Showing results by narrator "Staci Snell" in All Categories

As a 12-year-old girl, Maria Housden's vision of a happy future included everything that society expects girls to yearn for: a home, a husband, and, of course, children. Life had other plans.

Picking up where Part One of "The Innocent Man" left off, Pamela Colloff dives into what Michael Morton went through in the 25 years he was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his wife. Lawyers convinced of Michael's innocence sought appeal after appeal and were blocked repeatedly by a court system reluctant to admit their errors. Michael meanwhile dealt with the torments of prison, matched only by the torment of slowly losing hope of ever reconciling with his son.

Lara Callahan has come to the small town of Pinewood to start over and to hide. Devon Shane has come looking for answers. When the wary woman and mysterious man take roles in a community theater production, they risk far more than the judgment of an audience. They risk their very lives.

What does it really mean to be a good father? What did your father tell you that has stayed with you throughout your life? Was there a lesson from him, a story, or a moment that helped to make you who you are? Is there a special memory that makes you smile when you least expect it?

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles highlighting Texas business and culture are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw" by Michael Hall, "Dreaming of Her" by Pamela Colloff, "He Ain't Going Nowhere" by John Spong, "A Home of Last Resort" by Sonia Smith, and "The Shelf Life of John Mackey" by Tom Foster.

One Friday night, Emma, Anna, and Mariah, three best friends, are out doing something they shouldn't. Then a cell phone rings. One girl's mother wants to know why they aren't where they said they'd be. They make up a story so they won't get into trouble at home. It seems like the easy way out. What happens next challenges their friendship, their community, their relationship with their families, and their sense of themselves. What happens next shows the harm one lie can do.

In 1986, in northwest Austin, Texas, Michael Morton came home from work to discover that his wife had been brutally murdered in their bed, with their son in the next room. In less than six months, he would be convicted of murdering her and sentenced to life in prison. In this detailed investigative piece of true crime journalism, Pamela Coloff picks apart how an innocent man was charged on insubstantial physical evidence and immature scientific evidence. In exploring Morton's story, Colloff examines the full cast of characters that made up the case.

They say that each of us becomes an entirely new person every seven years. But Rebecca Bradshaw doesn't feel any different when an old lover shows up severely injured at the hospital where she runs the physical-therapy department. Seven years ago, baseball player Jace Cooper left her without a second thought or the chance to share the life-changing secret she swore she'd keep from him forever. Now he was back, wanting both her help and a second chance.

After her husband’s unexpected death at the age of 36, Gina Melrose becomes a “live-aboard” on his boat, docked at a marina in coastal South Carolina, near the home she and Ben once shared. In this temporary, borrowed existence on the water, she settles into numb survival. But Gina finds her life taking yet another dramatic turn late one night when a woman named Reese disrupts her quiet world.

As thousands of runners line up for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., no one suspects that in a matter of hours the event will become a race between life and death. CIA analyst Caroline Carmichael is about to tender her resignation, when the first reports of a terrorist attack pour in, and she instantly recognizes the hand of an enemy she's battled for years: the 30 April Organization.

On March 31, 1995, South Texas came to a standstill as the shocking news spread that the hugely popular Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla Perez had been shot and killed in Corpus Christi. She was a girl from the barrio whose voice won her a Grammy, sold millions of albums, and turned her into a sensation unlike any other. When she was murdered, Selena seemed to take with her the aspirations of fans across the globe. Fifteen years later, in this exclusive oral history, her family, bandmates, and friends recall the life and devastating death of a star who still mesmerizes us all.

Joy Silverman and her boyfriend, Gabriel Winslow, seem perfect for each other. Living together in New York City, they have everything they want and everything in common; most importantly, neither one wants to get married. Ever.