276: What if you left your kids held hostage?

After decades of stability, a woman’s experience of menopause brings back a lifetime of buried symptoms and reveals an unexpected truth about her identity, forcing her to reexamine everything she thought she knew about herself. Today’s storyteller wishes to remain Anonymous. If y ...  Show more

After years working as a humanitarian aid worker in war zones and disaster areas around the world, a man is forced to confront the psychological toll of witnessing a broken world he could never fix. Today’s episode featured Gray Doyle. If you’d like to email Gray, you can reach h ...  Show more

After Laura Ackerson lost full custody of her sons, she was heartbroken, but she sprang into action. Within 2 weeks, she got another hearing but she still only got weekends. She had to completely overhaul her life. Within a year, Laura found a great apartment and opened her own a ...  Show more

It was Christmastime 2009 and eleven year old Sarah Haley Foxwell was getting ready to celebrate with her family. She and her little sister skipped off to bed together, but that would be the last time Sarah’s family got to see her. Sarah was kidnapped, assaulted and brutally m ...

This week we will hear Ashley Hall’s story -- told by her Mother Lucia, and her sister Jessa. Please note, due to the public nature of this story, real names will be used for this episode. *Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of psychological and physical violence ...  Show more

The story of the Purrington murders is so horrific it sounds like something out of a movie. James Purrington seemed to have plans of killing himself after suffering from what was likely undiagnosed mental illness. When one of his children brought this to the attention of their ...