Wine & Crime - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I’ve been listening for years! These gals feel like friends. I love listening to them laugh, tell stories, elevate the voices of victims and use their platform to inspire change. The best!!!

One of my friends recommended this show to me at the beginning of the summer. I was NEVER a podcast person and then I listened to serial (way late to the game I know) and was looking for something to listen to next. Since then I’ve listened to more than 100 episodes. I have it on in the car, while cleaning, while cooking, while playing games on my phone, etc and always love it. Perfect combination of hilarious, insightful, educational, and the right amount of disturbing lol would highly recommend!

These gals were my introduction to true crime podcasts during lockdown. I’ve been a loyal listener ever since and will remain so. They were my gateway to discovering lots of other great podcasts, too. I’ve laughed out loud at work or in the grocery store more times than I can count and I even dislike wine a little less now actually. I’m sure that Kenyon leaving was a huge change after all these years but I think Lucy and Amanda are doing a great job rolling with it. It may take awhile for them to readjust the dynamic and get back into a comfortable groove without her but that’s ok!!!! Just keep on doing what you’re doing, ladies. You’ve got my support and my everlasting gratitude(?) for being the source of my true crime hyperfixation and many sleepless nights.

The hosts are very funny and have great banter but their true crime segments (vs the history Lucy provides) seem pretty poorly researched and often are based on Wikipedia entries almost entirely. I recommend people try the Sinisterhood podcast instead - the difference in research and effort is MASSIVE and it shows. Sinisterhood is an 11/10.

The hosts are funny and charming, but the research and “facts” are all over the place or nonexistent. There are just some basics like the timing of the The McDonald Triad (it was not the Mindhunter people), names of victims (too many questions about Girly Chew’s name. The woman was murdered. Zip it.), Burke and Hare in the 1920’s (only 100 years off). Not researching the difference between secretors/non-secretors. Do you not have a computer or phone nearby to check that in the moment? And not knowing that “Overkill” is a word used by law enforcement and courts to describe a particular kind of homicide—that it’s not just slang. The list goes on. I heard them on RedHanded and loved their humor but the podcast hasn’t held up. If you want well-meaning, funny hosts, they’re great. If you want to trust you’re being informed correctly, just don’t. I wanted to love this podcast but the secretor/nonsecretor and overkill broke me. If an hour is spent on setting up context and terms for the crimes, it’s a responsibility to get it right.

Recent episodes were so badly researched and so wildly incorrect that as a fan for 5+ years I’m questioning everything I’ve ever heard on this show. I get that Amanda thinks her personality is enough to carry the workload here, but it’s not. The actual topic of the show still matters. Winging everything is ruining this show. And we just gave up on the wine aspect years ago.