The Leap

KQED

4.8 (397)
PERSONAL JOURNALS

From a doctor’s controversial LSD treatments to a mother’s high-risk efforts to recover her abducted child to a punk rock pioneer’s radical career reinvention, these are stories of people making dramatic, risky changes—and the big and small decisions that change the course of lives. Hosted by award-winning journalist Judy Campbell.

07/24/2018

Suddenly Everyone’s Favorite Communist

Brace Belden was 27 when he snuck into Syria to enlist in a Kurdish militia, leaving his girlfriend, job, and hometown of San Francisco behind. Even he thought it was a dumb idea, but it was also a chance to finally put his beliefs into action.

35 min
07/10/2018

I’m Your Man

April hasn't seen Steve in 15 years. So when she gets a call from a lawyer asking about him, she's not sure what to think. As memories from long ago crowd her mind, she's also confronted by an ugly new truth. One that haunts her present and makes her doubt the past.

58 min
06/26/2018

17andMe

Daley Dunham was a junior in college at UC Berkeley when he decided to donate sperm. He likened it to donating blood -- an opportunity to do something good for a person in need. Except when you donate blood, you don’t get a tidal wave of children crashing into your life twenty years later.

30 min
06/12/2018

The Company We Keep

Stories of unlikely friendships. A man finds himself the sole confidant of an eccentric old man. A woman finds companionship with a catfish that leads her on a journey to the Amazon.

32 min
05/29/2018

Her Double Life

My Linh Le has been lying to her parents about who she is for decades. When she’s with them, she gives them the daughter they want, and she keeps the truth about who she is to herself. But then one night, My Linh has a strange dream and wakes up wondering, at 31 years old, is it finally time to own up to all the lies she's been living since high school?

30 min
05/15/2018

Little Girl Lost

Sunday, December 9, 1984 is a day Beth McGhee will never forget. It’s the day her three year-old daughter, Neola, vanished, kidnapped by her ex-husband. As Beth launched into the painful search for Neola, she had no idea how long she would be waiting for her daughter to come home. Or if she would come home at all.

41 min
05/09/2017

Listener Stories – A Boat, a Baby and the Blue Skies of Montana

We've been asking for your stories, and on the last episode of Season 2, we highlight three of our listeners' leaps. Gavin McClurg embarked on a death-defying adventure on the Pacific that changed the direction of his life. Amy Gotliffe decided to adopt a baby as a single mother, an experience that brought her both joy and heartbreak. And, at 58 years of age, Bette Giordano left her husband, her ailing father and her way of life for a journey of self discovery in the West.

43 min
04/25/2017

An Unorthodox Life

Henny Kupferstein grew up in the Belz sect of ultra-orthodox, Hasidic Jews in Borough Park, Brooklyn. From early childhood, she felt like a misfit. After getting married to a virtual stranger at age 18, Henny began secretly rebelling against the confines of her sect. When she was 34, a startling diagnosis would lead her on a dramatic path away from the Belz and everyone she knew, including her four children.

37 min

See All (19)

4.8

out of 5

397 Ratings

Amazing!!

01/16/2022

Toaster5

Such interesting stories! Love this podcast!
More, please?

12/22/2020

Zizzabet

Such a good idea of a way to develop a story. Each story is very well developed. Hope we haven’t heard the last of the Leap.
Love true stories

12/12/2019

Pridemann

I got referred from Snap Judgement to this podcast. I absolutely love it. The topics are incredibly interesting and contain varied topics!
AMAZING

10/11/2019

Jenniferdd

I hate in my years of listening to podcasts, I only discovered this one after Apple’s recent update & formatting change with categories & how/where they are listed. This is truly one of the best all around podcasts I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen to, especially if you love true life human interest stories. With the time it takes & the huge amount of total garbage podcasts you have to sort thru to find these gems, I HATE there are not more seasons & episodes. I am praying that there will be a season 4 & beyond!! With a weekly episode!!! Keep up the great work!!!

From a doctor’s controversial LSD treatments to a mother’s high-risk efforts to recover her abducted child to a punk rock pioneer’s radical career reinvention, these are stories of people making dramatic, risky changes—and the big and small decisions that change the course of lives. Hosted by award-winning journalist Judy Campbell.