Chasing Earhart

“I don’t think there is any closure. I think every generation if going to investigate her again.”There are names in the Amelia Earhart story that echo. Explorers. Historians. Theorists. Voices that rise, fall, and fade as the decades pass.And then… there are the ones that don’t. The ones that stay. The ones that shape the conversation. The ones that—whether you agree with them or not—you have to reckon with.My guest tonight……. is one of those names.She didn’t just step into the Earhart case. She dug in.Through archives, through personal correspondence, through the kind of painstaking research that most people wouldn’t have the patience—or frankly—the stomach to see through.The book she released in 1993, didn’t just tell Amelia Earhart’s story…It reframed it. It stripped away the myth.The headlines. The almost cartoon-like legend that’s been built up over nearly a century……and replaced it with something far more complicated. Far more human. And for a lot of people? Far more uncomfortable. Because she  doesn’t deal in easy answers. She doesn’t deal in tidy narratives. And she’s never been afraid to challenge the status quo—even when it means pushing back against the loudest voices in the room… or the most popular theories in the field. Including some that you—and I—know very well. And that’s what makes this conversation… different. Because today isn’t just about revisiting Amelia Earhart.It’s about interrogating the story. It’s about asking what we think we know… and whether it actually holds up under pressure. It’s about legacy. Memory. Myth-making.And the fine line between history… and storytelling. So whether you’ve read her work cover to cover…Or whether you’ve disagreed with her for years…There’s one thing that’s undeniable: When she speaks on Amelia Earhart—People listen. And tonight…We’re going there.The Final Boss Has Arrived. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Lake Whales, Florida this…is Susan Butler.LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: East to the Dawn at Amazon Susan's Blog

There’s something strange that happens when a person disappears. First, there are facts. Timelines, coordinates and in this case, fuel calculations. But as years past, facts begin to loosen and memory steps in. Speculation fills the gaps. And slowly — almost invisibly — a life turns into a legend.Amelia Earhart didn’t just vanish in 1937. She multiplied. She became a castaway,a spy, a prisoner, a martyr, a survivor living under an assumed name. A symbol pulled in every direction history could stretch her. And somewhere inside all of that, there was still a real woman. A pilot, a daughter a partner. A public figure navigating a world that both celebrated and constrained her.Tonight, I’m joined by someone who’s spent years examining not just what happened to Amelia Earhart…But what happened to her story. Her new book, does something bold. It doesn’t just chase a single ending. It explores the multiple “deaths” Amelia’s  experienced — culturally, narratively, and symbolically.Because in truth…Amelia has been lost more than once. Lost in the Pacific, in wartime rumor, in conspiracy, and sometimes, lost beneath her own myth.In an era where newly released files are reigniting debates - where social media theories can spread faster than peer-reviewed research - where every satellite image becomes potential proof, it feels important — maybe now more than ever — to pause. To ask, "how did we get here?"How did Amelia Earhart become a canvas onto which generations project their anxieties, hopes, and suspicions? And what does it mean to reclaim the woman from the noise?Tonight’s guest doesn’t approach this story with sensationalism. She approaches it with cultural curiosity. With narrative awareness. With a recognition that mystery doesn’t just live in oceans - it lives in memory. In the stories we tell. In the way each era reshapes history to fit its own reflection.Tonight, we’re going to talk about those reflections. We’re going to examine how Amelia’s story has been retold, repackaged, and sometimes misunderstood. We’ll talk about the tension between evidence and imagination. Between scholarship and spectacle. Between closure, and the human need for one.And maybe most importantly, we’ll talk about why this story refuses to settle. Why 88 years later, Amelia Earhart still occupies space in our collective imagination. Why we’re still here - still searching, still asking.Because sometimes the mystery isn’t just about what happened on July 2, 1937. Sometimes the mystery is about us. What we need from her story. What we fear about it. What we hope it says about risk, ambition, and disappearance.This episode isn’t about solving the case. It’s about understanding how the case lives.How it evolves. How it survives. And how, in many ways, Amelia Earhart has had more than one ending.Let’s get Lost. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Washington D.C. by way of National Geographic, This is Rachel Hartigan.LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Rachel's Official Website  Get Lost: Amelia Earhart's Three Mysterious Deaths & One Extraordinary Life @ Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere you get your books. What Really Happened to Amelia Earhart? @ WBUR Amelia Earhart's Life Is Way More Interesting Than Her Mysterious Death @ National Geographic TIGHAR's Official Website Nauticos' Official Website

I think I wanna start tonight by telling you all a quick story. In 1932, Amelia Earhart completed the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman and became only the second person to make the flight period. She did it in NR7952 her beautiful Lockheed Vega.Now, I love all of Earhart’s famous planes and even though it may not be the most famous one, it’s my personal favorite and has been since I was a kid. During our visit to the Smithsonian a few years ago, I remember standing under it while my wife snapped a picture. “Now look at me and smile!” she said - as she snapped a picture that continues to hang in my office to this day. We stood under it together after the picture and just enjoyed being in the same space as something Amelia loved so much. It was real, we could touch it. “Can you believe we made it here?” she asked? I couldn’t. We were never supposed to make it past the first few episodes of the show and now we were standing in Air & Space in Washington D.C. and we’d already shot several guests for the documentary across the country before that point. I looked up, standing under that wing thinking that it was the most beautiful piece of winged machinery I’d ever laid eyes on. For nearly a century, Amelia Earhart’s name has lived in two worlds at once.One is made of headlines and legend…the kind of stuff  that turns a woman into a symbol, then turns that symbol into a battleground. The other world is quieter. Heavier. More honest. It lives in archives. In carefully preserved artifacts. In labels written by steady hands. In collections protected not for what we want to believe—but for what we can actually prove. Because if there’s one thing this case has taught me… it’s that the mystery doesn’t survive on a lack of answers.It survives on noise. On certainty sold too quickly. On the comforting illusion that the truth must be simple… or cinematic… or just one big discovery away.But Amelia wasn’t simple. And the story she left behind isn’t either.Tonight, we’re sitting down with someone who has spent a lifetime living in the space between myth and material… between the public story and the private record. She’s one of the most trusted voices in American aviation history— a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator whose work has helped preserve and interpret the artifacts that define how the world remembers flight. And when it comes to Amelia Earhart specifically, she’s not approaching this from the outside looking in. She’s spent decades stewarding the very things people argue about—general aviation history, flight materiel, aerial cameras… and the story of women in aviation as a living, breathing timeline—not a highlight reel.In other words…when she speaks, the room gets quieter.Because she’s not here to sell us a theory. She’s here to bring us back to the only thing that has ever deserved the steering wheel in this case: the woman and the record.And that matters—because right now, the Amelia Earhart conversation is loud again.New expeditions - new claims - new “finally solved” declarations are running laps around the internet, right now. But before we sprint toward whatever comes next… we need to do something most people skip: We need to slow down. We need to ask what the evidence can actually carry. We need to separate story from story-telling. And we need somebody who knows the difference.She’s devoted more than forty years to collecting and preserving aviation artifacts—not just to keep them safe, but to make sure the stories behind them are told responsibly… in a way that educates and inspires, instead of misleads and inflames.  That kind of work doesn’t make you famous in the way the internet understands fame. It makes you foundational. It makes you the person future historians cite.The person documentaries call when they want to get it right. The person you bring in when the legend gets so big, that the truth struggles to breathe.Oh and, something really cool. You’ve heard me talk about my original 25 - the list I made when I sat down to begin this project so long ago. Not only was she on my original 25 - but she was number 1. How bout that? So…….if you’ve ever wanted to hear what this case sounds like when the noise lowers and the facts step forward— This is your night. And we have one helluva instructor. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Washington, D.C by way of the Smithsonian Air & Space, this is Dorothy Cochrane.LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Dorothy Cochrane @ Smithsonian Air & Space  Amelia Earhart Project Recordings @ Smithsonian Air & Space Opinion: Amelia Earhart and the continuing search for her Lockheed Electra @ CNN Amelia Earhart’s Trailblazing Life in Aviation @ Smithsonian Magazine Amelia Earhart Pioneer of Flight: A Conversation with Dorothy Cochrane & Tom Crouch @ Chasing Earhart Aviation Expert Reexamines Amelia Earhart’s disappearance with Bold Claim @ Fox News

For nearly a century, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart has lived in the space between history and legend — a story told and retold, debated and dissected, yet never fully resolved. But every so often, the mystery shifts. Not because of rumor. Not because of speculation. But because of evidence.Tonight’s conversation centers on the physical remnants left behind — fragments of a story buried in coral, sand, and time. Artifacts recovered from the remote island of Nikumaroro have forced us to ask an uncomfortable question:What if we really have been looking in the right place all along?Tonight we hear an update from a man that’s very much been at the center of the Earhart/Noonan search as of late — an archaeologist whose work has focused on the scientific analysis of this material evidence. His research doesn’t promise answers wrapped in certainty, but it does something far more important: it challenges assumptions, tests long-held beliefs, and brings the conversation back to what the evidence actually shows and why it matters. Just a few months ago, the highly publicized trip out to Nikumaroro was postponed. Now, it’s time to find out why. It’s time to slow the story down,  examine what’s been discovered, how it’s been studied, and why these discoveries continue to reshape one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.This isn’t about closing the case. It’s about following the evidence — wherever it leads.Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Eugene Oregon, this is the return of Dr. Richard Pettigrew. LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: The Taraia Object @ The Archeology Channel  Taraia Object Deciphered @ TIGHAR Boards Expedition to locate Amelia Earhart's plane delayed by permit approval process, weather @ CBS News 1 month out: Countdown to the search for Amelia Earhart’s plane begins @ Purdue.edu Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute to embark on expedition to identify Amelia Earhart’s missing plane @ Purdue Research Foundation

For more than nine decades, Amelia Earhart’s name has been spoken with reverence and wonder—a flight path etched deep into the world’s imagination, and a disappearance that keeps us chasing echoes of her last sunrise over the Pacific.When I first started out on this journey so long ago, I was filled with optimism. Early in the project, I reached out to a woman who wrote one of my favorite Earhart books ever written. I never thought she’d say yes. But I was surprised a lot in those early days. She’s an award-winning historian whose work has helped broaden our understanding of women’s history, power, and the stories we tell about those who defy gravity—literal and figurative. But what happens when we step off the edge of the known and begin to look at the woman behind the myth? Not just the aviator who vanished, but the human being whose choices, context, and legacy ripple through gender, memory, and cultural terrain that often resists simplification?In her writing, tonight’s guest doesn’t just recount events. She situates them in the emotional landscape of their time, inviting us to confront not only what we remember, but why we remember it at all.In December of 2017, she made her Chasing Earhart debut. Nine years later, she’s back to discuss the latest developments in the Amelia Earhart case, for which there are many, and to remind us all what this story has always been about. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Hoptiken, New Hampshire, this, is Susan WareLINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Susan Ware's Official Website Susan Ware @ Wikipedia Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism @ Amazon  Amelia Earhart: Pioneering Feminist @ The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's YouTube Records Relating to Amelia Earhart @ The National Archives

It’s been 86 days since we last released an episode for this show. I thought I could take some time off. You'd think I’d know by now. Back in May of this year, Amelia Rose Earhart made her Chasing Earhart debut as part of this reboot and we covered a lot of ground. What I didn’t know then, but am privy to know now, is that Amelia Rose, had a trick up her sleeve. At the time of our recording, she was being courted by several groups in the case, asking for her assistance in spring-boarding their searches, and the chase for her participation was very, very real. Since that episode, the search for Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan has, let’s just say, taken a turn and we’re now in the middle of a race to the answer for a mystery that is now as white hot as it’s ever been. Amelia Rose has made her decision since that time, and it’s indeed given a boost to a team that’s been conducting one of the longest investigations this case has ever seen. Toward the end of August, it was announced that Amelia would join deep ocean exploration company Nauticos in its forthcoming trip out to the Pacific to pick up the search and bring Amelia Mary Earhart home. For good. But…..theirs isn’t the only search going on at the moment. Perhaps Amelia’s strongest professional connection at the time of her disappearance, Purdue University, has now also thrown their hat into the ring by pledging their support to Dr. Rick Pettigrew, and the Archeology Channels’ investigation in the lagoon of Nikumaroro Island - a locale that anyone listening will be very familiar with. I couldn’t write this if I tried. Oh, and one more thing. In the middle of all of this, our sitting president just called for the United States Government to immediately release the Earhart files. Tonight, I’m joined by two men that are making their Chasing Earhart podcast debuts. One is part of my original 25. And the other is at the center of everything Nauticos is doing for their next trip. We couldn’t ask for a better duo to open up all they can, in their efforts to finally finish this story - perhaps once and for all. Let's get to work. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Jeff Morris and Rod Blocksome of Nauticos. LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Nauticos Official Website  Amelia Rose Earhart's Official Website  Amelia Rose Earhart on Youtube  "Nauticos Reveals Breakthrough Data and Announces New Expedition to Locate Amelia Earhart's Plane" @ PR Wire "Trump orders declassification and release of Amelia Earhart files nearly 90 years after aviator’s disappearance" @ The NY Post Amelia Mary Earhart @ The FBI Vault 

So much of Amelia Earhart’s story lives in the spaces between facts—the hours unaccounted for, the voices never heard again, the enigmatic whispers of survival. Those unanswered questions keep us chasing, keep us listening for what might still be found.Over this rebrand, we’ve traced radio logs, scoured sonar scans off remote atolls, sat with the families who watched the world collectively hold its breath in July of 1937. We’ve pushed beyond accepted timelines, challenged the orthodox accounts. Each step has carried us further from the airport in Oakland and closer to the moment when time itself seemed to slip through her fingers.Today, we shift our focus—not to new sonar anomalies or grid searches—but to the power of storytelling itself, and the women who champion it. We welcome a guest whose entire career has orbited around truth-telling.She’s a journalist, writer, and documentarian - someone who has long been fascinated by how stories shape us—and how we shape them in turn. Her work spans genres, subjects, decades. Whether she’s exploring women's inner lives or investigating hidden histories, her lens is always clear, and always curious.In her new book, she turns her attention to reckoning with the unknown—not in search of wreckage or coordinates, but to dig into the emotional fallout, the cultural aftershocks that reverberate long after an airplane ever disappears. She’s been asking questions like, "How do we grieve someone we never knew?" "How does a myth persist when facts remain elusive?"Over the last season, we’ve heard from explorers, navigators, and forensic experts all alike. We’ve tracked timelines, re‑evaluated eyewitness accounts, and examined cryptic newspaper clippings reeking of both desperation and hope. All the while, we’ve felt the pull of Earhart’s silhouette—her strength, her ambition, her solitude, and the void she left behind.Tonight, we step back. We step into the stories left untold: letters never sent home, journals never written, and the echo of words like ‘we’re running low’ drifting in static. We’ll talk about mortality, myth-making, and memory. About how the flight of one aviatrix became a collective heartbeat for generations. Tonight's guest journey into that runway of remembrance might just teach us more about our own need to chase—to connect, to understand, to grieve.It’s part reflection, part excavation. But we’re not chasing debris this time. We’re chasing meaning.So, whether you’ve been with us since the very first broadcast, or this is your first descent into Earhart’s world, stay with me. Because these are the stories that don’t end in a disappearance. They begin to live anew—in the telling.Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From New York City, this is Laurie Gwen Shapiro. LINKS: Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Laurie's Official Website The Aviator & the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon @ Amazon  Laurie on Instagram  Laurie on Twitter  Laurie on Facebook  'Amelia Earhart’s Complicated Legacy and Horrible Husband' @ The NY TImes ‘The Aviator and the Showman’ Review: A Marriage in the Clouds' @ WSJ

When I say the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan case is a monster, you know I’m telling the truth. In 2017, I began my journey into this case publicly. And if there’s one thing I discovered right away, it’s that this case? The one we’ve been covering for well over a hundred episodes now? It’s full of misinformation. It’s gotten so bad that it becomes overwhelming when you start to look at it. And if you choose to answer the why to that question, you might find that maybe we’re all partially to blame for where this case currently stands. So how do we shift the narrative? Where in the world do we begin to dismantle even one of these theories? As it turns out the answer came a couple of months ago, when one of our listeners Becky Ott, posted a photo in our Facebook discussion group for Vanished. The photo was taken outside the St. Charles Missouri County Library and it was of a sign that read Discover the Past Amelia Earhart: Myth & Memory. The presenter that night is also tonight's guest. I’ve believed in synergy all my life, but I can’t explain how it works. It just does - and it almost always occurs at just the right moment, doesn’t it? Thanks to Becky’s post and her follow up with more information, I was able to connect with a guest that’s making her Chasing Earhart debut right now. And she’s about to pull the linchpin on everything you thought you knew about the Amelia Earhart case. You’re not ready for this, but we’re gonna give it to ya anyway. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. By way of St. Louis Missouri, This is Amy Lutz.LINKS:  Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING: Amelia Earhart Myth & Memory by Amy Lutz @ UMSL.edu Amy Lutz on X Amelia Earhart Lives @ Amazon  The Search for Amelia Earhart @ Amazon Amelia Earhart: Does Photo Show she Died a Japanese Prisoner? @ BBC Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence @ Wikipedia  The Japanese Government’s Offer of Assistance to Help Find Amelia Earhart, July 1937 @ The National Archives  Flight for Freedom @ Wikipedia 'Flight for Freedom,' a Film Speculation on Fate of Woman Flier, With Rosalind Russell in Lead, at the Music Hall @ The NY Times Facts and Fiction in the Search for Amelia Earhart @ Air & Space

We’re 27 episodes into my little experiment with this rebrand now - I never thought we’d still be going. It continues to baffle me. One of the things I really wanted to do when I decided to bring the show back was to make sure I brought new voices into the ongoing conversation that we’ve been having for decades. If you follow the pattern closely though, these last 27 episodes tell a bigger story. And if you’re really keen, you might notice that I like to do my best to manifest guests on this show. My manifesting must have been working overtime, because tonight’s guest has been a long time coming. You might have heard of his blog - It’s called the Ghost of Gardner Island. And there are an awful lot of people that will tell you that the work that’s featured there is nothing short of a master-class in research. Tonight, we run through the details of an investigation that began with little more than a follow up question and ended with a reversal in direction for one of Castaway's marquee artifacts - one thought to have belonged to navigator Fred Noonan. Some might call him a disrupter of sorts - a man whose own work has rattled the cages of one of this case's biggest summations. Others refer to him as one of the brightest Earhart researchers to come along in decades. And I tend to side with those guys. If we’ve done our best to showcase why castaway makes sense for the ultimate explanation of Earhart and Noonan’s demise, consider tonight a rebuttal of sorts and then, you tell me. Say his name, and he shall appear. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From New York City, this is John Kada. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING John's The Ghost of Gardner Island Blog  The 1940's Sextant Box Identified? @ Tom King's Blog Bushnell Sextant Box @ TIGHAR's Official Website Luke Field Inventory @ TIGAHR's Official Website BVARC Dec 2020 Tom NY0V An HF Systems Engineering Approach in the Search for Amelia Earhart’s L10E @ YouTube Richard Blackburn Black, USNR @ USAS1939 Amelia Didn’t Know Radio by Captain Almon A. Gray, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired) @ The U.S. Naval Institute's Official Website

Several years ago, I started hearing about a man making his way through the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan disappearance case. What caught my attention wasn’t just his research—it was the way his name kept coming up.From the moment I became involved in this story, I’ve been drawn to the lesser-known nuances that make up the towering mystery of Amelia Earhart. As I got to know people in the field, one name surfaced repeatedly. No matter the theory, no matter the angle, everyone seemed to be talking about the same guy. He’s written books, published papers, and contributed to nearly every version of this story—including his appearance on Vanished: Amelia Earhart, where he explored a well-known collection of bones discovered on Nikumaroro. That discovery, made by British colonial officer Gerald Gallagher, remains one of the most hotly debated pieces of evidence in this case. Were those bones the final remains of Amelia and Fred, stranded castaways on a remote Pacific island? Or is the truth something else entirely?When I looked into his work, I immediately understood why he was so widely respected. He doesn’t care about being right. He thinks bigger. His neutrality has allowed him to move freely across this story, collaborating with some of the most prominent figures in the investigation—people who sit in opposing camps, defending starkly different theories.How does someone do that? How do you keep an open mind in a case that seems determined to pull you down an endless rabbit hole? Tonight, we find out. It’s time to open your ears and your mind. We’re making stops on Nikumaroro, Orona, and Buka—by way of St. Paul, Minnesota.Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Kenton Spading.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING A Lost Sailor or Amelia Earhart? Lost Norwich City Crewmen: Potential Sources of the Human Remains Discovered on Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro Island) in 1940 @ Academia.edu St. Paul employee part of team searching for Amelia Earhart @ US Army Corps of Engineers Null Hypothesis @ Wikipedia Amelia Earhart's Shoes: Is the Mystery Solved? @ Amazon Vanished: Amelia Earhart "Left for Dead" (Part Two) @ Spotify The Chater Report @ TIGHAR's Official Website 

If you’ve ever heard me guest on other podcasts or in media of any kind, you’ve heard the story of how this podcast all started for me. But just in case you haven’t, here it is. The Chasing Earhart project (which this podcast is a part of) officially launched in 2017. But nine years before that, I started what I often refer to as the pre-research phase - a part of the project that lasted a little bit longer than the time we’ve been public. During that time, I made a list of 25 original guests that I felt I needed to convince to come on board and help me tell the most robust version of this story that, at that time, I felt I could. When we decided to go public, I began sending out emails, making cold calls and trying to pull strings as a nobody with no experience and no recognizability in relation to the case. I contacted everyone on my list with basically the same request. Come on my show, talk to me about your research and give me an opportunity to give you a platform that I felt would end up being unique once we gained some traction. Of all the people I reached out to, perhaps one man stood out more than most when it came to his approach and his notoriety in the case. He’s a decorated archaeologist with one of the most impressive resumes that I’ve ever seen. And we had a connection through the University of California Riverside, from which he earned his PhD in anthropology in 1976. In his teens, he organized the Society for California Archaeology and he’s the former senior Archaeologist for the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, better known to this audience by its famous acronym TIGHAR. He’s authored countless papers, written a pair of books - both fiction and non fiction and is perhaps the most well versed authority on the island of Nikumaroro. He was also the very first guest I ever featured on this podcast, over seven years ago. When I reached out to him initially, I remember telling my wife that we’d likely never hear back. After all, what business did someone like me have, in having a conversation with a man of his stature for a case I was so fascinated by? To my surprise, he said yes and we went on to have what is still the most listened to episode of this entire podcast. Since then, he’s gone on to guest on the show a couple more times, and he was also the first guest I asked to appear on our Chasing Earhart Discussion panel in Atchison, Kansas in 2018. When I came calling again for Vanished, he was in, and he gave some of the most important testimony that, that series has ever seen. I owe a lot to him. And tonight, after six years away from the show, he’s returned to catch up with me in what I’m referring to as a career retrospective when it comes to his involvement in the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan disappearance case. I didn’t know it when I started this rebrand 25 episodes ago, but coming full circle has become a dominating theme throughout. Tonight, in perhaps one of the most special conversations I’ve had on this show, I welcome him back into the fold to discuss his thoughts on castaway, and gain some surprising insight into his feelings on the case to be made for Nikumaroro. He’s one of the most highly respected people in his industry and his name will forever be synonymous with Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. Listen to the following conversation closely - you’re all about to learn something valuable. And I hope you take it to heart. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Silver Spring, Maryland, this is Dr. Tom King. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Dr. Tom King's CRM Plug Blog "The Continuing Search for Amelia Earhart: An Interview with Tom King" @ The Archaeology Channel Dr. Thomas King Lecture on Amelia Earhart Recorded November 11, 2009 @ Texas State University Amelia Earhart Unrescued @ Amazon  Amelia Earhart's Shoes: Is the Mystery Solved? @ Amazon Thirteen Bones @ Amazon Amelia Earhart on Nikumaroro: A Summary of the Evidence @ Academia.org Chasing Earhart: The Discussion Panel @ Chasing Earhart on YouTube Castaway: A Conversation with Dr. Tom King @ Chasing Earhart Niku IX Recap: A Conversation with Dr. Tom King & Andrew McKenna @ Chasing Earhart Amelia Earhart Unrescued: A Conversation with Dr. Tom King @ Chasing Earhart

In 2021, I had a conversation with brothers Mike and Robert Ashmore regarding a highly curious satellite image they’d discovered in a lagoon on an island that’s gotten a lot of play in this Earhart investigation over the years. It’s been some time since that interview and the wheels of this case turn slowly……but they do turn. Tonight, in a follow up to that episode, I welcome a man that has been on my radar for years, and over those years, we’ve talked off and on about him being a project guest but we wanted to wait until just the right moment for him to make his debut. Fortunately, now is that moment, and we owe it to that conversation with the Ashmore brothers from over 3 years ago. That satellite image they stumbled across? Now has a name and a true blue expedition out to Nikumaroro to investigate it. It’s called the Taraia object. He’s been named dropped for years by multiple guests. Tonight, one of the most decorated archeologists we've ever had on the show makes his Chasing Earhart debut to discuss a brand new expedition out to a very familiar place with an entirely new goal. This case has a way of bringing things full circle, and boy are we completing one of those tonight. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Eugene Oregon by way of the Archeology Channel, this is Dr. Richard Pettigrew. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING The Taraia Object: Amelia Earhart’s Aircraft? Official Expedition Website The Archaeology Channel's Official Website "New Expedition Hopes to Find Amelia Earhart's Plane" @ Inside Edition on YouTube "Oregon archaeologist to embark on expedition to find Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane" @ The NY Post Heritage Broadcasting's Official Website "The Last Flight: Local Organization Searching for Amelia Earhart" @ KLCC "The Continuing Search for Amelia Earhart: An Interview with Tom King" @ The Archaeology Channel "The Road to Amelia: A Conversation with Mike & Robert Ashmore" @ Chasing Earhart RECON Offshore's Official Website Aerial Tour of Nikumaroro @ TIGHAR's YouTube Channel Lost & Found - 1938 Nikumaroro New Zealand Images @ TIGHAR's Official Website

If you’ve ever attended the annual Amelia Earhart festival in Atchison Kansas, then you're familiar with an event that’s been a staple of that weekend every year since its inception. It’s called Breakfast with the Books. An event that brings Amelia Earhart authors to the town where the legend began to present their stories and discuss AE’s enduring legacy. A couple of years ago, while I was holding my event for Rabbit Hole, my next guest was there as a featured author for Breakfast with the Books in presentation of a story that we’ll be discussing tonight. She’s crafted one of the most clever ideas for a work of fiction that I’ve ever read and if you’re an Amelia Earhart fan, you’ll be absolutely thrilled at the way it’s presented and the attention she’s paid to all the little details that have helped make Earhart’s legend grow for almost 90 years. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like for Amelia Earhart to meet Nancy Drew or Clue, get ready, because this is a mystery within a mystery, and it’s set in one of the most iconic Earhart landmarks in the entire world. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Kristin Gray and The Amelia Six.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Kristin Gray's Official Website The Amelia Six @ Amazon The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum's Official Website  Discover Amelia Earhart's Goggles @ Google Arts & Culture Kristin on Facebook Kristin on X Kristin on Instagram Kristin on Goodreads 

In August of 2017, I helped introduce the world to a man that had been quietly working on an idea that could blow the wheels off the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan story. He’d recently put out a book via the Paragon Agency called Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End. I happened to know the publisher of that book, Doug Westfall, who I’d met just a few months earlier and it was at that meeting that I first learned of tonight’s guest.Once I got his number, I gave him a call, and then I read that book. There aren’t too many moments in this whole thing that I can remember my exact thoughts at an exact point in time. But this one? I know because I wrote it down. A singular question. And here it is. “Why doesn’t everybody know about this?!”At the end of tonight, you’ll know two things. One - we have an aircraft off the coast of Buka, sitting a little over 100 feet down with a remarkable set of similarities to the holy grail of aviation. That’s a fact. And it’s inescapable now. And two - we’re gonna go get it. And in doing so, we’re going to mount the most incredible cross theory expedition this case has ever seen. They do say it takes a village.You’ve heard from everyone around him, some of the key names involved in Buka III, and you’ve even heard from some detractors who’ve certainly shared their skepticism on what’s become a very curious wreck site in an area of the world that nobody had ever looked in, until he started looking over 15 years ago.We have a plane to catch.Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Salisbury, Maryland, this is Bill Snavely.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Project Blue Angel's Official Website (Updating Soon!) Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End @ Specialbooks.com Lost in Flight: Amelia Earhart Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane @ Specialbooks.com Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End @ Chasing Earhart Buka III: Bill Snavely, Chris Williamson & the Dependable Engines Association @ Chasing Earhart The BEA Official Website

Nearly a year ago, the Amelia Earhart story was rocked by a mysterious and compelling sonar image produced by ocean exploration company Deep Sea Vision. The suspiciously plane-shaped image taken in an area out in the Pacific near Howland Island, rattled the case to its core, and forced a full investigative stop while the world anxiously awaited a confirmation. As history was potentially unfolding, I welcomed Deep Sea Vision’s CEO, Tony Romeo to the podcast in his Chasing Earhart debut - and we discussed the possibility of his find being the beginning of the end for the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan disappearance case. Well, you know how that goes. Tonight, 10 months after that episode was recorded, Tony returns to look back in retrospect on that conversation, and discuss the most recent developments in the deep ocean search for the holy grail of aviation. You know, people say this case is cursed. You think there’s something to that? Just when you think the investigation may be over, it throws us yet another curve ball and puts us all right back where we were before.The plot thickens, indeed. Let’s get to work. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. Fresh back from deep in the Pacific Ocean, this is Tony Romeo.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Is This Amelia Earhart’s Long-Lost Plane? @ The Wall Street Journal Deep Sea Vison's Official Website Ocean exploration company's possible proof of Amelia Earhart's wrecked plane nearly vanished: report @ Fox News Researchers Thought They Found Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane. It Turned Out to Be a Plane-Shaped Pile of Rocks @ Smithsonian Magazine The Beginning of the End: A Conversation with Tony Romeo @ Chasing Earhart

We’ve all been on a pretty incredible run lately. This little rebrand idea for the show I had about a year ago, was only supposed to be a couple of new episodes. Never in a million years did I think we’d still be going with more debuts, returning guests and new revelations. The last year has been one of the most tumultuous years in the history of this  Earhart game and I’ve learned that in this story, the twists and turns are never over.There are very few people whom I consider to be giants in this case. And tonight’s guest is certainly no exception. He’s got dual master’s degrees in marine science and ocean engineering with a year of his education coming courtesy of Purdue University, interestingly enough and he’s used those degrees to go on to create perhaps the most impressive resume ocean exploration has ever seen. He worked with Jacque Cousteau on the search for the world famous Calypso, and was the operations manager for Bob Ballard’s historic Titanic discovery. And in 1999, he was also instrumental in the discovery of the Dakar - an Israeli submarine that had been missing without explanation for decades. Incidentally, that was the same year that Dana Timmer led the first deep ocean expedition in an attempt to locate Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan’s lost Electra which at that time, had been missing for 62 years. When they say it can’t be done - when they say it’s impossible, Tom Dettweiler says, “well, we’ll just see about that.” 6 years after his debut on the show, he returns to us now to discuss the status of the white hot deep ocean search for Earhart & Noonan, the state of the case as a whole and to give us all a much needed dose of his legendary eternal optimism. And we could all use some of that right now. Fresh back from the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, this….is Tom Dettweiler.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Tom Dettweiler at the Official Website for the film, DAKAR Tom Dettweiler on LinkedIn Nauticos Official Website

The longer this rebrand goes, the more I continue to be surprised. Years ago, I reached out to a man that was a part of my original 25. He’s perhaps the most well known name in the entire Earhart case. Some people also consider him to be a bit of a polarizing figure. When I reached out, I was a nobody - I had no contacts, no experience except my own handful of years in pre-research and I had no expectations about receiving a response. To my surprise, he reached right back out and we began a dialogue. We’ve had our differences over the years, but to his credit, and my surprise, he’s now returned to the show after a 6 year hiatus to discuss the case for the castaway hypothesis, and his new book that is being discussed as his swan song to the Amelia Earhart story. This is a sentence I thought I’d never utter on this show again. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From TIGHAR HQ in Oxford PA, this is Ric Gillespie.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy @ Amazon Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance @ Amazon TIGHAR's Official Website The Post - Loss Radio Signals @ TIGHAR's Official Website The Radio Logs of the USCG Itasca @ TIGHAR's Official Website Have We Really Found Amelia Earhart's Bones? @ The Guardian Did Amelia Earhart land on Gardner Island? TIGHAR explains hypothesis in-depth | LiveNOW from FOX @ YouTube Finding Amelia with Hard Facts and Sound Science - Ric Gillespie at NEAM @ YouTube Post Loss Radio: A Conversation with Ric Gillespie @ Chasing Earhart

Over 15 years ago now, I sat down to make a list of dream participants for what would become the Chasing Earhart project. I came up with a list of 25 names and on that list was a man who’s been associated with the search for Amelia Earhart since the first deep ocean expedition for her took place in 1999. In fact, he’s the man who led that search almost 25 years ago. In that time, every search that's included the pacific ocean near Howland, has come calling - requesting consultation on their efforts in the potential discovery of the holy grail of aviation. He’s a pilot, navigator, sailor and adventurer. And he’s a giant in the story of the search for two missing aviators, lost to history. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Mission Bay San Diego, this is Dana Timmer.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING This man is asking for $2 million on Kickstarter to Find Amelia Earhart’s Plane @ The Verge An Exploration Team Believes They Found Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane. Here’s Why @ Amelia Earhart's Official Website Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea @ Amazon

In 2014, as this project was in pre-research, the world was fixated on an around the world flight that dominated the media and much of the aviation related conversation that year. Chief among the many reasons why was the pilot - a woman who shares a namesake with the biggest aviation icon to ever fly the skies. On July 11th, 2014 Amelia Rose Earhart completed her world flight without incident and touched down on the same runway in Oakland, Ca where her namesake departed 77 years earlier. In many ways, Amelia Mary Earhart got her second chance and returned home that day. It’s been 10 years since that historic world flight, and tonight an absolute force for aviation enters the conversation with a literal one in a million perspective. A woman that shares so many parallels, you’ll swear you’re hearing from a modern day counterpart for the biggest aviation icon of all time.Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Amelia Rose Earhart. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Amelia Rose's Official Website Learn to Love the Turbulence: “Flight lessons” on Becoming the Pilot in Command of Your Own Journey @ Amazon Signed Copies Here 2024 Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award Revealed @ Atchison Globe Amelia Rose Earhart’s Flight Around the World and Into History @ Observer.com

One of my very favorite parts of the rebrand for this show has been the flood of new voices that we’ve been able to bring into the ongoing conversation regarding the life, legacy and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Over the years, a lot of attention has been paid to AE’s upbringing in Atchison, Kansas - and for good reason. Every year, thousands and thousands of visitors flock to the beautiful Earhart home positioned on the Missouri River that served as home base during Amelia’s early years. If Atchison helped form Amelia, the girl, then 76 Brooks Street in West Medford Massachusetts, helped form Amelia the legend. And that is where tonight’s guest enters the chase.  For over 15 years now, Margie Arnold has been studying the life and legacy of Amelia Earhart with a recent particular interest in the home AE was living in, when her life and aviation history changed forever. Tonight, we shine the spotlight on a period of Amelia’s life that will shape how you’ll see her, in more ways than one. You’re all about to take part in a master class on the legacy of Amelia Earhart in one of the most passionate debuts this show has ever seen. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Margie Arnold.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Amelia Earhart & the Denison House @ The Social Welfare History Project  Amelia Earhart got her flying start in Medford @ ItemLive Amelia Earhart and the mayor of Medford @ Universal Hub Trophy, City of Medford, Amelia Earhart @ Air & Space The Amelia Earhart Murial @ Medford Arts Council Around Quincy, aviator Amelia Earhart was just 'Miss Amelia' @ The State Journal Register 

“It is interesting to note that because of Earhart and Noonan’s particular course, they did cross local midnight on their flight path causing the local date to move forward one day and, for several hours, the pair was alive on July 3rd – one day after they officially disappeared.”Over the last few months of recording this show, I’ve started hearing from dozens of people either by email or by phone that have all been asking me to check out a blog that’s flown under the radar of constant Earhart sites I scour on a regular basis. Old school pilots, navigators, HAM radio operators, people with extensive military and government backgrounds have all emailed, called, and praised her work and her approach. Now tonight, she’s finally arrived. Her name is Liz Smith. Remember that name. Because after tonight, you’ll never forget it. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Liz Smith.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Liz Smith's Date Line Theory Blog Liz Smith @ LinkedIn  Liz Smith @ Nautilus Live Marine Robotics Company Hopes It Has Solved Amelia Earhart Mystery @ AirOnline Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved by Elgen & Marie Long @ Amazon

You know, anytime I get the chance to sit down and record another conversation for this show, I consider it an honor. I try to never forget why I’m doing this. The reasons are very important to me. In all the conversations we’ve had for this show, we’ve only ever had one of Amelia’s family members as a guest - that was back in 2018 when Amy Kleppner - daughter of Muriel Earhart Morrissey and the niece of Amelia Earhart appeared on the show to talk about the incredible lives of both Amelia and her sister Muriel. Tonight, I’m proud to say that another of Amelia’s family has finally arrived. Bram Kleppner is Amelia Earhart’s great nephew and he’s also become the spokesperson for the Earhart family’s position when it comes to everything from Amelia’s legacy to the many disappearance theories that often crop up in the news - most recently, the potential discovery of the world’s most famous missing aircraft by Tony Romeo and Deep Sea Vision. One of the most asked questions I get is for me to speculate on how AE’s family might feel about a given story, idea or piece of information. Well, why hear it from me? I’ve got a better idea. This is Bram Kleppner. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING "Amelia Earhart's relative says new sonar images could be aviator's vanished plane" @ Business Insider Episode 8: Amelia Earhart Part II: The Lady’s Legacy @ Nat Geo

About 2 years ago, my book Rabbit Hole: The Vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan was released, and I could only think of one place to launch it - Atchison Kansas, during the Amelia Earhart festival. It remains as one of my very favorite moments of this entire crazy ride. I knew then, that a deep ocean search was about to take place somewhere off the coast of Howland island - a destination that has now become both ground zero for crash and sink, and this investigation as a whole. While we were there, we met tonight’s guest. Two weeks ago, Deep Sea Vision, and its CEO Tony Romeo produced a sonar image of what appears to be a mysterious object 16,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific - and that image has the entire planet talking. Tonight, in a conversation that will rattle this story to its core, Tony makes his Chasing Earhart debut to discuss crash and sink, the legacy of Amelia Earhart and a piece of evidence that could spell the beginning of the end for this story and stop the chase, forever. The wait is over. The time is now. Welcome back to the Chasing Earhart podcast. This is Tony Romeo. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Is This Amelia Earhart’s Long-Lost Plane? @ The Wall Street Journal Deep Sea Vison's Official Website Ocean exploration company's possible proof of Amelia Earhart's wrecked plane nearly vanished: report @ Fox News

Of all the people I’ve met during my experience running the Chasing Earhart project, there is one person that you may be surprised to know has never been on this show, despite how close we’ve become over the years. We’re about to right that wrong, right now. In 2019, when I reached out to her, she had no iron in this fire, and very little knowledge on just how big this story had become. But she dove head first into it anyway, working alongside me on a project that would become the foundational season for our show, Vanished. Listeners of that show will be very familiar with who’s about to enter the chat. And if you’ve never heard her before, get ready. Because Jennifer Taylor is about to hit you - HARD. Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. This is Jen Taylor.LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Is This Amelia Earhart’s Long-Lost Plane? @ The Wall Street Journal Liz Smith’s Dateline Theory Blog  Tantalizing Theories About the Earhart Disappearance @ History Expedition Amelia @ Disney Plus 

Several years ago, during the first season of Vanished, I met a historian and researcher out of the UK that immediately caught my interest. Tonight, you’ll see why. We’ve got a very kindred  fascination and love for the Earhart story, and some of the behind the scenes work he’s been quietly doing is the exact representation of what historical research should look like. Chris Hare is a digger. And tonight, we’re all about to get a lesson on how a modern day researcher investigates a monster of a case. Here’s a little tease. It begins, like all things with, how you see it. Tonight, we’re across the pond in the UK. And we’re bringing the bombshells. This is Chris Hare. LINKS  Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Letter from P. V. H. Weems to Amelia Earhart Offering Navigational Instruction @ The Smithsonian The Chater Report @ TIGHAR's Website  Kelly Johnson @ Linda Hall Library  Professor Dame Sue Black @ St. John's College Oxford  The Cross/Wright Report: The Nikumaroro bones identification controversy: First-hand examination versus evaluation by proxy — Amelia Earhart found or still missing? The Jantz Report: Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones: A 1941 Analysis versus Modern Quantitative Techniques Earhart and the French Connection @ Mike Campbell's Blog 

Jill Meyers is a public speaker, mentor, aerospace engineer and so much more. You can learn more about her and tonight's conversation at:LINKS & SHOW NOTES Her Official Website Jill Meyers on LinkedIn  Jill Meyers on Instagram  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING 'Katharine Wright Trophy Honors Jill Meyers, Aeronautical Engineer and Pilot' @ Flying Magazine's Official Website 'AeroTime names latest Aviation Achievement Award recipient as Jill Meyers' @ AeroTime's Official Website Project Blue Angel Trailer @ YouTube  Jill's First Appearance on Chasing Earhart from 09/15/18 Jill's Appearance on 'Rooted & Unwavering' from 12/08/23 Vivaldi: The Four Seasons by Nadja Salerno @ Spotify 

For years, I’ve been discussing a dream expedition that would bring some of this case's brightest minds together in a collaboration that could rewrite history forever. Sometimes, when you’re investigating a scene like the one unfolding in Buka, you get lucky enough to pull an ace. And boy have we ever got one for you tonight. Dick Spink is one of my very favorite people in all the Earhart story. He’s a real life Indiana Jones - a now retired high school teacher that has spent his time out of the classroom, running investigative trips all over the Marshall Islands. He’s one of the most connected people in this entire story, the face of History’s Lost Evidence, among many others, and one of the loudest voices in the room when it comes to the Japanese Capture Hypothesis. But what you don’t know is, since they originally met in 2018, Dick Spink and Bill Snavely have been talking. We’ve been name dropping his involvement for months. Now, tonight, he makes it Official. This, is Dick Spink. LINKS  Chasing Earhart on Facebook  Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Vanished Facebook Group  Indies Trader's Official Website  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Amelia Earhart Mystery May Have New Clue In Never-Before-Seen Photo @ YouTube

If you know me, you know how much I adore the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison Kansas. It’s a place that’s special to me for many reasons. Back in 2017, my wife and I brought our production for the Chasing Earhart documentary there, and we were welcomed with open arms. So much so, that we were allowed to shoot over 20 interview segments there over the course of that year’s Amelia Earhart Festival. At the time, the museum was in the shadow of its recently retired director and caretaker Lousie Foudary, for whom tonight’s conversation is lovingly dedicated. Six years later, I have the honor of sitting down with Executive Director for the museum Heather Roesch, who in my opinion, is doing a wonderful job of carrying the legacies of not one woman, but two. Tonight is a conversation 6 years in the making. This is Heather Roesch of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. LINKS The AEBM Official Website  The AEBM on Facebook  The AEBM on TikTok  The AEBM on Instagram  Amelia Earhart Stories Podcast @ Spotify  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING Could Earhart be Interred in her Birthplace’s Cellar? @ Mike Campbell's Blog 

You know what’s really wild? You never know when to stop pursuing something. When it seems hopeless - sometimes, you get a hand from a source you never dreamed possible. The following audio is only possible because of the folks over at Pratt & Whitney’s Dependable Engines Association who were kind enough to invite project guest Bill Snavely to discuss the latest discoveries out at Buka - and a mysterious crash site that’s become the center of the Amelia Earhart Investigation. You’ve been asking me for years. Now, in a very special episode of the show, all that was discovered during Buka 2 is finally revealed. This is myself and Bill Snavely in a conversation with Pratt & Whitney’s Dependable Engines Association.LINKS Pratt & Whitney's Official Website  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING  Lost In Flight: Amelia Earhart, Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane @ Special Books  Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End @ Special Books Rabbit Hole: The Vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan @ Amazon Chasing Earhart: The Discussion Panel @ YouTube  Project Blue Angel Trailer @ YouTube

For over 100 episodes of this show, I’ve sat behind my microphone and asked some of the biggest names in the Earhart world for answers to the questions that have been burning in my mind all my life. Never in a million years did I ever think the show could flip the format and pull off what we’re about to do. Tonight, in a very different approach to our show, my good friends Sean Keatts and Bri Kupfer turn the tables and interview me. I said nothing was off limits. What you’re about to hear is something I never imagined would happen on this show. This is me - uncensored. For the most part. Enjoy. 

About five years ago, we visited Atchison, Kansas to film segments of our documentary during the Amelia Earhart festival. While we were there, we met two women that would become an integral part of Chasing Earhart project, working with us on events and helping us gain a sense of credibility in the Earhart historical record. While they both prefer to be behind the camera, current events have now pushed them out in front of everyone as the faces for Amelia’s legacy in Atchison and in aviation. On the eve of the grand opening for the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Atchison, they finally sit down with me in a conversation that for this show, is over five years in the making. This is Karen Seaberg and Jacque Pregont.LINKS Chasing Earhart on Facebook Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Chasing Earhart on Instagram SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING The Official Website for The Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum AEHM on Facebook AEHM on Instagram  AEHM on Twitter City commission looks ahead to Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum Grand Opening @ Atchison Globe Inside the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Kansas @ Runway Girl  The International Forrest of Friendship Official Website The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum Official Website The Amelia Earhart Festival Official Website  Muriel @ the AEHM Official Website 

One of the reasons I wanted to record these new conversations for the show, is because I’d finally have the chance to speak to some guests that I’d always been a very big fan of. And tonight is certainly no exception. Mike Harris has been investigating the Amelia Earhart case for decades, and his research has laid the foundation for others to further their own. For that reason alone, I’m a big fan and you should be too. After years of doing the show, finally, one of the most celebrated and iconic researchers in the entirety of this case sits down with me to discuss his lifelong desire to prove that Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, were indeed captured by the Japanese. This is Mike Harris. LINKS Chasing Earhart on Facebook Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Chasing Earhart on Instagram SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING  Amelia Earhart: The Lost Star @ Amazon  Amelia Earhart's Final Flight @ Bookshop  Brennan’s “Earhart blindfold”: Real or imaginary? @ Mike Campbell's Blog Witness to the Execution: The Odyssey of Amelia Earhart @ Amazon Rich Martini's YouTube Channel

A couple of years ago, before we ended this show’s original run, I sat down with Guy Noffsinger, Jim Janicki, and Jeff Riegel of the Lost Clipper Team. The story they told me then, and the one that continues tonight, is utterly amazing. It’s a story that the world may not be ready to accept or believe. Was the crew of the lost Clipper really sent to retrieve Amelia Earhart in exchange for a 3 million dollar ransom? Tonight, Guy and Jim return to the show to tell us what they’ve been up to in the years since, and they’ve brought along a couple more members of their team. Two men whose voices you might never expect to hear on an Amelia Earhart podcast. This is Guy Noffsinger, Jim Janicki, Steve Murphy, and Javier Pena.LINKS Chasing Earhart on Facebook Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Chasing Earhart on Instagram  The Lost Clipper Official Website  The Lost Clipper on Facebook The Lost Clipper on Twitter  The Lost Clipper on YouTube  The Lost Clipper on Instagram SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING  The Mystery of the Lost Clipper @ Smithsonian Magazine  The Hawaii Clipper @ Wikipedia  Investigation of Aircraft Accident: PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS: BETWEEN GUAM AND MANILA: 1938-07-29 @ ROSA

Several months ago, we returned to the Amelia Earhart festival in Atchison Kansas to celebrate the release of my first book Rabbit Hole: The Vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan. While I was there, I discovered that Mandy Horvath was also there receiving the Amelia Earhart Pioneer achievement award. We didn’t get to cross paths then; but we have since as part of the rebranding for this show.  Lucky for all of you listening, we were able to record it. Get a box of tissues ready. Because what you’re about to hear, is one of the most powerful stories you’ll ever experience. This…..is Mandy Horvath. Show Notes Chasing Earhart on Facebook Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Chasing Earhart on Instagram  Mandy Horvath on TikTok Mandy Horvath on Facebook  Mandy Horvath on Instagram Mandy Horvath's Official Website (Under Construction)  Mandy Horvath on Wikipedia  If you'd like to donate to Mandy, you can do so via PayPal here.  Large donations should go to Cars4Heroes here. 

Hey folks - I bet you never thought you’d hear this show again. It’s been a while since the podcast ended, but in the last few months, I’ve quietly been working on what I consider to be the next chapter in the evolution of this show. Earlier this year, I began hearing from people that wanted the podcast to continue. At first, I really didn’t feel it. I had walked away and moved onto covering other cases for Vanished alongside my cohost for that show, Jennifer Taylor. But something strange started happening. The itch started to return. At the same time, I started researching new theories in this now 85 year old case…and I soon discovered that if we were going to do this, now would be the perfect time. The podcast has returned in a limited series to once again take up the chase with new theories, new guests and shocking revelations. We’ve also taken the legacy of Amelia Earhart to a whole new level. Tonight, it all begins again. Welcome back to the world’s only dedicated podcast on the life, legacy and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Show Notes Chasing Earhart on Facebook Chasing Earhart on Twitter  Chasing Earhart on Instagram  Amelia Earhart Betrayed by Robert Wheeler & Harold Nicely 

A little over a year ago we stepped away from the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan disappearance case forever; having nothing further to add to a project that spanned almost 15 years at the time. But it turns out, we couldn’t stay away for long. Just like you’ll hear time and time again in this case, we got pulled back in as new developments in multiple theories have come to the surface and are ready to be discussed. Tonight, we’re back in a limited engagement with a first for us at Chasing Earhart as our returning show brings us brothers Mike & Robert Ashmore to discuss an alternate version of one of the cornerstone hypotheses’ in this ever-changing case. We’ve been away for a while now, but now we’re back as promised with new developments and interesting turns.

Our journey is over. We created something that I didn’t know that we could. And we did it together. And now as I look back on everything that we accomplished, I can finally move forward into an exciting future. One of hope. One of faith. And one where the skies are the limit. I think Amelia would appreciate that. So, goodbye Amelia & Fred. Wherever you are...

We’ve reached the final time that we’ll be discussing theory on this podcast. It’s been a long road, but we wanted to wrap with fresh faces, new ideas and a twist on this story that you’ll never see coming. If you’re familiar with this podcast or with Vanished Amelia Earhart, you’ve likely heard of the Hawaii Clipper, but you might know its fate. And no one listening would ever know that its fate is tied in with the woman we’ve been discussing for 79 episodes of our show. Tonight, we go out on a bang on this, the “go home” episode of Chasing Earhart, we’re joined by Guy Noffsinger, Jeff Reigel, and Jim Janicki of Expedition 5 to discuss the Lost Clipper and the search to find its 15-member passengers and crew and why that flight was in fact on a rescue mission to bring back none other than Amelia Earhart.

Within the Congressional Armed Services Committee, the Intelligence Community retains a non-itemized appropriation referred to simply as “the black hole”. For over two decades, part of the funding of that program went toward analyzing whether or not the human mind could be used to gather reliable information. What you are about to hear is the report that the US Intelligence Community would have received had they targeted the Amelia Earhart mystery in the interest of the people of the United States of America.Tonight, with just 3 more episodes of the podcast to go, author and investigator Scott Seeds joins us via Zoom to discuss operation stargate, the world flight mystery and how remote viewing may hold the answer to the greatest mystery of all time.

On this 82nd anniversary of the vanishing of Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, we bring you a special message from Chris Williamson & the Chasing Earhart Project.

"So many young readers are focused today on looking for heroes; looking for people who they can look up to; looking for people they can be inspired by. Amelia is a natural fit for that."Jim Buckley is a prolific author of nonfiction for young readers, with more than 150 books to his credit (and still typing!). He is the author of more than a dozen titles in The New York Times' best-selling "Who Was...?" biography series, including the Wright Brothers, Milton Hershey, Betsy Ross, Jules Verne, and Blackbeard. Buckley has written more than thirty DK Readers on a wide variety of topics, plus two recent long-form bios of Adolf Hitler and Bonnie and Clyde for Aladdin Books. For Spring 2019, he created the first book in a new series for Aladdin—a bio of astronaut Michael Collins. Buckley is the co-author of Time Inc./Liberty Street's "X-Why-Z" series and wrote and produced the Animal Planet Animal Atlas for Liberty Street. A former editor at Sports Illustrated and the National Football League, he lives in Santa Barbara, California, where he runs a successful book producing company.Tonight on the 77th episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast, Jim joins us via Zoom to discuss his groundbreaking book "Amelia Earhart: Pioneer of the Sky" a part of the "Show Me History" series. Jim gives us his thoughts on the books creation and unique format, his ideas of making Amelia relatable to the next generation of young readers and why he believes Amelia's legacy should live on for continued generations to come.

I have always known that Amelia Earhart’s reach in legacy and inspiration loomed large over modern day aviation, aerospace and STEM. However, when we started this project many years ago, even I didn’t understand just how deep that reach stretched. Tonight, we’re all gonna find out. Amelia Earhart’s legacy and inspiration touches us all. And what she set out to achieve so long ago, is showing today if we look hard enough. A lot of people might argue that AE’s reach extends only to certain people, demographics or fields. However tonight, you’re all gonna find out, that AE’s legacy is alive and thriving in ways that will blow your mind. At just 15 years old, Julie Seven Sage is a living breathing example of what Amelia Earhart wanted to inspire in the 1930’s. If tonight’s episode tells you anything, it’s that Julie and young men and women like her are taking a legacy set so long ago to heights that would impress even Amelia Earhart herself.

"It’s interesting when I watch people watch the documentary. When her face comes up on the screen, people just light up. I think she’s one of those people that is sort of an iconic figure for all the best reasons.""Fly Like A Girl" is more than just a film. It’s a movement of young girls and women relentlessly pursuing their passion for aviation. A field currently dominated by men. Hearing first-hand stories from girls and women who dared to aim higher. From a lego-loving young girl who includes female pilots in her toy airplanes, to a courageous woman who helped lead shuttle missions to space, "Fly Like A Girl" shows us that women are in charge of their own destiny.As part of the Indie Atlantic Films team, for over twelve years, filmmaker Katie Wiatt has produced, edited, and directed films for both broadcast and web. And now, Katie has made her feature-length directorial debut with the extraordinary documentary "Fly Like a Girl." Tonight, as season two of the Chasing Earhart podcasts winds down and before we fly off into the sunset Katie joins us to discuss this groundbreaking film, her thoughts on women in aviation and why she felt that Amelia Earhart deserves a place in “Fly Like a Girl"

Dr. Lois Frankel is a guest that when you look at her bio or research her career, you would never in a million years think she’d pop up as a project guest for Chasing Earhart. But oh, how little do you know…. Dr. Frankel is the president of corporate coaching international and she literally wrote the book on coaching people to succeed in businesses both large and small around the globe. Some of her best-selling books include “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office” “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich” and “Nice Girls Just Don’t Get it”. But as you can probably imagine, those aren’t the books she's here to talk about tonight. She's here to talk about another book she Dr. Frankel recently released, and that book is called “Alternate Flight Plan: The Lost Diary of Amelia Earhart”. Yes, Dr. Frankel is an Earhart author and tonight she joins us on episode 74 of the Chasing Earhart podcast to discuss her book, Amelia's impact, and legacy and why so many people around the world still believe in Amelia Earhart.

In part, it’s the way that we identify with these individuals; the notion of getting lost at sea; the horror of that and how deeply in our core as individuals we fear something like that happening. That reaches into something that’s very personal for everybody.Forensic image processing and analyzation is one of the most crucial areas of expertise in the entire Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan disappearance case. Used by multiple hypothesis’ in the case, it’s become a combination or art and science that has been responsible for much of the advancement in the investigation. Tonight, season two of the Chasing Earhart podcast continues with a project guest that has been highly involved both in that field and in this case. Tonight, we discuss both the science and the process of forensic image processing via Zoom with Jeff Glickman of PHOTEK. Jeff gives us his thoughts on his work on the castaway hypothesis, the anomaly in the now famous “Bevington Image” and how he arrived at his declaration on that image and why he believes that the Amelia Earhart case continues to capture and enthrall the entire world.

"As years go on, it’s not just the flight but it’s about a woman, it’s about encouraging people to be in aviation. It’s about the era."Perhaps no other institution on the planet is more recognizable than the Smithsonian. The air and space museum on Washington DC houses some of the most iconic aviation exhibits on the planet. And the museum staff are some of the most knowledgeable experts that can be found. One of the most well-known exhibits there is Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega. The plane that she set the transatlantic record in, now stands proudly in the “Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight” Gallery. Could it be possible that one day Amelia’s Lockheed Electra; the holy grail of aviation may find its way into the same gallery? Tonight, season two continues with the 72nd episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast. We’re joined by project guests Dorothy Cochrane & Tom Crouch of Air & Space to discuss the ongoing role that the Smithsonian plays in the investigation of the disappearance, Amelia Earhart’s impact and legacy and why they believe that Amelia Earhart stood for much more than flying “for the fun of it”.

“This 50th anniversary, I’m doing it for my crew. They’re all gone now; they were about ten years older than I was. Of course, I miss them, but I can think of them. All my animals, my crew, my family; they’re all close to my heart and they’ll always be there. But this was the beginning of sharing this will people like you and people all over the world.”In 2017, on the 50th anniversary of her world flight, aviation icon and project guest Ann Holtgren Pellegreno gave a special reflective presentation in Atchison Kansas at the Atchison Public Library during the Amelia Earhart Festival. We caught it on film.Tonight, episode 71 continues our ICON series with both a regular audio release of the podcast AND for the first time ever, this very special audio/video version of the podcast presented exclusively on our YouTube channel.This film is dedicated to the crew of the The 1967 Earhart Commemorative Flight: pilot, Ann Holtgren Pellegreno, copilot Bill Payne, navigator Bill Polhemus, and owner and restorer Lee Koepke.All material contained in this presentation is owned by Ann HoltgrenPellegreno.A ChrisEvan Films production.

“I truly believe that this was a woman who was an adventurer and who wanted to break barriers in many, many ways.”Tonight, you’ll hear from an author that takes a different approach to her writing and her thoughts on Amelia Earhart’s relevance. Project guest Patricia Lakin has written multiple children’s books including the well received and long lasting “Amelia Earhart: More Than a Flyer”. Tonight, we continue our children’s series on the landmark 70th episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast, as Patty joins us via Zoom from her home in New York to discuss Amelia Earhart’s childhood and how it shaped her destiny to become “more than a flyer”.

“This wasn’t about a flight. This really was about what Amelia worked so hard to teach. Amelia didn’t fly and do these things to say ‘look what I can do’. She did it to say ‘look what you can do’.”The moments you hear at the opening of tonight's episode, took place 21 years ago on what was the 60th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s circumnavigation attempt around the world.Project guest Linda Finch arriving in Oakland, in the same manner in which Amelia would have arrived, to crowds of adoring fans, admires and media is not only inspiring but bittersweet. 21 years later, on the 69th episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast and the continuation of our ICON series, Linda joins us via Zoom to reflect on her world flight, Amelia’s impact and legacy, and the message that Amelia stood for that Linda so strongly believes in.

“I think Amelia is more well known than possibly even Lindberg. Amelia is just part of the psyche of the public. She was a really positive role model doing some amazing things; certainly laying it all out there on the line. The mystery of the disappearance adds to her story."Considered by many to be a purist when it comes to locating Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E, Dana Timmer has been an advocate for the "Ditch & Sink" hypothesis since he started investigating the events that occurred on the morning of July the 2nd 1937. Working with and earning the professional respect of many of the world's premier experts in nautical exploration, Dana led the very first deep water search for Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan and their Lockheed Electra 10E in 1999 and he's been feverishly working this case ever since. Working with the team of Michael Williamson and Arthur Wright at Williamson & Associates, Dana believes that it's just a matter of "when" for the location and retrieval of the holy grail of aviation. Tonight, on the 68th episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast Dana joins us via Zoom from Vienna Austria along with Mike Williamson and Arthur Wright joining us from Seattle Washington to discuss "Expedition Amelia" and why they collectively believe that the interest, in this case, is high, the technology is there and the time to end Amelia's story is now.