Not Today

In 1971, the Stanford Prison Experiment, led by psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, was supposed to be a two week simulation of prison life that aimed to study the psychological effects of power and authority. Student volunteers were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards and were given instruction by Zimbardo based on their role. Once the experiment began, things very quickly escalated, leading to the study being terminated after only six days.

In this Reddit episode we discuss some terrifying stories where people were hunted!

Actress Eva LaRue and her daughter, Kaya Callahan, were terrorized for nearly 12 years by a stalker who sent violent, threatening letters detailing every horrific fantasy he had. For over a decade both Eva and Kaya were terrified to go anywhere in public since they had no idea who their stalker could be. He promised not only to make their lives a living hell, but also that he was always watching and he'd be there soon. The ordeal, which forced them to move multiple times, was finally solved using the same technology used to identify the Golden State Killer.

Janie Lynn Ridd and her roommate Rachel Booth had been best friends for 25 years, but when Rachel began getting mysteriously sick leading to multiple hospitalizations, she discovered that Janie allegedly tried to purchase an extremely dangerous strain of anti-biotic resistant bacteria to poison her with. And even worse, that wouldn’t have been Janie’s first attempt at Rachel’s life over the past year.

In March of 2011, David Cicotello and his brother Louis began what should have been a week-long climbing adventure through No Man's Canyon in southwest Utah. Their journey took an unexpected and tragic turn as a rappelling accident claimed Louis’ life, leaving David stranded on a narrow ledge for 6 days.

On January 6, 1994, U.S. Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, just before the national championships. An unknown assailant attacked Kerrigan as she left skating practice, hitting her with a metal pipe, targeting the knee on her landing leg in an apparent attempt to knock her out of the upcoming Winter Olympics. The event turned into a massive scandal when Nancy’s attacker was linked back to her biggest competitor, Tonya Harding.

In July of 2013, 19-year-old musician, Jessie Blodgett, was found strangled in her own bed, with no signs of forced entry. Jessie was loved by everyone who knew her, so friends and family had no idea who could have committed this intimate crime. The case took a surprising turn when, soon after Jessie’s murder, detectives got a call from a neighboring town that a man wielding a knife attacked a young woman walking her dog in a park, and a clue found at that scene connected both victims to the same killer.

In this episode we'll be discussing some terrifying phrogging stories including a man hiding in a young girls closet and weird occurrences in a college house that lead the guys living there to believe it may be haunted!

In September of 2015, Isabel Eriksson was drugged, kidnapped, and locked in an inescapable bunker. When she woke up, she found her date, Martin Trenneborg, sitting in the room with her. His plan was to keep her and several other women there for years.

On July 30, 1945, The USS Indianapolis was struck by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine, which took down the ship in only minutes. Of 1,195 crewmen, ~900 entered the water, facing sharks, painful dehydration, and exposure for nearly five days before they were finally rescued. It was the U.S. Navy's single worst loss of life at sea.

Joanne Lees and her boyfriend Peter Falconio thought they were taking the trip of their dreams but it would sadly end in a tragedy so massive the whole world would know their names. While driving down an isolated road in Australia's outback in 2001, Peter was flagged down by a mysterious driver and was shot and killed on the side of the road. The man attempted to abduct Joanne but she managed to escape and later provided a description that led to the capture of their attacker.

After attempting to take a leisurely self-guided tour of the ancient Mayan ruins in the jungle on Cozumel island, Ken Wilson became hopelessly lost when he split up from his group and lost track of the trail. By the time Ken had realized he didn't recognize his surroundings he was already deep in the jungle and too far away for anyone to hear his calls for help. Every step he took brought him deeper into the jungle maze, further from rescue as darkness approached.

Let's close out 2025 with some bone chilling survivor stories that our listeners wrote in, including a close call with a famous serial killer, a terrifying encounter at an empty gas station, a run-in with an escaped convict, a nasty electric scooter accident, and more!

In 1992 Levon Brooks was arrested for murdering a three-year-old girl and sentenced to life in prison. Only a few months later Kennedy Brewer was arrested for a nearly identical murder and was sentenced to death. Both cases were based almost entirely on faulty bite mark evidence and both men spent almost two decades in prison for crimes they did not commit. However in 2000, Kennedy Brewer wrote a letter to the Innocence Project asking for their help with his case which was when the fight for the truth began and the real story came to light.