The Silver Linings Handbook
Life has many layers. Whether it's true crime, the media spotlight, mental health, religion or any other part of a person’s journey, there are so many deeper truths underneath the surface. To truly understand them, you need to peel back those layers to find the depth, beauty, joy, suffering and struggles that become the silver linings. Join Jayson Blair each week for interesting conversations with interesting people from all walks of life. Artwork by Hannah Hill. https://www.instagram.com/serious_moonlite/?hl=en Production by Alyssa Miller. https://www.instagram.com/alyssarenee.co/?hl=en
Episodes
In Part 2 of my conversation with former federal prosecutor Tad DiBiase, we dig into how investigators distinguish a missing‑persons case from a homicide, why the absence of evidence can be the most powerful clue, and how prosecutors build no‑body murder cases.
We talk through successful prosecutions — including Lloyd Lee Welch in the Lyon sisters case and Sante and Kenneth Kimes in the murder of Irene Silverman — as wel...
Tad DiBiase, a former federal homicide prosecutor, joins me to discuss his path to specializing in no-body homicide cases, how investigators recognize when a missing person may actually have been murdered, and the core challenges of proving these cases. We explore historical and modern no-body homicides, along with ongoing cases that remain unresolved.
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
Check out the Silver Linings Hand...
Sadie Johnson spent three decades as a writer and editor in newspapers, magazines, and marketing. Storytelling comes naturally to her, and it’s the narrative of her family - and how it shaped who she became and refused to become - that she’s turning toward now and joined me to discuss.
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:
https://silverliningshandbook.com/
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Retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley, the host of The Consult, joins me to conclude our conversation on the disappearance of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, a 20-year-old woman who disappeared in the mountains of the Blackfeet Reservation in June 2017. Our two-part discussion followed a four-part series where I joined Julia and her colleagues on The Consult to discuss Ashley's case.
To listen to the episodes of the series where I join The C...
After a four-part series on The Consult podcast, the host, Julia Cowley, a retired FBI profiler, joins me to revisit the case of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, a 20-year-old woman who disappeared in the mountains of the Blackfeet Reservation in June 2017. We continue to explore Ashley's case and the use of profiling in missing persons cases.
To listen to the episodes of the series where I join The Consult to discuss Ashley's case:
Why is change so hard? Victoria Grady, an organizational psychologist and expert in adult attachment theory, joins me to discuss the space in between, where you are letting go of one thing and grasping for something new. When my mother died, the Paddington bear she gave me as a child gave me a clue about why and what we can do to make it a little easier for ourselves and others.
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
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Former Los Angeles Police Department Internal Affairs investigator Marlon Marrache and I continue our discussion on the role of those who police the police and the impact on officers on the street and communities on how it's done. In Part 2, we explore the 1991 Rodney King beating and its aftermath, the event labeled as the LADP Rampart-CRASH Scandal, the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force Scandal and more.
Marlon Marrache, a 24-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran who spent half that time investigating police misconduct, joins me to discuss how internal affairs is the first line of defense between a police department and its community. We touch on the 1991 Rodney King beating, the O.J. Simpson trial, the impact of the Watts Uprising, what became known as the Rampart scandal and more.
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail....
Julie Barth is a mother, writer, trauma survivor and founder of a nonprofit that supports women-led households in crisis. She talks about raising a daughter with a rare genetic condition, losing her husband to cancer and finding her way out of an abusive relationship that followed. The conversation digs into how trauma shapes us, the unseen load so many women carry and the work of letting yourself be vulnerable in a world that keep...
Emily Dufton joins me to talk about how the death of her high school friend after 15 years of escalating opioid use led her on a journey to uncover the origins of the American opioid crisis and our failure to treat patients. She traces those roots back to the well‑intentioned but misguided efforts of the Nixon Administration in the 1970s, the punitive turn of the Reagan‑era War on Drugs, and the policies that followed. Emily also c...
Geographic Profiler Doug MacGregor returns to conclude our conversation about the art and science of geographic profiling — and the blend of criminology, behavioral science, mapping technology and temporal data he uses to help prioritize suspects in criminal investigations.
To find out more about Doug's work:
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
Check out the Silver Linings Handbook websi...
I talk with Doug MacGregor about his background as a geographic profiler and the blend of criminology, behavioral science, mapping technology and temporal data he uses to help prioritize suspects in criminal investigations.
To find out more about Doug's work:
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:
https://silverliningshandbook.com/
Check out our Pat...
Bill Thomas and I conclude our conversation on the latest developments in the Colonial Parkways Murders. Bill walks us through the patterns, dead ends and new leads.
Listen to part 1 of this series here.
Listen to part 2 of this series here.
Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com
Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:
https://silverliningshandbook.com/
Check out our Patreon to support the show at:
In this episode, Bill Thomas, the brother of Colonial Parkway murder victim Cathy Thomas, and I continue our discussion on the cases. We revisit how Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. became a major but mishandled suspect after the 1988 disappearance of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey, whose abandoned car coincided with reports of a man in a distinctive, waterman‑rigged pickup confronting couples while posing as law enforcement. His work on the ...
In this episode, Bill Thomas, the brother of Colonial Parkways murder victim Cathy Thomas, and I examine the series of homicides that occurred in Virginia between 1986 and 1989. The case began in 1986, when Bill’s sister, Cathy, and her girlfriend were found dead in Cathy’s Honda Civic just off the Colonial Parkway. For more than three decades, the murders remained unsolved.
That shifted in 2024, when a Northern Neck wat...
Ellie Taylor was a young mother when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Ellie, the host of the Version of Events podcast, joins me to discuss the physical and emotional toll of treatment and the meaning and the mechanics of suffering. Ellie and I shared a profound friendship with the late Jessica Olive Cash, and we discuss how pain strips us down to our truest selves and how it opens the door, as it did with Jessica ...
For most people, “SVU” is a television franchise. For Roger Canaff, it was real life. The former Special Victims prosecutor for the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, the Alexandria, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the New York Attorney General and the military takes us inside the world of handling cases involving sexual assault, child abuse, and other crimes against the most vulnerabl...
In the second half of our conversation, Stacia Schnoor walks us through the courtroom battle that followed Sabrina’s death — the evidence, the testimony and the moments that forced her to relive the worst day of her life. She speaks candidly about the weight of the trial, the community’s response, and the complicated mix of relief and heartbreak that comes with a verdict. This episode captures the inadequacy of wh...
The day of Monday, May 29, 2023, seemed to be filled with apprehension and anticipation for Sabrina Schnoor. After talking to friends who warned her against it, she decided to meet with her ex-boyfriend one last time before he headed off to prison. A day later, she was found dead on railroad tracks underneath a highway bridge in Owatonna, Minnesota. Sabrina's mother, Stacia, who joins us on this episode, shares the story of who she...
What happens when the person you trust most is the one quietly rewriting your reality? Toronto real estate broker Heather Rovet joins me to expose the romance scam that shattered her world—an emotional maze of manipulation, false promises and meticulously crafted lies.
By the time the truth surfaced, Heather learned she wasn’t his only target. This man had deceived successful women across Canada. And the most devastating...
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