Plagiarism

I’m a regular true crime podcast listener and something’s been bugging me. Recently, I listened to an old episode of a podcast I follow where they addressed being plagiarized, and they were clearly upset about it (understandably so), and so were their fans. But what struck me as odd is that this is the same podcast that, in another, more recent, episode, essentially read through an entire published book word for word — aside from sprinkling in a few personal anecdotes here and there. I know this to be true, because I own the book in question.

It feels a little contradictory. On one hand, they’re calling out plagiarism when it happens to them, but on the other, they may have crossed that same line themselves by lifting so much material from someone else’s work.

I’m curious how others see this — is this considered plagiarism in the podcasting world? Or is it more of a gray area if they cite the book (which I don’t recall them really doing in any meaningful way)?

Would love to hear thoughts on whether this kind of thing is just “inspiration,” fair use, or straight-up hypocrisy.