The Silver Linings Handbook

Each October, one of my favorite things to do is sit down with author Brett Talley to explore the unexplained. In our best of series on this Halloween, I am sharing the first two episodes in our annual tradition. Links to the other episodes are below. For the first episodes I had not yet met Hannah Hill, but her amazing artwork on the later episodes is worth a link all on it's own. Happy Halloween...

Each October, one of my favorite things to do is sit down with author Brett Talley to explore the unexplained. In our best of series on this Halloween, I am sharing the first two episodes in our annual tradition. Links to the other episodes are below. For the first episodes I had not yet met Hannah Hill, but her amazing artwork on the later episodes is worth a link all on it's own. Today, in the f...

Julia Cowley, a retired FBI profiler and the host of The Consult podcast, and I set out to discuss the University of Idaho murders and the killer of four college students, Bryan Kohberger. But something strange happened when we began discussing the survivors who were in the house. It was during a week when a beloved podcaster, friend, and researcher for this podcast died. In this emotionally...

In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, someone entered a house just off the University of Idaho campus in a brazen home invasion that left four University of Idaho students — Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — dead. Julia Cowley, a retired FBI profiler and host of The Consult podcast, joins me to continue on conversation about what we can learn from the beh...

In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, some entered a house just off the University of Idaho campus and stabbed four students to death. Months later, a suspect was identified. This year, he pled guilty to the charges without giving any hint why he committed the crimes or what made the victims desirable targets. Julia Cowley, a retired FBI profiler and host of The Consult podcast, joins m...

In Part 2, Brett Talley, the horror writer and co-host of The Prosecutors podcast, push deeper into how fear becomes architecture — not just in myths and folklore, but in the way communities respond to real‑world uncertainty. We explore how conspiracy theories, moral panics, and cultural narratives emerge when information is scarce and anxiety is high, from modern “Twitter panic” to ancient explan...

Brett Talley, the horror author and host of The Prosecutors podcast, explores how ancient concepts like guest rights and modern legends like Cropsey reveal a universal human impulse: turning danger and uncertainty into stories we can understand and navigate. We connect this to broader patterns — from Greek mythology to conspiracy theories — showing how narratives help people regulate fear, impose...

Christian Kenny's story unfolds as a blend of curiosity, compulsion and a lifelong drive to understand the unseen architecture of human behavior. From childhood, he describes himself as an "oddball," someone who asked existential questions early and pursued answers with obsessive, research-driven intensity. He describes there being a "whole courtroom in there" in his mind, constantly debating hims...

Clara S. Lewis joins me again as we go deeper into the questions the Lindsay Clancy mistrial leaves behind — especially how courts try to evaluate wrongfulness, intent, and culpability when severe postpartum disorders or psychosis are in play. We look at why juries struggle with these cases, how expert testimony gets flattened into competing narratives, and why centuries‑old ideas about “good” and...

On September 4, 2026, Lindsay Clancy’s trial ended without a unanimous verdict on her criminal responsibility - a result that left the public divided and the deeper questions unresolved. I’m joined this week again by Dartmouth professor Clara S. Lewis, author of American Infanticide , for a wide‑ranging conversation about what the Clancy case reveals about maternal mental health, psychosis, and th...

In Part 2, Maria DiLorenzo takes us inside her unlikely relationship with the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway - how it began, why he chose to write her back, and what she learned from years of letters and calls. We explore his manipulations, his contradictions, and the unsettling intimacy that forms when a journalist steps into a serial killer’s world. Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail...

Janet Malcolm once wrote that every journalist who truly understands their work knows its moral ambiguity. She was describing the uneasy intimacy between reporter and subject — and how that bond can fracture. But sometimes, the journalist isn’t the most manipulative person in the room. Maria DiLorenzo, one of the only journalists to interview Gary Ridgway, joins me to explore her years‑long relati...

Former Chicago Homicide Detective Michele Wood returns with an unfiltered look at the cases that haunt her, the ones that cracked open years later, and the ones she’s hoping will close. She talks witness intimidation, cold‑case breakthroughs, and what justice really looks like in neighborhoods living with daily violence. Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com Check out the Silver Linings...

Michele Wood is a 25-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, a longtime homicide and cold-case detective, an FBI-certified hostage negotiator, and the author of the book  Model Detective . Michele traces the roots of her career back to her childhood in gang-plagued Logan Square, including the violent attack she survived at age 11 that sharpened her instincts and set her on the path tow...

Jennifer Eskew picks up her story at the moment her career begins to accelerate. In Part 2, she walks us through the realities of undercover work in Virginia — the operations that shaped her, the risks she learned to manage, and the emotional and ethical weight of living a double life. She talks about the cases that defined her early years, the moments that tested her resolve, and the institutiona...

Jennifer Eskew grew up in a small farming community in rural Virginia where violent crime was rare — until a 1968 shooting injured her mother, sister, and neighbors and set her on a lifelong path toward law enforcement. In this episode, Jennifer talks about that moment, the community that shaped her, the early barriers she faced as a woman pursuing police work, and how she eventually became a Virg...

In this episode, Dr. Paige Wilcoxson joins us to discuss what people often get wrong about forensic psychology, what it takes and costs, and what the work helps us understand about ourselves, criminal behavior, and the world around us. Paige worked as a clinical and forensic psychologist in hospitals and prisons and as a graduate intern in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, where she contributed...

Aaron Habel, the host of the Generation Why podcast, joins me for our second and final conversation on his new podcast series, Framed, which explores the murder of Scott Macklem and the conviction of Fred Freeman, who changed his name to Temujin Kensu. To listen to Season 3 of Framed: True Crime Podcast Framed- Official Site – Framed: An Investigative Story Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@g...

Aaron Habel, the host of the Generation Why podcast, joins me to discuss the murder of Scott Macklem and the conviction of Fred Freeman, who changed his name to Temujin Kensu. The case has been approached from many angles over the years — who killed Macklem or whether Kensu was wrongfully convicted. Aaron, in a new season of his Framed podcast, is widening the lens to ask another question. Contact...

In Part 2 of my conversation with former federal prosecutor Tad DiBiase, we dig into how investigators distinguish a missing‑persons case from a homicide, why the absence of evidence can be the most powerful clue, and how prosecutors build no‑body murder cases. We talk through successful prosecutions — including Lloyd Lee Welch in the Lyon sisters case and Sante and Kenneth Kimes in the murder of...

Tad DiBiase, a former federal homicide prosecutor, joins me to discuss his path to specializing in no-body homicide cases, how investigators recognize when a missing person may actually have been murdered, and the core challenges of proving these cases. We explore historical and modern no-body homicides, along with ongoing cases that remain unresolved. Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail....

Sadie Johnson spent three decades as a writer and editor in newspapers, magazines, and marketing. Storytelling comes naturally to her, and it’s the narrative of her family - and how it shaped who she became and refused to become - that she’s turning toward now and joined me to discuss. Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at: https://silver...

Retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley, the host of The Consult , joins me to conclude our conversation on the disappearance of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, a 20-year-old woman who disappeared in the mountains of the Blackfeet Reservation in June 2017. Our two-part discussion followed a four-part series where I joined Julia and her colleagues on The Consult to discuss Ashley's case. To listen to the epis...

After a four-part series on The Consult podcast, the host, Julia Cowley, a retired FBI profiler, joins me to revisit the case of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, a 20-year-old woman who disappeared in the mountains of the Blackfeet Reservation in June 2017. We continue to explore Ashley's case and the use of profiling in missing persons cases. To listen to the episodes of the series where I join The Con...

Why is change so hard? Victoria Grady, an organizational psychologist and expert in adult attachment theory, joins me to discuss the space in between, where you are letting go of one thing and grasping for something new. When my mother died, the Paddington bear she gave me as a child gave me a clue about why and what we can do to make it a little easier for ourselves and others. Contact me at silv...