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In a case that stunned the FBI, a linguist assigned to a high-profile terrorism case disappeared—only to resurface behind enemy lines, married to her target.   WRITTEN BY: MICHAEL LAPOINTE REPORTED BY: EMILY DISCHE-BECKER AUDIO: DOMINIC GOZO NARRATED BY: EMILIA CLARKE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation with journalist Serena Coady, author of THE BEANIE BABY BANDIT '97. HOST: MICHAEL LAPOINTE EDITING: THOMAS CURRY MUSIC, SCORING & SOUND-DESIGN: NATALIA RODRIGUEZ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Chicago in the summer of '97, and criminal defense attorney Kathleen Zellner (of Making a Murderer fame) is feeling worn out. After once defending a serial killer, she promised herself never to defend a guilty person again, and has devoted her life to exonerating the innocent. But after years of gruesome murder trials, she needs a holiday. When a lemon-yellow stretch Cadillac bounces into her...

A conversation with journalist Shaun Raviv, author of THE MOCKBUSTER. HOST: MICHAEL LAPOINTE EDITING: THOMAS CURRY MUSIC, SCORING & SOUND-DESIGN: NATALIA RODRIGUEZ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When small-time money counterfeiter Edward L. Montoro nearly dies in a plane crash, he decides to reinvent himself as a filmmaker. It's the late 1970s, the dawn of the age of the blockbuster, and Montoro pioneers the "mockbuster"—knock-off productions that capitalize on the popularity of mainstream Hollywood films. But as his little studio attracts the wrath of the movie industry, Montoro makes a...

A conversation with journalist Alex Mayyasi, author of The Way We're Built. HOST: MICHAEL LAPOINTE  EDITING: THOMAS CURRY MUSIC, SCORING & SOUND-DESIGN: NATALIA RODRIGUEZ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facing hard times in the early 1990s, Subaru of America is trying to understand who exactly buys their sturdy but drab brand of cars. That's when one marketing executive notices a peculiar niche in their focus groups—lesbian women. In the conservative corporate culture of Subaru, a group of marketing executives will try to turn the company's fortunes around through a secretive marketing campaign....

A conversation with journalist Yochai Maital author of "The Badir Brothers". HOST: MICHAEL LAPOINTE JOURNALIST: YOCHAI MAITAL AUDIO: NATALIA RODRIGUEZ FORD Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a small Israeli village in the 1980s, three Arab brothers are born blind. When a payphone is installed at the end of the block, the brothers discover they can use their supersensitive hearing to manipulate the lines to do their bidding, the first step in what will become the largest telecom fraud in Israeli history. JOURNALIST: YOCHAI MAITAL EDITING: THOMAS CURRY MUSIC, SCORING & SOUND-DESI...

A conversation about fakes, hustlers, and how to rip off the Grateful Dead with Harmon Leon, author of “Blinkers. Host: Michael LaPointe Journalist: Harmon Leon Audio: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teenage hustler Conor MacKay makes his living selling counterfeit tickets—or blinkers—at concerts and sporting events across the United States. It’s the early 1990s, the golden age of the blinker game, but as the federal authorities and Ticketmaster close in, Conor has to find what’s authentic in this world of fakes. A fictional story based on real events. NARRATOR: CARTER BELLAIMEY JOURNALIST: HA...

It's Los Angeles in the mid-2000s and Nina is chasing the LA dream. She falls into sex work and gets caught up in her boyfriend/pimp's latest scheme: robbing banks. A disparate group of sex workers are transformed into a gang of bank robbers named  The Starlet Bandits ... Narrator: Jurnee Smollett Journalist: Lexi Pandell Audio Editing: Natalia Rodriguez Music, Scoring & Sound-Design: Dom...

It's Los Angeles in the mid-2000s and Nina is chasing the LA dream. She falls into sex work and gets caught up in her boyfriend/pimp's latest scheme: robbing banks. A disparate group of sex workers are transformed into a gang of bank robbers named  The Starlet Bandits ... Narrator: Jurnee Smollett Journalist: Lexi Pandell Audio Editing: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Music, Scoring & Sound-Design...

When the great Russian writer Anton Chekov visits the penal colony on the remote island of Sakhalin in 1890, he is astonished to learn that they’re holding a famous prisoner—Sonya Golden Hand. He finds the legendary con-artist in solitary confinement, her legs clamped in iron chains. Chekhov kneels down beside her on the filthy prison floor. Tell me the story of how you ended up in chains... A fic...

A woman grapples with the mysterious murder of her husband in their Denver home. All the doors were locked from inside, there is no sign of break-in, but her husband lies there, stabbed to death. The murder haunts the house, already a place of mourning after their son Anthony did not return from World War II. As a local detective struggles to pry apart the puzzle of the murder, Helen begins to see...

For Maeve DuVally, coming out as transgender in a corporate America was a journey of self-discovery that required her to hit rock bottom before she came out on top. This is her story. Journalist: Pamela Ryckman Voice: Jamie Clayton Audio Editing: Natalia Rodriguez Music, Scoring & Sound-Design: Dominic Gozo Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Narrated by Steve Buscemi, this is the story of Gosnell Duncan and the silicone dildo. After suffering a work-related accident, Caribbean-born Gosnell Duncan was paralyzed from the waist down. An engineer by trade, and determined not to let his disability come between him and the love of his life, Angela, Gosnell poured his knowledge and energy into crafting a new invention from his Brooklyn basem...

The Oakland A's of the early 1970s were the most iconoclastic team in baseball history. Never before had a club so collectively traumatized baseball's establishment with its eccentric behavior and business decisions, not to mention its outlandish facial hair, while simultaneously setting records: five consecutive division titles and three straight championships. Yet despite all the winning, the dr...

Inspired by the life and work of Leon Theremin, a Russian inventor whose most famous invention was the Theremin –– an instrument that produces otherworldly, haunting music, and which is played seemingly by magic. At the height of the Cold War, Theremin’s passions for music and science drew him into dangerous territory: the price of pursuing his great passions would be...

Based on the life of Susanna Madora Salter.  Narrated by Elle Fanning.  Argonia, Kansas, 1887. Susanna Salter is baking bread when there’s a knock at the door. She learns she’s been nominated for the mayoral elections as a prank by some of the men of the town. After all, what could be funnier than the notion of a female leader? Nobody expected that serious, reserved Susanna would accept...

Alex Latifi, Iranian-born owner of a small parts factory in Alabama, loved by his workers, had been fulfilling military contracts for years, making parts cheaper and better than the competition. When he finds out his secretary has been embezzling money, he fires her. Embittered and vengeful, she tells the FBI that Latifi has been sending classified information to China. As Latifi fights to keep hi...

The Chevalier d'Eon is a brave army captain, a sparkling dinner companion –– and a spy in King Louis XV's secret service, tasked with planning an invasion of England from within London's highest social circles. But the French government, having no idea that the Chevalier is working for King Louis, plots to assassinate the charismatic diplomat, who only narrowly survives. When the scandal subsides,...

Crime writer Diane Fanning was working on her first non-fiction book, spending time visiting and writing to a serial killer on death row. When Diane saw a case on the TV show 20/20 about a mother who was convicted of brutally murdering her 10-year-old son, she wrote about it in a letter to the convict. His letter back chilled her to the bone. He knew details about the case that only one person cou...

Camels, sand storms, scorpions, and sand dunes towering like buildings—these are amongst Sidi’s first ever memories. Raised in a nomadic tribe on the far edge of the Sahara desert, Sidi doesn’t have a father like the other kids. He dreams of meeting him, even after his mom explains he’s gone away to heaven, a journey from which he won’t return. When Sidi discovers that many years ago a foreign doc...

A deep-dive into Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of one of London’s 7/7 bombers and a notorious wanted criminal in the UK. A white woman from a nondescript town, Lewthwaite became the poster girl for radical Islam in the UK and garnered the reputation of being one of the most deadly terrorists in the world. As the tabloids grew greedy for sensational stories, the White Widow became their favor...