This Is Actually Happening
Channel Details
This Is Actually Happening
What if you were trafficked into a cult...or were mauled by a grizzly bear...or were stabbed 27 times by a serial killer - what would you do? This is Actually Happening brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. From a man who woke up i...
Recent Episodes
295 episodes
381: What if you opened a portal to the world next door?
When a woman begins waking up to a supernatural entity crawling behind her, she realizes the door she opened as a child was never closed.
Today’...
380: What if you had a spontaneous awakening?
Growing up in the notorious commune of Rajneeshpuram, and haunted by abandonment and addiction, a woman’s spontaneous awakening reveals that every wou...
379: What if you witnessed your client’s execution?
A man shaped by cruelty devotes his life to defending the condemned, discovering that real courage lies not in victory, but in standing beside the mos...
378: What if your private nightmare was also theirs?
A woman, who ignores her instincts, enters a marriage that soon spirals into betrayal and control. When the truth finally comes to light, she must cho...
377: What if you were a gay, Mormon, drug-dealing, federal informant?
After losing himself to meth and a double life as a federal informant, a man’s world collapses after one of his buyer’s overdoses, and recovery begins...
376: What if a car crash shattered your world?
When a sudden car crash shatters her world, a woman’s grief and struggle to keep living leads her to an unexpected rebirth of love.
Today’s epis...
375: What if you had to fight your way out of the jungle?
After a prominent life filled with passion and adventure ends with the death of her brilliant but volatile husband, a woman journeys to Guatemala to h...
What if you were mauled by a grizzly bear? [Rebroadcast #262]
While hunting in the Canadian wilderness, a man accidentally comes between a grizzly bear cub and its mother, and a terrifying fight for his life ensu...
What if you didn’t sleep for 120 hours? [Rebroadcast #170]
A young woman hungry to explore the world goes on a trip to Tanzania and unexpectedly finds herself caught in an endless cycle of impending doom.
What if you could never be what they wanted? [Rebroadcast #246]
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-...
What if you signed a billion-year contract? [Rebroadcast #243]
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 everything...
What if you woke up and couldn’t move? [Rebroadcast #242]
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...
Introducing: American Criminal
Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole are two of history’s most prolific serial killers. Or they’re liars who aren’t to be trusted. Either way, they’ve both...
What if you went missing? [Rebroadcast #196]
A woman who seeks awakening through myriad healing practices finds her ultimate challenge when she goes missing in a Maui forest.
...
What if you never stopped searching? [Rebroadcast #195]
Decades after her brother disappeared in the early 1980s, a woman becomes deeply involved in the search for a missing friend.
To...
What if you ran through the pain? [Rebroadcast #208]
A man searches for healing after his father, a disgruntled post office worker, falls into a violent downward spiral.
Today we brin...
What if you entered the belly of the NARCO beast? [Rebroadcast #281]
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 o...
374: What if a brutal assault saved your life?
After being violently attacked outside a bar, a man who spent his life motivated by loneliness and rage, begins forging a new path to peace and healin...
373: What if your boyfriend ghosted you for his wedding?
Still reeling from an abusive relationship and the loss of her mother, a single woman travels to Mexico, plunging into a whirlwind situationship where...
372: What if you were lost on the Pacific Crest Trail?
A young woman grows up in chaos and instability but finds strength through education and a deep connection to the outdoors—until a harrowing solo trek...
371: What if you survived a catastrophic hurricane?
Born and raised on a remote Bahamian island, a woman who has weathered countless storms must fight to keep herself and her family alive as the unprece...
370: What if a bullet took your sight but not your vision?
A young father who rose up from the streets to achieve his musical dream is gunned down by a stranger during a trivial altercation, but as he rebuilds...
369: What if you lit yourself on fire?
Suffering a life of struggle and addiction in the wake of early childhood abuse, a woman desperate for a dramatic change dowses herself in gasoline an...
368: What if you were the only one left to grieve?
A young girl's world shatters when one night, her mother’s stalker, who has threatened to annihilate her family, walks into her home with a loaded gun...
367: What if you were imprisoned in the Federal Supermax?
Witnessing widespread disenfranchisement ignites a young man's radicalization, ultimately landing him in the Federal Supermax prison, where he's confr...
366: What if you infiltrated a doomsday hate militia?
A young man channels his early struggles with anger into a dangerous undercover law enforcement career, facing the shadows of a double life and ultima...
365: What if they believed you staged your own kidnapping? Part 2: Denise
A young woman is kidnapped, assaulted and released by perpetrators, but a far greater trauma lurks as the powers meant to protect her do not believe a...
364: What if they believed you staged your own kidnapping? Part 1: Aaron
A privileged young man, on the cusp of reconciling with his true love, is tied up in a home invasion and his girlfriend is kidnapped with her whereabo...
363: What if you dedicated your life to ending human trafficking?
Dedicated to eradicating human trafficking, a purpose-driven young man's world is shattered by a politician's unwarranted lawsuit, destroying his repu...
362: What if you wrote your way out of prison?
Cultivating rage as a solution to inherited trauma, a young man commits murder over a five-dollar dispute, but once in prison, he devotes his life to...
361: What if your sister’s death was an unsolved mystery?
Driven by her sister's mysterious death, a woman's life transforms into a struggle for understanding and justice, as the truth remains elusive.
...
360: What if you were lost in an Arctic blizzard?
A man’s elective amputation sets him free to be the adventurer he’s always wanted to be, but the trip of a lifetime to the Canadian Arctic profoundly...
359: What if you nearly froze to death?
A police cadet takes a risky shortcut home one evening, only to find herself trapped and helpless as night falls in a brutal Canadian winter.
T...
358: What if you were recruited to fight an invisible war?
A young actor, who seeks a greater purpose, is recruited into a clandestine war for humanity's soul, and is forced to confront his desire for belongin...
357: What if you were the girl locked upstairs?
A vulnerable girl, having already endured abuse from her schizophrenic mother, loses her freedom and innocence when a trusted adult lures her into an...
356: What if they stole a year of your life?
Abandoned after his parents’ devastating divorce, a neglected teenage son is committed to a psychiatric facility, whose barbaric practices reveal a fa...
355: A World Beyond Revenge: What if you identified the wrong man?
After a brutal assault in the 1980s, a young woman identifies the wrong man as her attacker, but once DNA evidence proves his innocence, they form an...
354: A World Beyond Revenge: What if your son was killed by a distracted driver?
A turbulent father-son relationship shatters completely when the son is killed by a distracted driver, and the father is left to confront his own prof...
353: A World Beyond Revenge: What if you were the common denominator?
After committing acts of extreme violence as a teenager, a man is unable to shed his rage and find healing, until he’s able to face the roots of the h...
Restorative Justice in the UK vs the US: A Conversation with Keeva Baxter
As part of our series, “A World Beyond Revenge” on Restorative Justice, today’s episode features Keeva Baxter. She is the Communications and Campaigns...