Not Today covers unbelievable but true stories of survival. Join Steph and Alex as they discuss real incredible people who made it out of unimaginable circumstances against all odds.
Episode 253: Barbra Mackle Was Buried Alive
Oct 21, 2025
Show notes
In December 1968, 20-year-old Barbara Jane Mackle was kidnapped from her motel room and buried underground in a ventilated box that was designed to keep alive for a full week while she was held for ransom. Her kidnappers, Gary Steven Krist and Ruth Eisman Schier, demanded $500,000 from Barbra’s father Robert Mackle, who was a very famous and wealthy Florida businessman. Over the course of 83 hours Robert, along with the help of Richard Nixon, Jay Edgar Hoover, and the FBI, did exactly what the kidnappers demanded to get Barbra out of the box alive.
Episode 252: Nightmare On Dorset Street
Oct 14, 2025
Show notes
On Halloween night in 2004, three roommates spent the evening handing out candy to trick-or-treaters before going to bed. A few hours later, Lauren Meanza was awoken to the sounds of the screams of her roommates, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara, above her. As she opened her bedroom door, she heard whoever had been attacking her friends coming down the staircase toward her, so she bolted out the backdoor. Leslie and Adriane would be found brutally murdered in an upstairs bedroom, and Lauren would live tormented by the survivors' guilt from that night. The investigation would bring to light that their killer was a lot closer to the girls than anyone could have imagined.
Episode 251: The True Story of Captain Phillips
Oct 07, 2025
Show notes
In April of 2009 four Somali pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama, a US/Danish cargo ship off the coast of Africa, a notorious piracy hotspot. The crew aboard the Alabama did everything they could to keep the pirates from gaining control of the ship, however the pirates still held multiple crew members hostage, including Captain Richard Phillips. After chief engineer, Mike Perry, managed to capture one of the pirates, the crew attempted to negotiate an exchange of hostages. However the failed attempt led to Captain Phillips being held on a lifeboat with the pirates, who demanded a $2 million ransom for his release. The captain's capture resulted in a standoff between the pirates and the US Navy, including Navy SEAL Team Six.
Episode 250: Halloween Let's Not Meet
Sep 30, 2025
Show notes
Let's talk about some terrifying Reddit Let's Not Meet stories!
Episode 249: Phrogging 2: Nightmare Fuel
Sep 23, 2025
Show notes
In this episode we're talking about two terrifying instances of intruders living in their victim's home. In our first story, Tina Bowen, her sister Karen, and thier friend Kathy, believed the ghost of their mother haunted the Bowen home, but after months of terrifying signs they would learn that a highly disturbed 16-year-old boy named Daniel Laplante had been living in the cellar for six months. In the second, an intruder broke into a couple's brand new home and left something surprising in the basement.
Episode 248: Stalked For Over A Decade
Sep 16, 2025
Show notes
Christopher Thomas’ obsession with Samantha Stites began in 2011 after meeting her through a Christian student group. What began as seemingly innocent contact quickly devolved into constant unwanted attention. His behavior grew more sinister over the years as he relentlessly harassed and tracked her through her college years and beyond. Stites was granted a personal order of protection which lasted six years, however as soon as it expired Christopher was back as if he had never left. In October 2022, Christopher broke into her home, kidnapped her and took her to a soundproof bunker he had built inside a rented storage unit. While inside the bunker, he told Samantha he had been inspired by Joe Goldberg from the thriller series, You.
Episode 247: Trapped in the Beaconsfield Mine
Sep 09, 2025
Show notes
On April 25th 2006, a small earthquake triggered an underground rockfall at the Beaconsfield gold mine in northern Tasmania. Of the seventeen people who were in the mine at the time, fourteen escaped immediately following the collapse, however three men were unaccounted for. Larry Knight, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were missing and only two of them would come out alive after two weeks being trapped nearly 1 kilometer below the surface.
Episode 246: Let's Not Meet
Sep 02, 2025
Show notes
Let's talk about some terrifying Reddit Let's Not Meet stories, including two men in purge masks on the side of the road, an attempted kidnapping, a dog named parmesan that saved her family from a man with a very large knife, and more!
Episode 245: Armed and Dangerous
Aug 26, 2025
Show notes
Benjamin Obadiah Foster was the subject of a statewide multi-day manhunt after he attacked his ex-girlfriend, Justine Siemens, beat her unconscious, then fled the scene. Local police would soon discover that Foster had a history of violence against women years before he attacked Siemens. This man was extremely dangerous and needed to be caught fast.
Episode 244: Frozen Solid
Aug 19, 2025
Show notes
On December 20, 1980 in Lengby, Minnesota, 19-year-old Jean Hilliard was involved in a car crash in sub-zero temperatures. Instead of staying in her car and potentially freezing to death, Jean decided to walk to a friend’s house about 2 miles away. Because it was -22 degrees outside, Jean’s body gave out only 15 feet from her friend’s front door. She was found the next morning and rushed to the hospital. Her body was so frozen that medical staff couldn't even administer a hypodermic needle without it snapping.
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