This Is Actually Happening
Episodes
329: The 82 Percent #6: What if you became your husband’s guardian?
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At 21 years old, Kris marries Brandon, the love of her life, but after Brandon suffers a severe traumatic brain injury, Kris must restructure everythi...
328: The 82 Percent #5: What if you were a seahorse dad?
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Assigned female at birth, Kayden Coleman navigates abuse, racism, housing insecurity, and a deep questioning of gender, but after finally accepting wh...
327: The 82 Percent #4: What if you found your family on the path of celibacy?
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After immigrating from Brazil to the US, a man struggles with isolation, depression, faith and sexual orientation, when one day an awakening leads him...
The 82 Percent: Bonus Conversation with Jessica Fern
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this special bonus episode, Whit Missildine interviews Jessica Fern. Jessica Fern is a renowned psychotherapist, trauma and relationship expert, an...
326: The 82 Percent #3: What if you discovered a new way to love?
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in the crack epidemic surrounded by gangs, drugs, and violence a man begins repeating these patterns of abuse and infidelity in his relatio...
325: The 82 Percent #2: What if you grew up in a polyamorous family?
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a child growing up in a polyamorous family and community, Koe Creation learns to navigate the beauty and complications of their upbringing, but onc...
The 82 Percent: Bonus Conversation with Heath Schechinger and Lily Lamboy
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this special bonus episode, Whit Missildine interviews Heath Schechinger and Lily Lamboy of the Modern Family Institute @modernfamilyinstitute, col...
324: The 82 Percent #1: What if you were asexual?
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A man grows up waiting for his sexuality to bloom, but after that moment never comes, he feels a longing for intimacy that leads him to transform the ...
323: What if you were suddenly a blank slate?
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A woman growing up in worn torn Colombia comes to the US and builds a new life, but when she suffers a freak accident and loses her sense of self, a n...
322: What if you kept hitting rock bottom?
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After a childhood feeling unworthy of love and belonging, a man finds his path to the Coast Guard and a solid marriage, but after a minor back injury,...
321: What if they tried to erase you?
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in the remote Ozark mountains with a mother who believed she was God and a father with deeper abuses, a man paves his own rocky healing pat...
320: What if your mom believed she was the good witch?
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with a mother who used practiced an abusive form of spiritual voodoo, a man seeks to numb his pain, but after tragedy and a descent into cr...
319: What if you couldn’t find your way home?
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Escaping her troubled past, a suburban mother finds stability in marriage and family, but when her reality suddenly begins to fall apart, she descends...
318: What if your daughter went missing?
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A woman spirals into drug use, coping with an abusive childhood, a failing marriage and post-partum depression, but on the road to recovery, her daugh...
317: What if you found peace in the fog of war?
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Thai-Filipino-American man fulfills his life-long dream of escaping his chaotic past and joining the Army, but after lingering scars from multiple d...
316: What if a masked man appeared at the foot of your bed?
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with a narcissistic father, a woman learns to play small, but one night when an unknown masked man enters her room, she faces the worst nig...
315: What if your life became a movie?
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After his mother falls in love with Frank, the member of a one-hit-wonder 80s band, a man’s life becomes a roller coaster of neglect, scams, and cha...
314: What if you harbored an unrelenting fury?
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After losing her entire family at ten years old, a woman’s grief evolves into a self-destructive rage, and as systems of care, punishment and rehabi...
313: What if you had to find your own salvation?
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up queer, bullied and abused in a heavily religious community, a man tries and to change his sexual orientation through prayer, but as he piec...
312: What if you believed your love could cure him?
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Finally finding love and marriage after feeling unworthy of romance, a woman develops symptoms of a mysterious and debilitating illness, but in the ro...
311: What if you danced for those who couldn’t?
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An Indigenous woman from the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation whose grandparents suffered the horrific abuses of the Canadian Indian residential sc...
310: What if your mother disappeared?
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After being kidnapped by her mother in a custody battle, a woman finds herself cut off and under the thumb of an abusive stepmother, but after years o...
309: What if you gave everything to The Job?
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Endowed with a strong drive from a young age, a woman becomes a workaholic and marries a wonderful man with similar ambitions, but when he faces a fai...
308: What if they couldn’t wake me up?
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Soon after returning from a long trip abroad, Whit Missildine, our creator and host of the show, suddenly blacked out and entered a non-responsive sei...
What if you spent 15 hours on the edge of sanity? [Rebroadcast #89]
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An impromptu hiking trip turns suddenly to disaster.Listen to exclusive episodes of This is Actually Happening ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wond...
What if you discovered you were the enemy? [Rebroadcast #230]
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with a sense of heroic duty, a man becomes a cop fighting the drug war, when the sobering realities of his job lead him to profound awakeni...
307: What if you fell hard for the scam?
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A woman growing up in poverty in Jamaica is abandoned by her mother at an early age, and as her story of unworthiness deepens, she falls prey to a cru...
306: What if you lived someone else’s life?
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After learning to endure a toxic relationship with his father, a man crafts a ‘good life’ filled with the privileges of success, but only when he ...
305: What if you were expected to do no harm?
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a family full of secrets, a woman experiences a complex trauma and buries a secret of her own, but after finding her passion in medicine...
304: What if you were poisoned?
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A young woman on a backpacking trip in Bali faces a series of misfortunes, but just as she’s leaving for the next chapter of her journey, her future...
What if you swallowed 48 bags of cocaine? [Rebroadcast #156]
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A young man looking for a quick way to get rid of student loan debt gambles with his life and nearly pays the ultimate price.Listen to exclusive episo...
What if you rescued everyone to save yourself? [Rebroadcast #198]
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A woman with severe harm OCD encounters the many faces of death and dying but finds renewal in caring for others and ultimately herself.Today's episod...
What if you grew up in a violent gang? [Rebroadcast #163]
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After tragedy strikes a Vietnamese refugee family, a young man finds his new home in a violent gang, forever marking his life path through acts of des...
303: What if your brother became a monster?
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a broken home with a loving mother, a woman faces disturbing and routine abuse from her brother, but after it escalates, and the unthink...
302: What if you could only find closure within?
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman experiences a childhood trauma, facing silence and betrayal in the aftermath, but a when unexpected tragedy comes, the answers begin slipping ...
301: What if you were pulled into the abyss?
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with a solid Midwestern childhood, and man discovers the wonders of the Hawaiian ocean, when one day a terrifying encounter changes everyth...
300: What if your boyfriend lit himself on fire? (300th episode)
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After falling into a co-dependent relationship, a woman’s boyfriend begins a bewildering decline, but after losing his battle, she awakens to a deep...
299: What if your only hope for life was choosing death?
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with a controlling and mentally abusive mother, a woman suffers from a severe eating disorder that leaves her hopeless, until she discovers...
298: What if you were caught in the gears of the machine?
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Navigating a chaotic upbringing, a man finds his path through sports, military and grueling police work, but as the scars from Iraq, the domestic viol...
297: What if you were a human jumper cable?
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Finally emerging from her critical and violent home life, a teenager suffers a freak electrocution from a downed power line, sending unexpected shockw...
296: What if you were haunted by the living and the dead?
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bullied from a young age, a woman’s insecurities lead her to a highly toxic relationship she can’t shake, but when she moves into a new life, an e...
295: What if you had to betray your family to save them?
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a very strict Persian-Indian-American family with an abusive father, a woman vows never to get married and repeat her parents cycle, but...
294: What if you shot your girlfriend?
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Escaping a world of gangs and drugs, a man joins the military and becomes a veteran of Iraq, but the scars from his past, PTSD and a TBI haunt him unt...
293: What if you believed your son was possessed?
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A chaotic upbringing leaves a woman with chronic depression, but after the birth of her first child, she enters a new level of chaos from which she st...
292: What if a shocking lie revealed your inner truth?
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman with a severe eating disorder and addiction finds inspiration in the strength of a religious community and a woman who has beaten the odds, bu...
291: What if your wife had 21 personalities?
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in poverty, a man finds an outlet in a racist metal band, when one day fate transforms him and he pursues an unlikely marriage, but when hi...
290: What if your husband entered The Void?
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman leaves behind the wounds of her alcoholic father, only to find out that her husband’s addiction is threatening to ruin their family; but whe...
289: What if you walked into your high school with a shotgun?
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After facing abuse at a young age, a man develops a festering, unseen sense of emptiness that finds expression in an act of violence that would haunt ...
288: What if you didn't know you were in a cult?
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Going from a highly privileged family to college at Princeton to a career as the first male supermodel, Hoyt Richards was truly living the dream, but ...
287: What if you couldn’t explain his heinous act?
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up with undiagnosed autism and confronting her mother’s death at a young age, a woman struggles to understand herself and her family, but wh...
286: What if you were born without a hand?
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Being born without his right hand, man’s resentment and monstrous self-image deepen as family and doctors intervene to fix his condition, leading hi...
285: What if your life was not your own?
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After growing up with a father she could never fully please and a trauma she couldn’t share, a woman is slowly groomed into an underworld of sex wor...
284: What if you found the antidote in the venom?
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up Muslim in the Middle East, a woman juggles the chaotic expectations of a severely abusive mother with her desire for self-expression; but w...
283: What if you saved your family from annihilation?
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Grappling with a lifetime of looming abuse from his father and a mother suffering from paralysis, a man decides to cut ties with his parents, only to ...
282: What if you believed you were unlovable?
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After escaping a childhood of bewildering traumas, a woman gives herself fully to a charming man with dark secrets, but when justice comes, she awaken...
281: What if you entered the belly of the Narco beast?
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Escaping the tumult and abuses of his childhood through music, a young man lands a dream gig at a premiere nightclub in Mexico, but when the party’s...
280: What if you lived on the line between life and death?
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a family of ex-Scientologists, a person finds solace in relationships, when they suddenly fall in love with someone calling everything i...
279: What if you survived online child exploitation?
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After being subjected to horrific abuses from his schizophrenic father as a child, a man later descends into his own mental illness, but as he struggl...
278: What if you couldn't keep her safe?
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of her uncle’s untimely death, a woman bears the brunt of her mother’s long mental health decline, struggling to keep her safe from he...
277: What if you survived the Bosnian genocide?
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From an idyllic childhood in communist Yugoslavia, as a teenager, Mirsad’s world becomes a living nightmare as the Bosnian War brings shelling, tort...
276: What if you left your kids held hostage?
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman buries a series of childhood traumas and falls into a chaotic world of drugs and abuse, but when things turn from darkness to horror, she must...
275: What if the demons were too large to see?
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After divorcing her first husband and starting a new life, a woman meets The One, but when one night he doesn’t come home, she calls the police and ...
274: What if you were crushed by 10,000 pounds of stone?
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Struggling to prove himself and find his identity growing up, a man eventually builds a career and begins occasionally helping out a friend with his g...
Point Blank: Bonus Interview with Connor Sheets
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A special bonus episode featuring a conversation between TIAH host, Whit Missildine and Connor Sheets, an investigative journalist with the Los Angele...
Point Blank: Inside the Mind of the Rancho Tehama Gunman
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A special bonus episode featuring a conversation between TIAH host, Whit Missildine and Candice DeLong, host of the brilliant podcast, Killer Psyche, ...
273: Point Blank #5: What if you were the sister of the gunman?
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a supportive, suburban family, Sheridan Orr shares an idyllic childhood with her brother Kevin, but when he suffers a series of head inj...
Point Blank: Bonus Stories - Jared and James
07 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Two additional victims of the 2017 Rancho Tehama spree killing speak about their experiences in our Point Blank series: First, Jared Tuck, a neighbor ...
272: Point Blank #4: What if you made yourself a target?
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a chaotic upbringing and early adulthood, Jessie Sanders carved a life for himself in Rancho Tehama, California and formed a deep friendship, bu...
271: Point Blank #3: What if you shielded your students?
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Coming from a career in the military, law enforcement and police dispatch, Ken Yuers found his true calling as a teacher for at-risk youth, and eventu...
270: Point Blank #2: What if your grandson was orphaned?
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After losing her daughter to a freak accident, Sissy Feitelberg focuses on supporting her grandson Gage who lives in Rancho Tehama with his widowed fa...
269: Point Blank #1: What if you pled for your life?
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After navigating a hardscrabble, working-class life, Troy McFadyen finally settles down with his wife in rural California, when one day driving down t...
268: What if he followed you into the house?
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Having grown up in a safe, sheltered home, a woman balances her career, marriage and five children, but one morning, when her husband is traveling on ...
267: What if you were forced to keep the nanny's secret?
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Born to an affluent Mormon family, a boy befriends a rotating set of nannies that help raise him and become part of the family unit, but his favorite ...
266: What if you thought everyone was dead?
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While in the depths of a toxic relationship, a woman begins experiencing a magical, unseen world around her, but on a layover on a flight through LA, ...
265: What if a routine pickup led to a crushing blow?
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reeling from the early loss of his father and abuse in the family, a man finds an outlet through cars and becomes a repo agent, but on a routine job o...
264: What if you were carjacked at gunpoint?
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman struggles to break free from the rules of her strict and sheltered upbringing, but after battling a derealization disorder and finding a new l...
263: What if a darkness destroyed your family?
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman grows up in a loving Libyan family in California, but after recession hits and her dad falls on hard economic times, a darkness enters the fam...
262: What if you were mauled by a grizzly bear?
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While hunting in the Canadian wilderness, a man accidentally comes between a grizzly bear cub and its mother and a terrifying a fight for his life ens...
261: What if your mother was a victim of a secret government experiment?
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A woman learns shocking truths about what happened to her mom when she was young, while caretaking her mentally ill father and grappling with revelati...
260: What if your husband claimed you were dead?
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a chaotic upbringing ending with her parents’ divorce, a woman falls into the hands of a man whose promises are too good to be true. Toda...
259: What if you survived a serial killer?
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While pregnant and navigating a rocky relationship, a woman coming home from a local fair stops for a soda one night and suddenly faces the brutal ter...
258: What if you fell in love with a vampire?
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After suffering the horrific abuses of his Southern grandmother, father and mother, a teenage boy discovers his own queer identity through a fantasy w...
257: What if you didn't know who to believe?
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After leaving the Jehovah’s Witness faith of her childhood, a woman redefines her life with her husband and child and becomes a loving foster parent...
256: What if you prepared your boyfriend's body?
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After losing her father at a young age, a woman begins apprenticing as a funeral director, but when tragedy strikes again, the loss takes an exponenti...
255: What if they didn't ask and you couldn't tell?
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A man growing up in the closet joins the military under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and numbs his identity with alcohol, but after becoming a nurs...
254: What if your father annihilated the family?
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman grows up in a home chronically terrified by her father’s abuse, but when her parents split and he starts another family, she learns of the t...
253: What if you couldn't even remember the crash?
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As a teenager struggling with severe depression and anxiety, a woman finds dance as her only outlet, but on a night that is lost to memory, a horrific...
252: What if you watched your mother disappear?
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A man tries to put the pieces of his life back together after growing up with a mother who suffered from severe OCD and anorexia. Today’s guest...
251: What if a false allegation stole what you valued most?
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder experiences a roller coaster of destroyed relationships and mental storm, but after stabilizing through therap...
250: What if a devastating truth only deepened the mystery?
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up Black and queer in the South, a man finds an identity for himself through the arts and establishes a wonderful marriage with children, unti...
249: What if you knew your baby was going to die?
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Coming from a charmed, conservative, Catholic upbringing, a woman must confront her deepest beliefs as she struggles with the reality and implications...
248: What if an invisible disease blew up your life?
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After surviving a chaotic and abusive upbringing, a woman develops an undiagnosable autoimmune disorder that threatens to take her vision and her live...
247: What if you didn't see the signs?
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Mitchell built a successful career, marriage and family, but just as his bright and loving daughter graduates from college with big dreams, an un...
246: What if you could never be what they wanted?
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Always feeling she had failed the ideals of her strict Muslim, South Asian family and community, a woman struggles to navigate trauma, shame and self-...
245: What if you were taken to the dark side?
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman struggling to find herself finally discovers a place where she belongs and forms a deep friendship, but when she experiments with a powerful p...
244: What if you could never make him proud?
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A man struggles to free himself from his father’s iron grip on the family, but when an unsettling truth about his past is revealed, his entire life ...
243: What if you signed a billion-year contract?
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a woman’s Mormon family falls apart following the death of her father, her mother brings her to a Scientology Center where she leaves everythi...
242: What if you woke up and couldn't move?
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After growing up queer with a complicated father in the 1960s, a man forges his own path, identity and career in the arts, but suddenly, after a routi...
241: What if you were the other woman?
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman falls deeply in love with a married man in her close friend’s circle, when suddenly an unthinkable event throws everything into question.&nb...
What if you suddenly felt like a werewolf? - [Rebroadcast - #119]
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s like trying to go into like a dark cave with a rope attached to you so that you can find your way back and then losing that the end of the r...