Get Out Alive

https://www.getoutalivepodcast.com/shop OUR ONLINE MERCH STORE IS LIVE!! Guys, this has been a LONG time in the making  - there's a lot of little logistical things we had to iron out before finally opening our online store to our U.S. listeners - and to our non-U.S. listeners, we are so sorry it's not available to you right now but we're working on it! We're hoping by opening to just the U.S. firs...

The morning of August 19th, 2003, started like every other for Deborah Blanche Franzman: She went swimming in the ocean at Avila Beach in California. But tragedy struck as Deborah was swimming with a group of seals and a Great White Shark struck her. In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Jaida Elcock, co-founder of Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), and PhD candidate in the MIT-...

On Christmas Day in 2007,  Carlos Sousa Jr. and his friends Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwhal decided to spend their afternoon at the San Francisco Zoo. One of the last exhibits they wanted to see before the zoo closed that night was the zoo's 4-year old and 243 pound (110kg)  Siberian Tiger, Tatiana. The boys just didn't realize exactly how close they were going to get. This case was extremely rare, espe...

On June 14th, 2016, the Graves' lives were turned upside-down when their 2-year old son, Lane, was killed by an alligator outside of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. We also sit down with alligator expert, Frank "Alligator" Robb, who has been working for over 26 years in Florida responding to nuisance wildlife calls. We ask him how to live safely and peacefully alongside alligators, and how to fig...

Tune in for the final portion of our interview with the world's foremost expert on fatal dog attacks, Jim Crosby .  In this portion, we ask more hard-hitting questions: Are certain breeds the cause of more attacks than others? Can dogs that have been bred to fight in illegal dog fighting be re-integrated back into society? How can you stop an approaching aggressive dog? If you or someone you know...

We had the pleasure of speaking with retired police officer and the world's leading fatal dog attack expert, Jim Crosby .  He has a Master's degree in Veterinary Forensics from the University of Florida, and is currently working on a PhD studying fatal dog attacks. He also wrote the newest U.S. Dept. of Justice curriculum on police-dog encounters so officers can respond to calls with aggressive do...

In the later half of 2021, a series of attacks were reported in Anchorage, Alaska, carried out by river otters. Also in late 2021, a man in Singapore visiting the Botanic Gardens says he believes a group of smooth-coated otters would've killed him had his friend not intervened. Ashley and Nick break down the possible causes of these attacks, while making some (not so great in Nick's opinion) puns...

Goodbye 2021 and hello 2022! We're starting this year off with a wrap-up of the podcast and of wildlife stories in 2021. If you'd like to contribute to the fund for Eko (the Malayan Tiger who was shot and killed at the Naples Zoo in late December 2021 after a man put his arm in the enclosure), you can do so at the Naples Zoo website . To read more interesting wildlife discoveries from 2021, check...

In this episode, Ashley and Nick discuss four different kangaroo attacks in Australia, all with different causes of attack. There are also many questions about kangaroos answered: How high can they jump? How many species are there? How much damage can they really do? How can you protect yourself? And what is a kangaroo cull anyways? The Conservation is a great website with resources on how you can...

In the late 1890s, an area of Kenya called Tsavo was terrorized by two mane-less male lions. Depending on who you ask, they killed between 35-300 people. Join Nick and Ashley for this long tale of two cats, and how for many months they evaded over 8,000 men, one of which was John Henry Patterson (who wrote a book about his journey in The Man Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures ), des...

On February 16th, 2009, an entirely avoidable event occurred: Charla Nash had her face ripped off by her friend Sandra Herold's pet chimp, Travis. Travis was a 200 pound, 14 year-old Chimpanzee. His owners "adopted" him for $50,000 from a place called the Missouri Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and raised him as a mix between a pet and a child. He ate at the dinner table with them, drank wine, slept in the...

How common are polar bear attacks? How do people who live with polar bears feel about them? How do mother bears poison their cubs? How can you take part in polar bear research from your own couch? Learn the answers to all those questions and more with polar bear researcher Danielle Rivet ! You can identify camera trap photos on Zooniverse with the Arctic Bears Project You can track polar bears wit...

In August of 2011 in Svalbard, Norway, 17 year-old Horatio Chapple was fatally mauled by a polar bear while on an expedition with the British Schools Exploring Society, and many of his companions were also brutally attacked. We then travel over to northern Canada and hear of two attacks in 2018, one of which killed Aaron Gibbons who was defending his children, and the other attack killed Darryl Ka...

In November of 2019, Christine Rollins was on her way to her job at an elderly couple's house when she was mauled to death by feral swine. Although this attack was short, we take a deep dive into the issue of feral swine in North America. You can get more information about feral swine on the USDA APHIS website . If you'd like to check out regulations for hunting them in your state, you can check o...

You asked and we listened: Pythons. In Episode 11, Nick and Ashley discuss the deaths of Wa Tiba and Akbar in Indonesia, both of whom were swallowed whole by reticulated pythons that were over 20 feet long. Hiral Naik from Save the Snakes comes on to tell us how she fell in love with snakes, how rare attacks are from pythons, and how she discusses snakes with people who have an aversion to them. Y...

In August of 2005, Johan and Jenna Otter went to Glacier National Park to celebrate Jenna’s graduating highschool. Their first hike at Glacier on the Grinnell trail would change their lives forever when Jenna bumped into a mother grizzly. Hear the story of how these two survived, and how you can avoid grizzly attacks yourself. You can read Johan’s book “A grizzly tale: a father and daughter surviv...

No, we never thought we’d do an episode on beavers either. Join us this week as we discuss four beaver attack stories across the U.S. and in Belarus (a country that Ashley has never had to say out loud before, clearly). Did you know how important beavers were to the early European settlers? Or that we eat their butt goo? Really, you won’t wanna miss this week’s episode. And as a reminder, we are d...

Paul Templer was leading a kayak tour down the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Africa, as he had done many times before. However, this day in 1996 was different; a large male hippo attacked their group, and dragged him to the bottom of the river in it's mouth. Tune in to find out how Paul survived, and listen in on our interview with Hippo Biologist, Camille Fritch, to hear how you can safely recreate...

As a continuation (kind of) to last week's episode, this week Ashley and Nick tell the story of Ian O'Reilly, who spent 10 minutes strangling a coyote to death after it tried to attack his son. This launches us into a long conversation about rabies - how is rabies spread? What animals get rabies? How can we protect ourselves against it? We also give a tad more history on coyotes, including how man...

Probably our most feisty episode yet - join us this week to hear about how Andrew Dickehage survived a gruesome attack from a pack of coyotes as he was walking to work at 2am. In this episode we also discuss a lot of America's history with coyotes, which is not always a pleasant one - like we say in the episode, if you'd like to discuss coyotes with us further, contact us on our socials.  A majori...

On October 1st, 2016, Montana native Todd Orr went out scouting for elk before hunting season. He was an avid outdoorsman and had lived in Montana his whole life and knew how to stay safe in the wilderness. What he never could have anticipated that day was to be mauled by a mother grizzly...twice. Tune in as Ashley and Nick talk about this crazy story, and how to avoid such encounters. You can fol...

This week, Ashley and Nick are joined by their pal Nick to hear the heroic and tragic story of Cynthia (Cindy) Parolin.  We also chat with carnivore biologist, Petros Chrysafis, to hear how people can avoid negative encounters with mountain lions. Or cougars. Or pumas. Whatever you'd like to call them. This episode is not sponsored by Red Dead Redemption II. The Cindy Parolin Safe Homes program wa...

Oliver Starr is on this week to tell us how he survived an attack from his captive wolf, Jake. He's a biologist, a strong advocate for wolves, and lives with his two wolves Aqutaq and Iqniq (and his Malamute, Bixby).  We also talk about misconceptions about wolves, including debunking the alpha theory. You can follow Oliver's blog at: https://lifewithwolves.quora.com/?ch=99&share=396067ef&...

Bears. Beets. ...Black bears sometimes eat people. Tune in this week to hear the stories of Carol Anne Pomranky and Cynthia Dusel-Bacon , both attacked by predatory black bears, but had very different outcomes. Is a lot of this episode Ashley being angry about poor behavior around black bears? Yes. Will it happen in other episodes? Also yes. The source material for these stories can be found in Be...

In the early 1900s, the town of Champawat was terrorized by a tigress who specialized in killing and consuming humans. We recount her last kill, and her ultimate demise.​We also talk to tiger biologist Sam Helle and get insight on how to avoid tiger conflicts in Nepal, and she gives an update on tiger conservation there. The National Trust for Nature Conservation Nepal : Facebook, Twitter Dr. Babu...