What It Was Like

By SuperrealSociety & Culture Documentary

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What It Was Like episodes

October 30 My Manic Life as a Bipolar Art Forger
In 1980s New York, Andy Behrman was an art dealer forging his clients’ paintings. He was also living with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which he believes fueled his criminality and eventually landed him in prison. On this ep, Andy talks about his eternal hunger for more and how mania both enhanced and ruined his life.
Read Andy’s book: Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania
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1 hr 1 min
October 30 I Spent 20 Years Catching Art Thieves (Preview)
Robert Wittman founded the FBI’s Art Crime Team and spent 20 years going undercover to recover stolen art. In the full subscriber ep, Bob tells us how he catches art criminals. As he says, most of them make the same predictable mistakes, including those behind last October’s heist of the Louvre in Paris.
Read Robert’s books:
Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Subscribe to WIWL PLUS+ to hear the full episode and get access to loads more exclusive content.
Join our membership on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12 min
October 24 Years Later, I Discovered the Truth About My Abduction
In 1983, 11-year-old Kristine Conyers was abducted at gunpoint by a serial killer. She survived, but those four hours changed her life. It’s a story about the ripple effect on her family, and how she realised the crime was premeditated in ways she didn’t understand as a child. Kristine tells us how she’s lived with the trauma, and why the Me Too movement and the Cornell University rape case has emboldened her to come forward.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 5 min
October 24 I've Spent Decades Helping Abused Children Heal (Preview)
This show often features people who’ve survived unimaginable horrors as kids, which begs the question: how do people move on? In this episode preview we put this question to Al Killen-Harvey, a clinical social worker who has spent decades helping abused and neglected children rebuild their lives. We talk trauma healing, how he carries his clients’ stories, and why he’s optimistic about the future.
Learn more about Al’s organisation: The Harvey Institute

Subscribe to WIWL PLUS+ to hear the full episode and get access to loads more exclusive content.
Join our membership on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8 min
October 16 When the Captain Abandoned Ship, the Musicians Took Charge
In 1991, cruise ship performers Moss and Tracy Hills found themselves on a sinking ship. As the MTS Oceanos floundered, passengers waited for the crew to take charge. Finally, Moss and Tracy stepped in, and ultimately rescued over 500 passengers. On this ep, Moss tells the story of becoming an accidental hero.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 9 min
October 16 I Got Stuck on a Cruise Ship When COVID Hit (Preview)
This week's subscriber episode takes us back to February 2020, where Kent Frasure found himself confined to his cabin on the Diamond Princess due to COVID. It was a preview of the pandemic to come: the slow response, the gap between regular people and authority, and the limits of money against a million year-old virus.

Subscribe to WIWL PLUS+ to hear the full episode and get access to loads more exclusive content.
Join our membership on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7 min
October 10 The Strange Story of Tasmania’s Ninja Cult
Through the 1990s, a group of men in Australia’s southernmost state began training as ninjas. It was a kind of proto-manosphere that slowly became part cult, part domestic terrorist cell. They stole explosives, stockpiled guns, and plotted to kidnap local businessmen, until their leader was murdered in 1997. On this ep, Journalist Claire Sullivan walks us through this bizarre and forgotten saga.
Pre-order Claire’s book: Criminally Bad The 100% true story of Tasmania’s most inept crime ring
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
51 min
October 10 How Cults Take Over Your Mind And How to Escape (Preview)
How do ordinary, intelligent people end up in cults, and how do they get out? In this subscriber ep preview, we talk to Ingo Michehl, who spent six years in the Moonies before a single phrase from a friend set him free. He later did a master’s in psychology with a thesis on mind control. He tells us about his journey in and out, and we unpack the eight criteria of “ideological totalism”.
Get in touch with Ingo at Balance With Ingo.

Subscribe to WIWL PLUS+ to hear the full episode and get access to loads more exclusive content.
Join our membership on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8 min
October 02 I Fell in Love (and Had a Baby) With My Dad
Sophia Greenwood was adopted as a baby. She had no contact with her birth parents, until she met her biological dad in her 20s. They both experienced a sense of profound connection and fell into a relationship that ended in pregnancy. In this ep, Sophia talks about knowing she was in a relationship with her dad, yet unable to switch off the attraction, and why that’s more common than you'd think among adoptees.
Sophia's book, Forbidden Love, is on Amazon here.

This week’s episode was originally featured on our sister show Sex Confessions.
Watch it on Spotify or listen on Apple Podcasts
Instagram ⁠@sexconfessionspod
Tiktok ⁠@xconfessionspod
Youtube ⁠@SexConfessionsPod
Host Laura Roscioli ⁠@lauraroscioli⁠
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 12 min
October 02 Why Some Adoptees Become Attracted to Their Birth Parents (Preview)
This week’s story will likely be hard for many listeners to wrap their heads around, which is why we're unpacking the science behind it in this week’s subscriber episode.This is an excerpt from Julian’s discussion with Dianne Mathes, a Canadian therapist who specialises in the phenomenon of adoptees feeling attracted to biological family members. By her estimate, it's actually the majority of her cases, and she shares her own experience as an adoptee.

Subscribe to WIWL PLUS+ to hear the full episode and get access to loads more exclusive content.
Join our membership on Spotify here or on Apple Podcasts here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7 min

About What It Was Like

From the publisher's feed

Conversations with people who have lived through extreme events. Some stories are dark and twisted, others are light and funny. In all cases, we get an intimate portrait of 'what it was like'…