So you’ve decided you want to feel emotionally devastated while folding laundry? Perfect! You’ve come to the right place. “This Is Actually Happening” is the podcast equivalent of rubbernecking at a car accident, except the car accident is someone’s entire life and you’re somehow supposed to feel better about your own problems afterward.
Nothing says “self-care Sunday” quite like listening to a stranger recount the most traumatic experience of their existence while you sip your oat milk latte and pretend you’re not crying in public. But hey, at least you’ll have some truly unhinged conversation starters for your next dinner party: Below are the episodes that will make you question everything about the fragility of human existence:
156: What if you swallowed 48 bags of cocaine?
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I needed to experience losing all my possessions and circumstances to realize that… you’ll return as someone who has gained wisdom and become a more complete, content individual.
240: What if nine bullets shattered your dreams?
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In this episode, we hear from Diamond Garrett. Diamond is presently launching an enterprise focused on offering goods, assistance, and tools designed to enhance the daily experiences of people who use wheelchairs and have disabilities.
158: What if you entered The Void?
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A man enduring the profound inherited wounds of economic hardship, racial discrimination, mistreatment and psychological struggles discovers life-changing healing through a traditional botanical remedy.
361: What if your sisters’s death was an unsolved mystery?
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Motivated by her sister’s unexplained passing, a woman’s existence becomes consumed by a quest for answers and fairness, while the reality continues to slip away from her grasp.
172: What if you were lured into an unspeakable hell?
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Following a violent sexual assault at eleven years old, a woman conceals her trauma, but finds herself tormented years later by circumstances that force her to face her most profound terrors.
265: What if a routine pickup led to a crushing blow?
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Struggling with his father’s premature death and family mistreatment, a man discovers solace through automobiles and becomes a vehicle repossession specialist, but during a standard assignment one evening, he encounters a life-threatening peril that will transform him permanently.
113: What if you survived a genocide?
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A displaced person shares her account of the terror and destruction during the Rwandan mass killings.
238: What if you were tortured in an Iranian prison?
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A young Russian newcomer in Iran faces imprisonment and brutality amid the 1979 Iranian uprising, yet when a correctional officer becomes infatuated with her, she must consider what her liberation might cost.
159: What if someone you love committed a monstrous crime?
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A decades-long bond built on compassion, affection and mutual development experiences a devastating shift following the consequences of a savage violent crime.
353: A World Beyond Revenge: What if you were the common denominator?
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Following his perpetration of severe brutality during his youth, a man remains trapped by his fury and cannot achieve recovery, until he manages to confront the origins of the damage he has inflicted.
203: What if you were on the 68th floor?
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A Port Authority worker barely manages to flee from the 68th floor following an aircraft’s collision with the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, yet the most crushing consequences stem from the emotional scars that plague her existence for years to come.
304: What if you were poisoned?
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A young woman during a backpacking adventure in Bali encounters a string of setbacks, but just as she prepares to depart for the following stage of her travels, her prospects are plunged into uncertainty.
254: What if your father annihilated the family?
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A woman is raised in a household overshadowed by constant fear of her father’s abuse, but after her parents separate and he begins a new family, she uncovers the full, chilling extent of the threat that had loomed over her all those years.
89: What if you spent 15 hours on the edge of sanity?
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A spontaneous hiking adventure takes a sudden and disastrous turn.
322: What if you kept hitting rock bottom?
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Haunted by a childhood marked by feelings of unworthiness and isolation, a man eventually finds stability through a career in the Coast Guard and a strong marriage. However, a seemingly minor back injury leads to a prescription for painkillers, triggering a heartbreaking descent into addiction.
177: What if you woke up two months later?
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After learning to navigate the difficulties of living with cerebral palsy, a woman is abruptly thrust into an entirely new reality when a car accident she has no memory of turns her world upside down.
288: What if you didn’t know you were in a cult?
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Hoyt Richards went from an elite upbringing to studying at Princeton and breaking ground as the first male supermodel, seemingly the picture of success. But as he became increasingly drawn in by a charismatic mentor, he found himself leading a hidden double life that slowly began to overtake him.
261: What if your mother was a victim of a secret government experiment?
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While caring for her mentally ill father, a woman uncovers disturbing truths about her mother’s past, revelations from childhood that cast a long, haunting shadow over her entire family.
Read our review of This is Actually Happening