Very Special Episodes

Wherever Sioux singer D.Z. Ironwing performed in New York, the same woman was waiting afterward to say she loved his voice. Seven years later, his phone rang in a freezing South Dakota trailer. It was her — the first of countless calls that began an unlikely bond with one of America’s richest families.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Lucas Reilly
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
Editing and Sound Design by Jesse Nighswonger
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
Today's episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans. For School of Humans, Producers are Emilia Brock, Edeliz Perez, and Lucas Reilly. Executive Producer is Virginia Prescott.

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Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favorite professor was real. A god in an alternate universe that bled into our own. Nothing in the world could shake their devotion to Snape.
Until their sisterhood imploded.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Katie Mattie
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe + Josh Fisher
Voice Actors are Jonathan Washington, Bee Haskins, Katie Mattie, and Josh Fisher
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
Special thanks to our guest Dr. Zoe Alderton, author of Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion Within the Harry Potter Fandom.

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In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart ducked out of a White House event and commandeered an airplane. The First Lady and the first lady of aviation flew to Baltimore and back. The event was documented by journalists, and later recounted in books. But there was more to this spontaneous joyride that didn't make the papers.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Dylan Heuer
Produced by Josh Fisher
Story Editor is Marisa Brown
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Research and Fact Checking by Dylan Heuer and Austin Thompson
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
[This episode was originally published in November 2024.]
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Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. But her biggest mystery unfolded outside the pages of her books. In this episode, Dana examines the 11 days in 1926 when the beloved author went missing, and the rollicking media circus inspired by her disappearance.
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Joe Pompeo
Produced by Josh Fisher
Story Editor is Marisa Brown
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Voice Actors are Brittany Joyner and Steve Bradford
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Research and Fact Checking by Joe Pompeo and Austin Thompson
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
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After a party at Nicolas Cage’s Bel-Air mansion, one of the rarest comic books on Earth disappeared. Action Comics #1 — the comic that introduced Superman — is worth millions of dollars. With almost no evidence and a suspect list that includes employees and celebrity guests alike, Cage and his trusted comic book dealer launch a decade-long investigation into one of the strangest art heists ever attempted.
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Dana, Zaron, Jason and the gang are hard at work on the next batch of Very Special Episodes. So today we're sharing episode one of Stealing Superman, a limited series we made in 2023. If you want to continue down the Nic Cage rabbit hole, you can listen to the whole series on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart.
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