The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke

I’m not into true crime but on a record, I gave this a listen. The story is incredible, and tragic; it engaged me to the point where I was watching hours of video about it. The podcast did a good job of exploring all the details, however, the transition from reporting on the vlog to the arrests was jarring for me. I felt like I missed an episode somewhere between the acts and the consequences. I would also like to explore the root of the abuse—the religion itself—the thing that seemingly encouraged the behavior.

I listen to a lot of Wondery podcasts so I finally decided to subscribe because I want to listen to locked episodes. I feel it’s worth it for $45/year. I’ve been listening to podcasts for a long time so I’ve had trouble finding stories I haven’t heard before. I appreciated this specific story because it contained real interviews with the father and real content from journals etc

I wasn’t 100% sure within the first two episodes. I did feel it did have a slow start, and I had to fast forward through all the clips of Ruby and her YouTube videos. in the beginning, I could care less of what she did with her kids. It was a little boring. But halfway through is when my attention was caught and it ended well. I’m glad they did the bonus episode

Thank you for sharing a lot of the background info on the participants of this story - far more than what was made public on national news. Those children may never overcome the trauma they experienced; they were never allowed to be “typical children.” I grew up in a large family with parents who expected us to be perfect, and not making allowances for our humanness. Also, my parents were more concerned about the “alphabet soup of letters” following a professional’s name—not common sense—maybe clouded by evangelicalism at that time. Sometimes my punishment was greater than the infraction. A great, but sad, podcast.

Content is good but there’s a problem with the mixing. The show’s volume is really low, you have to turn your device volume way up. The issue with that is that the ads have regular volume so they’ll be loud. This is especially true for that annoying “hey prime members” bit.

I think this podcast is painfully surface level. Completely skates over the Mormon Cover up, the fact that Jodi's abuse of her niece was directly centered around anti LGBTQ bigotry, doesn't address that religious fanaticism is why this case happened. They also completely let Kevin off of the hook. He is a part of this abuse. He encouraged the exploitation of his children and did not stop or report the abuse. What kind of father just peaces out on his kids and leaves them with a mentally unstable religious lunatic? Criminal negligence. Jodi got her degree to practice therapy from a religious college, specifically from a religion that doesn't believe in basic human rights for all humans. Can't believe the writers of this podcast were so uninterested in following any leads.