Astray

Wherever Sioux singer D.Z. Ironwing performed in New York, the same woman was waiting afterward to say she loved his voice. Seven years later, his phone rang in a freezing South Dakota trailer. It was her — the first of countless calls that began an unlikely bond with one of America’s richest families.

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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Lucas Reilly
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
Editing and Sound Design by Jesse Nighswonger
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

Today's episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans. For School of Humans, Producers are Emilia Brock, Edeliz Perez, and Lucas Reilly. Executive Producer is Virginia Prescott.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Massachusetts State police interview the man Sandra was seeing, married Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell. During a non-recorded conversation in a school parking lot, Farwell refers to Sandra as a casual fling. But her friends tell the police a very different story. And Sandra’s death certificate puts investigators and the family further at odds.

Listen to What Happened to Sandra Birchmore on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In February 2021, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore is found dead in her apartment in eastern Massachusetts. Officers quickly label the death a suicide. This news confounds her family, because Sandra was pregnant and planning for her future. And they worry about the mystery man she was dating—an older, married cop from her hometown.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741. Please take care while listening.

Listen to What Happened to Sandra Birchmore on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favorite professor was real. A god in an alternate universe that bled into our own. Nothing in the world could shake their devotion to Snape.

Until their sisterhood imploded.

Listen to Very Special Episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.

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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Katie Mattie
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe + Josh Fisher
Voice Actors are Jonathan Washington, Bee Haskins, Katie Mattie, and Josh Fisher
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

Special thanks to our guest Dr. Zoe Alderton, author of Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion Within the Harry Potter Fandom. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lisette Johnson survived what almost no one does: her husband shot her, then killed himself. Murder-suicides happen every week in America, and they usually disappear after a local headline — with the perpetrator dead, there's no trial, no unfolding story. Except, Lisette lived, and what she told Melissa Jeltsen has shaped how she's covered these cases ever since.

When a murder-suicide made national news this spring — Virginia's former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax killed his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, then himself — Melissa thought of Lisette. In this first episode of What Happened to Her, Lisette shares her story.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline at thehotline.org or call them at 800.799.SAFE for free, confidential support 24 hours a day.

Listen to What Happened to Her on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. But her biggest mystery unfolded outside the pages of her books. In this episode, Dana examines the 11 days in 1926 when the beloved author went missing, and the rollicking media circus inspired by her disappearance.

Listen to Very Special Episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When two of the most influential figures in film become the personal hostages of Kim Jong Il, they have two objectives: to elevate North Korean cinema on the world stage, and to plot their daring escape. 

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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Adrien Behn and edited by Carmen Borca-Carrillo at Acast Creative Studios
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Mixing and Mastering by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

SOURCES + FURTHER READING/LISTENING/VIEWING

A Kim Jong-Il Production, by Paul Fisher
The Observant, by Ravi Mangla
Michelle Cho, assistant professor, University of Toronto
"Are You There Godzilla? It's Me, Kim Jong Il" [Ridiculous Crime podcast]
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. State Department
Big Brother: North Korea's Forgotten Prince [An iHeart Original Podcast]
"Kim Jong Il, the Director he Kidnapped, and the Awful Godzilla Film They Made Together" [Mental Floss Magazine]
The Korean War [PBS]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thanks to her McDonald’s fortune, Joan Kroc was one of the world’s wealthiest people. And she was determined to die nearly broke.

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Special thanks to our guests Lisa Napoli, Dick Starmann, and Stephanie Bergsma. Go check out Lisa's excellent book Ray & Joan. 

Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Jake Rossen
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Mixing and Mastering by Josh Fisher
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

You can always reach us at [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comic Sans is a punchline. A design crime. Cultural shorthand for bad taste. But the notorious font's legacy isn't one of failure. Because Comic Sans succeeded in ways its critics never saw coming.

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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Bess Lovejoy
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
Editing and Sound Design by Jesse Nighswonger
Mixing and Mastering by Josh Fisher
Research and Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson and Bess Lovejoy
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

Today's episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans. For School of Humans, Producers are Emilia Brock and Edeliz Perez. Executive Producer is Virginia Prescott.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the winter of 1939, Finland faced overwhelming odds. The Soviet Union was invading with hundreds of thousands of troops. Standing in their way was an unlikely defender: a shy farmer and expert marksman who would later become known as “The White Death.” But behind the myth was simply a reserved man fighting for his homeland.

Today's episode is a production of School of Humans and iHeartPodcasts. It was written by Lucas Reilly.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.