MysteriousUniverse

I listen to a lot of podcasts of different topics and majority of it have professional and educational contents - typical for a podcast. However, Mysterious Universe is different. The hosts, Aaron and Ben, all of their opinions (jokes and otherwise), and their personality give life and color to the show. Contents are always well researched but it's the way they explain and discuss things that make it greater than other podcasts. For every episode, they provide links and notes of their sources on their website. They also have articles available on the site. I have been listening to them since 2019 and both hosts have grown mature. The contents are exceptional as always, and I never get bored with every episode. Side note: I am a gay man and asian.

I purchased a six month subscription to this weekly podcast program. They offer a 1 hour free podcast and for only $9 a month you can join their Plus club and get "huge extensions" to the free show and a "whole new program weekly." First of all, don't expect customer service because they don't provide any. Secondly access to their archives only includes 1 year back. Anything more costs extra. $9.99 a year for access to the free program plus extension and $9.99 a year for the plus program, or only $99 for access to their whole catalogue. Most shows provide access to their archive programs when you subscribe. They also don't have any episodes for the first part of January (2 weeks) because they take it off for holiday. Not even "encore" episodes. Once I started listening to the member programs, I realized that the hosts, Aaron in particular, are rather viciously insulting as part of their humor. They mock other programs, read on air e-mails they get from listeners who complain and make fun of the writer. They also constantly refer to non-subscribers who listen to their free program as "freeloaders" and generally act as if the non-subscribers are somehow trying to deny them a living. When my six month subscription expired, a sent a POLITE e-mail explaining that I wasn't renewing because of the high subscription fee, the non-availability of their archive episodes and because I was offended to be called a "freeloader," as it implied that listening to the FREE show is somehow an attempt to take advantage of them. In reply, "Aaron" sent me a vicious personal attack where he called me "selfish and inconsiderate" and had "ME ME ME screaming so loudly in (my) head" that I couldn't consider that it's not fair to existing users to give access to the archive to new users (who have just paid $60 for the right to call themselves a user, remember). He also stated that "We provide over an hour of FREE entertainment every week and yet it appears you feel we should be denied a living." It was truly a vicious response in total, full of personal insults directed at me. Totally childish and unprofessional. Anyway, I would never pay this guy another dime for any reason. Honestly, after six months I was rather tired of episodes that dealt with kinky sex and sex toys, consciousness expanding drugs and the wonders of technology. I was expecting a little more from the program than it delivered and the intentional viciousness of the host, which he calls joking, made me feel uncomfortable.