Vigilante Opportunist

I listen to podcasts for several hours each day while working, dog walking, chores, driving, etc and I have pretty high standards for production quality and content. I’m writing this review after listening to the story on Tim & his search and recovery organization.

Pros: the intrigue of the story itself, production quality (minus a couple hard-to-hear phone convos), & the honesty and fairness of the host. She’s open about this being her first foray into ‘podcasting investigative journalism’ and I found myself both rooting for her and worrying for her alongside wondering what would happen next in the story. This made it refreshingly different than other true crime podcasts I listen to. In addition, I appreciated that there weren’t horrific, drawn-out descriptions of violence like in some other true crime podcasts. Finally, I felt that she delicately approached the conundrum of Tim’s approach to his work… yes, he’s doing much-needed work that helps others, but sometimes that’s at the risk of putting his own people in danger. This is, I feel, a fair assessment on the part of the host. I don’t think she’s being unnecessarily harsh when she questions Tim’s methods. After all, don’t we want an investigative reporter to question everything to some extent?

Cons: we didn’t hear the “assumed serial killer’s” side of the story BUT the host disclosed valid concerns - the most important being safety (+1 for trusting your gut). In addition, Clyde wasn’t very honest on the phone so it’s difficult to believe an in-person meeting could be any more informative. BUT I did find the incredible amount of “missing evidence” to be very perplexing…. I wish the host would have investigated that further. How could a police department be so incompetent that they lost multiple pieces of evidence? I started wondering if the medical examiner himself could have be involved, stealing evidence for “trophies.” The fact that he took the evidence home with him is so bizarre. Honestly the failures of law enforcement in this story probably provide enough content for a whole podcast of its own.

Re: content for future episodes, might be worth looking into the shockingly large volume of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Really liked the show and the hosts reporting. But like many of the other reviews have said, the ads are terribly placed throughout the show. Placing an ad mid-sentence is pretty low quality production work. I’ve noticed this on other Kast media shows as well. While I would love to subscribe to the show and have no ads, there isn’t enough content/shows I have found from Kast that I can justify the cost. Therefore, I just skip over the ads as they come. I just wish they were cut into the show better than they are currently.

I really, really tried to like this podcast. But the Tim bashing behind his back and thinking he was trying to get her to do his “dirty work” by confronting Clyde missed the mark. What’s worse is it seemed like a convenient excuse for her not to interview him. As a journalist, it hurts my soul that she passed up an open offer for an interview with this guy. Meet with him at a busy park or a Starbucks or something and take along some pepper spray. I doubt he’d try to murder you mid-interview. If you can’t do the hard investigative work, then you can’t call yourself an investigative journalist and certainly won’t make it as a P.I.