What I survived - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

What I survived — Documentary
What I survived

What I Survived is a true survival podcast featuring extraordinary first-hand stories from people who survived kidnapping, hostage situations, disasters, accidents and other extreme life-or-death ordeals.

Each story takes you back to who these people were before everything changed, then inside the moment their lives were pushed to the edge — shipwrecked at sea for weeks, held captive by terrorists, falling 15,000 feet from a plane after a parachute failure, and other extraordinary fights for survival.

Through intimate first-hand accounts, we follow the ordeal as it happened, the decisions made under unimaginable pressure, and the resilience and will it took to survive.

Then we explore what came after — the physical and psychological recovery, the impact of trauma, and the process of rebuilding a life forever altered.

What I Survived is hosted by Australian podcaster Jack Laurence, creator of the award-winning podcasts One Minute Remaining, Wanted and more.

Follow What I Survived for remarkable true stories of survival, resilience and the human instinct to stay alive.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © Jack Laurence

Latest Episodes:

The Mobster's Son: Anthony Ruggiano Jr. Nov 03, 2026

Show notes

Anthony Ruggiano Jr. grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, the son of Anthony "Fat Andy" Ruggiano, a Gambino crime family capo who was made under Albert Anastasia in 1953.

In Part One of this What I Survived story, Anthony takes us inside his father's world. How did Fat Andy become a mobster, and how did he work his way up to captain, running one of the most powerful crews in New York? What was it like to be a kid whose life revolved around social clubs, card games and men who lived by their own rules?

His father never wanted this life for his son. But Anthony was drawn to it anyway: the money, the respect, the nights out under the wing of John Gotti. And once he was in, there was no easy way out.

Settle in, get comfortable, and let Anthony Ruggiano Jr. tell you how he was raised in the Mafia.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing One Minute Remaining Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

While you wait for the next episode of What I Survived I want to introduce you to one of my other shows. One Minute Remaiming - Stories form the inmates

Welcome to episode one of 'One minute remaining' - Today we start the story of Dorice Moore and Abraham Lee Shakespeare, a story that has layer after layer but that is nothing short of mind blowing.

I first contacted Dorice more than four years ago after reading about her story and we've been chatting on and off ever since. Dorice was charged and convicted for the murder of Abraham Lee Shakespear more than twelve years ago, a crime that she has always maintained she is innocent of. Dorice has done a number of interviews over the years with different journalists and programs but from what I've seen and heard she's never really been given the opportunity to tell her side of the story without prejudice from the interviewer.

I am not here to prove her innocent or guilty I am simply here to allow her to tell her side of the story, a story that has fascinated and confused me the more I have delved into it.

This is the first of many chats I will have with Dorice during this season as we not only hear the story from her side but also follow her journey as she fights to clear her name,

For more on her story and to fins out how you can help her you can visit www.doricemoore.com

check out the show here

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zoya Phan: Refugee Camps, Exile and a Hit List (Part 2) Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Zoya Phan escaped Burma's army at 14, only to find it could still reach the Karen refugee camps in Thailand. On What I Survived, Zoya Phan tells how she fled the Burmese military a second time, and how the regime put her name on a hit list. We look inside the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border, the cross-border attacks on refugees, and how Zoya became one of the leading voices for Burma's freedom. Settle in, get comfortable, and let us tell you the story of Zoya Phan.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zoya Phan: Surviving Ethnic Cleansing in Burma (Part 1) Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Zoya Phan was 14 when the Burmese army attacked her Karen village in Burma (Myanmar) and her family fled through the jungle towards Thailand. On What I Survived, Zoya Phan tells her story of surviving ethnic cleansing by Burma's military. We trace the roots of the Karen conflict, one of the longest-running civil wars in the world, from British rule to the military coup, and follow Zoya's family from Manerplaw to a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. Settle in, get comfortable, and let us tell you the story of Zoya Phan.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rob Langdon: Seven Years in an Afghan Prison P2 Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

In 2009, Australian security contractor Rob Langdon shot and killed an Afghan colleague during a confrontation in Afghanistan. Rob says the man pulled a pistol and that he fired first in self-defence. What happened next would cost Rob seven years of his life.

In Part 2 of Rob's story, he takes Jack inside the moment that changed everything — the shooting, the chaotic hours that followed and his attempt to get out of Afghanistan.

He made it as far as Kabul International Airport. With a flight to Dubai waiting, Rob was just minutes away from leaving the country when he was arrested.

Rob was charged with murder. He maintained that he had acted in self-defence, but an Afghan court convicted him and sentenced him to death. His sentence was eventually commuted to 20 years imprisonment.

He would spend the next seven years inside Kabul's notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison, living among Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners in conditions his Australian lawyer described as extremely dangerous.

Rob takes us inside those years — the reality of surviving an Afghan prison, the fear that he might never leave and the extraordinary chain of events that eventually led to a presidential pardon.

In August 2016, seven years after his arrest, Rob Langdon finally returned home to Australia.

This is Part 2 of Rob Langdon's story on What I Survived.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rob Langdon: Sentenced to Death in Afghanistan P1 Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Former Australian soldier Rob Langdon went to Afghanistan as a private security contractor. He would eventually be convicted of murder, sentenced to death and spend seven years inside one of Afghanistan's most notorious prisons.

But before the prison, the death sentence and the fight to stay alive, Rob had spent much of his adult life as a soldier.

In Part 1 of his story, Rob takes Jack back through his early life and the road that led him into the Australian Army. He talks about his years in the military, the experiences that shaped him and eventually his decision to leave and enter the rapidly growing world of private security contracting.

His work would first take him to Iraq before eventually leading him into Afghanistan, where he worked protecting convoys and operating in an extraordinarily dangerous environment.

In 2009, everything would change.

A confrontation with an Afghan colleague would end with Rob shooting and killing the man. Rob says he acted in self-defence. The Afghan courts would ultimately convict him of murder and sentence him to death.

This is Part 1 of Rob Langdon's story on What I Survived.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benedict Allen: Becoming a Crocodile Man P3 Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

After surviving malaria, starvation and near death in the Amazon, Benedict Allen was left with a question he couldn't shake: why had he survived? His search for an answer would take him deep into Papua New Guinea and into a brutal initiation ceremony designed to transform young men into “crocodile men.”

In Part 3 of Lost in the Amazon, Benedict explains why simply returning home wasn't enough. Surviving had changed him, and he felt compelled to understand what it meant to be tested, transformed and pushed to the limits of human endurance.

That search took him to live among tribal people in Papua New Guinea, where he underwent the dangerous initiation ceremony traditionally undertaken by young men as part of their passage into manhood.

Benedict also takes Jack through more extraordinary moments from a lifetime spent exploring some of the world's most hostile environments — including an Arctic expedition where he lost his dog team and once again found himself facing the possibility that he might not survive.

From the Amazon rainforest to Papua New Guinea and the Arctic, Benedict's story becomes about something much bigger than one expedition: why did surviving once leave him with the need to keep putting himself back on the edge?

This is Part 3 of Benedict Allen's story on What I Survived.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benedict Allen: He Ate His Dog to Survive P2 Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Lost and alone in the Amazon, British explorer Benedict Allen contracted two forms of malaria, including a potentially deadly strain. Starving, feverish and running out of options, the 22-year-old faced a decision that would stay with him for decades.

In Part 2 of Lost in the Amazon, Benedict takes us deeper into his fight for survival as his physical condition deteriorates and the reality of his situation begins to set in.

With little food and his body being ravaged by malaria, Benedict was forced to confront an unimaginable choice: to survive, he would eat the dog that had become his companion during the journey.

Benedict tells Jack about that decision, what it took to make it, and the desperate condition he was in as he continued trying to find his way out of the Amazon alive.

What began as an ambitious expedition had become a battle against starvation, disease and isolation — with no guarantee that anyone even knew where to find him.

This is Part 2 of Benedict Allen's story on What I Survived.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benedict Allen: Lost and Dying in the Amazon | Lost in the Amazon P1 Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

At just 22 years old, British explorer Benedict Allen set out to travel 600 miles through the remote northeast Amazon. It was supposed to be an expedition. Instead, it became a fight for survival.

Gold miners hunted him. His canoe capsized, swallowing his supplies. Malaria burned through his body — two types of it, including one that could kill him in 24 hours. Starving, feverish and alone, Benedict made a choice that would haunt him for decades.

He eventually walked out of the jungle. But something inside him forced him to confront his near-death experience and a question he needed to answer: why had he lived?

So he went back. Not to the Amazon, not yet, but to Papua New Guinea. There, he immersed himself in a culture that still held ancient rituals of manhood and underwent a secret ceremony alongside young tribal initiates — to be cut, scarred and beaten, and to try to understand what it meant to survive, to be tested and to be transformed.

This is the story of a young man running towards the very thing that nearly killed him. Of unfinished business in the jungle. Of the price of seeking answers that only survival can provide.

And of a man who has nearly died nine times.

This is Part 1 of Benedict Allen's story on What I Survived.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Undercover in The Real Soprannos P4 Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

For three years, Giovanni Rocco lived two lives. By day, he was a man with a wife and children. By night, he was Giovanni Gatto—a mob associate climbing the ranks of the DeCavalcante crime family, one of America's most powerful organised crime organisations.

He was brilliant at it. Too brilliant. So brilliant that his captain, Charlie Stango, loved him like a son. So brilliant that he was proposed for membership—to become a made man.

But there was a price. Everything he built was a lie. Everyone he loved was in danger. And when Charlie Stango asked him to arrange a murder, the FBI had to pull him out.

What happened next was worse than anything that came before: witness protection, erasure, a life lived in hiding, and the realisation that the man he'd become—the only version of himself that felt real—could never exist again.

This is the story of an undercover operation that succeeded brilliantly and destroyed everything in the process. This is what it costs to survive.

SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts