Awesome / The Last Podcast on the Left

Episodes 1 to 100

Episodes 101 to 150

Episode 110: Richard Ramirez Part I: The Night Stalker

• Ben tells the story of his time serving on a grand jury in Brooklyn for a sexual assault case. The case included clear video evidence of the assault and Ben knew they should recommend the case go to trial. However, one of the jurors opened deliberations by engaging in some awful Victim Blaming ("Why was she out so late?", "Why was she wearing a dress that short?", "Why was she drunk?", etc). Ben verbally ripped that man a new one badly enough that he was known as 'the scary white guy' for the rest of his time serving on the jury. He also skillfully uses the story to make a point about how Victim Blaming and Slut-Shaming are still huge problems when it comes to pursuing charges in sex crimes, which allowed Ramirez to get away with what he did.

Episodes 151 to 200

Episodes 201 to 250

Episodes 203 & 204: Leonard Lake & Charles Ng (both episodes)

• The fact that Henry made a story about two vile rapist / serial killers who (among other nasty stuff) kept women imprisoned in a bunker (and filmed very disturbing "interviews" with said victims before raping and killing them) become a LOT easier to sit through the hilarious power of his Charles Ng impression and riffing on Ng's life story. These episodes will be forever known as "The silly one with the evil Asian stereotype being a bozo and butchering the English language" and "What I bwing to fwenship" rather than the crimes themselves.

Episode 233: The Secret Space Program

• Towards the end of the episode, Marcus and Henry alternate reading the introductory manifesto to a website for SphereAlliance.com. They both take turns reading the page and chime in to say every "quote/unquote" section together, only noticeably flubbing once while doing so. Ben's response when it's all done is to simply note the two of them are very good at that.

Episodes 251 to 300

Episode 275: Oklahoma City Part 1: The Day

• Henry wastes absolutely no time in insulting Timothy McVeigh, and his vitriol is almost cathartic:
  “You sling blade-looking, country inbred, sister-fucking piece of shit!”

Episode 289: Robert Pickton Part II: La Costra Pigsta

• Marcus goes on a blistering tirade against the Vancouver Police Department for fucking up the investigation into Pickton, shocking even Henry. He goes into detail about how badly they handled the case due to laziness, prejudice and incompetence, even going so far as to undermine the one cop who actually cared just because he made them look bad. He honestly sounds like he's seething at some points.
  Henry: Damn, Dogmeat!

Episode 291: Robert Pickton Part IV: Out To Lunch

• Continuing from his earlier anger with the Vancouver Police Department, Marcus gets a hell of a jab at the frankly bizarre decisions of the judge presiding over the case. Right off the bat, the judge decided to deny the count of the "Jane Doe" whose skull was found in a swamp on the grounds that they never identified the remains, which basically translates to "it's totally cool to kill someone just so long as nobody notices they're gone" invoked. Marcus sums it up perfectly:
  Marcus: Of all the disrespectful actions taken by either the Vancouver police or the courts, this one might sit at the top. The one that tells you that they don't fucking care at all.

Episodes 301 to 350

Episode 302: Casey Anthony Part II: The Dancing Belvins

• A minor one for Belvin Perry, the judge presiding over the case. It's noted by Marcus that he ran a pretty tight ship - he never let the prosecution or defence get carried away with their cases and stood no nonsense from anyone. He even barred the defence from bringing back the accusation that George Anthony had molested Casey in their closing statement - something they'd only mentioned once and hadn't presented a shred of evidence for. He certainly wasn't anything like some of the other judges the trio have covered.
  • Another one goes to the juror who, recognising what he was in for and wanting no part of it, immediately bailed on the trial and got slapped with contempt of court. Ben jokingly calls that man a hero for his very brazen actions.

Episode 332: The Donner Party Part II: The Forlorn Hope

• Marcus finally gets to say the famous line from the podcast's intro, "That's when the cannibalism started."
• Marcus gives special props to John Stark of the Third Relief, who refused to leave anyone at "Starved Camp" behind when everyone else was in favour of leaving them to die after witnessing the cannibalism that occured there. He goes into detail about how Stark carried the children back, and caps it off by saying the man deserved a statue for his bravery and determination.
• One of the survivors at the Truckee Lake camp managed to shoot a grizzly bear, despite the effects of starvation, which no doubt provided vital food for the survivors.

Episode 347: Mark Twitchell Part II - Some Kinda Ketchup Party

• The way Mark Twitchell was caught was deliciously ironic - he was fooled by a fake online persona, the same way he lured in his own victims, leading to the amazingly cathartic scene of him being jumped by a white van full of tactical officers on the way to the alleged meet-up. Marcus' growing glee as he describes the chain of events really makes it, as does Henry's delight.
  Henry: (joyful glee) GOTCHA, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! GOTCHA, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!

Episodes 351 to 400

Episodes 401 to 450

Episode 446: Jack Unterwager Part II - I Love LA

• FBI behavioural scientist Greg McCrary gets a shining moment during Jack's second trial. Jack's defense attourney, lacking any knowledge in serial killer psychology or history, asked McCrary "Have you ever heard of a man who has frequent consensual sex murdering a prostitute?". He'd meant it as a facetious rhetorical question, thinking he'd finally cornered this nosy and interfering American with what he considered to be a logical impossibility. McCrary's response?
  "Absolutely, Arthur Shawcross."

Episodes 451 to 500

Episode 466: Rodney Alcala - Wanna See A Pretty Picture?

• Marcus wastes absolutely no time in tearing into the L.A police department for failing to properly prosecute Alcala for the brutal rape and attempted murder of Tali Shapiro, instead only jailing him on child molestation charges for barely two years. He further emphasises the sheer incompetence of Alcala's parole officer, who knew full well that Alcala was a convicted child rapist, and yet still allowed him to roam across the country, giving him the opportunity to continue his murder spree for years. Marcus's hatred of shoddy police work is on full display throughout the entire episode, and the fact that this incompetence allowed more people, including children, to be hurt by Alcala only seems to fuel his anger more.

Episode 470: Karla Homolka & Paul Bernardo Part I - Coroners, Coffins and Crabs

• In a near-repeat of his tirade in the Robert Pickton series, Marcus tears once more into Canada's police for their pure laziness that ensured Paul Bernardo continued to rape multiple women despite every single opportunity they had to catch him. While he stated at the beginning that he didn't want to malign Canada and that he's sure that there are decent cops on their forces, he does not hold back when it comes to the actually incompetent ones.
• Ben spends most of the episode quietly furious and disgusted by Paul and Karla's criminal behaviour, repeatedly seething that the stigma around rape victims and the inaction of the police force are exactly what allowed Bernardo to get away with his actions for so long. At several points throughout the episode, he sounds damn near close to exploding in rage.

Episodes 501 Onwards