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I sat down with Alaura and Amber from Into the Weeds, the podcast that first dug through the Gypsy Rose Blanchard FOIA files. I wanted their honest reaction to my microdeletion episode, including the part where they felt like I'd pitted them against a genetic expert.

We discuss:

Is there actual evidence Gypsy was medically abused? I put a page from Dee Dee's medical file in front of them, a handwritten list of Gypsy's supposed diagnoses, and we argue about whether it points to Munchausen by proxy, malingering, or something the DSM-5 doesn't cleanly cover at all. We also get into the prison calls and how Gypsy seems to become a different person depending on who's on the other end of the line.

This is part one of a longer conversation.

The full, lightly edited cut is up on the PRETEND YouTube channel. Into the Weeds is part of Military Broadcast Radio, a nonprofit supporting veterans and military families, so go give them a follow.

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According to the anti-Gypsy camp, they've got the receipts. Gypsy really had leukemia. She really needed that bone marrow treatment, and the feeding tube and the surgeries were all real and documented, not fabricated. Case closed, they say. Munchausen by proxy, debunked.

That's the claim, anyway.

Three hundred pages of Gypsy's private medical records ended up online, and I got my hands on them. So do the documents validate the claims? We're going to dig in.

Want more? Ad-free episodes, early releases, and the latest on the stalker case are on Patreon and PRETEND+ on Apple Podcasts.

More at thisispretend.com.

Written and hosted by Javier Leiva

2026 © Creative Babble

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It's like getting to the end of a movie and discovering the twist, then going back to the beginning because every scene means something else. That's what I've been doing all week with the Rick and Tanya Fernandez interviews. This time we're looking at Shelbey Fernandez's surgeries, what the doctor told police in 2019, and new audio from Shelbey Fernandez herself, recorded before her arrest.

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Long before Gypsy Rose Blanchard's mother was murdered, the tension inside that house was already at a breaking point. The private videos between Gypsy and Nick Godejohn that nobody was supposed to see. The evidence of violence that the HBO documentary never showed you. And the text messages from the night of June 9th, 2015, read out loud, minute by minute. They are not what you expect.

Gypsy's critics say she was the violent one all along. That it was Dee Dee who had reason to be afraid.

Chapters

00:00 Everyone Has A Hot Take
02:26 The BB Gun
04:09 Chained To The Bed
05:11 Why Not Just Run Away?
07:23 Nancy Simpson: She Was Shopping For A Man
09:22 That Bitch Is Dead
10:40 Victim Doesn't Mean Innocent
11:19 The Plea Deal
13:17 When Nick Became The Victim
16:16 Functions Like A 10-Year-Old
17:52 I Still Love Her
18:43 Activating The Dark Side
20:34 The Texts From June 9, 2015
23:58 What Gypsy Makes Of It
25:15 Andrea Dunlop On The Autism Argument
26:56 Grace And Accountability
28:01 Why Don't They Show You The Same Grace?
29:35 On The Plea Deal
30:15 Is It In All Of Us?

Binge more episodes ad-free on Patreon at patreon.com/pretendpodcast or PRETEND+ on Apple Podcasts.

Written and produced by Javier Leiva. Edited by Puneet Shenoy with The Podcast Pundits. Theme music by Joe Basile, thechicken.net.

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Her critics say Gypsy Rose Blanchard can't keep her story straight. So I sat down with her for almost three hours and asked about all of it. The pills through the feeding tube. The video where she tells Nick Godejohn she'd been hiding that she could walk since she was seven. And the Demona videos she has never addressed in front of a reporter.

You'll also meet the mother-daughter team behind Into the Weeds (youtube.com/@into-the-weeds-podcast), whose records requests produced what the internet calls the Gypstein Files.

Binge the first three episodes now, ad-free, on Patreon (patreon.com/pretendpodcast) or PRETEND+ on Apple Podcasts.

Chapters:

(00:00) Beignets And A Drive Into The Bayou

(01:50) The Questions Her Critics Say She Dodges

(02:36) No Mansion, Just A Fourplex

(04:48) The Breaking Point Was A Throat Surgery

(06:47) This Is My Voice

(08:19) Vicodin Through The Feeding Tube

(09:53) Did She Ever Go To School?

(11:46) Into The Weeds Files The Records Request

(12:59) What's Actually In The Gypstein Files

(15:59) The Video Where She Walks

(17:46) What Her Medical Records Say

(20:43) I Ask Gypsy To Settle It

(23:04) Videos Never Meant To Be Public

(25:56) Slave, Master, And An Old Facebook Account

(28:23) Dan Glidewell Testifies Under Oath

(29:46) The Demona Video

(34:25) Those Videos Were Disgusting

(35:14) Isolation And The Price Of Freedom

(36:10) Next Time On Pretend

Written by Javier Leiva. Edited by Puneet Shenoy with The Podcast Pundits. Theme music by Joe Basile, thechicken.net.

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard is the most beloved convicted murderer in America. Half the country sees a victim. The other half thinks she conned everyone, including her mother.

I spent months trying to figure out which side is telling the truth. Then I emailed Gypsy. A few hours later, we were on a call.

Chapters

Binge the first three episodes now, ad-free, on Patreon (patreon.com/pretendpodcast) or PRETEND+ on Apple Podcasts.

Leave a comment. I want to know what you think.

Written by Javier Leiva.

Edited by Puneeth Shenoy with the Podcast Pundits.

Theme music by Joe Basile, thechicken.net.

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard is America's most beloved convicted murderer.

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For almost five years, the Fernandez family told me their doctor's husband was terrorizing them. Threatening messages, unpaid pizza deliveries, police at the door for crimes that never happened.

Three weeks ago, Peoria police surrounded their house with a search warrant and seized every device inside. Nobody was arrested that day. Then this week, Shelbey Fernandez children was booked into a Maricopa County jail on more than thirty counts, including stalking, making a terrorist threat, and sexual exploitation of a minor.

All charges are allegations. No one has been convicted, and the case is ongoing.

Catch up on the full series here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41KG24W8b5Lz0dzHsU3LoP?si=3aaeef5a367d4c2d

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William Ruzich's father stole his identity while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He came home from war at 21 to find bills, liens, and creditors in his own name. He turned his own dad in for fraud.

Then he went to work catching people just like him.

William is a private intelligence operative now, tracking down scammers, fraudsters, and people who vanish with other people's money.

Coming August 11th: The Gypsy Rose Obsession, a new free series from PRETEND. Watch the trailer and subscribe:

https://youtu.be/9fcD0os3aG8

Kingdom Forge, a book by Anders Edwards that teaches kids about online safety, Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Ready Player One. Check it out:

https://a.co/d/0hpgdcYx

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My friend Joe sells real estate. He called me about one of his clients, a retired nurse who was selling her house, because something about her story wasn't sitting right with him. She'd lost her savings to a man named Edward Smog. Found her online, quoted her scripture, told her he was her way out of debt.

By the time I got involved, she was out a hundred and fifty grand. Now a new scammer is coming after her. She believes he's an offshore oil rig worker, and they're going to get married. I'm trying to stop him before he takes any more of her money.

If you or someone you love is being targeted, here's where to go.

Tips for your elderly parents:

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