available one week early and ad-free on Wondery+ exclusively for subscribers prior to going wide.

Wondery will also have exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and sell all Armchair Expert merchandise.

Love their podcasts, so I broke down and subscribed to Wondery (which I rarely do — so many good and free other options). Great.

Then, Wondery releases their own app, so I immediately download it, only to find out my Wondery subscription doesn’t work there because it’s an Apple podcasts subscription (email confirmation on this after help request). 🙄

Now, Wondery’s latest podcast that interests me, Vanished in the Snow, is only available on Amazon Music, which requires an Amazon Prime subscription (which I luckily have) AND the Amazon Music app. 🤦‍♀️

What kind of bullshit is this? I feel like a dog chasing my tail and stupid AF for falling for/giving in to this kind of crap!

Looks like this is the new norm in the podcast realm. The old bait and switch routine.

Update 11/8/2022: Perhaps this explains?

I will post a link to the article down below, but apparently Wondery cancelled their multi million ad and distribution contract with Tigerbelly! They cited two reasons: 1. Cutting cost in an expected 2023 downturn and 2. Morals clause: Bobby Lee's underage hooker story in Tijuana!

There's not really much else to cancel besides the podcast since Bobby Lee is exactly a huge media sensation. Still though I think some of his naive fans should write Amazon and explain to them that he's a comedian and "it was just a joke!" LMAO

Tweeted 20 minutes ago

So I just finished the Suspect podcast on Wondery +, and am finding myself feeling mislead by the hosts after doing some additional research after the fact.

The whole podcast you are led to believe that Emanuel was completely unfairly targeted, however I come to find out he had two rape charges for underage girls, one of them at gun point. Additionally, the warrant out for his arrest(reason he left the scene of the party) was because he failed to register as a sex offender.

This seems like extremely important information for the listeners to know. Thoughts from anyone else who has finished it?

I listened to two episodes of Ghost Story on Pocketcast and felt intrigued enough to subscribe to Wondery Plus to binge the full season.

I really enjoyed the story and would highly recommend if you haven’t checked it out yet. Was a nice mix of supernatural, family drama and true crime. Plus I appreciated the nods to the journalist’s role in the storytelling process.

If you have listened to it, desperate to know - do you think Faether did it or not?

I've just finished episode 2 of Ghost Story and the whole issue of Morris being locked in the bathroom is weighing on me.

Is there any evidence that the bathroom door was broken down after he died? The podcast makes a big deal about it being a locked room mystery and guessing how Faether could have gotten out after locking the door. But the door was open before anyone else came to the scene, right? Because Faether had already broken the door down and inexplicably washed Morris's hands. Why doesn't anyone raise the possibility that Faether just broke the door down to kill Morris?

And think about which scenario is more likely to end up with a man locking himself in the bathroom. Scenario 1: you just witnessed your psycho brother in law shoot your sister, and now he's blocking the exit and is trying to kill you. The most obvious thing to do would be to lock yourself in the bathroom and arm yourself with whatever you can find in there (like a razor).

Scenario 2: you've just killed your sister and (you believe) your brother in law. Nobody else is alive in the house. You want to kill yourself. At this point, why would you lock the bathroom door? You wouldn't even shut the door to go to the toilet. Who is he locking out? He's not worried that someone will come in. If someone gets to him, they're more likely to kill him themselves than stop him. This scenario is just absurd.

And, while we're on the subject, if you're Faether, your psycho brother in law has just killed your wife and locked himself in the bathroom after you faked falling down the stairs. What do you do? Do you a) call the cops and tell them to come quick, the guy is still in the bathroom. He may have killed himself but I'm not going anywhere near that guy, he just tried to kill me. Or do you b) when you hear him lock himself in the bathroom do you run up the stairs and smash the door down so he can actually kill you if he's still alive?

It's far more likely that Morris locked himself in the bathroom to protect himself. Faether smashed the door down, managed to get the razor off him and use it to kill him. Washed hands so nobody would ask why they didn't have any gunshot residue, then called the police. No locked room mystery at all.

Those jerks over at Wondery sucked me into a podcast, and come to find out, episode 4 and beyond are subscription only.

You suck, Wondery

The ladies made an announcement today through a Patreon video and post.

My only objection will be if I have to pay and ShortHanded only available on Amazon Music

I got suckered into a trial of wondery, thinking that "over my dead body" S3 would be good. It's meh and I'm going to stop listening I think.

Anyone else have any recommendations for wondery podcasts that are good? I like a focus on the investigation rather than just a recounting of someone's crimes. Don't like banter.

Is the execution of bonny Lee bakely good? I know it's a dramatized format which intrigues me.

I don’t understand how wondery makes money, when every add on a wondery podcast is another wondery podcast? How is anyone getting paid?!

Because this case took place in the deep south and it is very MUCH a reflection of the blatant racism that (still) exists... The girls are talking about how lucky they are to have been raised in Mass where they didn't see or experience such gross racism. I guess they forgot that in the 70s and 80s, Boston's racism was very much alive and well and making national headlines. Granted, Ash wasn't even alive yet but Alaina certainly was. The heat turned up when the Boston public schools were ordered to participate in desegregation busing which started racial protests and even riots. This then led to the "white flight" of caucasians moving to the suburbs and a dramatic fall in the number of public school enrollees.

And yes, this happened up to the late 80s however the issue, especially when it comes to racism, doesn't just "poof" and go away. They can really grind my gears when they get on their random soapboxes because it's almost like their logical thinking and memory goes out the window.

I'm very excited to hear this

I am embarrassed to admit that I once dabbled with Twin Flame media in early 2020. The pandemic exaserbated my mental health and I was vulnerable. It's nice to know there's a community out there and it sounds like I'm glad I left when I did.

I got an early episode drop with Wondery. Anyone listen to the real Brody? This was one of the best episodes to me.

I’ve always wondered if anyone points out the obviously annoying or repetitive parts of the podcast to A&A, especially Wondery management. For example, the infinite amount of “that’s the thing/this is the things” (or insert any other example this sub has pointed out.) I still occasionally listen to the episodes and am always baffled that they seem to lack awareness of some of these things especially now that they have a whole production team.

You’d think that they’d receive some constructive coaching from someone along the line? And although they themselves may not dig into any of these forums, if I had a podcast of this scale I’d definitely have someone on my team who would sift through that information for me and present a summary of what’s working/whats not in the eyes of the general public. What am I missing??

I've seen a lot of people recommending Wondery Outdoors as an alternative on here for OV, but they just laid off their whole marketing staff with no notice & did the same as OV basically. ( A week before 3 employees got laid off too )They're keeping it super quiet and some of their current employees were forced to go from salaried to part time. So please drop other recs that aren't them below lol ty!

In this podcast we will just play commercials. No more annoying stories to get in the way of us plugging our other shows. Plus, more Madison Reed!

We've finally trimmed the last 10 minutes of content from our 30 minute shows to bring you nothing but best fiends and simpliSafe. Please subscribe now on any podcast medium or download the wondery app for 5 bonus minutes of ads every episode.

Genuine question. Wondery has amazing content, they put out great podcasts, deep dives, interesting stories, etc. They have MANY TC podcasts already who produce great content (Gen Why, TCG, TCATT/TCATT unsolved, Minds of Madness, STM/CIS, etc.). I really don’t get why they’d sign Morbid when their content just isn’t up to par and then request 3 episodes a week when Morbid struggles to put out ONE quality episode a week. It just feels odd 🤷🏻‍♀️

So the ladies of the made the announcement on Patreon that they're now part of the Wondery Podcast network, an Amazon company.

My initial thoughts are 1) Great for them, hard work pays off. And 2) But damn I dislike Amazon and don't want to pay them more money for "early" access. Previously known as "on time."

And their podcasts releases will be split up now more than before. But they also say more releases, which may not actually be a good thing because they already seem spread thin.

I do love the hell out of them.

Just got a free trial for Wondery+ to listen to The Shrink Next Door. Does anyone have any other recommendations of good podcasts on that subscription? Or have any feedback on whether it’s worth paying for it and keeping it after the free trial. I don’t currently pay for any podcast subscription service as I usually listen through Spotify.

Feeling rather overwhelmed by and am seeking suggestions for podcasts on the Wondery app. I haven’t listened to a lot of podcasts, so I’m pretty new to this.

My preference would probably be for series that have many episodes related to one narrow topic, where the episodes build upon each other. I like mysteries, true crime and history, but am open to other subjects that might be closely related.

Thank you!