Latest / True Crime Reactions / UPDATE: Katelin Akens | Case Reaction & Analysis

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UPDATE: Katelin Akens | Case Reaction & Analysis · True Crime Reactions

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So imagine a mother, right, a mother who is actively
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: grieving her missing daughter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Right, which is just an unimaginable situation to begin.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: With, exactly, And now imagine her having to answer these, well,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: these highly specific, really interrogating questions about our husband.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And not just in some private police room either, No,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: not at all.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: She isn't answering these for the detectives down at the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: local precinct. I mean she is answering them for a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: host who is basically acting as a proxy, a proxy
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: for like millions of texting fans.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Fans who are just scattered all over the globe, right
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in dozens of different countries.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So today for this deep dive, we are
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: looking at this fascinating digital artifact. It really captures the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: exact moment that true crime kind of transition.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Pransition from what exactly like from just.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Storytelling, yeah, from a passive storytelling genre into this completely crowdsourced,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: interactive ecosystem. So I want to welcome you to the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: deep Dive today.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We have a incredible single source document to unpack with
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: you all today we do.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: It's the official metadata the show notes for a June
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen update of the show Crime Junkie, and it's
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: specifically about the Kaitlin Achins case.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Right, But what we're looking at isn't just the facts
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of the case itself. It's the metadata, the digital wrapper
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: around the audio.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Which reveals this massive, i mean, just a tectonic shift
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: in how media is manufactured today. It's wild, it really is.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: The show notes document this twenty four minute rapid response
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and it outlines this really intricate closed loop system so.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Involves the host, Ashley Flowers and Caitlin's mother Lisa, right.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there's this third entity, the audience, an
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: audience that basically seems to have directly dictated the editorial direction.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Of the show by demanding information about Caitlin's stepfather. I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: mean they were literally pointing fingers exactly.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And when you look at the architecture of how this
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: single update was produced, monetized, and distributed, its mind blowing.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: We are basically looking at the actual mechanics of a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: parasocial economy where you know, you, as a listener, are
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: trading your attention.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Your attention, and your data all for this illusion that
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: you are like a deputized detective.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So let's just jump right, into the format of this
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: artifact first, because it's so revealing. The title is just
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: listed as up date Caitlin Aikins.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Right, published on June eight, twenty eighteen, Yeah, or.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: June seven, depending on the time zone metadata, but with
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a runtime of exactly twenty four.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Minutes, which is incredibly short for a true crime.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Deep dive it is. I mean, this isn't some heavily researched,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: you know, ten part serialized documentary that took someone three
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: years of their life to produce.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. It's so much less like a
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: traditional piece of investigative journalism.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's way more like a software patch. That's the best
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: analogy I can think.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Look, I love that analogy. A software patch, yes, right, Like.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: It's version two point zero of a narrative and they
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: just pushed it out over the airwaves to you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: fix a bug or address a future.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Requests you request that was directly identified by their user base. Yeah.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: That perfectly describes the production mechanism we're seeing here.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Because traditional media, I mean it operates on a totally
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: delayed broadcast.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Model, right, Yeah, Like a book is written, then it
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: gets edited, printed, shipped.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And by the time it actually reaches you, the consumer,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the narrative is completely frozen and amber exactly.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: But audio feeds they utilize RSS, which stands for really
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Simple Syndication.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Which I think was originally designed for like text news
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: feeds back in the day.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: It was yeah, and RSS allows a publisher to just
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: instantly overwrite or append a feed right on a listener's device.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So when a show drops a twenty four minute update
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, they are totally exploiting the agility of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that RSS architecture.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: They're pushing this small, highly targeted, little data packet to
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: millions of smartphones basically simultaneously.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Which signals to the audience that, hey, the story you've
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: been consuming, it's still alive, it's still mutating out there
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in the real world, and.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: You get to watch it happen in real time. But
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you know, the text also provides the commercial infrastructure that
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: supports this whole rapid deployment.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the ad tech side of this is fascinating.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: At the very bottom of the notes, the metadata explicitly
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: says something really specific.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: What's the exact phrasing there?
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: It says hosted by simple Cast, an adswhiz company CEPCM
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: dot adswiz dot com for information about our collection and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: use of personal data for advertising.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Wow, so we really aren't just looking at a host
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: casually talking into a microphon in our closet, not even close.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: We are looking at a highly highly optimized ad tech engine.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And as was I mean for context, they are a
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: massive player in the digital audio advertising.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Space right because their core technology is dynamic AD insertion,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: which completely revolutionized things.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It did because in the old days, you know, a
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: host would read an ad for like a mattress or
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a meal kit.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Oh man, the classic mattress ads I remember those, right, and.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: That audio was permanently baked into the MP three file.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: So if you listen to that file five years later,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: you heard that exact same old mattress ad.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Even if that mattress company went out of business, the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: ad was stuck there forever exactly.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: But dynamic ad insertion completely changed the economics.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Of this medium because now when you hit play on
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: this twenty four minute Kaitlin Aikins update, the simple cast
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: server does all this background work, right.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, It instantly recognizes your IP address, your device type,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and even potentially your listening history, and.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: In a fraction of a millisecond. It literally stitches these
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: targeted advertisements directly into the audio file, right before it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Even reaches your headphones. It's seamless.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So the grief, the investigation, the updates, that's the content,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: but the vehicle delivering it is this totally sophisticated data harvesting.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Tool designed purely to serve programmatic advertising to.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: You, which really explains why that twenty four minute runtime
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is so functional from a business perspective.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I mean, think about it. If you have
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: an engaged audience desperate for a follow up on a
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: missing person, a short.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Update is the most efficient way to serve a fresh
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: block of dynamic ads to your entire subscriber base.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: It's brilliant economically speaking, you don't need a sixty minute
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: narrative to serve those impressions.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: But what's really interesting is that the metadata also shows
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the show actively trying to circumvent that exact same ad
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: tech infrastructure.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Right, there's that pivot early in the show.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Notes, Yeah, right after the intro, the tech says, did
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you know you can listen to this episode ad free,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: join the fan club, visit Crimejunkie dot app, and then.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: It gives a link to view the membership options. That
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: pivot reveals so much about the dual revenue stream of
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: this whole ecosystem.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So you have the ads whiz infrastructure on one side,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: which monetizes the casual listener, right, Yeah, the.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Person who is basically trading their personal data and their
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: time to hear the content for free.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: But then this fan club thing, which is hosted on
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: their own dedicated software called Crimejunkie Dot app that targets
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the super user.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly because by moving listeners off the open, free RSS
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: feed and funneling them into a proprietary app.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: The production company, which is Audio Chuck, they convert you
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: from a passive listener into an active, paying financial stakeholder.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: They completely eliminate the middleman of the AD network. Yeah,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: and they established this highly coveted recurring subscription revenue.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: But here's the catch, right, to convince you to actually
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: pull out your credit card and join a fan club,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you have.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: To offer something way more compelling than just a summary
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: of old Wikipedia articles.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You need high stakes content, high engagement. Monetization models
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: absolutely require premium content which.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Leads us directly to the core of the specific document
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: we're looking at today.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Right, because the metadata lists the primary source for this update.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: It says interview with Caitlin Aikens's mother, Lisa, conducted by
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Ashley Flowers.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: This is a huge shift. The host is transitioning from
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: being a secondary aggregator to a primary source generator.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because typically, you know, the host is just a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: narrator standing way back at a safe distance from the tragedy.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Right, They just synthesize local news broad casts or summarize
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: police reports. They aren't usually in the field.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: But securing a direct interview with the missing woman's mother
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that totally changes the structural DNA of the product.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: It really does. The host is stepping right into the
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: role of a proxy detective or like an investigative journalist.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: She is generating new, completely exclusive data points that you
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: literally cannot find on a Reddit thread.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: And I think we really need to look at the
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: motivation behind that shift.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I mean, is she securing this interview
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: because she genuinely believes in her heart that it will
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: uncover new clues for law enforcement, or.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Is she securing it because primary interviews are the exact
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: type of premium exclusive content that drives those conversions to
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: the fan club.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: App It's a tough question because a direct line to
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the grieving family turns a standard run of the mill
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: update into absolute must listen event programming.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Well, the motivation probably exists right at the intersection of
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: both of those things.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. Has always had this deep historical
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: precedent for citizen investigation, right, but.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: The commercial mechanics of podcasting strongly incentivize that exclusive access.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: It's undeniable because when she.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Sits down with Lisa, the audio transcends just abstract storytelling.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It becomes real.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: The mother's voice provides this raw, undeniable emotional anchor for
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the listener.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And for you as the audience. Hearing the host interact
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: directly with the family, it validates all the time you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: spent listening.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: It gives the whole production an aura of absolute legitimacy.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: You feel like you're getting the unfiltered reality of the case.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Right from the source, but facilitated by this host that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: you already have a relationship with and trust.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: And that legitimacy is so crucial for what happens next
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: in these show notes, because this interview with Lisa wasn't
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: just some general check in.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: No, not at all. The metadata actually reveals the exact,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: highly specific catalyst for this entire twenty four minute production.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: The official description is just wild.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I know, I want to read the exact quote it says.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: In this update episode, Ashley gets the chance to talk
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to Lisa, Kitlyn's mom about Caitlin's case, and like, you
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: all asked, what about Kaitlin's stepfather?
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, that phrase right there, yeah, you all asked. That
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: is the structural lynchpin of this entire document.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: It completely redefines the relationship between the creator and the consumer,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't it.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, the audience has effectively become a crowdsourced assignment editor.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: They aren't just passively waiting around to see, Oh, I
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: wonder what topic the host will choose this week.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: No, they are actively and collectively fixating on a very
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: specific individual in this family dynamic, the stepfather.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: And they are demanding that the host investigate that specific angle.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: In the host complies, she actually does it, which is wild.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But I think we have to look at the sociology
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of this, right, Like, why would an audience universally zero
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in on a step parent?
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Well, the true crime genre has really trained its consumers
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to look for very specific patterns.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It's right, Like the statistical reality and domestic investigations almost
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: always points toward a spouse.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Or a partner, you're a close family member. Yeah, And
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: audiences deeply internalize these statistical tropes over time.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So when they consume the initial narrative of Caitlin's disappearance,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: their pattern recognition instincts just naturally highlight the stepfather exactly.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: He becomes a massive point of interest. They are applying
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the narrative structures of hundreds of other cases to this
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: one specific family tragedy.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: But you know, I have to push back a little
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: on the framing of that phrase, Like.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: You all asked, oh, what do you mean?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Well, is the audience actually forcing this narrative or is
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the host using the illusion of audience participation as a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: sort of rhetorical shield, a rhetorical shield.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: That's an interesting way to put it.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Because think about it. If a host just wants to
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: go and ask a grieving mother these incredibly invasive, probing
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: questions about her own husband, right, that.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Could come across as deeply aggressive or frankly really exploited
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: his exactly.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: But if the host frames it as hey, I don't
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: want to bring this up, but I'm just asking the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: questions the audience is demanding.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Then it completely deflects the responsibility away from the host.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, the host isn't the antagonist anymore. She's merely the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: messenger for the crowd.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Framing it as an audience mandate is just a brilliant
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: piece of editorial maneuvering. It absolves the host of the
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: inherent friction of conducting that interview.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: It gives a permission to ask the most difficult, uncomfortable
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: questions under the guise of democratic necessity.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: But it also reinforces what media theorists called the parasocial economy, right.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Where the audience feels this one sided but deeply intimate
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: connection with the host.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly by explicitly acknowledging the audience's demands right there in
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: the official metadata, the host is validating that parasocial relationship.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: She is basically telling you, the listener, Hey, your suspicions matter,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: your theories are actually driving this real world investigation.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: You're part of the team. That's the message.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And it creates this incredible, just fascinating production loop.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Walk me through that loop. How do you see it
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: playing out?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Well, First, the audience consumes the initial piece of content.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Then they recognize a trope right the stepfather. They see
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the pattern, so they generate this collective demand for more information.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Then the host uses that collective demand as leverage to
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: secure the interview with the.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Mother, and then the mother's answers are chopped down into
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: this tight twenty four minute audio file.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Package inside the ads Whiz tracking software, pushed to the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: crime Junkie dot app, and beamed right back to the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: very audience that initiated the cycle in the first place.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: It really is a closed loop. The audience's morbid curiosity
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: has been fully commodified.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And turned into a direct editorial mandate. It's wild when
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: you step back and look.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: At it and the scale of that mandate. It really
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: becomes apparent when we look at the distribution data provided
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: in this source material.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, the global footprint of this thing is staggering. The
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: metadata actually includes a comprehensive list of all the regions
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: where this specific episode is available.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Apple Podcasts categorizes this distribution across Africa, the Middle East, India,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the Asia, Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: It's basically everywhere, But instead of just listing out all
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the dozens of countries mentioned. I think we need to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: examine the mechanism of that global reach.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Like how does an update about a stepfather in a
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: local American missing person's case instantly appear on smartphones in Vietnam, Zimbabwe,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: and El Salvador.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It goes right back to the architecture of that RSS
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: feed we talked about earlier.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly when simple cast updates the XML file for the show,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: podcast directories all over the world just ping that file.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And they instantly mirror the new episode on their own platforms.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: It's an entirely automated, totally frictionless distribution system, and it
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: completely bypasses traditional international broadcasting rights.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So a local, highly personal family tragedy is digitized and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: exported as a global commodity. In literal milliseconds, a.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Commuter in Toke and a student in London are simultaneously
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: evaluating a mother's defense of her husband.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: The sheer volume of human attention focused on this hyper
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: local dynamic. It's just a direct byproduct of the medium's
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: borderless infrastructure.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: It is, But the document also reveals a really significant
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: point of friction in that borderless distribution.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, the content restriction warning that part was so interesting
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Me too. The metadata includes this specific automated warning right
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: in the text.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: It says content restricted. This episode can't be played on
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the web in your country or region. Okay, so listen
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to explicit episodes sign in.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: That warning completely exposes the tension between the open free
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: nature of RSS and the reality of regional tech compliance.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Because while the underlying technology can easily beam an audio
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: file anywhere on Earth in a second, the.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Actual platforms that host the directories, like Apple or Spotify,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: they have to adhere to local Internet laws.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Right and their own terms of service regarding explicit content.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: And obviously, a true crime show inherently deals with violence, trauma,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and mature themes, So.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: The platform slaps an explicit tag on the metadata to
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: cover themselves.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And depending on your geographic location as a user, that
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: little tag triggers a massive digital wall.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: You suddenly have to authenticate your identity or verify your
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: age just to bypass the restriction and hit play.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: So this intense personal tragedy is literally gated behind a
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: bureaucratic tech process.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: The platform is simultaneously distributing the content to every corner
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: of the globe while strictly regulating who is actually allowed
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: to listen based on these algorithmic safety guidelines.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: It really highlights the ultimate contradiction of this product, doesn't it.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely The content is deeply, rawly human, a mother searching
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: for her missing.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Daughter, but the container holding it is entirely synthetic. It
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: is an age gated, geographically restricted, dynamically monetized data packet.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to the final and honestly most crucial
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: mechanism in this whole document.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: The contact pipeline. Because we've established that the audience demanded
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to know about the stepfather, right, Yes, and we've established
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: that this audience spans the entire globe, right, But how
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: did they actually communicate that demand to the host in
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the first place? The metadata provides the exact pipeline they used.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: It states explicitly texts Ashley at three one seven seven
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: three three seven four eight five to talk all things
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: true crime, get behind the scenes updates and more.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: A three seven ten area code which roots to Indiana
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in the United.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: States, and that standard US phone number is being offered
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: to a massive global listener base as a direct line
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: of communication.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: They aren't utilizing some generic corporate email address like info
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: at Audiochuck dot com or whatever.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: And it's not a standard contact form on a slick
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: website either.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: No, they are explicitly soliciting SMS text messages directly to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a phone.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: And text messaging fundamentally is designed for a peer to
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: peer intimate communication.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Exactly, you text your family, you text your friends. You
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: don't usually text a major media broadcaster, right.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: So by asking the means to text Ashley, the show
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: is simulating personal intimacy on a massive industrial scale.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: It completely supercharges that parasocial economy we discussed earlier.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: It transforms passive listening into this highly interactive, real time
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: feedback loop.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Think about it. When a listener in Brazil or a
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: listener in the UK has a sudden suspicion about Caitlin's stepfather, they.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Don't just sit there and yell at their radio like
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: they used to, right.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: They actually type a message into their personal phone and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: hit send, beaming it directly to the host's designated inbox.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: And the production team just sits there and aggregates thousands,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: maybe tens of thousands, of these texts.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: The text messages basically serve as real time analytics. They
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: show the host exactly which narrative threads the audience is
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: most desperate to pull.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate data collection tool, but it's completely
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: disguised as a casual, friendly conversation.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, text me to talk all things true crime is
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: actually saying, provide us with your personal phone number and
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: tell us exactly what content you want to manufacture next.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: So we can keep you safely inside the fan club ecosystem.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly savvy.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: When you look at the entirety of this June twenty
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: eighteen metadata, you really are looking at the blueprint for
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: modern interactive media.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: You have the text message pipeline providing the raw audience demand.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: The host then leverages that specific demand to secure a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: primary interview, totally crossing the line from aggregator to active participants.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: And then the resulting audio is processed through dynamic ad
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: insertion servers, it.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Gets restricted by global explicit content algorithms, and.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Finally it gets pushed out to millions of devices in
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: this really tight twenty four minute rapid response format.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: This document shows us that true crime podcasting is no
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: longer just a broadcast. I mean, think about traditional TV.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Right A television news anchor reads a script and the
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: viewer consumes it end of transaction.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: The viewer cannot text the anchor on a Tuesday and
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: demand that they interrogate a specific family member on tomorrow
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: night's broadcast.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: That would never happen. But this metadata proves that in
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: this space, the barrier between the audience and the investigation
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: has completely dissolved.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: The audience has literally been given the tools to crowd
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: direct the narrative in real time.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: They utilize their collective numerical volume to force a very public,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: global discussion about a private citizen.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: The host facilitates that discussion, and the tech infrastructure monetizes
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: absolutely every single step of the interaction.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Which leads us with I think a really profound final
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: question to consider.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just thinking about that, because when a
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: global audience has the sheer power to just text a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: host and dictate the focus of a family's tragedy.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Right literally forcing the scrutiny of a stepfather across fifty
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: different countries simultaneously.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Who is actually steering the ship here?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Are the hosts actually leading the investigation like we think they.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Are, or have they simply built this massive reactive machine
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: that is entirely driven by the morbid curiosity of the crowd.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: It's a heavy question, but it's something you definitely have
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: to think about the next time you pull out your
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: phone and hit play.