Snap Judgment

A tiny, pirate radio station broadcasts to the thousands of families trapped in ISIS-controlled Mosul. When listeners start calling in, something remarkable happens.

Producer:  Anna Sussman

Snap LIVE! At The Paramount featuring Glynn Washington, Don Reed and Joyce Lee telling stories about subjects that are taboo, bizarre and humorous.

Live Music by Bell's Atlas

Season 10 Episode 11

The story of a small Christian hill town in Palestine, and the 18 cows that kind of, almost, but never really, changed the course of its future.

Season 10 Episode 10

Snap Favorite Don Reed takes the stage with a heartfelt homage to his father's dreams for his son.

Performed live by Don Reed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Music composed and performed by Bells Atlas

Season 10 Episode 9

Snap comedy queen Jen Kober thought having an adventurous date meant trying a new restaurant... little did she know she would be free falling into a pretty crappy situation.

Original Music by Bells Atlas

Performed Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Get the video at snapjudgment.org

Season 10 Epsiode 8

Back in the 1970's Bob Favor signed up to be a Texas Ranger. He helped local police solve some of their toughest cases. But there was one case that kept getting away from him.

John Cotrocois is obsessed with meet-cutes, but he always falls for the wrong men. Will his dream of a fairy-tale romance come true?

Season 10 Episode 7

Snap spotlights "Peace of Mind" with Bhi Bhiman. In the inaugural episode, Bhi interviews Glynn Washington, bestselling author Dave Eggers, and renowned psychologist Lee Ross.

After a college party, Anwen* and Sameer* went back to a dorm room. What happened that night was confusing and horrible. But in this story we get the rare opportunity to hear both of them grapple with what happened in a way that is both surprising and meaningful. Warning, this story contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

Season 10 Episode 6

The voicemail message says someone from your past needs your help. Would you respond, if it meant getting involved in a murder trial?

Season 10 Episode 5

Two women, a tiny boat, the wide open ocean...and kismet.  

Season 8 Episode 28

A computer hacker tries to make his way home through two countries, a dense jungle and a seemingly endless string of technical challenges.

Season 10 Episode 4

It was both a tragedy and a punchline. The story behind a cult that changed the world. 

Season 10 Episode 3

When a man is falsely accused of kidnapping a police officer, he tells a lie to set himself free. But that lie comes at an enormous cost.

Season 10 Episode 2

There was a legend in central Maine, about a hermit who had lived in the woods, unseen, for 30 years.  Then, in 2013, the police arrested a man named Christopher Knight.

Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. 

A very special presentation of the day the world almost ended.

Season 10 Episode 1

A young man has the chance to work on a very secret, very powerful weapon that could put an end to world war II. The project involves no toxins, no chemicals, no shrapnel and no bullets. Instead, the project involves lots and lots of flying mammals. Lots.

Content Advisory:  This story details a war situation involving both people and animals, Listener Discretion Is Advised.

Season 9 Episode 38

When you feel the walls coming closer and closer, where do you go? Where do you hide?

A special presentation just for you... "Look Back 2018." Coming to terms with events that have happened, but that you don’t want to believe. Featuring some favorite Snap stories from the vault.

Season 9 Episode 37

Snap Judgment spotlights the amazing podcast Ear Hustle: The Big No No, stories from San Quentin State Prison.

Kassem Eid had spent two years living in a city under siege.  After he and his neighbors took part in the protests during the Arab Spring in 2011, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad began to punish towns like Kassem’s. His forces bombed them, surrounded them, and starved them. That’s when Kassem decided to fight back.

Season 9 Episode 35

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes: little girls, traveling dogs and men who save strangers from disaster... on the Snap Judgment 2018 Gratitude Special.

Season 9 Episode 33 

When the man in charge of a small, insular northern Ohio town wreaks havoc on his followers, a young Amish boy with a passion for good hair tries to clean up the mess.

Season 9 Episode 32

What do you do when you are trying to give birth... in the middle of a wildfire?

Nicole Veum is interviewed live by producer April Demobosky for "The Fire Tapes"

The Fire Tapes is a collaboration between KQED's "The Bay" and Snap Judgment for the Coal + Ice Festival in San Francisco.

Producers: Sukey Lewis, Mark Ristich and Jeremy Siegel

Counted: An Oakland Story is the story of the people lost to Oakland’s violence. During 2017, a team of Snap Judgment producers, learned about Oakland’s homicide victims, their families and communities. Visit oaklandstory.org for more interviews, photos and illustrations.

Season 9 Episode 9

Legendary "Snap LIVE! in NYC" at RadioLoveFest featuring Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter from The Roots and The Tonight Show, comedian Jen Kober, and Snap favorite Josh Healey. 

Season 7 Episode 3

The Birds: As a little boy in Richmond Virginia, raising pigeons, Ray Christian made a friend with the same hobby. But there was something mysterious about Ray’s new pal.

The Taxidermist: When Tracey started doing taxidermy, she assumed all her subjects would be dead. Until she met a squirrel who didn't seem quite right.

The Visage: A man is hired to do remodel work on a house with a haunted history.  But something inside the house doesn’t want anything to change.

Season 9 Episode 31

Get 13 all-new episodes of Spooked Season 2 at Spookedpodcast.org.

THE IRON GATE

When Dallas Sanchez was stationed in Iraq, he saw danger every single day.  But one night on patrol, when his small kill team took over a house in Baghdad, an unseen force had a message for them: Get. Out.

Season 9 Episode 30

Pro rock climbers Jason Smith and Tommy Caldwell know a thing or two about dangerous even life threatening adventures, but when they go on an expedition to the famous Yellow Wall in Kyrgyzstan, their lives were threatened in a whole new way.

Season 9 Episode 29

What if you had two choices. Either risk death, or start over in a completely new life. Now imagine you had to make that decision for your child.

Season 9 Episode 28

How do you imagine falling in love when you know you might never get the chance to? A story from inside the walls of Guantanamo Bay Prison.

Season 9 Episode 27

In the mid-70s, Conan was hired to direct and produce a nature documentary. But he wanted to do something more ambitious. The film he made "Faces of Death" became one of the most infamous movies ever, but his success came with deadly consequences.

Season 9 Episode 26

Sometimes the only word you hear is "No." But what if you always said "Yes"? Snap Judgment proudly presents "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy".

Forbidden Fruit

An aspiring priest decides to experience all that the world has to offer.

The Faith Healer

Imagine putting your hands on someone, and curing whatever ails them. Charles Monroe Kane knows the feeling.  

The Insane Million Maker Master Counterfeiter

What’s the easiest way to make money? Make Money. And lots of it.

Season 7 Episode 23

What if you could be you without all of the responsibility, the guilt, and the self-loathing? Too good to be true? ...Maybe not.

Marwencol

When Mark Hogancamp woke up in the hospital he had no idea who he was or where he was. He was beat up so badly that he couldn’t walk, talk or speak.  His therapy? Marwencol.

Friday Night Lights 

Your dad loves football. You hate football. How do you quit? Play football.

Just Another Fish Story

20 Years ago, a whale washed up on a beach in Lubec, Maine, but its death was just the beginning of its story.  

Season 6 Episode 26

When you’re a safari guide on the Zambezi River, you always know that things could go horribly wrong.

Season 9 Episode 25

Featuring a new story from the "Real Black Klansman" Detective Ron Stallworth...we're going face to face with "The Klan." Includes a bonus Snap Classic story from boogie-woogie pianist Daryl Davis, author of “Klan-Destine Relationships.”

"Mirror Touch"

Neurologist Joel Salinas on mirror-touch synesthesia.

"What Accent?"

Ellen Spencer with Foreign Accent Syndrome.

"The Bat Boy and the Pine Tar Game"

Merrit Riley and his hero George Brett.

Season 9 Episode 24

After a salesman at Oakland’s Lake Merritt disappears, journalist Tammerlin Drummond investigates what happened to him.

Season 9 Episode 23

Dylan Evans had hit a wall. Life was becoming too routine, too mundane. So he did something very few of us would do to change that.

For more check out Dylan Evan’s book: The Utopia Experiment

Producer: Nancy Lopez

Sound Design: Pat Mesiti-Miller

In the 1970s, thousands of Vietnamese refugees were left on the remote Anambas Islands in Indonesia. They were stranded without food, water, and shelter, forced to survive off the land. Now, almost 40 years later, one woman wants to go back to those distant islands, one last time.

This story would not have been possible without their generous support of the International Women’s Media Foundation.

Season 9 Episode 22

In 2009, Jane Gillooly came across an item on Ebay that piqued her imagination.  The picture was of a suitcase filled with old audiotapes. The listing’s title was “Suitcase of Love and Shame.”

The story of The Mirage, the famous undercover Chicago Sun bar, as told by two reporters posing as bartenders.  Pam Zekman currently works as an investigative reporter for CBS 2 Chicago. You can find Zay Smith’s book about The Mirage, his humor column and a his novel, at zaysmith.com.

Season 9 Episode 21

An all new season of Spooked, the podcast, is dropping early August. In this episode, we’re featuring some of our favorite stories from Spooked, season one.

The first rule about fight club is you do not talk about fight club.  Ray Christian breaks that rule.

Season 9 Episode 19

Snap Judgment joins the podcast Ear Hustle for a look at parenting from inside San Quentin State Prison.

In this episode incarcerated fathers share their stories of striving to be present in their children's lives. One inmate reconnects with his son after 20 years. Another stays very involved through letters and visits. And a third gets the opportunity to give his teenage son a haircut.

In 2006, a wolf was born in Yellowstone who would become a legend in her own time.

For more about the 06 Female and the debate surrounding wolves in Yellowstone, be sure to check out Jeff Hull's article in Outside Magazine and Nate Rott'sspecial report for NPR.

Producer: Joe Rosenberg

What do you do when someone tells you something you know to be false, and yet...you can just tell they're telling the truth? 

Chaotic Good

Malaclypse was part of a dangerous anarchist group. They stole, they killed, they escaped, until one day when Malaclypse could run no further...

Modern Love

When Stephanie Saldana was 27 years old, she thought her calling was to become a nun. But at a monastery in the Syrian desert, she met a monk who made her rethink everything

Season 9 Episode 18

What if you don't have a heart?

If I Only Had A Heart

The sum of the parts cannot equal the hole in your heart.

The Scientist And The Psychopath

Neuroanatomist Dr. James Fallon studies the most dangerous kind of person: the psychopath. His job is to get up close and personal with the mind of the psychopath so that we can better understand what makes them tick. He treats their brains with the cold calculation of a scientist at work. But in the process things get mighty personal.

About Face

You’ve heard the saying, right? You can’t see the forest for the trees. Well, imagine if your whole life all you could do, all you knew how to do, was see the trees, the details, the minutiae of the world. What would you miss out on. Let’s take a walk in Tom Conces’ shoes and find out.

Chin-Kyll and Bo-Ok: Across the DMZ

What happens when you are reunited with your North Korean sister for the first time in over five decades?

When the fight is over we still have to deal with the pieces of the battle that remain inside.  Featuring The Warrior Box and Soul of a Soldier.

Season 9 Episode 17

When Avi Steinberg became a prison librarian, he thought his job would be to keep track of the books.  Then he started reading between the lines.

Producer: Joe Rosenberg