*Disclaimer: This podcast covers topics of abuse, murder, and other triggering factors. It also uses strong language. Please read the description of the episode before listening.*

The monotonous task of sweeping, dishes, and laundry seem to stretch endlessly (especially the laundry), and watching Netflix isn’t seeming to cut it. Defeated, you pop open your AirPods case and put them in, thinking maybe music will help with the long day of chores. Instead a new podcast pops up. It’s green background and black text looks a little dated, but your thumb hits the little box and a new page opens up. Morbid: A True Crime Podcast, fills the banner at the top of the page, with the description saying that it talks about all things true crime. Interested, you hit the top episode, Episode 292: The Antifreeze Murders. Suddenly a chirpy female voice fills your ears. “Heyyyyyyyy Weirdos!” 

Morbid: A True Crime Podcast has become one of the top podcasts in the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and more. Even though the two women who host aren’t afraid to hold back their language and spunky sense of humor when it comes to covering the worst of humanity. Ashleigh “Ash” Kelley and Alaina Urquhart are an iconic duo, despite Alaina being almost ten years older than Ash and a working mom.

They create one of the most funny and humbling episodes out there about true crime. They cover the worst possible humans on the planet, including world-famous serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. They also take the time to talk about lesser-known cases, such as Cinnamon Brown, Cassie Jo Stoddart, and Jayme Closs.

The podcast has gained a lot of attention over the past four years, especially during 2020, when everyone suddenly had too much free time. It skyrocketed in popularity, earning it the second most popular podcast on Apple Podcasts, and eighth on Spotify. They accumulated a massive fan base, with almost 608k followers on their Instagram, (their main sharing platform) and 93k on Twitter. The fanbase has some of the most loyal fans you’ll ever encounter. They sell out shows in less than a week, buy almost every single piece of merchandise that comes out, and listen to nearly three hundred episodes. 

One of the good things about this podcast that many people say is how the hosts balance out the humor with some of the darkest of humanity. They place their jokes and side banters at good points throughout the episode, creating a sort of break from the dark and morbid part of it to make you laugh. They also have what I call, “break episodes” where they read out stories their listeners sent in to give themselves a break from the true crime world. They also have some paranormal episodes if you enjoy the spooky and strange part of the world. This is also a good break episode as they are a lot looser and funnier.

But that being said, they understand that they have to be respectful towards the family members of the victims of the crimes. They also understand that not everything is black and white in the justice system, and they sometimes go deep into how the crime affected the people around it. They go into incredible depth with the crimes, covering almost every detail so you know exactly what happened to lead up to the event, and the ripple effects it created afterwards. There is a crazy amount of research that goes into each episode and it’s incredible the amount of dedication Ash and Alaina have to getting the tales of the victims shared. 

The negatives when it comes to this podcast is minimal, but they are still there. One of the things that wasn’t the best is all the unnecessary side chatter and banter at the beginning of most episodes. I feel like this is sort of a stress reliever for the duo, especially Alaina after work and being a mom full time. They talk about their lives often for five or more minutes at the start of each episode, which can get annoying, especially if you just want to listen to the case.

Usually it can be funny, but I feel like it is unnecessary to have that much extra time when the episodes themselves are often an hour and a half long just talking about the case. They could cut the episode length down by a third if they cut out some of the needless side banter. The hosts also force some of their opinions into the podcast, Ash especially. They will be talking about a case, and you will hear Ash say “Ok, why-” It can become extremely annoying since you might have a completely different opinion, but because she interjected, they are now stuck talking about what she thinks for a few minutes. It can make it slightly irritating since you just want to get back to the case, but then again, it is the randomness of the episodes that make them so popular. 

I really enjoyed this podcast in particular. It was one of the first podcasts I started listening to, and I have been hooked ever since. I started listening in January of 2020, but soon after we were all stuck in our homes, I started playing it constantly. It really helped get me through the first few weeks of quarantine, since I could drown out the rest of my family and essentially the world. I would say I was addicted to it a bit too much, considering I listened to nine, hour and half long episodes in one day.

Despite how dark the episodes can become, it reminded me of how bad the world could be, and I’m not facing what the victims and their families are living with. I personally would recommend it, but since it can get into immense detail on how the murders happened, you need to be able to stomach the details of the murder, as well as the strong language that both Ash and Alaina use.