Douglas Robertson was a teenager when his family set out to sail the world on a yacht. Seventeen months into the voyage, orcas sank the boat in the Pacific. In this ep, Douglas describes 38 days adrift in a small dinghy, surviving on turtle blood and rainwater.

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Rick Hogg was a Melbourne accountant who specialised in minimising tax by fabricating expenses. In 2018, it all imploded and Rick got five years in prison. In this episode, he explains how the scheme worked, why he crossed the line, and what the ordeal taught him about greed.

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Robert Kerbeck was a broke actor when he stumbled into corporate espionage. His job was to trick low-level employees into divulging company secrets, which he sold for big money. In this episode, he explains what the work taught him about lying and the shortcomings of American capitalism.

Check out Robert's book: Ruse

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Vanessa Mitchell thought she was buying the home of her dreams. Sure, it was a medieval prison for English peasants accused of witchcraft, but it was cute and within her price range. But then her possessions started vanishing and she found a mysterious pool of blood on the floor and three years later she was out, fleeing with her son. This is Vanessa's story of what happened.

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Flor Edwards grew up in the Children of God, an authoritarian sect that taught its followers that the world would end in 1993. In this episode, she reflects on how it felt growing up expecting to die, and how the group responded when the apocalypse never came.

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Lily Rose Lee was 21 when she accepted a ride from her friend’s father. She was 32 when she finally escaped his house, along with two other women. In this episode, Lily recounts what 11 years in captivity did to her body and mind, how she survived, and what she learned about resilience.

You can connect with Lily Rose Lee on Facebook

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Greg Abandoned is an urbex YouTuber who visits the world’s most wild and forgotten places. A few years ago, he trekked into the Kazakh desert to explore a secret Russian military facility that houses abandoned space shuttles from the Soviet Union. In this episode, Greg recounts the journey and why he wishes he’d chosen his travel companion more carefully.

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In 2015, Jeremy Morris bought a house in Idaho to host the Christmas display of his dreams. Within weeks he was locked in a bitter feud with his neighbours over religious freedom and civil liberties. In this episode, Jeremy tells his side of a very modern American culture war.

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In February 1982, the body of a wildlife photographer named Carl McCunn was found in northern Alaska. A miscommunication had left him stranded and McCunn had documented his final cold months in a journal. In this episode, journalist Kris Capps walks us through McCunn’s forgotten story, mostly in his own words.

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Sometimes Vivian Conan saw herself in the mirror. Other times she saw others with their own distinct personalities and backstories. At 43, she was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder. In this episode, Vivian describes her life-long journey to meet and merge her different selves.

Get in touch with Vivian or find her book via her website: vivianconan.com

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In 2022, Samantha Stites was abducted by Christopher Thomas, a man who’d been stalking her for 13 years and had secretly built a soundproof bunker to imprison her. In this episode, Samantha shares how she escaped and what the ordeal taught her about survival.

Support Samantha's initiative to protect victims of stalking and domestic violence: Beekeepers Advocacy

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