WAY too many blanket statements and digs on religion and on Utahns. Focus on the crimes. Stop trying to relate all people of her faith to her.

This is a fascinating story to do a deep dive into but this podcast was really disappointing. It is not well-structured (it’s kind of set up chronologically? But some of the episodes felt like they had no rhyme or reason for how they were put together) and it doesn’t go very deep into the story at all. I ended up with a lot more questions than answers. They grazed over most of the incidents and hardly even addressed the “rise” of Ruby Franke, although it’s literally in the name of the podcast. They didn’t have a lot of experts interviewed and literally just interviewed random vlog followers for many episodes. At one point, one of these random interviewees was discussing the day that her son goes to a neighbor’s house 2 doors away for help. She was like, “He had to walk through tumbleweeds and sand up the street, a half mile in the UT desert…well we don’t know exactly how far, but maybe a half mile…it’s a long way for a 12-year-old.” Tumbleweeds and sand? Have you ever been to southern Utah? Didn’t this kid just walk up the street in a neighborhood? It just sounded like this person making up something random based on the facts. I listen to a lot of true crime and I don’t think I would listen to any other podcasts from this company. This one was so bad.

It’s really disappointing that a group as reputable as wonder wouldn’t do background research on Kati Morton. She’s controversial if not highly unethical. It’s also lazy. Find a therapist instead that has likes and clicks to feature and instead get one that actually has specific experience to the research you’re doing. Disappointed is an understatement.

Felt as if I was hearing the same allegations over and over again with minimal new information in each episode. That made it really hard to keep listening. She was mean to her kids. We get it! I don’t need 20 examples.

Definitely not worth the pay wall, and not worth waiting to listen to.

Anyone else find it absolutely insane that this show which is picking apart the unethical practices of mental health pro Jodi Hildebrandt is also rife with ads for BetterHelp? Better help is itself shilling unethical therapeutic practices, like setting people up with therapists who have no qualifications. Pretty ironic. Stop advertising for BetterHelp.

I agree with everyone else. Don’t make people pay to get the episodes then make them wait weeks at a time to get new episodes. Such a money grab. Listen, I’m ok paying to binge episodes but when you blatantly drag it out like that, it feels incredibly sneaky. As for the content- slopping storytelling. Repeated audio clips to drag out episodes that are again- behind a sneaky paywall. Then there’s the dog piling on the Mormon church. Listen- there are super crappy people in the church but its bias reporting when all you interview are people who do those horrible things or have left the church and have an ax to grind. Maybe do a little more homework and you’d find out that the huge majority of the members of the church do not condone anything Ruby or Jody have done in the slightest. But again- there’s bad eggs in every demographic. Kinda like podcasts. . .

I have watched several YouTube videos about this case that were more informative and engaging. I was very excited for this podcast and it’s a giant nothing burger.

Waited forever to listen to this without the paywall.. was pretty disappointed. Could have been told a lot better

Isn’t really a deep dive and then they keep their final episode behind a paywall. There’s better and more interesting coverage that doesn’t try to price gouge you.

Wondery true crime has fallen off hard lately! This is the second podcast of theirs now where they consistently allow the people close to the/one of the perpetrators to try to garner sympathy for the perp instead of stating facts. Here, Chad Franke’s lawyer keeps trying to push a narrative that Chad had nothing to do with the abuse of the children - despite the fact that the abuse started far before his separation from Ruby (including withholding food and a place to sleep from children, as well as sending one of his children to a wilderness “rehabilitation” program for “troubled” teens). The fact that Wondery allows this to happen with no pushback is not only disgusting, but also lazy journalism. As is also a staple of Wondery pods, statements are constantly rephrased and regurgitated to increase the number of episodes and pad runtime. Another troubling thing I’m seeing here is the use of non-experts in interviews - most of the interview subjects here are just random subscribers to the Frankes’ Youtube channel! What would they know about anything! Would’ve been much more interesting to hear from Mormans on how their culture could’ve led to this, or from lawyers on what some of the trial proceedings mean, or a CPS worker on how it took so long to catch them, etc. Really discouraging to see such a decline in quality journalism directly on the heels of Wondery shifting to exclusively paywalled content. I’d be livid if I was paying even the $4/month for such shoddy pods!

I guess I won’t be listening to the rest of this podcast since I am required to pay $5.99/month to hear it in its entirety.

The continuous weaving of anti-traditional and anti-conservative trope throughout, especially in Episode 7, makes this a tired, rather than fresh, podcast. When a social worker suggests that, in order to know what goes on in families, we should have someone embedded in the home for at least a week, you lose any credibility. If you like that sort of thing, this is the one for you.

Repeating so many facts and not giving any new information. Taking forever to let the episodes out. It’s a story that should be told, by someone with more information.

It's a decent podcast but they repeated alot of recordings and information to make extra episodes. Just kept making me disinterested and distracted.

Wish wondery wouldn’t nickel and dime its audience. We pay for Apple Podcasts already and you put ads in the episodes. I’m not paying for podcasts!

I’d rather wait for all episodes to drop than do ANOTHER subscription to listen to this. Us peasants are suffering from inflation and are sick of ads and additional subscriptions. We are already paying to use Apple Podcasts. No thanks.

I’m so tired of being nickled and dimed for everything and this is a great example. I’m not going to pay for podcasts.

It wasn’t a bad podcast but it’s not good enough to subscribe. Kind of disappointed.

The first couple episodes are peppered with the DUMBEST examples of “bad parenting” and has people talking about their “concern” that probly don’t even have kids… not letting her daughter get her nails done or getting a little frustrated getting hit in the face… this isn’t out of the ordinary! What she ends up doing absolutely is, but these first episodes are just so judgmental and pathetic… and why does this host keep interviewing two children that watched this that obviously have no kids and have no idea what it is to parent. Who wanted their opinion, they the only 2 viewers you could find? Before Jody Hildabrant it all seems pretty harmless. You try raising 6 kids….

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 refuse to pay for podcast content! This case is so old and yet most of episodes are still wonders+ only. I’m over waiting to the release dates and will not be back to listen. It’s not that well produced and the info is already out!

I binged it in a day!

I’m confused by the negative reviews. Maybe it’s not the greatest podcast, idk I didn’t think it was that bad, but this story is insane! If you just think about the story being told, Judy is a sociopath and the way she manipulates the people around her is terrifying. You know this is happening elsewhere and it’s hard to imagine. Ruby was the PERFECT target for Judy. Crazyyyy what can happen when these two kind of people meet.

I found this podcast to be very engaging and thorough and indeed a reminder that child abuse can happen under the care of parents who are educated and have money. I found myself often aghast at the information reveled regarding Ruby and Jodi and their treatment of the children. The demon was definitely in Ruby and Jodi not the children as Ruby felt they were which is such a sick thought to have of your own child. As a mother myself it really is so sad to me, that nobody was able to protect them from this abuse for years and that these children had to suffer at the hands of these monsters-one of them being their mother. The father plays a huge part in all of this too because he was a doormat. Sadly he didn’t have the strength to stand up to his wife and challenge her and protect his kids. He is culpable in not doing anything.

That’s dumb and will not listen

This story feels sloppily presented, with pointless interviews with fans of the channel treated like experts on the family. The narrator repeats information over and over again. This honestly feels like someone read a news report and then tried to create a podcast! Not happy!

Very well written and produced. All three of the main grownups involved with this family are terrible humans, including the father. Their choices are what put these kids in danger.

It’s alright but not worth the hype to subscribe

The definition of stretching a thin premise. Many many moments of an “expert” explaining something unnecessary - feels like the last few paragraphs of a book report

You can only listen to the first episode. No thank you.

I subscribed for a month to listen to this series. It’s mostly interviews with other content creators and former fans of the 8 passengers YouTube channel. Some of the takes by other content creators are so off base it’s embarrassing. One even said the young girl found emaciated was obstinate. If you’ve viewed the body cam she’s clearly petrified! Not the normal level of quality I’m used to for Wondery limited series. Not worth the subscription free at all.

First ep you can listened to but rest of season is behind a paywall. It was decent but not worth paying for when you can get free podcasts, videos and documentaries. Podcast creators should focus on finding advertisers rather than charging listeners.

This story could have been told in half the episodes. The editing was done to stretch info into as many minutes as possible. Many audio clips are used 4+ times till you get sick of listening but want to hear how it ends. I won’t bother starting other podcasts by this production team.

After only being able to find pieces of this story, this podcast put the heartbreaking parts together for me as I knew very little of this case. I had no issue paying 1/4 of what most people pay for a coffee to hear the rest of the investigation.

The Ruby Franke case is very interesting to learn about. The podcast isn't worth paying for though. It is very repetitive and feels like a waste of time. Once again, great idea for a podcast but executed poorly. It is clear that Wondery just wants more subscribers and doesn’t put enough effort into the actual podcast. IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT LISTENING, WATCH THE 20/20 EPISODE! Its so much better and informative!

Can only listen to one episode. Unreal.

This podcast tells so much personal information about minors. The experts on the podcast try to say that the kids were wronged by being put on the internet against their will, then the podcast literally tells the kids’ worst nightmare on a podcast. I don’t get how this could be legal.

I am eagerly waiting the day that the Mormon church is held responsible for aiding and abetting the abuse of children. Although I’m a lifelong Utahn, I was unfamiliar with this case until recently. Disturbing.

I found the backstory interesting and the final bonus episode was so enlightening. Ruby and Jill show their true narcissism. No concern whatsoever about the children’s well being. I’m still worried about those kids being with their father who seemed much more interested in his wife’s situation than he severely abused children.

It really creeps me out how happy/gleeful the narrator’s voice sounds while telling this story. Is this AI? Why doesn’t she sound sad or angry when reporting on child abuse?

Thank you for the very in depth, deep dive into the horrific story. So interesting all the way through. The last bonus episode is brutal honest. Heartbreaking & the worst behavior imaginable. Excellent work on this podcast ~ to all involved in production.

Got pulled in and waited patiently for episode 2 but only available with the subscription.

Can’t believe this is behind a paywall. I just watched the 20/20 👍🏽

If you’ve watched Law & Crime’s YouTube videos on this case, or even followed the news regularly, then there’s nothing really new on this podcast, other than the interview with Hildebrand’s niece. There was little original reporting and, especially toward the end, they regurgitated a lot of the same information (even sound bites) over and over again. The creators could’ve gotten rid of a lot of filler and reduced the series to 3 episodes at post. Another thing that bothered me was rather unsubtle implication throughout the podcast, which was finally stated explicitly by an “expert” at the end, that Ruby was inclined toward her children because she was conservative, religious, and skeptical of liberal, progressive parenting fads (“gentle parenting”). This seems to be the hypothesis of the show’s creators and they recruited experts who would validate that message. In my opinion, the more likely explanation, which is also the simplest, was that Ruby Franke was a narcissist who didn’t see her children as human beings with their own agency but as reflections of herself. The money and validation that she received from her YouTube show just dialed her worst tendencies up to 11. Hildebrand was just a match dropped on to pour gasoline. Because this was a Law & Crime production, I had hoped that there would be more critiques of the “momfluencer” phenomenon and the monetization of childhood, but sadly, that subject was just skimmed over in favor of polemics against traditional Mormon child rearing. Quite a missed opportunity.

I knew nothing about this case and hearing all the background was incredible. What I don’t understand, is why their ConnXions Instagram is still online, including reels on child abuse? Also, why hasn’t someone fought to scrub the photos of these children from the internet, it’s appalling to me. None of the adults should be allowed to profit from the story but you know it’s coming sometime in the future.

Folks giving this bad reviews just because there is a paywall??!! Great series, and the last bonus episode is amazing

Save your time and money and watch the 20/20 episode. Disappointing.

I can’t wait until the day that I have to insert a dollar into my car dashboard to listen to the radio. Plenty of podcasts are supported by advertisers, which is certainly my preference. No thanks, Wondry.

Hard pass.