Episodi

  • Lost to the Ladder: 12 Hours Alone on a Fogged Tidal Flat

    Lost to the Ladder: 12 Hours Alone on a Fogged Tidal Flat
    Oct 15 2026
    Lost to the Ladder: 12 Hours Alone on a Fogged Tidal Flat

    Fog, cold water, and a compass that didn't lie-yet a man trusted routine so completely he walked away from home and into a tidal maze where visibility dropped under fifteen feet and his path drifted a mile and a half east. How did a practiced photographer with two decades of night flats experience end up stranded on a feature locals call the Ladder, and what single decision in the dark decided whether he would return?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline and choices of Clifford Price across twelve hours and forty-three minutes on the tidal flat, from the dry camera bag left on the berm at 6:14 a.m. to the fog that erased the horizon and the channels that swallowed his footing; will his rule to "find the highest ground and stay" save him or doom him?

    Person: Clifford Price
    Age: 52
    Location: Kessler Bay tidal flat (the Ladder)
    Date: June 3-4, 2019
    Duration: 12 hours 43 minutes

    - Camera bag found at 6:14 a.m. on the berm: dry, upright, straps buckled, zippers closed.
    - Clifford stepped onto the flats at 10:50 p.m, with tripod, compass, jacket, and a granola bar.
    - Low tide predicted at 11:47 p.m.; by 12:30 a.m. he was roughly 900 yards from the berm.
    - Visibility fell under 15 feet within twenty minutes of fog arrival; a moonlit photo taken around 12:10 a.m. became significant evidence.
    - His body unknowingly veered about 1.5 miles east into the Ladder due to small proprioceptive drift despite a correctly used compass.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The Glove That Didn't Want To Be Found: Dawn's 44-Hour Survival

    The Glove That Didn't Want To Be Found: Dawn's 44-Hour Survival
    Oct 14 2026
    The Glove That Didn't Want To Be Found: Dawn's 44-Hour Survival

    A single yellow glove, stiff with frost, sat draped over a permit map at the Holloway trailhead - a photograph that launched a search while its owner lay forty feet up the slope with a broken leg and a core temperature of 93°F. How did Dawn Jones survive nearly forty-four hours alone inside a makeshift shelter, with a green spiral journal of self-instructions and rescuers searching the wrong side of Brecker Peak for thirty-six hours?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline and choices that kept Dawn alive and the missteps that delayed her rescue, asking whether careful planning can still be undone by small accidents and larger failures - and what that means for search-and-rescue procedures.

    Person: Dawn Jones
    Date: May 10-14, 2019
    Location: Brecker Peak, southeast slope; Holloway trailhead; Crestfield
    Status: Survived; transported to hospital in Crestfield
    Item: green spiral journal

    - Found at 9:47 AM on May 14, 2019: a single yellow glove stiff with frost at the Holloway trailhead kiosk.
    - Dawn reached the summit of Brecker Peak at 9:15 AM on May 11 at 11,200 feet elevation and descended southeast on a less-traveled ridge.
    - The fibula fractured roughly 600 feet below the summit at approximately 10:40 AM when a boot slipped on refrozen snow over scree.
    - Dawn spent nearly 44 hours alone with a core temperature recorded at 93°F and sheltered about 40 feet inside a makeshift windbreak of an orange emergency space blanket.
    - Searchers spent 36 hours searching the wrong face of the mountain while a helicopter passed overhead and Dawn could not reach it.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • She Survived 72 Hours: The Map Case That Rewrote the Search

    She Survived 72 Hours: The Map Case That Rewrote the Search
    Oct 13 2026
    She Survived 72 Hours: The Map Case That Rewrote the Search

    Adrenaline and calculated calm collided when a dry, sealed orange map case turned up wedged in a sycamore roots forty feet from the retreating creek-its back marked with the steady message "Gone to the ridge. Follow the sycamores." How did that case travel from a downstream canoe to a root high above the waterline, and what does that movement reveal about the first eighteen hours of the search?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline and decisions that defined Valerie Whitfield's seventy-two-hour survival after her canoe capsized. You will hear how her training as a civil engineer, a minimalist kit tied to her wrist, and a single climb to a ridge shaped every outcome-so what did the misplaced map case finally prove?

    Person: Valerie Whitfield
    Age: 41
    Location: Sullen Creek near the Elbow
    Event: Canoe capsize with subsequent 72-hour survival
    Found object: Orange map case with message "Gone to the ridge. Follow the sycamores."

    - The orange case was found forty feet from the water's edge, wedged in sycamore roots on a Saturday morning in April.
    - The creek had been running at its highest level in eleven years two days before Valerie launched.
    - Valerie hit a standing wave at the Elbow nine miles downstream, was in the water within two seconds, and reached the bank in under one minute.
    - Her stuff sack was tied to her wrist and contained one lighter, one space blanket, a first-aid kit, a headlamp, four energy bars, a folding knife, and 0.5 liters of water.
    - The ridge above the Elbow rises roughly 120 feet above the creek bed and offered two miles of creek corridor visibility in each direction.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 min
  • Buried Alive in a Sealed Silo: How Marie Survived 17 Hours

    Buried Alive in a Sealed Silo: How Marie Survived 17 Hours
    Oct 12 2026
    Buried Alive in a Sealed Silo: How Marie Survived 17 Hours

    Cold air pulsed down an eight-inch auger shaft into a forty-one-foot concrete silo for seventeen hours while a woman fought to stay alive in grain dust at explosive concentration - and nobody knew she was inside. How did a routine habit, a single shaft, and a thirteen-year-old memory become the difference between life and death?

    In this episode, we follow the events that began at 2:35 PM on March 13, 2022, when Marie Riley entered a sealed silo and became trapped, and we trace the timeline, conditions, and tiny choices that kept her alive until a passerby spotted a hand at 8:47 AM the next morning. What saved her in those seventeen hours?

    Person: Marie Riley
    Date: March 13-14, 2022
    Location: Siebert grain complex, Silo One
    Duration: 17 hours 38 minutes
    Temperature outside: 31 degrees Fahrenheit

    - Marie entered Silo One at approximately 2:35 PM after signing into the complex at 2:15 PM for work on Silos Three and Four.
    - The silo had been sealed since 2011 and was a concrete cylinder 41 feet tall with a single 8-inch auger shaft to the top.
    - Marie went under the grain in less than four seconds; her right arm was pinned completely and her left arm had four inches of elbow movement.
    - She had completed a grain entrapment certification course in 2009 and had kept an LED headlamp strapped to her wrist as a habitual safety measure.
    - A walker, Patricia Holm, saw a moving hand at 8:47 AM on March 14, 2022, and called 911.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • She Waved From 400 Feet: The Paraglider Who Couldn't Be Seen

    She Waved From 400 Feet: The Paraglider Who Couldn't Be Seen
    Oct 11 2026
    She Waved From 400 Feet: The Paraglider Who Couldn't Be Seen

    Fear and isolation: a 23-year-old paraglider spent 25 hours stranded on a basalt ledge 400 feet above a river with no radio, no water, and a fractured wrist - how did she survive and try to direct rescuers to the only escape route she had found? What did she do while waiting, and why did no one below understand where she was pointing?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Judith Holmes and the sequence of decisions, injuries, and improvised solutions that defined one long night on a cliff. Follow what she carried, what she lost, and the single choice that changed everything as you hear how she tried to communicate her location to the ground.

    Person: Judith Holmes
    Date: February 6-9, 2019
    Location: Aldren Plateau east face / basalt cliff above Camas River
    Age: 23
    Injury: fractured left wrist, two fissured ribs, deep left shin laceration

    - She landed on the ledge at approximately 4:00 PM on February 6, 2019 after deploying her reserve parachute.
    - She was stranded for 25 hours on a ledge roughly 12 by 8 feet and 400 feet above the river.
    - Her backpack with water, a first-aid kit, and her green spiral notebook tore free and fell about 30 feet to a lower corniche she could not reach.
    - She identified a geological fault line 230 yards south as the only way off the cliff within one hour of landing.
    - The canopy outer panels were bright orange and she used two large panels to build a wind barrier and strips to splint her wrist.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • She Carved "I AM UP"-How a Freediver Survived 85 Minutes Alone

    She Carved "I AM UP"-How a Freediver Survived 85 Minutes Alone
    Oct 10 2026
    She Carved "I AM UP"-How a Freediver Survived 85 Minutes Alone

    Cold, dark, and thirty-eight meters down, she carved three words into a slate with a grease pencil - "I AM UP" - hooked it to a passing weight line, and then swam toward a light she could not yet see; how did a trained freediver with a GPS beacon and proper gear become effectively invisible for eighty-five minutes? Which single decision, made alone in water at fifty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, ended up saving her life?

    In this episode, you will hear the sequence of events from the moment a propeller blade sliced a four-millimeter cord at 6:47 a.m. on January 9, through the failures and technicalities that thwarted search efforts, to the one action the diver took that changed everything; what does that one decision tell us about preparation, equipment, and human judgment?

    Person: Linda Simpson
    Date: January 9
    Location: Heron Flat channel, Florida Gulf
    Depth: 38 meters (carved slate); 32 meters (cord slack)
    Duration: 85 minutes

    - The propeller blade severed a four-millimeter nylon cord at 6:47 a.m.
    - Water temperature was 58 degrees Fahrenheit and Linda wore a three-millimeter wetsuit.
    - The integrated GPS beacon transmitted her position every four minutes as designed.
    - Terry Holst's 22-foot center-console passed directly over the buoy line at 20-25 knots and was two miles away by sunrise.
    - Linda had a personal record of 63 meters in pool freediving and was 38 years old at the time.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    13 min
  • He Fell Through Two-Inch Ice - Survived Six Frozen Days Alone

    He Fell Through Two-Inch Ice - Survived Six Frozen Days Alone
    Oct 9 2026
    He Fell Through Two-Inch Ice - Survived Six Frozen Days Alone

    A man with a core temperature of 89°F stood and said the name of the river after six days alone in winter - and his exit from the water was on the east bank, the side that should have been impossible. What single piece of evidence pointed rescuers the wrong way, and how did a two-inch ice break turn into almost a fatal misdirection?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of events from the last known text to the search that missed the clues, detailing the route Grant Carlson planned, the decision that sent him onto two-inch river ice, and the evidence that confused search teams - could one misplaced ski pole and a hand-drawn map explain why he was gone for six days?

    Person: Grant Carlson
    Date: December 5-11, 2011
    Location: Arlen River near Gravel Bend, Pelham, Minnesota
    Status: Missing for six days, found alive with core temperature 89°F
    Search coordinator: Clifford Moore

    - Grant left a hand-sketched route on his garage bench showing a southeast loop through timber to Gravel Bend and back.
    - At about 40 minutes into his walk, wind-scarred ridge stopped him and he descended toward the river instead.
    - The subsurface spring thinned the ice to roughly two inches at a point a quarter mile downstream from Gravel Bend where he fell through.
    - He exited the river on the east bank, away from Ruttner Road and the main search corridors, and his exit tracks were covered by about two inches of overnight snowfall.
    - A ski pole was found snagged upright in brush about one mile downstream on the east bank - despite the river current running toward the west.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min
  • He Was Logged "Evacuated" - Found Alive After 43 Days Alone

    He Was Logged "Evacuated" - Found Alive After 43 Days Alone
    Oct 8 2026
    He Was Logged "Evacuated" - Found Alive After 43 Days Alone

    Fear tightens when a single transcription error can erase a human life from a rescue system: a twenty-four-year-old fire lookout spent forty-three days alone at 6,200 feet after his status was changed from "evacuation pending" to "evacuated - confirmed." How did a single word, a bent camp fork, and a king of diamonds flag become the only signals that someone was still up on the tower?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that left Brian Evans alone on Granite Notch for forty-three days, from his arrival on September 1, 2011, through the radioed fire and a diverted helicopter, to the moment Cheryl York found his handmade flag and card - and ask what kept him going when the record said he was gone.

    Person: Brian Evans
    Date: September 1, 2011 - November 9, 2011
    Location: Granite Notch, Aldrich Range, eastern Oregon
    Height: 6,200 feet
    Status in dispatch log: changed from "evacuation pending" to "evacuated - confirmed"

    - Brian arrived at Granite Notch on September 1, 2011 and was twenty-four years old that season.
    - His rotation was scheduled to end October 30, 2011; he carried about twelve days of food (up to eighteen with rationing) and two propane canisters.
    - On October 27, 2011 at 6:41 a.m. Brian radioed June Carrillo reporting smoke below the tower; she logged "contacted - evacuation pending."
    - At 8:50 a.m. on October 27, radio contact with Brian went silent and a helicopter being coordinated was diverted to assist two hikers twenty miles northeast, one severely burned.
    - On November 9, 2011 Cheryl York driving Granite Notch Road spotted a bright orange sleeve flag with the king of diamonds pinned by a bent camp fork, and found Brian alive inside the tower after forty-three days alone.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min