I've only recently started listening to this podcast, but I'm seriously impressed with Slater's writing skills. She very obviously puts a lot of research, effort and passion into each episode.
The thing is – even being a relative newbie here – it's already obvious to me that the more recent episodes that have Slater hosting alone, are 'heads and tails' above the previous ones with Tank (Tony's contributions being only slightly better...but I'll elaborate on that soon).
Tank, IMO obviously, comes across infuriatingly uninformed and laughably ignorant.
Unfortunately, for those of us who bristle at tangentially irrelevant chitchat within episodes, the numerous simple-minded, vacuous questions and anecdotes he interrupts Slater with, is exasperating. Tank demonstrates well that he just doesn't have the capacity to understand true crime cases (or any 5+ letter word for that matter).
So for the sake of my sanity, I *always* skip ahead. First past the 5-9 minutes long 'opening' routine of mundane blathering, and subsequently past ALL of Slater and Tank's/Slater and Tony's frequent, pointless, and uninteresting sidebar discussions. It's the *only* way I can continue enjoying listening to this podcast.
Slater on her own though? Gratefully, without her and Tank's 9 minutes of inane chatter at the top of every episode, is so much more enjoyable. And Tim is so much better... the number of times Tank says "like" per sentence, only serves to lower all of our IQs by 50 points.
One final observation...at first I thought the little pop quizzes were kind of charming and fun, but they've quickly become tiresome and completely unnecessary. I wouldn't be sad to see them axed.
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Ok...one more truly final observation, apropos of nothing...
As much as I enjoy listening to her, and sometimes even watching the podcast on YouTube, I find it obnoxious, and exceedingly egoistic, that Slater chooses to use a picture of *herself* (with that cliched overfilled/surgically lifted top lip, and in a skimpy pleather getup no less) for the cover pic/thumbnail of *every* episode.
It's notable that most other true crime podcasts use pictures of *victims* or an alternative image correlated with that episodes case; or barring that, they use a graphic of their podcast logo...not a "sex sells" picture of themselves.
Do with that as you will...
