10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Australian
Camp Shame podcast review: Kelsey Snelling more culture documentary than true-crime investigation
No film has captured the unique corner of American culture occupied by fat camps like Heavyweights, released in 1995.
Co-written by Judd Apatow – of The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Superbad fame – Heavyweights follows a rag-tag group of frankly average-sized kids on a mission to snatch their beloved camp from the clutches of a crazed fitness instructor played by Ben Stiller.
According to director Steven Brill, who collaborated with Apatow on the Heavyweights screenplay, the fictional Camp Hope was inspired by the real Camp Shane – one of the longest-running weight-loss camps for kids and teens in the US.
And according to revelations made in a new podcast series, some of the far-fetched antics depicted in the film may not have been too far off the mark.
Camp Shame – a clever play on the camp's name – is hosted by journalist and former camp counsellor Kelsey Snelling.
Her insider knowledge of the camp experience is the basis for an in-depth investigation into its complicated legacy.
Across eight episodes, former 'Shaners' – the nickname bestowed on those who attended Camp Shane in its five decades – share the benefits and pitfalls of a camp built for them.
On the one hand, it was an opportunity to enjoy a quintessential American summer experience away from schoolyard scrutiny. But, on the other, its commercial success was fertile ground for all manner of exploitation: financial, emotional and physical.
'These individuals recount experiences of being subjected to extreme diets, intense physical regimens and psychological tactics aimed at enforcing conformity to narrow beauty standards,' reads a press release on the iHeart website.
The series is published within the iHeart True Crime channel, its logo prominently displayed on the show page on public streamers such as Apple Podcasts. I believe that sets a certain expectation about the content of the investigation – one that's never really met.
Aside from a passing mention of grooming and some light fraud in the first half of the series, the really serious stuff isn't meaningfully addressed until Camp Shame's penultimate episode.
In that episode, a former camper named Seth recalls his experience of allegedly being groomed and sexually assaulted at the camp during the 1980s.
The six episodes it took to get there are fascinating and thorough, but I'm not convinced it's a cohesive true-crime narrative.
As a genre, true crime already has to work harder than most to justify its existence – a hangover from the bad old days when stories were insensitively and sensationally told, our appetite for them insatiable, and when victims were barely given a second thought.
We've come a long way since then and perhaps that's why the true-crime categorisation of Camp Shame feels disingenuous.
Alleged victims such as Seth deserve to have their stories heard should they choose to tell them but what Camp Shame actually offers is a detailed exploration of the cultural forces that brought the camp and others like it into being.
To that end, perhaps it would be more at home in the society and culture section of our podcast apps.
Kristen Amiet is the producer of The Australian's daily news podcast The Front. Camp Shame is available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
