Against The Odds

Audible True Crime is a dedicated podcast feed where we bring you the best podcasts in true crime, with episodes dropping every single week.  Just in time for spooky season, we’re releasing a show called Ghost Story, a series about a hidden family secret, unexplainable events and jaw-dropping coincidences. Tristan Redman doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage...

In the early hours of March 1st, 1910, an avalanche roared down onto passengers stranded on the Seattle Express, smashing the cars into the ravine below. Photographs from the scene showed a mess of upside down rail cars, huge tree trunks and debris. Ninety-six people died in the disaster. Gary Krist covered the tragedy in his book The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America'...

It’s been a week since the train was stranded. Finally, railroad employees agree to escort the passengers on foot nine miles down the tracks to another rail stop less impacted by the snow. But the night before they’re supposed to leave, the snow turns to rain, destabilizing the snowpack. At around 2:00 in the morning, the avalanche they’ve all been dreading hits them. As the passeng...

Lauren Malloy was a baby when her mother, Lori, was murdered in East Providence, Rhode Island. For thirty years, no one told her. Everyone said Lori died of natural causes. Then a stranger sent Lauren a message — and the lie collapsed. Now Lauren is investigating her own mother’s murder. She’s recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with law enforcement, family, childhood friends, and people who...

Superintendent James O’Neill races to clear the tracks of snow so the train stuck in the Cascade Mountains can escape before an avalanche hits. But the snow is relentless, coming down ferociously. And O’Neill faces one setback after another, keeping the train stuck for days on end. Tensions grow among the passengers. The railroad workers assure the passengers they’re safe and just n...

On February 22, 1910, passengers board the Seattle Express train in Spokane, Washington. They include a pair of lawyers, a new widow, and a paper salesman. They are due to arrive in Seattle the next morning after traveling over the Cascade mountain range. But when a snow storm hits, the train gets stuck at a small, isolated railroad depot. Railroad superintendent James O’Neill must work to fr...

Sujo John and his wife Mary emigrated from India to the U.S. in February, 2001. Both found work at the World Trade Center – one in the North Tower, one in the South Tower. Life was good for the young couple; they had jobs, and they were expecting their first child. Then, they went to work on September 11th. Today, On this episode, Sujo John shares his story of how he survived the terrorist at...

Rescue workers begin the painstakingly slow process of airlifting cruise ship evacuees one by one from their lifeboats. But a typhoon has turned the Gulf of Alaska into a raging sea, and as they await rescue, many of the passengers fear they’ll either drown or die of hypothermia. Just when rescuers think they’ve saved everyone, they realize they’ve overlooked one lifeboat. Amid rain and massive wa...

With the fire aboard Prinsendam now burning out of control, the captain gives the order to abandon ship. Passengers, some dressed only in pajamas and nightgowns, scramble into wooden lifeboats, which are lowered into the dark and frigid waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Meanwhile, rescue vessels – both military and private – rush to the scene. But with over 500 passengers and crew in need of saving, a...

As crew members aboard Prinsendam work to contain the fire, passengers shiver on the decks in the cold night air. The mood is mostly festive; everyone expects that the fire will be extinguished soon. But when the blaze spreads to the dining room, the ship’s captain realizes he has no choice. He issues an SOS. If help doesn’t come soon, they’ll have to abandon ship — with a typhoon headed straight...

In October of 1980, the luxury cruise ship Prinsendam set sail from Vancouver with more than 300 passengers aboard, many of whom were elderly. But just after midnight on the cruise’s fourth day, in the Gulf of Alaska, a fire broke out in the ship’s engine room. The crew battled to contain the blaze, but with limited firefighting equipment, it was unclear if they could prevent the fire from sp...

Professional big wave surfer Andrew Cotton — “Cotty” — discovered he had a knack for riding waves that most other surfers wouldn’t dream of tackling. His journey took him around the globe, from California to Hawaii, Ireland and Australia. But when Cotty got an invite to join surf legend Garrett McNamara in a small seaside town in Portugal called Nazaré, he discovered swells bigger and wilder than...

Journalist Holly Bailey returned to Moore, Oklahoma on May 21st, 2013, the day after an EF5 tornado ripped through the city. As a child, she attended school in Moore, but now, the place looked unrecognizable, with cars wrapped around trees and houses ripped from their foundations. Bailey spoke with residents, teachers, meteorologists and bereaved families. She wrote about the aftermath in her...

When the tornado finally passes, survivors crawl from the wreckage to find their town in ruins. A shaken Gary England and his team at KWTV report on the destruction. First responders claw through mountains of rubble looking for survivors. As some families experience miracles and others face heartbreaking loss, the true scale of the devastation begins to sink in. For more on this story, we recommen...

As a massive mile-wide tornado approaches the town of Moore, Oklahoma, meteorologist Gary England warns viewers to take shelter wherever they can. For principal Amy Simpson and the students and faculty of Plaza Towers Elementary School, that means hallways and bathrooms. At Briarwood Elementary, LaDonna Cobb is one of many teachers who try to shield children with their bodies, as the tornado...

On May 20, 2013, residents of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, awoke to a severe weather watch. But no one was overly concerned. Tornadoes are a fact of life in the Midwest, especially in Moore, which had already survived a devastating EF5-strength twister on May 3rd, 1999, packing winds of 321 miles per hour. No one really believed it could happen again. But soon, a powerful new tornado would be...

Rescue workers search for the camera crew trapped inside Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o crater, but they’re forced to abandon their efforts when an incoming storm makes conditions too hazardous. Cameramen Chris Duddy and Mike Benson struggle to survive a night inside the volcano. When daylight comes and there’s still no sign of rescue, Chris makes a fateful decision — to try to save his own life and bring bac...

In November 1992, a Hollywood camera crew soars above Hawaii’s Kīlauea, one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, to capture footage for a major feature film. But suddenly their helicopter’s engine cuts out, and they plunge into an active crater. Trapped and inhaling toxic fumes, the men will have to battle for survival — even for every breath — if they’re going to escape the volcano and see th...

When Coast Guard pilot Steve Torpey got called into work on a Friday night back in January, 1998, he had no idea he was heading into the most challenging flight of his career. At that point, two Coast Guard helicopters had already failed to rescue the crew of the sunken fishing vessel La Conte. Torpey’s crew — manning the third helicopter — were the stranded fishermen’s last hope. Now retired...

Ed is the grandson of footballing legend Gordon Banks. He was a national icon, the only goalkeeper ever to win the soccer World Cup for England. But Ed’s heard a rumour: that in 1970, while defending the title, his granddad, his hero, was poisoned… by the CIA. All part of a Cold War plot to bolster a military dictatorship in Latin America, supposedly. Could this possibly be true? Banks did get ill...

With two helicopter teams exhausted and out of fuel after hours of failed attempts, the Coast Guard was forced to send out a third and final team to try to pluck the stranded fishermen from the icy waters. With no other pilots left, it fell to base commander Ted LeFeuvre to lead the final crew. And as the high winds and waves of the brutal storm refused to let up, he was forced to take unorthodox...

Forced to abandon the La Conte, the five fishermen — Bob Doyle, Mark Morley, Mike DeCapua, Giggy Mork and David Hanlon — find themselves at the mercy of towering waves and galeforce winds as they float in the frigid sea. As they prayed for a swift rescue, the Coast Guard helicopter crew sent from Sitka soon discovered this wasn’t an ordinary, or predictable, storm.  For more on this story, we...

On January 30, 1998, five fishermen finally hit the jackpot in a fishing bank known as Fairweather Ground off the southeastern coast of Alaska. They were aboard a wooden ship called the La Conte, which had seen better days. Despite a brewing storm approaching and the ship taking on water, the men decided to throw out one more fishing line. They’d soon learn they’d made a grave mistake. For more on...

In July of 2025, climate reporter Alec Luhn was in his element hiking around a glacier in Norway’s Folgefonna National Park. But when Alec slipped off a boulder and broke his leg, he found himself unable to move and trapped in a remote area with no one expecting him home for days. On this episode of In Their Own Words, Alec recounts the story of his fall, being caught in a storm, and doing everyth...

The capture of American nurses in the Philippines is often described as an “untold story” of WWII; Dr. Elizabeth Norman set out to change that. She conducted extensive interviews with 20 of the 77 nurses who were captured. Norman collected the nurses’ firsthand accounts, and pored over their diaries and letters, weaving these sources together in her book, We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the...