Crisis & Consequences

In the spring of 2023, police in the U.K. found the most unlikely of overdose victims: a well-liked, well-respected couple in their 60s. Initially, investigators considered that the deaths might be the result of suicide or an accident, but then – as one co-host likes to say – their “Spidey senses” kicked in, turning their attention toward a caregiver who may have been providing the wrong kind of T...

In 2022, the “self-help” industry in the U.S. alone raked in more than $13B. (That’s BILLION, with a capital B.) There is no shame in wanting to better oneself – personally, professionally, or both. What is shameful is taking advantage of those people who seek self-improvement. Adherents of such programs often expect (and pay big money) to be challenged physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiri...

It’s not exactly “breaking news.” America has an obesity problem, and we all know it.  But, historically speaking, it is a relatively new problem that dates back only about 50 years. That’s when some of the biggest food companies in the world got very smart about how to keep customers coming back for more ... and more ... and more. How? By using incredibly effective formulas to create “hyper-palat...

Even with morning sickness and other side effects, the nine months of anticipating a newborn baby is often an exciting and joyful time for women. But for those in dysfunctional or – worse – abusive relationships, that nine months can be traumatizing and potentially dangerous. Research shows that homicide is among the leading causes of death for pregnant and postpartum women, but some states still...

A marriage license before a driver’s license? In some states in the U.S. – YES – it's totally legal, even today. And if you think these unions are simply young lovers who can’t wait to “make it official,” think again. Research shows 86% of childhood marriages involve girls married to adult men, and in many of those cases, the age difference is vast. The co-hosts take a closer look at the stats and...

Raped. Stabbed. Disemboweled. Nearly beheaded. How could anyone survive such an attack? The co-hosts take The Escape Pod back to December 1994, when a young woman in South Africa was kidnapped, brutally assaulted, and left for dead on a dirty beach. But when this escape artist decided to live, she went “all in.” Now – more than 30 years later – her story and drive to survive continue to inspire pe...

A 2nd grader sends nude photos to a stranger online. How? Why? Who or what could compel a child to do such a thing? It happens, and it happens far more often than most people realize, according to a forensic examiner and veteran member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force in South Dakota. Think she’s exaggerating? Consider this: The Internet Watch Foundation reported a 360% in...

The Escape Pod observes Black History Month this February with a tale of true crime out of the Depression-era Deep South. Nine Black teenagers traveling by train found themselves caught in the middle of hate and lies, giving new meaning to the phrase “wrong time, wrong place.” Initially accused of assault for a rock-throwing fight, they instead spent years defending rape charges. Even after one ac...

A day set aside to celebrate love and romance ... what could possibly go wrong?! You know as well as we do, A LOT can go wrong on Valentine’s Day. Hop into The Escape Pod for a light-hearted episode about Valentine’s Day plans gone awry and gifts that left a lot to be desired.    Bullet Points of Key Topics and Markers:  Topic #1     4:07 The co-hosts share their views on Valentine’s Day  Topic #2...

A traveling salesman befriends a woman and her daughter Heidi in 1978. While Heidi sees “B” (his nickname) as a father-figure, B sees Heidi in a very different way. But, as is typical with child predators, she is not his only victim. In fact, several years earlier, B spent years wooing a girl in Idaho, and – get this! – seducing her parents, too. What level of charisma does it take to win over adu...

There are terrible roommates, and then there’s THIS guy. For more than a decade, a man with extensive knowledge of squatters’ rights made life miserable for multiple people – a girlfriend, landlords, neighbors, even members of his own family. How was he able to get away with it for so long, and when did his serial squatting finally come to an end? Find out on this episode of The Escape Pod!    Bul...

Police officers typically meet residents of high-crime neighborhoods on their worst days – when they’re either victims of crime or contributors to it – and providing long-term help and support while addressing the situation at hand is nearly impossible. That’s where the Rapid City Police Department’s Community Engagement Team steps in. Comprised of both non-uniformed officers and civilians, includ...

At age 5, she remembers being touched inappropriately; at 7, doing drugs for the first time; at 10, going into foster care, where she was a “lost child” until getting adopted in her teens.  As an adult and addict at risk of losing her own children, Chari sought help in the fall of 2022 and began a remarkable transformation. Join Julie and Charity in The Escape Pod as they welcome this special gues...

911: Emergency.  Melissa, 12: Please help me ... We were all shot.  A child, suffering from multiple bullet wounds, still manages to provide critical information to emergency dispatch in hopes of helping her mom and others gunned down at a New Mexico bowling alley in 1990.  Join the co-hosts in The Escape Pod this week to hear the girl’s harrowing account and theories surrounding who was responsib...

The curse. Aunt Flow. Code Red! Whatever you call it, women have been experiencing periods since women came to be; yet, historically, this “monthly visitor” has made people – mainly men, if we’re being honest – downright hysterical. (Case in point, the philosopher Plato compared the uterus to a “living creature” that wandered through a woman’s body wreaking havoc. Yikes!) The myths about menstruat...

An email arrives in a nonprofit CEO’s inbox. The gist: An “investor” is interested in the work you do. He has connections to some of the country’s wealthiest people, and he’d like to leverage those connections to help you raise funds. The email looks legit, sounds promising, and a quick internet search raises no immediate red flags associated with the individual or his company. At least, not at fi...

Summary of Episode  The co-hosts return to The Escape Pod this week to wrap up a two-part series on “phrogging,” when a person occupies a home without the homeowner’s or renter’s knowledge or permission. (It’s a criminal act that lands pretty high on the creep-o-meter, if you ask us!) Part 2 takes us back to the mid-1980s, when a teen phrogger terrorized families in Massachusetts.   SIDE NOTE: Why...

Summary of Episode  “Phrogging” (sounds like “frogging”) refers to the act of living in someone’s home without their knowledge or permission. It is not the same as squatting, and – in many ways – phrogging is much, much creepier. In the first of a two-part series on the subject, the Escape Pod co-hosts discuss a handful of phreaky phrogging incidents that might have you checking your closets. Twic...

Involuntarily celibate. It could be fodder for a standup comedian, but these days, self-proclaimed “InCels” and the InCel Movement are no joke – even landing on Secret Service threat lists. Join co-hosts Julie and Charity back in The Escape Pod to wrap up a two-part series on extreme misogyny and an online community that poses a clear and present danger to the women they hate.  TRIGGER WARNING: Th...

Ten years before the word “Columbine” became synonymous with school shootings in America, a young man in Canada carried out a massacre at a college in Montreal. His motive? An extreme hatred for women, whom he thought were “stealing men’s jobs.” This tale of true crime happened in 1989, but the perpetrator’s attitude toward the female sex – unfortunately – is alive and well in some male circles to...

We are feasting on family dysfunction in The Escape Pod this week, as true crime takes on a holiday twist. (Special thanks to Reddit for giving generously content-wise, coming through BIG for the co-hosts when one asked the other, “Do you think you could find some good stories about holiday dinners gone wrong?” Indeed, she did!)    Bullet Points of Key Topics and Markers:  Topic #1      :52 Escapi...

A female runner stops for a bathroom break and gets attacked from behind. Little did the predator know that he did not choose easy prey. Kelly Herron said, “Not today, mother f@#!er!” and she meant it, fighting back successfully in that moment and then starting a whole movement around her now-famous line. Join the co-hosts in The Escape Pod this week for an episode featuring true crime, a truly in...

A woman is brutally attacked and murdered in her Ohio home in 1998. The only witness? Her 6-year-old granddaughter, whose eye-witness account helps to convict her “Uncle Clarence.” But Clarence’s wife is certain he didn’t commit the crime, and she makes it her mission to prove it.  Join co-hosts Julie and Charity in the Escape Pod this week, where a wife’s amateur sleuth skills help an innocent ma...

Good kid, model student, high achiever – just a few of the descriptors bestowed on Sidney Powell during her high school years in Ohio. But college proved much more challenging, and some theorize that – rather than face her academic failures – Sidney turned on one of the people who loved her most. Is she a stone-cold murderer, or a young woman who suffered a mental break? On this episode of the Esc...

Hop in for a Halloween-inspired edition of the Escape Pod! This week, we turn up the volume on unexplained (and very eerie) encounters with people or things seemingly from “the beyond.” A deep-breathing, bodiless man? A spirit hell-bent on having clean hands? A ghost cat? Who knows?! But if you’re up for a (mostly) mild scare with a good dose of traumedy, then this episode is for you!    Bullet Po...