Remember "Kony 2012?" A decade ago, it shot straight out of nowhere to become the most viral YouTube video ever. And the only thing more shocking than Kony 2012's rise is how quickly and spectacularly it all fell apart. Emma Madden explores how Jason Russell's #Kony2012 campaign crushed the internet—and nearly crushed him, too. Read by Jennifer Jill Araya.

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The first guy to break the Internet

A labyrinthine treasure hunt has had thousands of players cracking codes and digging up the French countryside. Will the prize ever be found after a sudden death and bitter disputes? Phil Hoad explores stories surrounding the world's biggest unsolved treasure hunt—and the people who have been obsessed and perplexed by it for 30 years and counting. Read by Jonathan Booth.

The extremely enchanting, totally perplexing, possibly never-ending quest for the Golden Owl

Directors with gross demands. Feminists branding them as brainwashed. Five ’80s porn stars were over the not-so-sunny side of the Golden Age of Porn. So they banded together and changed everything. Hallie Lieberman tells the fascinating story of the ladies of Club 90, a porn star support group founded in 1983 that continues today. Read by Jennifer Jill Araya.

The sisterhood of sex and the quest for porno power

The man who pierced the Iron Curtain in a flying go-kart

In 1984, Ivo Zdarsky escaped communist Czechoslovakia using a DIY flying machine and sought a new life in the United States. But did he find freedom in the land of the free? Andy Rieber brings you his extraordinary story and subsequent entrepreneurial success.

The man who pierced the Iron Curtain in a flying go-kart – and left civilization forever

Wayne Kublalsingh, a 53-year-old man in Trinidad, conducted a hunger strike to protest the government's decision to build a controversial highway and seize land. Returning to her home country, Nyssa Chow meets with the man who put his life on the line for his people and the environment.

21 days of staring down death: diary of a hunger strike

Despite being imprisoned in a WWII internment camp, Lisa Heyamoto tells the inspiring true story of how a group of Japanese-American teens held tight to their love for America's pastime - building a diamond in the desert and fielding a championship team for the ages. Read by Marni Penning.

The greatest baseball game ever played behind barbed wire

Double murder in Portland: how young lovers met a grisly end

In spring 2020, two transient lovers met a quirky hustler offering the perfect apartment. What could go wrong? Thacher Schmid discovers how the dream deal went south to become a grisly nightmare.

The “insane pirate” drifter and the double killing at the Fourplex

The undercover cop who took down Chicago P.D.’s crooked crew

In 1996, Chicago P.D. was home to a gang of drug-dealer-extorting cops, and only one man was brave enough to take them on. David Howard brings you Sergeant Gene Shepherd's breathtaking true story of Operation Broken Star: tackling corruption from inside the police force.

The gutsy undercover cop who took down Chicago P.D.’s most crooked crew

A gilded age tale of seduction, murder and revenge 

In 1882 Philadelphia, a young Black woman fell for a philandering man who left her penniless. Kay Adams and Nancy Markey bring you the extraordinary story of how she got her revenge.

I could have killed him twice. A gilded age tale of seduction and revenge 

From Afghanistan to Germany, Kanika Gupta brings Najib Faizi's story of surviving death threats, beatings, kidnappings and more to become a fearless role model for LGBTQ refugees everywhere.

The daring dreams of the first Afghan drag queen

The women fighting back against Honduras’s harsh abortion laws

Honduras has some of the strictest reproduction laws in the Western Hemisphere. From TikTok to Supreme Court, Kaelyn Forde meets with the women-led activists fighting for their rights. 

These women are fighting back against Honduras’s incredibly harsh abortion laws

Inside America’s most elite girls school.

Once a wide-eyed scholarship kid attending a school for the daughters of the rich and famous, Anastasia Mills Healy, reflects on the humiliating hazing that taught her how to stand up for herself.

Welcome to America’s most elite girls boarding school. Let the hazing begin.

The chaotic saga of Florida’s most notorious police impersonator

Everyone knows of someone who's let power get to their head, but few take it as far as Jeremy Dewitte. Dylan Taylor-Lehman brings you the exceedingly strange and darkly humourous story of a Florida funeral escort who took his road-safety duties a little too seriously and went viral.

The extremely f*#!ing chaotic saga of the world’s most notorious police impersonator 

First person stories: the first family of human cannonballing

In the late 1960s, David and Jeannie Smith gave up their jobs for a daredevil life in the circus - with six children in two. Thousands of cannonball shots and multiple Guinness World Records later, Abigail Edge brings you the incredible story of the family that defied gravity. 

The first family of human cannonballing

Crime has always had ripple effects on the wider community.

In 1885, in the opulent seaside Newport, a wealthy and beloved Black businessman turns up dead. The prime suspect is his son-in-law, a dashing medical student set to become one of the country’s first Black surgeons. The resulting trial will tear the town in two. The resulting trial will tear the town in two. Nancy Markey and Kay Adams tell this fascinating story.

A gilded age tale of murder and madness

Memories might fail, but stories remain. 

Mai Serhan's family have lived around the world, but their history has become lost over time and distance. So, from Lebanon to China, she's finally gathered their conflicting stories together, studied countless maps and read forgotten letters to recreate her lost ancestral home in a once small village in Palestine.

I have never been to the place where I am from, but I will imagine it for us

After her mother remarried, racism and prejudice found their way into her home. 

As an Indonesian-born adoptee living in Stockholm, Anna Grundström reflects on Sweden's growing white supremacy movement and how her life changed when her stepbrother started to dabble with the groups.

Living with a skinhead, while living in my brown skin

How was she supposed to continue as though nothing had happened at all?

When Laura Green-Russel was 13, her father was murdered in cold blood during the summer holidays. Almost thirty years later she reflects on the terrible moment that changed the course of her life forever.

Protected: murder to middle school

Their influence has lived on for decades.

It was the era when video killed the radio star when glitz and glamour and bubblegum pop dominated the airwaves. But deep in the heart of Hollywood, a handful of musicians and misfits were subverting the pop culture narrative. Shawna Kenney explores some fascinating stories from the 1980s Hollywood punk rock scene.

Protected: punk rock freaks in the heart of Hollywood

A Playboy editor always has more on his plate than just editing stories.

For a brief while in the 1990s, disillusioned junior reporter Vijai Maheshwari found himself as the editor-in-chief of Playboy Russia. In this fascinatingly bizarre tale, he takes you back through the hedonistic playground of sex, drugs and early-stage capitalism in post-imperial Moscow - until his reign came to a screeching halt.