Survival

When the stakes are life and death, you'd be surprised at the lengths you’d go to survive. Pain, hunger, and fear can seem like paralyzing obstacles, but in the face of real danger, they’re actually what keeps us alive. ​Every week, we'll follow a different survivor's visceral and inspiring fight for life, and examine how the trauma impacted them forever. ​These are the stories of what happens when the human self-preservation instinct is pushed to its limit, through the eyes of the world's most resilient survivors. Survival is a Spotify Original from Parcast.

History
Society & Culture
True Crime
1
Beating the Odds: Reshma Begum
Today we’re discussing Reshma Begum, a seamstress in Bangladesh who was pulled out alive from the wreckage of a building…17 days after it collapsed.
10 min
2
Beating the Odds: Michael Benson
Today we’re discussing Michael Benson, a cameraman who survived a helicopter crash, only to find himself stuck inside a volcano’s crater…for two days.
11 min
3
Beating the Odds: José Salvador Alvarenga
Today we’re discussing José Salvador Alvarenga, a Salvadoran fisherman who spent over 13 months adrift at sea…and survived.
10 min
4
Beating the Odds: Beck Weathers
Today we’re discussing Beck Weathers, a Texas pathologist who survived the disastrous 1996 blizzard on Mount Everest..
11 min
5
Beating the Odds: Anna Bågenholm
Today we’re discussing the story of Anna Bågenholm, whose heart stopped in 1999 after she was trapped in a labyrinth of thick ice for nearly an hour and a half…
8 min
6
Crossover Week: Natural Disasters (Potato Famin...
By the late 1840s, with no end in sight to the potato famine gripping Ireland and no help coming from the British government, the Irish people were left with few options. Forced to choose between dire workhouses or leaving the country, there was no easy solution to ending their hunger.
29 min
7
Crossover Week: Natural Disasters (Potato Famin...
In 1845, a fungus destroyed Ireland’s potato crops, leaving the Irish population without its main food source. The first months of the famine morphed into a bureaucratic nightmare.
41 min
8
Jan Baalsrud
As a leader in the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis in the 1940s, 25-year-old Jan Baalsrud endured frostbite, gangrene, snow blindness, and starvation while evading capture after his mission was compromised.
53 min
9
Best of 2019: The Donner Party Pt. 3
Fed by the remains of their friends and family, the surviving members of the Forlorn Hope managed to get through the snow and reach civilization.
51 min
10
Best of 2019: The Donner Party Pt. 2
Snowed in, and unable to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevadas, the Donner Party set up camp by Truckee Lake and waited for the winter of 1846 to pass.
51 min
11
Best of 2019: The Donner Party Pt. 1
On May 12, 1846, a wagon train set out toward the West Coast of North America.
49 min
12
Brendan McDonough Pt. 2
At 4 P.M. on June 30th, 2013, the Yarnell Hill wildfire in the Arizona mountains spiraled out of control. Brendan McDonough was separated from the rest of his crew, who had come face-to-face with a 3,000-degree firestorm.
36 min
13
Brendan McDonough Pt. 1
In 2011, Brendan McDonough joined an elite wildland firefighting crew called the Granite Mountain Hotshots.
37 min
14
Polaris Crew Pt. 2
After Captain Charles Hall perished under mysterious circumstances in 1871, the crew of the Polaris faced a difficult question: should they continue their mission to the North Pole, or give up and turn tail for America?
42 min
15
Polaris Crew Pt. 1
In 1871, Captain Charles Hall left Brooklyn Harbor, New York with a ship, crew, and a mandate from the US Government: Journey farther North than anyone previously had and plant an American Flag on the North Pole.
39 min
16
The Vladimirovichi Pt. 2: Three Brothers
With Kirill now gone to Finland, Boris and Andrei stayed behind to care for their mother.
38 min
17
The Vladimirovichi Pt. 1: Three Brothers
Before Russia was thrown into turmoil in 1917, a set of Romanov brothers spent their days focused on surviving palace politics.
46 min
18
Rwanda Pt. 2: The Survivors
As the Rwandan genocide continued to rage, the Tutsis who had survived the initial violence found themselves in more danger than ever.
44 min
19
Rwanda Pt. 1: The Survivors
Central Africa: In the spring of 1994, a paramilitary group called the “Interahamwe” set about exterminating the Tutsi people—and anyone who sympathized with them. The killing went on for 100 days.
43 min
20
Glenn McDole Pt. 2: Palawan’s Last POW
After being taken prisoner in the Philippines in 1942, U.S. Marine Glenn “Mac” McDole spent 2 horrifying years in a prison camp on the island of Palawan.
39 min
21
Glenn McDole Pt. 1: Palawan’s Last POW
December 14, 1944: Japanese soldiers massacre 139 of 150 American POWs.
41 min
22
Jonathan Kathrein Pt. 2: Great White Attack
For teenage surfer Jonathan Kathrein, another day at the beach turns into the fight for his life as he finds himself in the jaws of a gigantic Great White Shark.
37 min
23
Jonathan Kathrein Pt. 1: Great White Attack
On August 26th, 1998, sixteen-year-old Jonathan Kathrein and his best friend Sean set out for a final surf of the summer at Northern California's Bodega Bay.
36 min
24
Joe Simpson Pt. 2: Cutting the Rope
After Joe Simpson's climbing partner cut the rope they had used to lower the injured Joe down the Siula Grande mountain in Peru, Joe fell 150 feet into an icy crevasse,
39 min
25
Joe Simpson Pt. 1: Into the Crevasse
Siula Grande is a 20,814 foot behemoth that sits along the Peruvian Andes, a challenging ascent for even the most experienced climber.
52 min