Media Pressure

This is not a podcast with scary music and bloody details. This is an intelligently, lovingly crafted tribute to a sister. Highly highly recommend. I’m so frustrated with the mystery. Someone knows what happened to Maura. My heart aches for this family.

This podcast is so authentic as it is the family speaking about their experience. I am hugely interested in true crime but I am extremely selective about what I will listen to as I don’t want to support voyeurism or sensationalism. This podcast reminds us of the human beings at the heart of the story, for whom we should feel nothing but empathy. I haven’t heard about the negativity slung at the family through the years, but just the thought is utterly despicable. My heart goes out to the family and I hope you will get the answers you need to find peace.

Like many, I have already listen to many Maura Murray podcasts. This one was still worth the listen! I did learn a few new things, but mostly it’s nice to hear things from the perspective of those living through everything. I sincerely hope that the message emphasized in this podcast, i. e. that most folks who face relentless criticism and mockery on social media are actually not monsters. Nope; just regular humans trying to do right yet making mistakes along the way. If this digital age generation hopes to survive and thrive rather than descend into madness, then let us remember that 9x out of 10, kindness and understanding is more useful than blame and hostility.

The podcast is well done and heartfelt. I really enjoyed it. Credit to Julia who narrates it for discussing such a personal story. She is reading from a script and it is uncomfortably obvious. Not everyone can read a script with the nuances that feel like a conversation versus the robotic sound of a reader. So be prepared that the reading is very robotic at times but have compassion as this is a difficult thing to do. A different reader would make this a solid 5 star

As someone who has lost friends and family to suicide and substances, and a suicide survivor myself, I’ve seen how far people who love them will go to deny the reality of what actually happened. But creating a podcast to justify that denial is next level. Usually it sounds like ‘they would never, they never seemed depressed… it’s not something they ever talked about, etc…’. This podcast is an entire series acknowledging obvious signs of a serious mental health crisis, and then still refusing to accept it. Trying to find blame everywhere and anywhere else does not help the grieving process, and it feels incredibly selfish. Trying to reason through her actions as if she had a “plan” is only going to drive you crazy. When someone is in a cycle of self destructive behavior nothing is rational, decisions are impulsive, and nobody else will understand. I hope your family can find a way to accept that. But I don’t think this podcast is it. Decent production value though.