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.
26
The Donner Party Pt. 3: Journey’s End
January 1847. 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
27
The Donner Party Pt. 2: Nowhere to Go
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
28
The Donner Party Pt. 1: Westward Bound
On May 12, 1846, a wagon train set out toward the West Coast of North America.
49 min
29
Captain Thomas Musgrave Pt. 2: Enslaved
After 18 months on Auckland Island, fighting to survive, Captain Thomas Musgrave came to a desperate conclusion on Christmas Day 1864.
50 min
30
Captain Thomas Musgrave Pt. 1: Castaway
In November of 1863, Captain Thomas Musgrave led his five-man crew on a search for riches on Campbell Island.
40 min
31
Hurricane Camille Pt. 2: Seabees and Palm Trees
The terrible storm of August 18th, 1969 utterly devastated the Gulf Coast.
45 min
32
Hurricane Camille Pt. 1: It's Raining Death
Riding a summer high, the citizens of the Mississippi Coast, also known as the “Riviera of the South,” never expected that on August 18th, 1969, their community would be destroyed by the most powerful storm ever to hit the United States up to that point.
43 min
33
57th Georgia Regiment Pt. 2: March to Battle
After a year of endless marching and retreating, the 57th Georgia Regiment finally saw their first battle of the Civil War in 1862.
51 min
34
57th Georgia Regiment Pt. 1: Brothers in Arms
When Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861, the Vinson brothers volunteered for service in hopes they would be stationed close to home.
46 min
35
Jeanne Pocius Pt. 2: Aftershock
After a harrowing 24 hours following the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, Jeanne Pocius was on the verge of exhaustion.
40 min
36
Jeanne Pocius Pt. 1: Shaken
In 2010, volunteer music teacher Jeanne Pocius barely survived a massive earthquake that devastated Haiti.
43 min
37
Bob Champion Pt. 2: Back On The Horse
Determined to return to horse racing and compete for Grand Nationals in the early 1980s, Bob pushed himself through two final rounds of chemotherapy.
40 min
38
Bob Champion Pt. 1: A Race Against Time
After his diagnosis in 1979, accomplished jockey Bob Champion went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy, but his cancer still hadn’t been eradicated.
39 min
39
Carolyn Maull McKinstry Pt. 2: Injustice
As she climbed through the wreckage of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama, Carolyn was relieved that she and her siblings had all survived.
41 min
40
Carolyn Maull McKinstry Pt. 1: 16th Street Bapt...
A church is meant to be a place of peace, comfort, and community.
39 min
41
Dr. Stanley Williams Pt. 2: Volcanic Bravery
While the Galeras Volcano was still spewing ash on the afternoon of January 14, 1993, two brave researchers defied all common sense and ventured inside the volcanic crater to rescue their trapped colleagues.
43 min
42
Dr. Stanley Williams Pt. 1: Volcanologist
Before their research expedition on January 14, 1993, Dr. Stanley Williams told his team of scientists that the Galeras Volcano was ‘tranquilo.”
36 min
43
Helen Klaben & Ralph Flores Pt. 2: Into the Dark
After crashing their plane in February 1963, they remained trapped for five weeks in the Yukon forest.
37 min
44
Helen Klaben & Ralph Flores Pt. 1: Alaskan Adve...
In 1963, an adventurous 21-year-old chartered a cheap private flight from Alaska to San Francisco.
39 min
45
Violet Jessop Pt. 2: Miss Unsinkable
After narrowly surviving shipwrecks aboard the Olympic and the Titanic, in 1916 Violet Jessop immediately got back to work on the third of the White Star Line's Olympic-class cruisers: the HMHS Britannic.
37 min
46
Violet Jessop Pt. 1: Titanic Tragedy
As passengers of Southampton embarked for the RMS Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912, a crew member commented to a traveler, "God himself could not sink this ship."
35 min
47
Charlie Cusack Pt. 2: Path of Devastation
After it devastated the suburbs of Oklahoma County in 1999, tornado A9 continued to wreak havoc across southern Oklahoma City.
45 min
48
Charlie Cusack Pt. 1: Tornado Warning
On May 3rd, 1999, the people of southern Oklahoma County would brace themselves and pray, as they were about to have to try and survive the onslaught of the most powerful tornado in recorded history.
39 min
49
Shin Dong-hyuk Pt. 2: Pressing Ahead
After climbing through the high-voltage fence surrounding Camp 14 in January of 2005, Shin Dong-hyuk was only halfway to freedom.
44 min
50
Shin Dong-hyuk Pt. 1: An Impossible Escape
Born inside of North Korea's Kaechon internment camp, where political prisoners and their descendants are sentenced to lives of starvation, torture, and hard labor; Shin faced a brutal life in confinement with no possibility of release.
39 min