All Episodes - Dark Winter Nights: True Stories from Alaska
True stories from Alaska told by the Alaskans who experienced them.
View Podcast Details43 Episodes
Exceeding Expectations
Dave Frey gets trapped in the wilderness with four boys from the Fairbanks Youth Facility medium security jail and David Bowen sees something in a reclusive student that no other teachers have seen.
Frontier Justice
Peggy Sullivan performs an exorcism so she can go to lunch and defense attorney Bill Satterberg ends up on the defense himself.
(Repeat) Origin Story
Ryan Peterson takes a DNA test to see if he’s predisposed to any health issues and ends up finding his birth family.
Live from Nome!
Burr Lemare, Patty Burchell, and Ken Hughes all share amazing stories from Nome, Alaska!
Pay Your Taxes if you Want to Live!
Jenny Brown gets a valuable lesson in wilderness survival and Dan Flodin learns where his tax dollars went.
Man-Made Disasters
Pat Levy tries to prevent the worst man-made disaster in Alaska and Chris Zwolinski almost starts one.
The Ghost in the Garage
Art Warbelow thinks he’s got a ghost in his garage, but his sister Cyndie knows better.
Awkward Encounters
Randi Carnahan discovers to her horror that she doesn’t know that much about beavers and Bruce Miller zips up more than he bargained for.
Car Trouble
Kaiti Ott turns her car into a fishbowl and Ashley Carrick breaks the cardinal rule of Alaska: Don’t Drive Naked.
America's Farthest North Little Free Libraries
Correspondent Ryan Peterson explores the little free libraries of Fairbanks and interviews their creators.
Ladder Dude!
David Rockney witnesses how a ladder truck can make a bad situation much worse and Jenn Jenkins’ friends think a ladder is going to literally eat her leg.
Squirrel, Squirrel, Bigfoot
Harper O’Brien’s grandfather gets scared by a squirrel in bear’s clothing, host Rob Prince discovers squirrels have an appetite for mushrooms and breaking and entering, and Glenner Anderson finds out why the Finding Bigfoot Reality TV show never finds Bigfoot.
Happy Mother’s Day 2023
Putt Clark’s mom makes her family to the most disgusting archaeological dig in history and Ryan Peterson tells the story of the Mother’s Day gift that refuses to quit giving.
Lessons Learned
Richard Dickman and his brother teach themselves how to fly WHILE FLYING, and Ryan learns how background checks work in Alaska.
Don’t Let Go
Jessica Thomas barely survives when her pickup truck goes through the ice, but it turns out to be just the start of her problems.
Silver Linings
Atileo Frizzera accidentally becomes the poster boy for chainsaw chaps and Karl Monetti takes advantage of a plane crash to recruit a rugby player.
Awkward Situations
Lorien Nettleton gets auctioned off in the Talkeetna Bachelor Auction Matthew Sturm decides the best way to make it through a tricky kayaking situation is to get naked.
Close Encounters of the Fuzzy Kind
Ray Smith runs with a pack of wolves and Jan Hanscomb finds it hard to rid her house of an uninvited bear.
The Power of Ice
Sean McGee tells the story of a police bust gone awry thanks to ice and Dick Griffith literally freezes his butt off.
The Blowhole
There’s a mysterious evil force that lives in Alaska and it’s called “The Blowhole.” Anyone who has ever seen it has learned why they always say, “Don’t stop in the blowhole.”
The Power of Nature
Josh Weiser tells the story of the most incredible experience he ever had as a tour bus driver in Denali National Park.
Lost & Found
Dawn Erbeck shares a story about the hazards of bringing jewelry into the wilderness and host Rob Prince shares his personal experience with a life threatening case of lost and found.
Moms Improv
Sarah Sullivan discovers as a little girl that her mother’s threat assessment radar isn’t as tuned in as she thought it was and Taryn Hughes delivers her own baby in her truck on the way to the hospital on a frigid Fairbanks night.
Alaskan "Can Do!" Spirit
Champion dogmusher Brent Sass shares the hilarious story of his first attempt at caribou hunting and Bill Schnabel tells the story of how not to raise pigs for bacon.
Kindness of Strangers
Matt Irinaga is saved by a mysterious stranger emerging from the ice fog and Phoebe Rohrbacher meets the nicest man in Alaska in the un-nicest of ways.
Hitchhikers
Deb Horner picks up a furry hitchhiker who refuses to leave her truck, Kat Betters picks up a dead hitchhiker who miraculously comes back to life, and host Rob Prince tells the bizarre story of the time he picked up a hitchhiker in his 1982 DeLorean sports car.
Don’t Look Back
Jabin Collins experiences a life-altering car accident that threatens his dream of playing high school football, but not all things that are “life-altering” alter life in a bad way.
Up a Creek Without a Canoe
A woman goes on a remote canoeing trip with a guy friend and gets stranded when they wrap their canoe around a huge rock.
Walk for your Life
Two men survive a fiery plane crash only to have to walk miles through snowy woods and a kid nearly surrenders to hypothermia.
Alaskan Practical Jokes
Alaskans prank each other with very mixed results.
Bad Day at Work
The cast of an Alaskan play decide the show doesn’t necessarily have to go on and a guy’s hat saves his life while on the job.
Run for Your Life!
Alaskans escape their problems in the most fundamental way you can–running like hell.
Alaskan Rescues
Alaskans manage to rescue each other from certain death in miraculous ways.
My Alaskan Mother
Alaskan mothers give their daughters a real run for their money.
Alaskan MacGuyvers
Alaskans try to solve their problems in MacGuyver ways but don’t get MacGuyver results.
Bear Cub
What Alaskan animal should you fear the most? A bear cub, because they don’t travel alone…
Abdicating the Throne
A woman moves to Alaska and finds the freedom to explore her understanding of the world, leading to huge and terrifying ideological shifts.
Soaked Science
Knute Keilland takes a prominent visiting scientist for an impromptu swim and Cody Dean steps out of his tent for a pee and makes a horrifying discovery.
Scientists On Ice!
Geoff Carrol fights off a polar bear with the wrong end of a shotgun and Mike Ruckhaus falls asleep behind the wheel of a Nodwell tracked vehicle while traversing frozen arctic tundra.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Host Rob Prince meets his neighbor for the first time–three years after he passed away…
Starving Around Denali Expedition
Mike Speaks receives life-saving beers from the heavens on a poorly-executed winter hike around Denali.
Christmas in Seward
Sam Cosnotti arrives alone in Seward shortly before Christmas and is welcomed by a co-worker to a rather unconventional Christmas Day dinner.
Dog Sense
Betsey Jacobs nearly loses her new service-puppy-in-training in a frozen river and Seth Robinson and his wife are worried about getting caught in an avalanche, so they consult with their dog. NO DOGS DIE IN THIS EPISODE so don’t worry.