Operation Midnight Climax

Stoughton’s police chief orders an internal investigation into Sandra Birchmore’s ties to the department, and to the men inside it. What it uncovers changes not only the story of Sandra’s death, but the story of her life.

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

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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.

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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. 

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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 new episodes of What Happened to Sandra Birchmore every Thursday in the What Happened to Her feed on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Ryan sits down with actor Taye Diggs for a deeply personal conversation about the drive to keep achieving — and what happens when you finally stop. Taye opens up about growing up around poverty and abuse, being bullied for his dark skin, and discovering a sense of belonging and possibility through theater. He looks back at joining the original cast of Rent, becoming an unexpected sex symbol in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the ambition that kept him chasing the next level even as his dreams were coming true. They explore how divorce and fatherhood upended the life he thought he had figured out, why even spirituality can become another form of striving, and the possibility that after a lifetime of searching, the next step isn’t another practice or achievement at all. Maybe it’s simply learning to stop, sit with what’s there, and hear the words: “Relax. You’re okay.”

Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello

Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan)

You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com.

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In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart ducked out of a White House event and commandeered an airplane. The First Lady and the first lady of aviation flew to Baltimore and back. The event was documented by journalists, and later recounted in books. But there was more to this spontaneous joyride that didn't make the papers. 

Listen to Very Special Episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

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We’re two best friends having unfiltered conversations about the modern sh*t we all go through, with a rotating cast of top therapists to help us unpack it all. 

We’re not experts, just very curious, slightly unhinged, and can label our feelings (most of the time).

Come hang with us as we have the uncomfortable conversations about dating, love, sex, mental health, loneliness, friendships, grief and everything else that only Alex Cooper talks about.

Listen to Free Therapy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's the biggest risk you'd take to see the world? Ria Xi will be the first person to run the length of the Silk Road across Asia and Europe, and she'll run it alone. Ria believes travel should happen at the pace of a single footstep - slow enough to savor everything between point A and B. Julie catches Ria from her nomadic training route, but stick around to the end of the episode to hear an update from Ria along her record-breaking run!

To support Ria's run, check out her GoFundMe and follow along on Instagram @whereisriax for occasional chances to join her crew.

Check out Ria's podcast, Planetary Run Club, where she interviewed Julie for her debut episode!

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.

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Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa star in the untold true story of how the New York Mafia exploited the aftermath of 9/11. Nearly 3,000 families lost loved ones that day, and a shocked world mourned alongside them. But for Five Families—the New York Mafia—the day meant something very different. While the world saw an unspeakable tragedy, they saw an opening: the business opportunity of a lifetime. They might have succeeded were it not for one dedicated and courageous cop. Because of him, many of the men involved were convicted and imprisoned. UnderGround Zero: 9/11 & The Mob is the shocking true story born in the immediate aftermath of 9/11—one that has never been told. Names of the guilty have been changed to protect the innocent.

Listen here and subscribe to UnderGround Zero: 9/11 & The Mob | Starring Michael Imperioli & Steve Schirripa on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Chapter One: As New York reels from the attacks of 9/11, NYPD Lieutenant Commander Frank Sturiano races toward the devastation. He is soon handed the difficult task of overseeing the World Trade Center cleanup, unaware that the Five Families are already plotting to turn the tragedy into a fortune.

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UnderGround Zero: 9/11 & The Mob is the shocking true story born in the immediate aftermath of 9/11—one that has never been told. Names of the guilty have been changed to protect the innocent. Starring Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa, Ray Abruzzo and Arthur J. Nascarella.

All episodes out now! Listen on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.