Tracy Pattin and Stephen Lang are THE most incredible storytellers I’ve ever listened to. You cannot stop listening and yet somehow they also lullaby you to sleep. The creator’s and writer’s content of Young Charlie will blow your mind. 🤯Listen to all the Hollywood and Crime stories for more of the same excellence in True Crime podcast genre. Please put more out! I’m almost done with all!! 🙆‍♀️😭😢

You can listen to the first two episodes and then you need a paid subscription…Wondery was always one of my favorites until now.

Can’t play any of the episodes beyond Episode 2! That’s the only reason for the low rating. If the full series isn’t available, take it off the menu, please!

Hooked from very beginning. Must listen.

I was loving this one and now only two episodes are available. I’ve been checking for additional episodes for the past month to no avail. Can we hear the rest of the piece?

I think it is dumb that I have to pay to hear the full stories of all of your latest productions. Note to others: do not start to listen to if you don’t want to pay money to Wondry to finish the full story. Apparently it’s a new thing that all podcasts are going to so they can make more money while playing WAY too many LONG commercials in the middle of episodes. I get that you guys need to make money but it’s gotten ridiculous.

One of the announcers states that there are 6 episodes. However, there are only 2 available as of March 10, 2021.

I love the stories, I’m surprised I don’t recall any mention of Linda Kasabian, the driver of the get away car the night of Sharon Tate murder, but I think she may have gone the second night. Linda was the states start turned witness.

If you enjoy that sort of fast-paced, urgent tone, and embellished descriptors, much like a one of those “celebrity-news” shows that comes on after the evening news, then you’ll enjoy this podcast. The listener is, however, might be easily distracted by the reader’s dramatics. Seems many of the dramatic lines could have been lifted from Bugliosi’s book. Nothing new here except Manson’s early life, of which there is little.

Both of the narrators have any amazing way of telling a story and painting a picture in your head. The one thing I would say that could push these podcast by wondery over the edge would be actual sound clips. Interviews, police testimony, victim accounts.

Really good/intriguing content, however the male narrator is so over the top l had to stop listening after halfway thru the second episode.

Really gets into the way his life played out.

Wonderfully told and interesting

Material is great but the telling is a little too embellished for me. Would have preferred interviews with real people who touched this story rather than the dramatic interpretation. Ending is very abrupt- would like to have known more about the victims families perspectives.

Brilliant story telling with two narrators sharing Manson’s story from different time periods. However, the podcast ends SO abruptly with his indictment and death.

What’s the point?! Not paying for additional content when previously the whole story was free.

I started this podcast and it was very interesting. I had been listening to a few of her older podcasts and enjoyed how she tells the story from two timelines so I started listening to more. It looks like to listen to the rest of the episodes of this podcast you have to pay $7.99/mo for a subscription to Luminary. I started her Billionaire’s Boys club podcast on Luminary and after 2 episodes I had to become a member to continue listening. Right now I have too many subscription services and will go back to listening to books for a bit. I will miss my True Crime stories in the morning. So it’s a good podcast, but only start if you want to add another subscription to your monthly bills. For the podcasters they can ditch the ads and focus on content, so I get why they are migrating to Luminary.

Which is INFURIATING when you’re half way through!

I listened through these only to get to the last two episodes and they wouldn’t load due to be u available. It kind of stinks to listen and then get no ending.

The ending was abrupt. I wasn’t sure it even ended. This could have carried on to the trial. You spoke of Charlie’s death, but no mention of the family trial. You had my attention, then just ended it. The podcast was done well. I knew the back story of Charlie Manson and still learn new information.

Last two episodes don’t seem to be available to listen to on any site sans indication as to why - very disappointing

Says it’s not available

This is terrible. If you want to learn about Manson via podcast, Karina Longworth has created a masterclass via her “You Must Remember This” podcast series. It’s the best and ONLY podcast you need on Manson. PERIOD!

Or did I miss it??

I have a hard time finding podcasts where I enjoy the narrator. Wondery so far has the best cases. I only wish we would’ve heard more than the 6 episodes.

i’m giving this one star per episode that i’m able to get through. the male narrator makes me feel like i’m listening to an episode of Dragnet, or The Naked Gun series. i just can’t take it!

Another cheaply made, self indulgent piece of murder porn “documentary”. Very little of the content is actually dedicated to the story of Manson and his “family”. An entire episode of the 7 is dedicated to a giant advertisement, with plenty of content in the rest of the episodes full of ads for homeopathy medicine and other content they produce. The creators seem to think they had an actual look into the mind of Manson, affectionately calling him Charlie and seemingly revel in his sadistic methods. The gleeful way in which they portray him simply glorified a sadistic human. Poorly structured, no natural flow, unnecessary jumps through time in an attempt to seem insightful, don’t waste your time.

I didn’t really like how they tell the story out of order. It’s a lot harder to fit things together when it is not chronological. It was interesting enough for me to listen to all of it, but there wasn’t really anything new.

I didn't really know much of the details of Manson's life. His "heyday" occurred when I was only five years old. Wondery has done a good job of painting a vivid portrait of this infamous anti-social low-life. One thing however: as a Scientologist, I am interested in how people in all strata of society get along, how they deal with people, what effect they create in society. This podcast is dark but it's interesting to me in this way. I appreciate that you handled the topic of Scientology in a respectful manner but as someone with a long association with this group, I have to be straight with you: it's evident that you didn't take much of a look at the subject itself. Your descriptions of it are a mish-mash of things which (a) don't belong together and/or (2) don't exist or are not a part of the religion. I don't know what your source of information on Scientology is, but it's usually best to go to THE source to verify what's what. Otherwise, you've done a very good job.

Soo if Charlie went to a Catholic boys school and then later Father Flanagan’s boystown and knowing how severely sexual abuse messes with kids heads might we consider...?

I appreciated the different narrators for Charlie’s upbringing vs. his “adult” life and how they merged at the end. Very interesting.

Not sure they decided to tell the story this way. They jump back and forth in time frequently which makes following along hard and it seems unnecessary and frustrating,

Great podcast! Only complaint is that the back and forth in the time line is a bit frustrating. I rather hear it all in order.

Story itself is fairly interesting if you’re not familiar with it, which is good because this podcast doesn’t really do much that’s particularly interesting or special. Sometimes it narrates what’s going on in Manson’s head, using really flowery language that’s freaking corny and boring. Also agree with the comments that this podcast and all serial killer podcasts should be more overtly critical of misogyny instead of playing into it. It’s something to have on in the background but not particularly good.

BIZARRE production and storytelling here. The content is fine but they tried so hard to come up with a unique way to tell the story that it ended up being confusing and hard to follow. Also the re-enactments are just painfully bad. The content was good but the format distracted from it. Don’t waste your time.

Multiple stories being told without a visual aid is nearly impossible to keep track of UNLESS you’re a genius who can mentally make note that the female narrator is current and male is historical and you can remember where each left off when the podcast returns to each one. Adding to the confusion is the sudden segue into the sponsored break, read by the same voice of the narrator. It sounds like it’s part of the podcast and is off putting to break your thought and burst your bubble. If edited, I’d love to listen to the rest of it, but I couldn’t get past the first episode.

I find both narrators to be melodramatic, but Stephen Lang’s part is just over the top. It’s the voice and script heightened by the creepy background music.

I’ve heard a few other podcasts on Charles Manson that I thought were very detailed and left nothing to the imagination. So I hesitated for a while before starting this podcast. I’ve now binge listened to every episode. This podcast is gripping, full of suspense, informative, and interesting. Specifically, I was amazed to learn about Manson’s childhood and how he learned to be a leader through crime. I felt heartbreak for the impressionable female members of his cult as I learned their backgrounds. They joined mostly by being sad and lonely people looking for a place to belong. It is now easily to understand how so many could fell victim to Manson’s mind games and were manipulated into doing terrible things. I’ve recommended this and every other Wondery podcast I’ve heard to all of my friends. If you love true crime, you have to listen to “Young Charlie.” Wondery, please do not stop making awesome material. I can tell how much hard work and research you out into your productions. Thank you and I love y’all! -Rose, Birmingham, AL

Despite the interesting topic, I can’t even get through one episode because their voices are so annoying. Also, it’s like they’re just reading from a book...

I was already familiar with the story of Charles Manson as I was a criminology major in college and had to read the book Helter skelter it was very interesting though to hear some of the other backgrounds that we’re not in that book and to listen to the two readers voices made it extra compelling. Great podcast.

This has to be one of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to. The format and composition is amazing, and the voice actors are so immersive.

This was weird, but good weird.

Really interesting take and loved the back and forth! Although it needed a bit too abruptly for me. Perhaps done one purpose? But all and all I do love the Wondery podcasts gets me through the work day!

Decent story telling

I appreciate anyone who is able to put together a pod, having said that this was disappointing to the point of screaming. As mentioned too many adds, it also was more like a vaudeville act, poorly done at that.

Great podcast and informations and narrative. If there wasn’t an ad every 5 minutes!!!

I’m a big fan of true crime podcasts and I had high hopes for this one but it just didn’t cut it. I liked the idea of weaving Charlie’s childhood with the classic story of the Mason Family, but the pace felt very rushed and stale. I found myself zoning out or losing attention because the narrators would speak quickly, overdramatize, or would jump suddenly from past to further past without any kind of transition that made sense. Basically, it felt like listening to two podcasts at once. There was no synergy. It seems well researched, but the verbiage was forced, as if the writers were trying too hard to use academic language. It came across inauthentic, and as a listener I felt as if the producers created this without the average listeners in mind. Overall, an interesting story but presented poorly in my opinion.

Top notch production, and not at all cheesy. I was leery of the timeline going back and forth, but it works. Also, the narrators have excellent speaking voices.

If you don’t want to read Helter Skelter, then listen to this podcast

The story did introduce details from his youth that were unknown to me before this. The background information was interesting. There are a few sexist comments in the podcast. Even the ads are sexist so that’s annoying. The narrators were a bit dramatic but I didn’t mind. Updated to add, after several reviews said to listen to “You must remember this” epsides, I checked it out. There is not much insight compared to this podcast. This is much more detailed and interesting.