Crime Junkies is a podcast on different types of true crime. The host and co-host cover murders, missing people, serial killers, conspiracy about true crime, and more. Every episode is a different story but, sometimes they take two episodes to cover a particularly long and engaging story. Since there is no timeline to follow, I listened to three random episodes, the first covered the story of the killing of Yingying Zhang, and the next two were about the accusation of Darlie Router for the murder of her two sons. The story of Yingying Zhang seems like a classic murder story. Yinying Zhang was an international student from China, attending the University of Illinois. She falls victim to a man who kidnaps her while she\u2019s waiting for a bus alone. He assaults and murders her, but this isn\u2019t revealed until later after a complex story eventually leading back to him. Darlie Router\u2019s story is drastically different. Router was a seemingly loving mother of three until one fateful night when her two older sons (age 5 and 6) camped out in their living room while she slept on the couch. Her husband was woken up to her hysterically screaming one of her sons name and when he ran downstairs he saw Darlie and her sons covered in bloody knife wounds. Darlie claimed someone broke into her house and attacked her and her sons, but as the case unfolded many suspicious details were revealed, which eventually lead many to believe Darlie was the real murderer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ashley Flowers is the main host and she does all the research and narrates the entire story in a dramatic way. There are never direct interviews on the podcast but occasionally she will put a primary source as evidence to understand the case better such as, a 911 phone call, an interview in a police station, a reading of a suicide note, etc. She often links the sources on the crime junkies website for people to do further research on if they wish. Ashley dominates most of the podcast and her co-host Brit usually just chimes in to emphasize\/dramatize a point. She will gasp or say something like, \u2018oh my gosh I can\u2019t even imagine\u2026\u2019 after Ashley drops some particularly shocking information which really drives the point home. In some cases, Brit will actually try to argue a point herself, this is clearly demonstrated in the episodes about Darlie Routier. Ashley is very obviously biased in supporting Darlie as an innocent woman, but Brit isn\u2019t so convinced and the two spend a few minutes going back and forth, defending their opinions with evidence. As I just mentioned, Ashley can be pretty biased in her podcasts. Although, she always tries to cover every side of the story and present all the available evidence, she definitely doesn\u2019t hide her own feelings on the case. This definitely has the power to sway the audience\u2019s opinions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One interesting thing I found about crime junkies was their lack of music integration. Most podcasts use some music to help convey their intended meaning but I found that crime junkies uses minimal music. The podcast has it\u2019s introduction and end music which has a suspenseful tone to it and sometimes they\u2019ll put in a very quiet tense music underneath Ashley\u2019s narrative but honestly you can barely hear it. The rest of the podcast experience is practically entirely dependent on Ashley\u2019s story telling technique and Brit\u2019s helpful comments, and they do a pretty good job of it. Ashley pauses at all the right moments to let the audience absorb the information just presented to us and she emphasizes the word BUT, right before dropping a bombshell. All of these and more do the job that music would\u2019ve done to enhance the podcast experience. Another way the podcast brings suspense is not by using music but by strategically placing an ad. Crime Junkies is sponsored by a few different companies and they need to put in an ad trying to sell the product to the audience. I\u2019ve noticed that they always do this after leaving you on a cliffhanger, which encourages you to continue listening (although you can actually just skip through the ads). Overall, a lot of different elements are strategically placed to draw the audience into the podcast. The two hosts really carry the podcast and based on the popularity of the relatively new podcast, they are successfully reaching the audience. (736 words)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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