1 phone call. 1 hour. No names. No holds barred. Thats the premise behind Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, hosted by comedian Chris Gethard (the Chris Gethard Show, Broad City, This American Life, and one of Time Outs 10 best comedians of 2015). Every week, Chris opens the phone line to one anonymous caller, and he cant hang up first, no matter what. From shocking confessions and family secrets to philosophical discussions and shameless self-promotion, anything can and will happen! Theme song by Shellshag.
This call starts at Burning Man but quickly opens up into a far more complicated conversation about grief, abuse, healing, and the long work of rebuilding. But the playa stays in the mix throughout, a touchstone for how this caller has tried to redefine life along the way. And, of course, we make a stop at the Orgy Dome.
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This week, Geth talks with a railroad worker who shares what it’s really like on the job. They get into the nitty-gritty of trains, unions, and infrastructure, and explore how the rails often reflect bigger truths about where the country is headed.
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This week, Geth talks with a firefighter/EMT who’s training to be a paramedic. They get into the vital importance of volunteer work, what it’s like to serve in rural communities versus tourist towns, and how showing up in moments of crisis can remind you what humanity is all about.
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Raised by a zoologist in a house full of wild animals, this psychology professor’s life has remained just as untamed: coaching junior roller derby, a stint making high-end chocolate, parenting a trans kid, and that’s just for starters. Unpredictable but never aimless, her conversation with Gethard is just as wide-ranging as her life.
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This week’s caller takes us into the complicated, messy, and deeply human world of sex work. The conversation stretches from personal experience to bigger questions about society. It's thoughtful, challenging, and impossible to boil down.
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Does what it says on the tin. Gethard talks to a polyamorous witch librarian who once worked the front desk at a brothel, surprisingly perfect training for library life. They get into the realities of coven community, late-discovered neurodivergence, leaving a faith tradition, and why public libraries are such vital spaces, now more than ever. It’s wide-ranging but never scattered. More like a life filed neatly into se...
Here’s the pitch: Engineer by day. International award-winning clown by night. Learned to read and walk in her 20s. This caller has a lot going on, and every story branches into a whole new world of surprises.
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A couple weeks back, Gethard talked with a lawyer whose husband came up a few times. We learned two key facts about him: he’s got a lot of birds, and he works on a tugboat. Well, he got through this week, and that means Geth got to ask him a few questions about the birds and a million more about life aboard a tugboat. It’s a conversation packed with oddly fascinating details about this very specific, rarely discussed j...
This week, Gethard talks to a Vietnam veteran with a lifetime of stories. He’s never listened to the podcast, but his granddaughter has, and she encouraged him to call in as a way to share and preserve the experiences he’s carried for decades. He recounts some harrowing moments from his childhood before walking us through the catastrophic day in Vietnam that changed the course of his life. It’s a conversation about tra...
This week’s caller is a medical device engineer with a deeply personal stake in the healthcare system. She talks with Gethard about living with a rare liver disease, how Martin Shkreli changed the course of her life, and the three-legged, half-tailed foster cat who might just send her back to therapy.
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This week’s caller joined Gethard at 10:30 on a Friday night to talk about wrestling and her love of a New Jersey ska band, but the conversation quickly turned into something else entirely. We hear about her tugboat captain husband (who happens to have Geth’s secret dream job), her own work representing our most vulnerable population, and the utterly baffling hobby that’s taken over her home. Somehow, this one-hour cal...
In another installment of our unofficial “The Young People Are Alright” series, a 19-year-old entrepreneur calls in to talk about hustle culture, mental health, and the lessons he’s learning from his first relationship. He’s thoughtful, ambitious, and asking big questions about what it means to grow up in a world where the American Dream feels increasingly out of reach and the future is anything but certain.
This week’s caller is a mom of two young boys doing her best to face life head-on. Her oldest son is autistic and recently diagnosed with depression. She talks with Gethard about parenting a neurodivergent child, advocating in a world that doesn’t always get it, and staying grounded through it all with warmth, humor, and zero B.S.
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This week’s caller is a pediatric nurse with a newborn at home, and she’s learning in real time how her job is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to new mom anxiety. She and Geth talk about sleepless nights, the emotional toll of pediatric care, and why it’s hard to turn off worst-case-scenario thinking when you’ve seen it all firsthand. Plus, a short but sweet cameo from her husband.
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This week’s caller is a medieval recreationist who sews their own centuries-old clothing and has an overactive bladder. And that’s just scratching the surface. And that’s just scratching the surface. From homemade centuries-old clothing to body stuff to one wild reveal with two minutes left, this episode is a non-stop ride through one person’s delightfully specific world.
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Good morning! For reasons no one can quite explain, Beautiful/Anonymous has a long and proud tradition of attracting band directors, and this week’s caller keeps the streak alive. She and Gethard talk about everything from what makes trombonists so goofy to figuring out which woodwinds are the biggest divas. Oh, and also: the time she found out her long-term partner was sneaking around on a foot fetish website.
It’s 9 pm on a Friday, and the vibes are loose. This week’s caller is a former teacher turned novelist-in-progress who’s found fulfillment in writing, volunteering, and caring for the true love of her life: an elderly, disabled bearded dragon named Charlie. Sure, she and Gethard also talk about volunteer paleontology, dating with autism, and how Geth ties into her broken ankle, but at the end of the day, this is a call...
A new master’s degree, a recent family death, and...13 secret second cousins? This week’s caller is processing a wild year of grief, discovery, and chaotic family history, including one grandma-sized scandal and a mom who always kept things interesting.
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A strict religious upbringing, an older husband, and an open marriage she never expected. This week’s caller talks with Gethard about how she got there and how she’s finally building a life that actually feels like hers.
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A 911 dispatcher calls in to walk Gethard through the ins and outs of emergency dispatch. From how calls get prioritized, to the systems that keep everything moving, there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes than people realize. It’s a fascinating look at a job most of us only think about in a crisis.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.