Survival

Wayne Simmons had a dramatic 27-year career with the CIA taking down cartels and busting arms smugglers — or did he? The ex-CIA military analyst and cable news star stands accused of being a fraud. Hosted by the reporter who broke the story, Impostors follows the investigation into who Wayne Simmons really is… Hero, or conman? Impostors is a Spotify Original from Parcast. Produced by Topic Studios and Transmitter Media. Hosted by Alex French. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This awards season, pull back the curtain on Tinseltown’s most infamous controversies in the new Spotify Original from Parcast, Hollywood Scandals. You can hear the first episode on Hollywood’s sordid beginnings right here, then follow Hollywood Scandals for an episode every Monday. Listen free, only on Spotify! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creepypastas, frightful TikToks, online horror stories… Loey Lane and Eleanor Barnes are taking you into the spookiest corners of the web in their new Spotify Original from Parcast, Internet Urban Legends. Meet the hosts and hear their debut episode on the Watcher House — a terrifying saga that unfolded in 2014 after the Broaddus family bought their dream home in New Jersey. Listen free on Spotify, and follow Internet Urban Legends for new episodes every Tuesday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dracula wasn’t the only frightful fiction conjured by Irish author Bram Stoker… In this retelling of “The Judge’s House,” a Cambridge student is overcome with curiosity — then dread — as he faces an evil man’s terrifying legacy. Listen to Part 1 right here, then search “Haunted Places: Ghost Stories” to hear Part 2, when the Judge himself comes calling…  Haunted Places: Ghost Stories is a Spotify Original from Parcast. Every Thursday, find a new tale of terror from some of history’s greatest authors. Listen free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This season, “L” stands for love… and lawless… and lethal. Beginning February 1st, uncover history’s most infamous couples in this collection of episodes from across Parcast Network. Follow the misdeeds of married mafiosos. Enter the transgressions of casanova cult leaders. And demystify the lives of coupled kingpins, pirates, and spies… Because in this limited series, romance takes a sharp turn into the radical.  Get a preview of Criminal Couples right here, then search “Criminal Couples” to find and follow the series. Episodes air every Monday. Listen free, only on Spotify.

They’re a powerful political dynasty with no shortage of tragedies, scandals and controversies. Ahead of the 60th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, revisit the most shocking moments in the Kennedy family history — from conspiracies and cover-ups to assassinations and affairs — in this Parcast limited series.  All 12 episodes are available January 19th. Listen free, only on Spotify. 

The clock’s winding down on the final moments of the year and people around the world are putting their charms and traditions to work, shoring up good fortune for the future. But it’s not always our own personal luck that’s on the line… In this story, a night of superstitions weaves together the fates of merrymakers eager for fresh starts.  This episode is presented by Superstitions, a Spotify Original from Parcast. Follow Superstitions free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

For decades, family members and sleuths have tried to determine what really happened the night of the fire. As of yet, they have been unsuccessful. But the clues remain, the questions linger, and the case unofficially stays open…  This episode is presented by Unexplained Mysteries, a Spotify Original from Parcast. For more of history’s greatest puzzles, follow Unexplained Mysteries free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In the aftermath of the fire, a startling number of tips, twists, and witnesses came forward regarding the fate of the Sodder children. Their father, George, followed the clues for decades, driven by a suspicion of the “official” story and a belief that the blaze was no accident. This episode is presented by Unexplained Mysteries, a Spotify Original from Parcast. For more of history’s greatest puzzles, follow Unexplained Mysteries free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Early Christmas day in 1945, Jennie Sodder woke up to her house on fire. The blaze consumed her home, and five of her young children. Or did it? Strange events, prescient remarks, and a lack of human remains hinted at more nefarious — though no less tragic — outcomes.  This episode is presented by Unexplained Mysteries, a Spotify Original from Parcast. For more of history’s greatest puzzles, follow Unexplained Mysteries free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You know you can find love in a bar… on an app… Why not a podcast? Every week on Blind Dating, one hopeful single is introduced to two potential matches in a virtual hangout — no cameras allowed. This week, listen in as Pauler, a 33-year-old dancer from Australia, meets a tutor who falls for mama’s boys and a one-time swinger who’s “lived and learned” in LA. Is personality enough to spark a lasting connection? Listen to find out… and don’t miss the twist at the end! Blind Dating is free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

They’re natural-born leaders, hungry for absolute power. Every week on Dictators, delve into the minds and motives of history’s most infamous rulers — people who rose through the ranks toward radicalism, eliminating anyone who stood in their way. This week, track the rise and fall of Nero, an emperor who led Rome to destruction. Hear a clip from Part 1 here, then head to Dictators for the rest of the episode. Dictators is free to listen on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How do complete strangers turn into perfect pairs? On the new Spotify Original from Parcast, Our Love Story, hear from real-life couples themselves as they share the intimate, funny, joy-filled moments of their relationship — without skipping over what’s been hard. Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes featuring people like David, 41, and Samantha, 36, whose improv-fueled friendship led to a fateful first date and the sweetest park bench proposal. Listen now, and follow Our Love Story free on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Parcast Network is spinning a web of new shows and special programming to celebrate our favorite season. Follow us into the darkest depths of history, mystery, and the human mind — starting with this episode of Crime Countdown! Hosts Ash and Alaina are ranking the top 10 haunted crime scenes, including an Irish castle with a deadly trap door and the home of a ghostly bride.  If you enjoy this episode, search Crime Countdown to find more passionate takes on top-ten rankings. Listen free on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! 

Every Wednesday, meet us at the intersection of chaos and fate… We’re unveiling the backstories and hidden lessons inside superstitions from around the world, and telling the stories of those who dare to defy them. Are these eerie codes of conduct simply about exerting control in an unpredictable world? Or can we truly sway supernatural forces to work in our favor? Enjoy this exclusive clip from our episode on black cats. Then search Superstitions to find more episodes, free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Flickering lights… Clanging metal… A sudden, cold rush of air… Parcast Network’s all-new original series is here—and with it, the scariest, most hair-raising ghost stories ever imagined. Join host Alastair Murden as he reaches into the cob-webbed collection of ghost stories from all over the world and brings to life a new, heart-racing tale every Thursday. Enjoy this exclusive clip from our first episode on “The Kit-Bag”—a murder trial that takes a turn for the supernatural. Then search Haunted Places: Ghost Stories to find more episodes, free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Can you meet the love of your life doing a socially distanced podcast in your living room? There’s only one way to find out! Every Wednesday on Blind Dating, host Tara Michelle introduces one hopeful single to two strangers in a voice-only virtual hangout. They’ll chat, flirt, and make the case for why they deserve a second date. But once a match is made and the cameras are turned on, will the new connection be strong enough to last? Enjoy the first episode of Blind Dating, then follow Blind Dating free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! 

Humanity’s most daring achievements are coming together in the new Spotify Original from Parcast! Every weekday, Incredible Feats introduces you to a new story of jaw-dropping physical strength, mental focus, and bizarre behavior. Join comedian Dan Cummins as he profiles the people who turned the impossible into the incredible, breaking records and making history along the way.  Enjoy this exclusive clip from our first episode, and stay tuned for episodes on daredevils, ultramarathoners, performance artists and more! To find more Parcast Network originals, search “Parcast Network” on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We all know that medical professionals are trained to give exceptional care. But in the new Parcast Original, Medical Murders, you’ll discover a disturbing diagnosis… that not every doctor wants to extend your life. Every Wednesday, meet the men and women who used their expertise to develop sinister specialties. Host Alastair Murden examines the formative years and motives of history’s most infamous killer doctors, dissecting their medical backgrounds with expert analysis provided by practicing M.D., Dr. David Kipper.  Enjoy this exclusive clip from our first episode of Medical Murders! Then search Medical Murders to find more episodes, free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! 

Uncover the dirty dealings of history’s most badly behaved presidents in the NEW Spotify Original from Parcast, Very Presidential with Ashley Flowers. Every Tuesday through the 2020 election, Ashley shines a light on the darker side of the American presidency… From secret love affairs and all-night ragers to blackmail schemes and excessive drug use, she’ll expose the personal and professional controversies you may never knew existed.  Enjoy this exclusive clip from our first episode of Very Presidential with Ashley Flowers!  Then search Very Presidential to find more episodes, free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! 

To commemorate its fourth anniversary, Parcast and the team behind Unsolved Murders are taking a closer look at what it takes to catch a killer. In the new series Solved Murders: True Crime Mysteries, you'll follow the clues and uncover the missing pieces to some of history's most gripping cases. Every Wednesday, join hosts Carter and Wenndy as they explore the days, months, and even years leading up to a killer being caught. Each episode plays out like a classic murder mystery—where the final reveal is nearly as shocking as the murder itself. Solved Murders: True Crime Mysteries is only available on Spotify. Enjoy this exclusive clip from the first episode on the infamous “in cold blood” murders of the Clutter Family. If you want to listen to the full episode, follow Solved Murders: True Crime Mysteries, free and only on Spotify.

This special five-part series is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like it, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today we’re discussing Reshma Begum, a seamstress in Bangladesh who was pulled out alive from the wreckage of a building…17 days after it collapsed.

This special five-part series is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like it, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today we’re discussing Michael Benson, a cameraman who survived a helicopter crash, only to find himself stuck inside a volcano’s crater…for two days.

This special five-part series is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like it, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today we’re discussing José Salvador Alvarenga, a Salvadoran fisherman who spent over 13 months adrift at sea…and survived.

This special five-part series is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like it, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today we’re discussing Beck Weathers, a Texas pathologist who survived the disastrous 1996 blizzard on Mount Everest...

This special five-part series is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like it, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today we’re discussing the story of Anna Bågenholm, whose heart stopped in 1999 after she was trapped in a labyrinth of thick ice for nearly an hour and a half…

If you enjoy the true stories told in Survival, check out this episode from our series Natural Disasters: By the late 1840s, with no end in sight to the potato famine gripping Ireland and no help coming from the British government, the Irish people were left with few options. Forced to choose between dire workhouses or leaving the country, there was no easy solution to ending their hunger.

If you enjoy the true stories told in Survival, check out this episode from our series Natural Disasters: In 1845, a fungus destroyed Ireland’s potato crops, leaving the Irish population without its main food source. The first months of the famine morphed into a bureaucratic nightmare.

As a leader in the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis in the 1940s, 25-year-old Jan Baalsrud endured frostbite, gangrene, snow blindness, and starvation while evading capture after his mission was compromised.

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: January 1847. Fed by the remains of their friends and family, the surviving members of the Forlorn Hope managed to get through the snow and reach civilization.

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: Snowed in, and unable to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevadas, the Donner Party set up camp by Truckee Lake and waited for the winter of 1846 to pass.

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: On May 12, 1846, a wagon train set out toward the West Coast of North America. The trip should have taken four months. In the end, it dragged on for a year, exacerbated by bad weather and rapidly dwindling food stores.

At 4 P.M. on June 30th, 2013, the Yarnell Hill wildfire in the Arizona mountains spiraled out of control. Brendan McDonough was separated from the rest of his crew, who had come face-to-face with a 3,000-degree firestorm.

In 2011, Brendan McDonough joined an elite wildland firefighting crew called the Granite Mountain Hotshots. But no amount of training would prepare him for the horrific 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire that killed 19 members of his crew.

After Captain Charles Hall perished under mysterious circumstances in 1871, the crew of the Polaris faced a difficult question: should they continue their mission to the North Pole, or give up and turn tail for America? 

In 1871, Captain Charles Hall left Brooklyn Harbor, New York with a ship, crew, and a mandate from the US Government: Journey farther North than anyone previously had and plant an American Flag on the North Pole.

With Kirill now gone to Finland, Boris and Andrei stayed behind to care for their mother. But when a Civil War finally broke out, they too would be forced to flee Russia. But unlike their older brother, their escape would be much more dangerous than they would have ever imagined.

Before Russia was thrown into turmoil in 1917, a set of Romanov brothers spent their days focused on surviving palace politics. That is until one of the brothers, Kirill Vladimirovich, sensed that having a Romanov last name in Russia during WWI was becoming far too dangerous.

As the Rwandan genocide continued to rage, the Tutsis who had survived the initial violence found themselves in more danger than ever. As their killers adopted more sophisticated tactics, the survivors were forced to use increasingly elaborate strategies to make it through each day alive.

Central Africa: In the spring of 1994, a paramilitary group called the “Interahamwe” set about exterminating the Tutsi people—and anyone who sympathized with them. The killing went on for 100 days.

After being taken prisoner in the Philippines in 1942, U.S. Marine Glenn “Mac” McDole spent 2 horrifying years in a prison camp on the island of Palawan. How would he escape? And how would the United States military react to the atrocities that he and the other prisoners lived through?

December 14, 1944: Japanese soldiers massacre 139 of 150 American POWs. One of the eleven to survive is U.S. Marine Glenn “Mac” McDole—despite under the most horrifying conditions.

For teenage surfer Jonathan Kathrein, another day at the beach turns into the fight for his life as he finds himself in the jaws of a gigantic Great White Shark.

On August 26th, 1998, sixteen-year-old Jonathan Kathrein and his best friend Sean set out for a final surf of the summer at Northern California's Bodega Bay. They did not realize that the waters they had chosen placed them right inside The Red Triangle, one of the most heavily shark infested areas in the world. Before the day was done, Jonathan would face a surfers worst nightmare: an up close and personal encounter with the ocean's greatest predator, the great white shark.

After Joe Simpson's climbing partner cut the rope they had used to lower the injured Joe down the Siula Grande mountain in Peru, Joe fell 150 into an icy crevasse. Now alone on the glacier with a broken leg, Joe must find the strength to pull himself out and traverse five miles back to basecamp; assuming basecamp is still there.

Siula Grande is a 20,814 foot behemoth that sits along the Peruvian Andes, a challenging ascent for even the most experienced climber. In 1985, Joe Simpson and his climbing partner Simon Yates made the decision to be the first people to scale its West Face. During their descent, their plans went awry and Yates was faced with an impossible decision.

January 1847. Fed by the remains of their friends and family, the surviving members of the Forlorn Hope managed to get through the snow and reach civilization. But with the Mexican-American war still raging throughout California, able-bodied men and supplies for a rescue are hard to find. Will the scant rescue parties be able to save the Donner Party from their snowbound fate?

Snowed in, and unable to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevadas, the Donner Party set up camp by Truckee Lake and waited for the winter of 1846 to pass. Food stores running low, a handful of able-bodied settlers make one last ditch effort to fetch help. As they wait for rescue, the members of the Donner Party are faced with a horrible decision: When we run out of food, do we cook and eat our dead?

On May 12, 1846, a wagon train set out toward the West Coast of North America. Lead by George Donner and James F. Reed, these settlers were determined to make their fortune in the wild unclaimed frontier of California. However, the trail they were following was fatally flawed, and a series of mishaps and poor decisions put them far behind schedule, and risked them getting trapped by a bitter winter. Parcasters - This week on The Dark Side Of, we take on the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley! Search for The Dark Side Of on Spotify today!

After 18 months on Auckland Island, fighting to survive, Captain Thomas Musgrave came to a desperate conclusion on Christmas Day 1864. They could no longer wait for a rescue ship to appear on the horizon; they had to figure out a way to save themselves.  Parcasters - This week on The Dark Side Of...Music, we take a look at the Man in Black, Johnny Cash! Give it a listen today on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

In November of 1863, Captain Thomas Musgrave led his five-man crew on a search for riches on Campbell Island. Unfortunately, the island had already been ransacked and the men were left empty-handed. Trying to salvage the journey, Musgrave sailed his ship to another island, Auckland, but his ship was wrecked by a terrible storm.  Sponsors! Battlbox - Get a FREE tactical knife when you sign up at TryBattlBox.com/SURVIVAL. Embrace Pet Insurance - Get your FREE quote at EmbracePetInsurance.com/SURVIVAL.