You Can’t Make This Up

Cathy Terkanian learned the daughter she gave up for adoption decades earlier vanished under mysterious circumstances while a teenager. When Cathy began her own investigation into the disappearance, she learned police dismissed the involvement of the violent predator living in the home Aundria Bowman grew up in. Her birth mother dedicated herself to getting Aundria’s adoptive parents to reveal the truth about what happened. Then, after years of persistence, an unlikely discovery broke the case wide open.

From the creative team behind The Keepers and Executive Producer Charlize Theron comes the Netflix documentary series Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter. It follows a decades-long quest for justice and the investigation into a man whose list of violent crimes remained largely unconnected. It also profiles Cathy’s quest to do right by the daughter she never knew and bring her home.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Ryan White and producer Jessica Hargrave.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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Michigan football assistant Connor Stalions had an uncanny knack for the art of sign stealing - the perfectly legal practice of deciphering opponents’ signals to gain an on-field advantage. Stalions credited hard work and research for his success. But the NCAA believed he’d broken the rules by sending friends and family to other games to illegally scout teams in advance. The scandal rocked the sport, launched a thousand memes, forced Stalions out of football, and cast a cloud over Michigan’s undefeated season. 

In UNTOLD: Sign Stealer, Stalions tells his story for the first time, showing his methodical preparation and answering questions about whether he went too far to give his team a leg up. It asks was Stalions the best who ever did it…or was he a cheater? It also probes why college football was willing to turn a blind eye to the practice until now. 

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Micah Brown.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched UNTOLD: Sign Stealer yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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On July 4, 2009, former NFL MVP quarterback Steve “Air” McNair and 20-year-old Sahel “Jenny” Kazemi were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds at a Nashville townhouse. The deaths shocked the sports world. While the police declared the pair died by Jenny’s hand, others say the investigation was botched and other suspects were dismissed too quickly.

Volume four of the acclaimed Netflix sports series, UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair takes viewers through the pivotal moments of the investigation while also charting McNair’s rise to stardom across 13 seasons in the NFL. Through gripping game day footage and emotional interviews with teammates, coaches, and friends, the film captures McNair’s extraordinary career — while also examining the factors that led to these tragic deaths.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews directors Rodney Lucas and Taylor Alexander Ward.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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A program in D.C. offers the children of incarcerated men a rare chance to be with their fathers: a Daddy Daughter Dance inside the jail. While the men go on a journey to consider the impacts of their actions on their family, the girls navigate heartbreak, anger, and uncertainty, as they seize a precious opportunity to be with a parent they’re not even permitted to hug. But when the music stops, will these connections endure?

Netflix’s Daughters follows Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana as they prepare for a momentous Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers. The film sheds light on the complexities of familial bonds strained by the unforgiving barriers of the criminal legal system. It also follows its main subjects long after the dance to see if the experience had a lasting effect on the bonds between father and daughter.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews directors Natalie Rae Robison and Angela Patton.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Daughters yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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She was the bright and bubbly young woman who disappeared on Christmas Eve of 2002 while eight months pregnant. The disturbing mystery of what happened captured the nation’s attention and dominated the news as the investigation slowly pointed to her husband. The murder of Laci Peterson remains one of the most famous and compelling true crime cases of the century.

The Netflix documentary series American Murder: Laci Peterson is a story about a beloved woman, intimate partner violence, and media obsession. For the first time, we hear from Laci’s mother, Sharon, about her family’s ordeal. And we get the perspective of the woman thrown into the center of the case: Scott Peterson’s unsuspecting girlfriend, Amber Frey.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Skye Borgman.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched American Murder: Laci Peterson yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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How do they bring unseen monsters and unknown murderers to life on the screen? How do they get those interviews that no one else gets? What’s it like to tell the stories with only questions and no answers? Today we’ll hear the stories behind the episodes in volume four of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries. These directors hope their stories can help crack an unsolved mystery.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews Directors Robert M. Wise and Gabe Torres.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Unsolved Mysteries yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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From classic true crime to paranormal encounters, we can’t get enough of unexplained tales and the questions they raise. Volume four of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries brings us more of the unsettling, head-scratching cases you’ve come to expect from the legacy series.

But this isn’t a series you only watch. Tips to unsolved.com have made a difference in many of the cases profiled. This time viewers are asked to solve a murder inside a locked building, find a terrifying night creature, determine whether a bloodsoaked death was an accident or a homicide, identify a victim by only her severed head, and travel to Victorian England to uncover history’s most notorious serial killer. Who knows? Maybe you have information that will crack an unsolved mystery.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews executive producer and showrunner Terry Dunn Meurer.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched volume 4 of Unsolved Mysteries yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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She’s a single mom working at a Whole Foods in Connecticut with one dream: to climb Mount Everest…again! Lhakpa Sherpa holds the record for most Everest summits by a woman. Now she returns to her native Nepal to conquer the world’s tallest mountain for the tenth time, and in the process, find healing from her past traumas.

The Netflix documentary film Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa follows her dangerous trek to the top of the world. It also explores Lhakpa’s efforts to climb out of the valley of her despair and achieve serenity through the spiritual powers of her beloved Everest. 

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Lucy Walker and producer Miranda Sherman.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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She’s considered the Greatest of All Time: a gymnast so special that five of the most difficult skills are named after her. But Simone Biles stunned the world when she withdrew from the 2020 Olympics, citing a need to protect her mental health. But after a break from the sport, the champion returned to the gym and confronted her physical and emotional challenges. The Netflix documentary series Simone Biles: Rising follows the gymnast’s journey from disappointment in Tokyo to her return to the Olympic stage in Paris.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Katie Walsh.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Simone Biles: Rising yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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From the rolling surf of Malibu to the glamor of the Hollywood hills, detectives in the LA County Sheriff's Department deal with some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the country. And when murder is involved, the pressure is on to solve the crime all while in a spotlight as bright as any blockbuster premier.

In the latest installment of the Netflix docuseries, Homicide: Los Angeles revisits some of the most shocking and baffling crimes from the City of Angels, told by the detectives and prosecutors who worked them. Legendary executive producer Dick Wolf brings viewers inside these puzzling investigations and shows what it takes to solve them.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews executive director Adam Kassen.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Homicide: Los Angeles yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.