Strangers Archives

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

We feature the story of Joe Loya’s bank robbing career by producer Ben Adair of the podcast “First Time Last Time,” along with a follow-up conversation between Lea and Joe about the dumbest shit he’s pulled as a bank robber. Check out the “First Time Last Time” podcast, which has the simple but wonderful premise that people tell stories about the first time and last time they did something. You can find it at bacreative.net.

Joe, caught on a bank’s security camera

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To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

Annie Bradley was raised to believe that women shouldn’t have opinions or make decisions. But what happens when her life depends on a radical split-second decision?

This story was produced by Laura Fetherstonhaugh with Paul Dreux Smith and Lea Thau.

Annie, as a teenager in France in the ’70s.

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

Do altruists make us uncomfortable? Hell freakin’ yeah. Or so it seems. The most generous person we’ve ever profiled became the center of a social media storm. Lea called up some of the harshest critics to find out, eh, WHY?

Elizabeth, the kidney donor.

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

So did this transplant happen? Is Lea going to give away a kidney? Are you? Tune into this third instalment of Elizabeth and Mary to find out.

Elizabeth and Mary at the hospital on the day of the operation.

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To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

This is the second installment in our series about Elizabeth and Mary. On this episode, we play some of the strong reactions we received from listeners to the first installment, and dive deeper into why Elizabeth decided to give a kidney to a stranger, and who she really is…

Elizabeth and Troy after running their first marathon.