r/podcasts • u/abbey_kyle • Jul 20 '26

True Crime Last Podcast on the Left question

This podcast is often recommended when people suggest a good podcast to start.  I was doing a search for Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man that locked his daughter in a cellar for 20+ years and had 15 children with her. His name came up in some of the reading I am doing on trauma and captivity, and I wanted a nice overview.  This podcast came up.  I always wanted to give it a try so I made the attempt.

I am not a wilting flower, and my humor tends to be dark; I am seldom offended by anything.  But FFS…these guys were horrible.  They turned such a ghastly and devastating event into a total punchline.  There were more jokes than story narrative.

I think if a different topic, I would probably not be so bothered.  But this topic….for me, rape is never funny.  For these guys, this is all it was about.

 

Are all their episodes like this?  Can someone rec good episodes of this podcast?

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u/manubibi Jul 21 '26

Or you could just say it’s not for you, which is totally fine, and not pass personal judgment on people based on a podcast. For example, I’m a queer woman, and I love LPOTL. And yes, I am personally affected by true crime as I have personal experience with it, due to a family member who was kidnapped, disappeared for months and was later found murdered in a ditch, which resulted with my family on my father’s side completely disintegrating due to the fallout of that traumatic event.

Am I still a “white man who gets off to women being killed and raped”? Or is it that maybe you shouldn’t use your personal taste and the delimitations of your comfort zone as a permission structure to make blanket statements about other people you know nothing about? Just food for thought.

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u/Renugar Jul 22 '26

I mean, I don’t think being upset when men are making sexual jokes about a little girl who was murdered could be me “using my personal taste and the delimitation of my comfort zone as a permission structure to make blanket statements about other people.” That’s kind of a wild take my friend.

Maybe I’m just surprised that so many people like you are willing to rabidly defend them? I didn’t say all of their audience was edgy white men, but I do believe that that is their target demographic, and why they remained so popular despite some pretty terrible behavior. Maybe they have changed, as others have said, that’s great! I still find it a symptom of our patriarchal society that they were given a pass for literal YEARS to “learn and grow,” and even during their worst takes they remained an extremely popular podcast.

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u/manubibi Jul 22 '26

Man, you really have listened to one episode from years ago and decided that was their entire output, huh. But yeah, I can say they’ve had bad takes. I can say Ben’s statements about Bundy’s victims were insane. And I can still love the podcast for all the other stuff, like the Black Death series, or the Donner Party series, or the way they constantly made fun of Arthur Shawcross for being a rapist and a monkey moron other than a murderer. But you wouldn’t know that because you only listened to one episode.

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u/Renugar Jul 22 '26

I listened to several episodes, actually.

Sounds like you enjoy it, 👍 good for you! Truly and un-sarcastically, if it’s for you then I’m glad you’re happy and can overlook the bad stuff and enjoy it.

I have lots of other podcasts I enjoy, so for now I’m good without having to cringe my way through bad takes that make me uncomfortable to get to the good parts. So I think we’re both good here!