It gets pretty cold in Mason City, Iowa in the winter. Just ask Gael - he lives there.

Gael is 18 years old. One day last December, on a particularly freezing day, he was on his way to a class. Just a routine day, driving along, and he’s approaching a bridge that goes over a big river.

Except he doesn’t make it to the bridge. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of the river, and the water is rising in the car. And somehow, during the crash, his phone got lost. But a young lady named Siri was still listening.

This episode includes the 911 call that Gael made, while trapped in his car in the river.

A warning about this episode, if you use an iPhone – during the story, Gael will use that lady’s name. You know, the lady in the iPhone whose name starts with “S” and he tells her to call the police. So be aware of this, so that YOUR phone doesn’t hear that instruction and make a phone call to your local police department.

And after today’s story, we’ll get a sneak preview of Raw Audio 3, as well as some of the reviews that have come in recently.

Bridge photo courtesy Amy Fleming/KIMT

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There’s something that you and I do every day, all day. We make decisions. That’s something that we literally do all day.

In fact, some sources say the average person makes 35,000 decisions every day. I don’t know how accurate that number is, but I’m sure it’s a lot. Most of them we don’t really even think about consciously. Which shoe to put on first, how much toothpaste to put on the toothbrush, which checkout line at the grocery store – those are all kind of subconscious.

The bigger decisions we do think about – what to have for lunch, what kind of car do I buy, those are more deliberate. You even make a choice about what podcast you want to listen to – and I’m happy to tell you right now, when you choose this podcast, you have made the right choice!

But what if you were suddenly in an emergency situation, and you didn’t know if you were going to make it out alive, and you were faced with making the decision of how you prefer to die?

That’s the spot Lesli found herself in one day. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and she’s been through a pretty incredible experience. She survived, thanks to a couple of men named Bill – one was her friend, and the other was a stranger. And you’re about to hear her tell me what happened.

It was crazy enough that she was invited to Ellen’s show to talk about it.

And be sure to hang around til the end, because after our conversation I’ll have a sneak preview of the new bonus episode, Raw Audio #2, which are 911 audio stories and exclusive content, and it’s live and available right now for patrons of the podcast.

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Katmandu, the capital city of Nepal. April 25, 2015. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck without warning.

In the end, nearly 9,000 people lost their lives, and close to 22,000 were injured. Entire villages were destroyed, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

And not far from the epicenter was Mt Everest. There were a lot of people on the mountain that day, and 19 climbers were killed.

Michael Churton is an adventure filmmaker based out of New York City. He’s done work for National Geographic, NBC, ABC, Discovery, and the Science Channel. He’s been doing this for more than 20 years.

Michael was at Mt Everest Base Camp when the earthquake happened. And he was right in the path of the deadly avalanche that was triggered immediately after. And even though he survived, not all of his teammates came back.

Michael was on the mountain to document an adventure. But what happened that morning has turned that project into a documentary that he’s currently working on, to tell what happened on Mt Everest’s deadliest day on record. This film is called Bound To Everest, and you can see the trailer on his website.

And if you want to support this podcast, and get exclusive access to bonus episodes, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

Website – https://BoundToEverest.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/michael.churton

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michaelchurton/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/churtz

Email - [email protected]

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This is an off week for the What Was That Like podcast, but I’m here to introduce you to something new for the show that I’m pretty excited about.

Today you’re going to hear a bonus episode to kick off a new, ongoing series. These episodes are called Raw Audio.

One of the most popular features in some of the episodes for this podcast have been the 911 calls. When you hear the voice of a person calling the 911 emergency number and describing what’s going on, it can feel like you’re right there with them. These are not actors reading lines on a script, and they’re not re-enactments for a TV show. These are real-life moments, recorded as it happens.

I’ve wanted to incorporate more of those 911 calls into the show, but it’s just not always practical for each episode. So I decided I would create some new episodes, and the actual FOCUS would be on that emergency call. You’ll hear the backstory on what was happening, and you’ll hear the 911 emergency calls that took place, and you’ll hear what happened afterward. Unfortunately, not all of these stories have a happy ending.

So the first episode is happening right now, and this episode is available to everyone. After today, future Raw Audio episodes will only be available to patrons, through my Patreon page. Any supporter at the $5 level or higher will have exclusive access to these new episodes. So if you haven’t yet signed up, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

In today’s premier episode, you’ll hear:

As I said, these are intense. They are not for the faint of heart. But if you want true life, real life stories, that’s what you’ll get with these exclusive episodes. I mean, the regular episodes you hear on this show are crazy enough, and those will continue as always, and they will always be free. But the Raw Audio ongoing series takes it to the next level.

So see what you think of today’s show, and if you want to support the show and hear every episode, get over to WhatWasThatLike.com/support and become a patron.

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Our guest for this episode is Dave, and Dave recently found himself $113,000 richer, and he attributes that to some practice, some luck, and a pretty good talent for solving word puzzles. He won that money by being a contestant on Wheel of Fortune.

We discussed:

And there’s a bonus story toward the end of our conversation about how Dave actually saved someone’s life (unrelated to his game show appearance).

Here’s Dave winning cash, a trip to Barbados, and a new BMW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf80KRDaKaQ

And if you’d like to join the other listeners who support this podcast, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

Music credit:

Scheming Weasel (faster version) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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If this is your first time listening to this podcast, you need to know this is not a typical episode. Usually, each episode is a conversation with someone who has been through some type of extremely unusual situation, and that person comes on the show and tells what happened, first hand.

Not this week.

This week our country is in turmoil because a black man in Minneapolis died at the hands of the police. The video of that happening in broad daylight has – again – shown that racism in America is alive and well. So I have to do something different here on this podcast, for this episode.

Some people run for office to get elected and try to bring change from the inside. Some people hold signs. Some people go through police academy and become skilled police officers. I know that, because they are my close family members. Some people riot in the streets. I’m not here to comment on any of those things. For me, what I have is this podcast. It reaches a lot of people. So this is how I’m using it for this particular episode.

When something like this happens, you see it on your TV or your computer or your phone and you read the story. But those are just words on the screen. There’s distance between you and what happened.

With this episode, I want to put you at the scene.

I’m going to present you with three true stories today. In each one of these stories, a person of color died at the hands of the police. What puts us at the scene is the phone call that was made when it happened.

My hope today is that what you hear makes it more real. These are not just names in the newspaper or on the evening news. These are people, and what happened to them needs to be known. We need to be aware of this reality, and we need to find a solution to this problem. Because what we’ve been doing so far isn’t working.

For more information about these three people:

Atatiana Jefferson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Atatiana_Jefferson

Botham Jean - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean

Breonna Taylor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Breonna_Taylor

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What’s your biggest fear?

As humans, we have found that there are a lot of things we’re afraid of. Spiders, needles, flying in an airplane, thunderstorms, public speaking. Or death, that’s a big one.

For some people, one of their biggest fears is having to go to prison. Of course, no one wants to go to prison. And most people don’t expect that they would ever have to spend time there.

But consider this scenario. You’re a model citizen. You’ve never been arrested. Your worst run-in with the law is a speeding ticket. You’ve never used drugs. But then, you find out that your business partner has been doing some double billing for insurance payments, and as one of the owners of the company, you’re responsible. Insurance fraud. Or one day you’re driving home from work, and you have just a brief moment of inattention, and you clip someone riding a bicycle, and they die. Vehicular manslaughter.

Your lawyer tells you your best option is to take a plea deal. And that means you’re going to spend some time in prison. Maybe several years. Pretty scary.

That’s the situation that Dan found himself in. The plea deal he was offered meant that he could spend up to 60 months in prison. Five years of his life. He hoped it would be less than that, but he knew for sure that prison time was in his future. And he didn’t have any idea what to expect.

He didn’t know what the inside of a prison looked like, what would happen on his first day, or if he would even be in an environment that was safe or dangerous. He actually made a video, asking his friends and family if anyone could offer him any advice.

Fast forward six years – now Dan is the one offering that advice to people who are scared and heading to prison. He has his own business, working as a Prison Consultant.

In this podcast episode, Dan told me all about his own prison experience, and how he works with his clients to get them prepared for their time in prison.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbkyics5l0ddag_3VIAL7Eg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RDAPDan/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rdapdan/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RDAPDan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rdapdan/

Website: https://www.federalprisontime.com/

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Have you ever found yourself in some kind of weird situation or predicament, and you actually have no idea how you got there? And you’re asking yourself, “What just happened?”

This is something I find really fascinating – when our brain is trying to figure out the reality of what is going on, but it just doesn’t have enough information to make sense of it. So the end result is usually confusion. But in some cases, it can be terrifying.

Our guest today is Deb, and that’s what happened to her one day while she was downhill skiing with her friend Gary.

It was a beautiful day, she’s in fresh snow, and she’s having a great time just flying down the mountain. But suddenly and without any warning, she just stopped. She’s on her back and unable to move. Then she finds that breathing is getting more and more difficult. There’s no one else around.

And she has no idea what just happened.

She figured out what happened eventually, of course. And get this – Ski Patrol took longer than they should have to get to her, because they couldn’t find her. And Deb says that mistake is what allowed her to survive this whole ordeal.

If you like these stories and want to be one of the very special listeners who support the show, visit WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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Today’s bonus podcast episode is being released in an “off week”, outside of the regular every-other-Friday schedule. This is being done to introduce you to the podcast called This Is Actually Happening.

The host of This Is Actually Happening is Whit Missildine. He and I recently connected after realizing that our two podcasts are very similar – people telling their stories of unusual experiences, first hand. This week, we are trading episodes. He recently published my episode “Tyson was Abducted” for his show, and today I’m broadcasting his episode, which deals with a person who was struck by lightning.

This is how Whit describes This is Actually Happening:

“What is the most extraordinary event in your life that changed everything?” Over the last 6 years, no single question has fascinated me more. We live our everyday lives with a sense that we know who we are, what we want and what will happen. But at some point in our lives, many of us will experience something unthinkable – a massively unpredictable disruption that rattles our sense of self at the core. Who are we then? How do we recover? What do we become? I have explored these questions in over 100 interviews for This Is Actually Happening – a bi-weekly podcast that probes the extraordinary, life-altering events that shape the lives of ordinary people. We meet a woman who’s sister has five personalities, a son who was shot by his father, a man who wakes up in the morgue. Through stories like these, we gain intimate access to the chaotic interiors of the human story. With no narration or host interjections, This Is Actually Happening is a highly distilled, heavily edited, first-person show that cuts straight to the heart of the narrative.

This episode is exactly the type of story I cover for each episode of WWTL so I think you’ll enjoy it. And I would like to get your feedback – just email me at [email protected].

This Is Actually Happening can be found on any podcast app, or at the website Permatemp.org.

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Today’s guest is Kimberly. Recently, Kimberly tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, also known as Coronavirus. She is a doctor.

Note: No information on this website or this podcast should be construed as medical advice. The host is not a doctor. The guest for this episode is in fact a doctor, but she is in no way offering any medical advice here. If you have any questions concerning your health, you should consult your own physician.

Kimberly was aware early on of how the COVID-19 virus was spreading, and she took extraordinary measures to avoid getting infected. She was concerned for herself, her husband and their 3 year old daughter. But even more so, she worried about the possibility of her parents contracting the virus; in particular, her father, who already has health issues that would make COVID-19 especially dangerous for him.

But in spite of her efforts, she tested positive. And her case has been a rather severe and drawn-out one. She described her symptoms each day as she fought the virus for over a month. Just when she would think she was recovering, it would return.

Kimberly agreed to come on the podcast and tell her story because she wants others who have tested positive to know they are not going through it alone. And to advise those recovering to take things slowly.

Kimberly kept a journal of her journey through this experience, and you can read that here:

https://medium.com/@drkimberlykruse/your-test-was-positive-d2638fbbe450

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