The Silver Linings Handbook

Amy Carlson claimed to be the reincarnation of Robin Williams, Joan of Arc, Marilyn Monroe, Jesus Christ and the Hawaiian goddess Pele—along with being Elvis Presley’s mother and Donald Trump’s daughter in other lifetimes. In 2023, the HBO documentary Love Has Won: The Mother God Cult traced Carlson’s journey from a McDonald’s manager in Dallas to cult leader, promoting beliefs that the COVID pandemic was planned, 9/11 was...

When Morgan Dana Harrington went missing and was then found dead in a Virginia field, her parents' world was shattered. When her parents found out about the long string of crimes that went unpunished by her killer, Jesse Matthew Jr., they turned their outrage into a fight to "save the next girl."

Morgan was a vibrant 20-year-old college student attending a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Virginia, when she disappeared...

Morgan Dana Harrington was a vibrant 20-year-old college student attending a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Virginia, when she vanished in 2009—an event that captured national attention and ignited public grief. Her killer wasn’t identified until the 2014 abduction and murder of another University of Virginia student, 18-year-old Hannah Graham, just miles away.

The two cases forced society to confront chilling questi...

Robert Peters spent most of his life as a prosecutor and a Christian. Those two things came together when he took his position as the director of institutional response for GRACE, an organization that investigates sexual abuse in Protestant churches.

Founded in 2003 after a reporter called the founder about a case of sexual abuse mishandled by a pastor, GRACE, which stands for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Envir...

Paul Volkman was a University of Chicago-trained doctor who seemed destined for greatness. Instead, he was sentenced to life in prison for the prescriptions he wrote that devastated southern Ohio and the surrounding areas.

In the tradition of true crime, Philip Eil tells Volkman's story and the sordid history that led to the American opioid epidemic. In the 1980s and 1990s, following decades of criticism for not considerin...

When Haley Omeasoo was at the University of Montana, she remembers hearing the news that her friend, classmate and relative, Ashley Loring Heavyrunner went missing. Years later, Haley, a doctoral student in forensic anthropology, has founded a growing nonprofit organization focused on bringing crime scene investigation services to reservations. After meeting while searching for Ashley, Haley and I sat down to discuss her j...

From Juárez to the Indigenous reservations of Montana, Irish artist Brian Macguire has used his paintings to build his awareness and as his form of protest against the marginalization of certain people. Macguire, who grew up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, knows the suffering of the disappeared all too well.

To see Brian's work:

https://www.kerlingallery.com/artists/brian-maguire

To find out more about Brian's "...

As the Emilee Weaver case faded from the headlines, Clara S. Lewis uncovered truths every woman—and every partner—should know. Muskingum University student Emile Weaver gave birth in the bathroom at her sorority house at the Ohio school. She was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life without parole after her baby was found dead. Did we get it wrong? Clara S. Lewis, a Dartmouth College professor who wrote the ...

Lane Igoodin, a writer, activist and professor, joins me to discuss the challenges of adopting his children from foster care, the challenges of navigating intersectionality in this world, the balancing act between the rights of parents and what's best for children and love under pressure as you fight to keep your family together.

Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website a...

Kristin Louise Duncombe grew up traveling the world as the daughter of a U.S. State Department foreign service officer. But Kristin’s childhood and those of at least six other girls were shattered when they crossed paths with an American diplomat in Africa who sexually abused them. After one of the girls came forward with her story, the State Department swiftly sent him back to Washington, but officials declined to refer t...

After Dawn Michelle Holt went missing in Waldorf, Maryland in 1996, it took two decades before clues began to emerge about what might have happened to her on the night where she disappeared on the way to seeing her son and daughter. In Part 2, Dawn's daughter, Samm, and her sister, Sherri Shelton, join me again, along with Raul Montero, an advocate who has helped the family collaborate with law enforcement and get attentio...

In April 1996, Dawn Michelle Holt returned to Southern Maryland after spending a few weeks with her sister in Florida. She called her husband from a hotel in Waldorf, Maryland, to let her husband know that she was coming to see her 2-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She has not been seen since. The nearly 3-decade investigation has offered many sorted clues, but one question remains: What happened to Dawn Holt? I am j...

Claire St. Amant rose to the top of the true crime journalism world as a producer for 48 Hours, contributor to 60 Minutes, covering some of the biggest cases and bringing to life the story of Samuel Little, America's perhaps least known and most prolific serial killer. Claire's work trying to break through the typical true crime model, however, left her jaded and she joins me to discuss this, her crusade for change and her...

When Dione Thomas died in a Gallup, New Mexico hotel room, it was ruled a homicide. Deep into the investigation, the family discovered it had been reclassified as an undetermined death. Similar to the family of Ellen Greenberg in Pennsylvania, her family is pushing for an independent forensic pathologist to review the case and for the death to be once again classified as a homicide. But, unlike the Greenberg case, the fami...

In many ways, the death of Dione Thomas is the Indigenous Ellen Greenberg case. Christine Means and Karen Watson have spent years questioning the circumstances surrounding their sister Dione's death. At first, the police in Gallup, New Mexico, said it was a murder and they had a suspect. Years later, the family found out that the medical examiner classified what appeared to be a brutal beating as "undetermined." Karen and ...

I continue the second and final part of my interview with journalist Billy Jensen. Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad was one of the top true crime podcasts before it was rocked by a scandal. In this episode, we dive into the scandal but also talk about crime, victims, addiction and recovery, the struggles of journalism and our concerns about men's mental health.

Investigative journalist Billy Jensen and investigator Paul...

I want to share some listener updates for the summer - living my life, some work we are doing related to some cases and just some cool things I love about and will be doing with our listeners.

Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

https://silverliningshandbook.com/

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https://www.patreon.com/thesilverliningshandbook

Join our F...

Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad was one of the top true crime podcasts. Investigative journalist Billy Jensen and investigator Paul Holes, both known for work related to the Golden State Killer case, co-hosted the podcast that topped the charts since 2019. At the 2022 CrimeCon convention for true crime enthusiasts in Las Vegas, Jensen was a headline speaker on a panel on the Long Island Serial Killer case, held a book...

I continue my conversation with tribal Judge Victorio Shaw. Humbolt County, on the northern California coast, is known as the place where the name Bigfoot originated and is the home of Murder Mountain, which took its name from serial killers who fled here. The 2018 documentary by the same name explores how Humbolt is the county in the United States with the highest rate of missing persons. But it does not touch on how many...