Hard Knox with Amanda Knox

Twenty years ago, Roz Savage was a management consultant living in London with her husband. From the outside, it looked like a good life, but Roz was miserable. Until she blew up that life and found a new one on the other side of the ocean. She'd just have to row for three and half months to get there.  Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patre...

A few months ago, we sat down to do something we'd never done before: a live Labyrinths episode! And we knew there was no better place to do it than our home, Vashon Island. Most people haven't heard of our rural island near Seattle, but we know that it's a rich community of eccentrics with a lot of stories to offer. Today, we've brought you three stories of plane crashes, lost pets, and local jou...

Dr. Itiel Dror is used to facing resistance to his work. It comes with the territory when you're a neuroscientist studying cognitive bias in experts: no one wants to believe they have biases they're not aware of. But the pushback to a paper he published last year was extreme even by Dr. Dror's standards. After the paper came out, the ensuing backlash even threatened his job. Check out Dr. Dror's l...

Journalist Andrew Gold explores the extreme in his podcast On the Edge, where he’s interviewed controversial people, including a former white supremacist, an ex-crime boss, and a self-professed psychopath. He joins Amanda and Chris to talk about the most taboo topic he's delved into yet: non-offending pedophiles. Forewarning: this episode grapples with the subject of child sex abuse. Listener disc...

Last year, we brought you through the labyrinths of infertility and pregnancy, but what happens after birth? What happens when you find yourself utterly alone in that 4th trimester, a shadow hanging over you and your child? Amy Kuber brings us through her post-partum darkness and how she found the light again. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths o...

Is it possible to succeed when you fail? Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton did just that, and so has modern adventurer and mountaineer Alison Levine, leader of the First American Women's Everest expedition. Levine has survived subzero temperatures, hurricane force winds, and sudden avalanches. She's had plenty of triumphs, but she's learned just as much, if not more, from her failures. Get earl...

Amanda and Chris get lost in the wide world of puzzles with AJ Jacobs, author of the The Puzzler: One Man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life. And pay close attention, because this episode has a puzzle embedded within it! Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/...

When we first met Jens, he was still serving a life sentence for a double homicide he didn't commit. We devoted a whole season of our prior podcast, The Truth About True Crime, to his case (link below). Now, after 33 years in prison, he's free, and rebuilding his life in his native Germany. We flew to Hamburg to meet him in person for the first time and to learn how he's been navigating the labyri...

Emily Wilson traveled the world over the course of her modeling career. But one photoshoot always...haunted her. She was accustomed to be valued for her beauty, but that fateful day, she was used as a weapon. Find Emily on Instagram @emilykatwilson Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Tw...

As a young teen, Maya Shankar was on a path to becoming a professional, world-class violinist, until an accident changed the course of her life, leading her to become a behavioral scientist. Amanda, Chris, and Maya nerd out about cognitive biases and how they affected Amanda's wrongful conviction, what shapes our behaviors and identities, and why it's so hard to change minds. Check out Maya Shanka...

In the final installment of our miniseries, Chris takes an ego-obliterating dose of mushrooms, and Amanda pokes her head through the looking glass for the first time. But first, we get advice from Michael Pollan, Robin Carhart-Harris, Paul Stamets, and Sam Harris. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.kno...

Psilocybin isn't just a psychedelic compound, it's the product of a mushroom. In Part 6 of our miniseries, renowned mycologist Paul Stamets takes us through the wide world of fungi, our mutual evolution, the latest research on microdosing, and gives us a mycelium’s eye view of our place in the universe. (Photo credit @brokenbanjotrav) Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more b...

What is the self? How can we find tranquility without reaching past the present moment? And what does all this have to do with psychedelics? Sam Harris--philosopher, neuroscientist, author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up meditation app--helps us see the landscapes of mind that psychedelics reveal, and how mindfulness and ethics are crucial to achieving the furthest...

In 1955, a Mazatec shaman introduced a westerner to sacred mushrooms. That event has had tremendous ripple effects. In part 4 of our miniseries, we speak with Dr. Bia Labate about the deep indigenous roots of the psychedelic renaissance and what is missing from the western biomedical narrative around these powerful substances. (Artwork by Karina Muscarina for Chacruna Institute). Get early access...

In 2020, Oregon didn't just decriminalize drugs, it legalized a framework for safe and equitable psilocybin therapy. In part three of our miniseries, we look at the politics of psychedelics and the activists who, in the midst of celebrating this unexpected political triumph, were met with personal tragedy. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on pa...

There's growing evidence that psychedelics can be useful tools for mental health and wellbeing. In part 2 of our miniseries, neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris takes us on a tour of the pioneering research into how psychedelics affect the brain, and what it may mean for society if more of us are able to shake up our snow globes. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by sup...

The psychedelic renaissance is here, but will it last? In this 7-part series, Amanda and Chris deep dive into the history, neuroscience, politics, and power of psilocybin mushrooms, along with their relationship with mindfulness and the fabric of life on earth. Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind, and This is Your Mind on Plants, gives us the lay of the land, from the dangers of ther...

Every other week, Amanda and Chris debate an ethical question, from suicide and abortion to whether it's okay to trap your cat in the laundry hamper! These Who's Right? debates are usually only available to Patreon subscribers but this episode is free for all Labyrinths listeners! Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/kno...

Hang onto your hats! Third trimester is a wild ride with an early rush to the hospital and fears of dying in childbirth. Emily Oster, author of the Family Firm, helps Amanda and Chris through their anxieties about the physical trauma of birth and its mental aftermath. If you haven't been in a delivery room since the day you were born, you're in a for an intimate experience. This is part 3 of 3. Ge...

As Amanda and Chris enter their second trimester, they face anxieties about the genetic testing of their fetus, and Amanda is feeling less like a Goddess and more like "The Incubator." As before, Dr. Emily Oster, author of Crib Sheet, helps them sift through these worries and emotions. This is Part 2 of 3. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on pa...

After an early miscarriage, Amanda and Chris began their journey into parenthood anxious to understand the data about their actual risks so they could make informed choices. Dr. Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better, helps them sift through all the conflicting pregnancy advice, while Amanda and Chris offer an intimate view into their unexpected emotional reality. This is Part 1 of 3. Get early a...

Brent Spiner is not the android Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but so many seem to want him to be that fictional character. Contending with a doppelganger version of yourself is something Amanda knows well, and if you have any online existence, you too will be implicated by the questions Brent Spiner explores in his new book, Fan Fiction, a mem-noir thriller about the nature of identity...

What role does beauty play in criminal justice? Why was everyone so fixated on Amanda's eyes while she was on trial for murder? Can beauty be a privilege and a curse? Amanda and Chris unpack these questions with Zara Stone, author of Killer Looks, a book that reveals the forgotten history of plastic surgery in prisons. Find Killer Looks at: https://bookshop.org/books/killer-looks-the-forgotten-his...

Amanda was accused of orchestrating a sex-game gone wrong that ended in murder. But what does a sex-game gone right look like? To find out, Amanda and Chris connect with Mistress Cyan and Goddess Genesis and enter the world of BDSM. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Twitter: @amandakn...

Sperm counts are dropping; miscarriage rates are rising. Renowned environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan alerts us to the global infertility crisis, while Amanda and Chris find something to hope for. Get early access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more by supporting Labyrinths on patreon. www.patreon.com/knoxrobinson www.knoxrobinson.com Twitter: @amandaknox | @manu...