This Is Actually Happening

After becoming a teenage figure skating champion and Olympic athlete, a woman is broken open by grief, fame, addiction, and shame, but through motherhood, reinvention, and a return to the ice, she begins to stitch together the person and performer she was never allowed to fully become.   Today’s episode featured Nicole Bobek. If you’d like to reach out to Nicole, you can contact her at Nicole...

"After a decade of devastating loss, and medical trauma nearly destroys his will to live, a man reaches the edge of giving up before the fragile birth of his son brings him a new hope.    Today’s episode featured Nathan Wieser. If you’d like to email Nathan, you can reach him at natelucywieser@gmail.com. Nathan is on Instagram @nathanwieser, and is on Facebook https://www.facebook.c...

After being sent out of Cuba alone as a child, a man survives exile, smuggling, prison, and devastating loss, but in the aftermath, he must face the armor that protected him from the world and separated him from the people he loves. Today’s episode featured Carlos “JC” Perez. Carlos has authored two books, a novel entitled Heisting The Beard, & a biography, Pedro Pan: The Product of a Revoluti...

After surviving a near-death experience as a young child, a woman has a vision of her own brutal kidnapping, assault and and torture, but discovers in the aftermath that everything she endured was preparing her for her life’s work.   Today’s episode featured Annette Bricca. If you’d like to email Annette, you can reach her at Book@annettebricca.com. Her website is Annettebricca.com.  Pro...

After surviving a childhood where love meant saving his mother from the ravages of schizophrenia, a man spends decades trying to outrun the self he lost, until one final visit forces him to face what was never his to fix.    Today’s episode featured Johnathan Koller. Johnathan has written a book titled, Hidden, and is available on Amazon, find it here: book If you’d like to email Johnath...

After building the loving family she always wanted, a woman loses her youngest son to an unsecured gun, and turns her grief into a fight to protect other children.   Today’s episode featured Kristin Song. Kristin Miller Song is a writer and speaker whose work examines what it means to live through a profound before-and-after moment, and how a life is reshaped when certainty disappears. Her wr...

After a scuba diving trip in Croatia turns deadly, a successful Czech executive is falsely accused of murder and thrown into a foreign jail, where the total loss of control forces him to confront fear, grief, and the unexpected freedom of mastering his own mind.   Today’s episode featured Dan Frolec. If you’d like to reach out to Dan, you can email him at dan@danfrolec.com. Dan is on Instagra...

After leaving Portugal to become a journalist, a woman is drawn into the world’s black markets, where dangerous encounters with criminals, extremists, and a military coup reveal the systems that shape people and the humanity that still connects them.   Today’s episode featured Mariana van Zeller. Mariana is an award-winning correspondent and investigative journalist. She is the host and execu...

After a childhood shaped by violence and addiction leads him into years of self-destruction, a man begins to transform himself in prison, only to learn he has 90 days to live.    Today’s episode featured Michael Mason. If you’d like to reach out to Michael, you can email him at mikemason2676@gmail.com . You can find him on X/Twitter @Maurice74.     Producers: Whit Missildi...

After years of caring for her mother through a devastating decline, a woman helps ease her final suffering, only to be accused of murdering the person she loved most.   Today’s episode featured Rachel Waters. If you’d like to reach out to Rachel, you email her at RFosterWaters@gmail.com .  You can find Rachel on Instagram: @distinguishedheathen and TikTok: @distinguishedheathen, and on R...

After suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, a soccer coach sets out to rebuild his body, his identity, and the life he thought he had lost.    Today’s episode featured Scott Martin. If you’d like to email Scott, you can reach out to him at Reader.playfromyourheart@gmail.com .  Scott is on Twitter/X: @SoccerRatMartin and TikTok: @PlayFromYourHeart Scott has written a book titled Play...

After growing up in a home shaped by violence, racism, and fear, a woman is stunned to receive an apology from the girl who bullied her in middle school, forcing her to reckon with the harm they both carried and the possibility of repair.   Today’s episode featured Christy Davis.  If you’d like to contact Christy, you can email her at MsChristy_Creative@proton.me . Christy’s episode is p...

After narrowly surviving one of the deadliest tornados in US history, a woman is driven to confront a long-buried harm, finding in the aftermath a deeper sense of purpose, forgiveness, and service.   Today’s episode featured Nanda Nunnelly. If you’d like to contact Nanda, you can email her at Nandanunnelly@gmail.com. Nanda’s episode is part 1 of a 2 part series.  Nanda’s cause and organi...

After spending much of his life trying to outrun the feeling of being trapped, a man’s violent kidnapping on a solo motorcycle trip through Mexico forces him to reckon with the fear, rage, and longing for freedom that have shaped him since childhood.   Today’s episode featured Gary Stauble. If you’d like to reach out to Gary, you can email him at ezinef@gmail.com .  Gary is on Instagram...

A man grows up in a home defined by violence, secrecy, and fear, and decades later a deathbed confession confirms his belief that his father was responsible for the Chicago Tylenol murders, forcing him to reckon with a lifetime shaped by trauma and silence.   Today’s episode featured Joseph Cibelli. Joe is a former salon entrepreneur turned author, legal scholar, and forensic psychologist. He...

After decades of stability, a woman’s experience of menopause brings back a lifetime of buried symptoms and reveals an unexpected truth about her identity, forcing her to reexamine everything she thought she knew about herself.   Today’s storyteller wishes to remain Anonymous. If you’d like to reach out to her, you can email her at SunflowerSpark44@gmail.com .    Producers: Whit Mis...

After years working as a humanitarian aid worker in war zones and disaster areas around the world, a man is forced to confront the psychological toll of witnessing a broken world he could never fix.     Today’s episode featured Gray Doyle.  If you’d like to email Gray, you can reach him at graydoyle@meetmeinzanzibar.com .  You can purchase Gray’s book on his website, https...

After surviving the 2015 ISIS terrorist attacks at a Paris café, a woman begins the painful work of confronting buried childhood trauma and reclaiming a life she had never fully allowed herself to live.   Today’s episode featured Mandy Palmucci. You can email Mandy at mandypalmucci@gmail.com.  Mandy is on Instagram @palmuccim   Mandy is currently working on a book about her exp...

When a family sailing journey ends in capture by child soldiers during Mozambique’s civil war, a man must protect his children while confronting the unsettling truth that his captors are both perpetrators of violence and children shaped by it.   Today’s episode featured Dave Muller. Dave has written about his experiences in a book entitled, “Not Child’s Play”, available where books are sold o...

After overcoming addiction and rebuilding her life around motherhood, a woman's world is shattered when her son kills her daughter, forcing her to grieve one child while fighting to protect the other and learning how to survive an unbearable moral and emotional divide.   Today’s episode featured Charity Lee. If you’d like to email Charity, you can reach her at bawmedia@gmail.com . You can als...

After the sudden death of his father leaves him drowning in guilt, a man unknowingly spirals into a manic break that strips him of his freedom, his relationships, and his grip on reality, forcing him to confront bipolar disorder and rebuild his life from the ground up.   Today’s storyteller wishes to remain Anonymous. However, you can reach out to him at anytom2020.t@gmail.com .   ...

After a lifetime of striving for control, a woman is thrust into unimaginable loss when a potentially catastrophic twin pregnancy collides with restrictive laws, forcing her to rebuild her life from the ground up.   Today’s episode featured Helen. Helen and her husband, Zach, began The Marigold Foundation, whose mission is to lead the way in providing financial aid to families that are facing...

When a son discovers that the man who raised him is capable of unimaginable harm, he is forced to become a whistleblower against his own father, risking his family, his identity, and everything he once believed to be true.   Today’s episode featured Kai Zen Bickle. To find out more about the legislation drafted with Child USA to close jurisdictional loopholes, specifically to ensure that evid...

After a white supremecist killed his father at a Sikh temple outside of Milwaukee, Pardeep Singh Kaleka pairs up with a former neo-Nazi to teach students about overcoming hate and finding forgiveness.    Today’s episode was produced in collaboration with Pauline Bartolone, and was funded in part by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center , as part of its "Spreading Love Through the Med...

After killing a cyclist while driving drunk, a woman confronts the consequences of her actions and begins the long, painful work of rebuilding a life shaped by guilt and accountability.   Today’s storyteller wishes to remain Anonymous.    Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Sara Marinelli   Content/Trigger Warnings: Drunk driving, Fatal accident, Death, Manslaughter, Subs...