This show used to be great but now their other people doing and its pay only. Goodbye. Lots of other shows are free.

I miss Hannah! No offense to the new host, her voice just sounds like a robot or ai.

This show is absolute trash now.

Just found this: Hannah doe a great job of adding her perspective to the show, it really added to the understanding! Love this show so far can’t wait to dive it into the rest! Highly recommended!

Like a lot of others have said, I truly used to love The Opportunist. The new season is unlistenable. It seems like the new season is both written and hosted by AI? Such a disappointing turn for what used to be a great podcast.

I listened to all of the initial episodes and was hooked. It was so well researched, edited, and presented. Idk if the new host is a journalist but overall the quality just tanked massively. Doesn’t feel like I’m listening to anything of substance anymore, just kind of the same click-bait-y true crime that you’d find on like. 2 sentence horror stories. It also feels like it’s trying to be funny and witty which is. Not what I came here for! I don’t want to gasp and be shocked by the vague overview they give of everything. I wanted to be informed and hear all sides! I wanted to see how things actually happened and how they actually impacted people. Where people were failed, how they could actually be helped, how telling their storied helps victims and others!

Love this podcast!

As others have stated, the quality of this show went way down after Hannah Smith was ousted from the show. Not only this, but past episodes are now all paywalled at an absolutely ridiculous price. For the price of an actual streaming service you can get 1 lackluster episode a week and access to episodes that used to be entirely free. I get that advertising in the podcast industry has changed in the past couple of years and subscriptions are necessary, but $10 is actually insane. And this is for someone to basically read a wikipedia article to you.

Loved Hannah. New host sounds like AI.

This show is so well done, yet they are allowing podcast one to cross promote Jay Shetty, who it is fairly well known has lied about his background and exaggerated his experience…sounds like an opportunist to me. Will listen to the inevitable season ABOUT Jay Shetty…

I just to like this show before. Now it’s just trash.

With the old host, the writing was smart and interesting. This new host editorializes way too much for effect and her grammar is not stellar. Additionally, the number of ads seems to have climbed substantially. In Apple Podcasts before downloading a show it gives the number of minutes of just podcast, and then after it’s downloaded shows the number of minutes of podcast+ads. I just listened to the three body problem - 26 minutes of podcast, 10 full minutes of ads! This is 90s primetime TV bad. I’m also not a fan of all the episodes of other podcasts it keeps dropping in the feed. It has so far dropped FIVE episodes of Jay Shetty’s show, despite it being completely unrelated to the Opportunist content-wise, and besides that every recent episode has downloaded with a “You Might Also Like” episode. Not very thoughtful for those of set to have it autodownload. I will be unsubscribing, though I loved past seasons.

I would give Hannah’s version 5 stars but unfortunately this show was taken from her and new people just don’t have what she had. Everyone go check out Hannah’s new show the knife!

I miss the old host! This used to be a must listen for me.

I started listening to this podcast in the very beginning and was captivated by Hannah Smith’s thoughtful research and story telling. All of her episodes deserve 5 stars. New episodes with too many ads an un-engaging host, plus adding a paywall for old episodes, has really made this podcast go downhill. I’m unsubscribing but will happily come back if they ever bring back Hannah Smith.

A million ads AND the host is AI? If you can’t afford a host anymore with all the ads it just seems a little… opportunistic.

To echo others reviews, this show used to be one of my favorites and now I can’t even make it through a full episode. The host makes even the most interesting information unlistenable. Wildly annoying.

Really really enjoyed the podcast when the host was Hannah Smith. Binged nearly every story in a one month period. Great reporting, engaging, and I found myself laughing out loud at some quippy lines. The latest seasons seemed so interesting and I love the ones with multiple parts and I couldn’t get more than 5 minutes into the Tim one from 2024 because of the voice/ tone. Not sure who the next host is but sad to have lost Hannah and won’t be listening anymore. So bummed!

I loved this podcast in the early episodes when Hannah Smith was the host. Now this AI voice is so terrible I can’t even listen to the content. Y’all made a terrible mistake when you changed over. Unfortunately I’m unfollowing.

So educational. Well thought through covers both sides which is SO important. I’m constantly playing these while cooking, cleaning, driving, brushing my teeth, you name it. Excellent show.

The host’s tone and pacing feel unnatural. Her voice is not engaging which makes the story difficult to follow. If she is a real person, she needs a lot more training. Why are there so many random pauses? I used to enjoy this show. This is no longer the same show I subscribed to. Unfollowing 😞

They changed hosts and added music. I can’t enjoy it anymore.

I’m an unsubscriber now, however I used to reaaaaaaally like this show. I like the premise//idea of the show. I don’t think it’s executed well anymore. I think the reviews give you feedback on how to improve……. Then you continue doing what everyone gives you negative feedback on. This absolutely will not be a podcast that reaches top charts. It’s pretty unbearable to listen to these days. I think the potential of this podcast is so high, yet I don’t care to stick around while you figure it out. While this is your job and you need to make money somehow, putting in one million ads ultimately pisses people off. It doesn’t help. Making everything a listener+ episode also pisses people off. Be smarter and maybe you’ll find more subscribers

I’d rather listen to ads than have to subscribe for all of the content and after reading other reviews, AI and not Hannah? Talk about being opportunists!

Bring back a real human being to host.

Unlistenable. Too many ads now.

I think the content is good, but the editing on the last episode (Greer) was so bad I had to stop listening. There were long silent periods and the host’s sentences sounded very choppy. Overall it’s very sloppy sounding.

Really enjoyed the segment on Tim Ballard, really dove deep and untangled that mess of a story. Docked a few stars because I felt the reporting was very one sided when it came to any mention of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. A few small interviews were done with people who have since left the church, and that’s great, their perspective is important. But it always bothers me when there are no interviews or perspectives from people who are still members and their take on behaviors or actions of other members and what the church truly stands for at its heart. Didn’t feel like true reporting when there is little to no effort to get both sides of the story. And no, talking to reporters from the SLtrib does not count 😆

I’m assuming they put all of Hannah’s episodes behind paywall because they know she was the reason this podcast was ever successful. It was her manner of thoughtful and engaging storytelling that made this podcast stand apart from all others in the true crime sphere. Such a bummer :-/

Good..now unsubscribing. If you’re going to put it behind a paywall make it better not worse

I miss Hannah, I miss her delivery and the thoughtfulness she provoked, it feels cheap now :( this was one of my favorites but now, it’s a husk of it’s former self

So educational and easy to listen to

This used to be one of my favorite podcasts especially for multiple episodes on a single person but they changed the host and it’s really difficult to listen to. Doesn’t feel as well researched and seems like it’s an AI generated host or something. Disappointing.

Please organize these episodes by season again. It becomes tedious to look for past episodes. Other than that, the show is perfect!

They had a great host previously …. New host needs training. Poor broadcast delivery. I liked the research and reporting, but the new host has made me turn it off for good. Not to mention the paywall for lo-fi production that sounds like the host is in her bathroom. No thanks.

The change in host and format has really made this show boring. Unfortunately, I’m no longer following.

I’ve been listening since the birth of this podcast. Some of the earliest seasons were so good! Putting a pay wall up though to listen to past episodes I had downloaded years back is wild to me. It’s like a Low ladder opportunistic cash grab :(

i have been trying to listen to this podcast again but realized that a lot of the episodes are behind a paywall or something? i really liked this podcast in the past and gave it a five star review even when the new host started but i think it’s weird that a podcast about opportunists put episodes behind a paywall - the Tim Ballard series was just too much.

This show is alright. In a landscape of this kind of content it neither stands out nor strikes me as at the bottom of the pack. The first couple stories were definitely best but I've been subscribed since launch until now (2025). I am unsubscribing now, though, because pushing the second episode in a multi-parter into my feed but leaving the first episode behind a paywall is a new level of scummy and kind of cringe and desperate that never bodes well for the future of a program. It's a decent enough show though so good luck with your subscription plan endeavors! I hope that works on lots of people!

I noticed there was a new episode about Robert Courtney but it was episode 2 of 4 and I wondered how I missed episode one. I went to the show catalog and saw that episode one of the series was a podcast exclusive for members. You can’t hear how the four-part story starts unless you join Wondery+. Why not put the whole series behind the paywall? I have enjoyed this podcast, but this caused me to unsubscribe.

I really loved this show when Hannah was the host. It is so unbearable to listen to now. The formatting, the declarative sentences made to sound like questions, just overall a no. I miss this show, the detail and dedication they had to telling a story.

I loved this show when it WAS a human…now it’s inhuman and not the same…it used to be journalistic…now it’s just cheap and robotic…the last thing we need in a world less human…

I thoroughly enjoy this podcast. One thing I have noticed is the ads are placed during incredibly inconvenient times. Someone will be mid sentence and an ad will begin playing. Whoever is editing has to do a better job at inserting ads.

So, Tim Ballard. You’ve presented what seems to be credible and factual evidence that the guy is a creep—worse than a creep, even. But your so-called “experts” on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are all ex-mo’s. Naturally, you avoided consulting current members, because then you’d discover that “Mormonism” isn’t to blame for who he is. He is who he is because, like everyone, he has the agency to choose: to be a decent person or a self-aggrandizing opportunist. He chose the latter to feed his ego—not because the Church told him he was a hero for serving a mission, or any of the other baseless claims you’ve made. Do better. Learn the facts about a religion before resorting to slander.

The host change ruined it for me. Not engaging at all. Bummer.

Episodes 1-5 were good but episodes 6-10 were less about Tim Ballard and more about the host and producers Trump derangement syndrome and dislike of republicans. There were also “anti-men” sentiments throughout. Both of which were disappointing as they detract from the legitimacy of the allegations against Ballard and OUR-which in my opinion are likely accurate and seem well supported. Episodes 1-5 are worth a listen.

Got a few episodes in. Had to finally stop, my ears couldn’t take it anymore. Lots of irresponsible reporting (lies and the worst “experts” and witnesses). Not credible people. Very biased.

I started to listen to this podcast a few weeks ago, and I’m hooked! It has very interesting stories that are hosted and explained really well with a lot of research done on each opportunist. I’ve been binging on exclusively this podcast for about three weeks. As a guy it’s hard to find a podcast I really like in this genre . Update: They have a new host which is decent, but they make you be a paid subscriber for most of the episodes now. Seems like a lot of podcasts want you to pay to listen now. Everything in life is turning into a subscription, I can’t pay hundreds of dollars a month to listen to podcasts I like.

i really enjoyed the first few seasons Each episode has great interviews and reporting by the host I don’t find myself as engaged with the recent narrator , that’s the only negative about the newer seasons.

I used to love this podcast. It looked forward to each episode. I don’t know who is producing and hosting now but it is not the same and not as good. The last few not so interesting. The Tim Ballard one really was the last I could do. Became political and obnoxious. Lost sight of what he did.