— hidden stories blog —
As much as we all love to binge a juicy drama, epic fantasy, or chilling murder mystery - oftentimes the most fascinating, terrifying, and uplifting stories are, in fact, the true ones! As the internet’s favorite storyteller, Andy Jiang has uncovered some of the world’s most incredible tales through captivating depictions and investigative research. But for every thread pulled and curiosity brought into the light, there remains infinitely more left to discover… until now. Each week on Hidden Stories, join Andy as he introduces you to new tales and revisits his most viral posts through an anthology of curious legends, stranger-than-fiction facts, and breathtaking firsthand accounts to help us all better understand the bigger story unfolding around us.
episode transcripts
A man is living his best life, when he suddenly notices something off about a lamp… Today, we’ll be revisiting one of the most famous and unforgettable stories of all time.
In 1982, a man was sentenced to death for the killing of a police officer. In the coming years, however, more and more evidence came to light that revealed that the case was not nearly as simple as it had initially seemed. And as it turns out, someone may have had a secret that they did not want revealed…
During the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games in Sydney, Spain was absolutely crushing it. They played so well that it almost seemed like they weren't disabled at all... because they weren't. And it would end up as one of the greatest, most unethical scandals in sports history...
In the early 2000s, a shocking story unfolded that forced doctors to suddenly change the way they thought about consciousness. Viewer discretion is advised.
In 2009, a man was checking his bank account when his jaw suddenly DROPPED. What would follow was an international manhunt that would later be made into a movie…
In the early 1900s, there was a new and promising town in Missouri with a very bright future ahead of it. But by the end of the century, the area was completely abandoned, and left behind as a real life ghost town. And today, the town no longer even exists. How did this happen? Let’s find out…
In 1990, a large commercial plane was rapidly plummeting towards the ground below, with the plane’s captain trapped OUTSIDE the cockpit window…
In 1985, two climbers set off to reach the top of an extremely dangerous mountain that no one else had ever managed to climb before. What resulted would end up as perhaps one of the greatest survival stories in history…
In 1999, an innocent 15 year old boy accidentally messed around in an area where he absolutely shouldn’t have. Before long, the entire FBI was trying to hunt him down…
In 2018, a man was on a routine skiing trip with some friends when he suddenly vanished without a trace. Little did anyone know, it would end up as one of the strangest disappearance cases in history…
In 2002, a little girl was suddenly told by her mom that she had terminal cancer, and not much time left to live. Little did she know, however, that not everything was as it seemed. And when the truth was finally revealed, it SHOCKED the entire world…
In 1945, during World War 2, a soldier lay half-dead inside a trench in a pool of his own blood. He had lost both his right hand, and his right eye, among numerous other injuries. But as dozens of enemy soldiers began to quickly approach this man, he just refused to give up. In his mind, he wasn’t just any ordinary soldier. And he was about to show them what he could do…
In 1900, 3 lighthouse keepers disappeared into thin air. Their story would result in one of the most eerie and unexplained disappearance cases in history… or was it really?
In 1917, France almost accidentally executed one of their OWN greatest soldiers. Fortunately, he lived—and his story ended up being so crazy that if Hollywood made a movie on it, people would complain about it being TOO unrealistic…
On November 11, 1918, 1 minute before the official end of World War 1, a soldier died. He was remembered as a hero, and memorials were built in his honor—but that wasn’t the entire story. As it turns out, this man wasn’t quite exactly the hero that he was made out to be. Let’s dive in…
In 1987, a shocking kidnapping tore a family apart. After 23 years of failed leads, however, this kidnapping was finally solved by none other than the very woman who had been kidnapped herself. But that wasn't the end of the story..
Towards the end of World War 2, something extremely unusual happened. It was something so strange, and so unheard of that it had only ever happened 1 other time throughout the entire 6 year long war. Let's dive in…
One night in 1945, a fire suddenly started at the home of a family that was sleeping. Although at first, this fire was declared an accident, it very quickly started to become clear things weren’t nearly as simple as they had seemed…
In the 1940s during WW2, a soldier found himself in a situation where he was absolutely certain that he was going to die. Little did he know that luck was on his side that day…
In 1971, police officers in London received a tip about a potentially ongoing bank robbery. But when they arrived to one of the local banks, they were surprised to see that that nothing at all seemed to be out of the ordinary. Little did these officers know that as they were standing outside this bank’s vault, a group of criminals were on the inside, quietly preparing to make off with millions…
One of the most famous and widely covered stories of all time has to be the story of D.B. Cooper, the man who hijacked a plane in the 1970s and then parachuted out of it with $200,000 in stolen cash never to be seen again. But what if I told you that there’s a very similar story from the Philippines that’s also extremely interesting, but it’s just for some reason, much, much less well-known? Let’s dive in…
There’s no question that being charismatic is one of the most useful traits you can have as a person. It can make you seem smarter, more trustworthy, more likable, more persuasive, more confident, and on and on. So what happens when someone with extreme charisma happens to live a life of crime? Let’s find out…
In 2004, the ENTIRE Sri Lankan National Handball Team suddenly disappeared without a warning. How did this happen? And where did they go? Let’s find out…
In the early 1800s, a man was involved in an incident that left him within an inch of his life. However, this man was not your normal man. In the coming days, against all odds, he simply REFUSED to die. And his incident would result in one of the most incredible survival stories in history…
In 1946, a 19 year old girl in NYC was approached by a detective asking her for help on a theft case. Little did she know, she had no idea what she was signing herself up for…
In the 1950s, a pilot was flying a route that he had flown many times before in the past. Since he was a very experienced pilot, he was pretty relaxed, and wasn't really thinking and worrying about much. To him, it was just another flight out of the many, many he would have to make every single week. But little did he know, that flight would be nothing like anything he had ever experienced. In fact, it would be nothing like anything anyone on EARTH had ever experienced. And it would result in one of the craziest stories the world has ever heard...
In 1997, the FBI solved a missing person case... or so they thought. The truth was, something so unprecedented had happened that they had failed to even realize that it had happened. And it would result in one of the strangest situations that any family has ever experienced...
The US prison system sees a lot of people. Men, women, lawyers, teachers, people raised in poverty, and people raised in luxury. But the one person you’d be very hard-pressed to find in a prison is a genius, someone smarter than not only all of the other prisoners and all of the guards, but an overwhelming majority of the outside human population as well.
So what happens when a genius does go to prison? Let’s find out…
One night in 2000, a college student sat down in front of his computer feeling all sorts of nervous and excited emotions.
For months, he had been working on a software that he felt could really help out a lot of people, and could even maybe change the way the world worked. And after spending countless hours refining and improving his code, that day, he was finally ready to test it out.
As he sat at his computer, fingers dashing across the keyboard, the student felt hope swelling inside himself for his work and for his future. He decided he would start off by simply sending his program out to just one person, a stranger he had met in an online chatroom. He wanted to begin with something really, really small. But turns out, what would happen next was anything BUT small, and soon, the whole world would know his name...
When you think about the most successful robberies/heists, you probably envision these large, super meticulously planned operations. They're usually going to be done at night under the cover of darkness, and cmon. We all know there HAS to be at least 8 team members each with their own unique skill set.
Missing person cases generally should go either 1 of 2 ways—you find the person, or you don’t. But this story, somehow, some way, actually kind of BREAKS that rule. It's the first one I’ve come across that does so. And what happened was just so bizarre that it would end up as one of history’s most infamous cases.
During the mid-1800s, James Barry, a top-ranking surgeon in the British Army, was always known for being just a bit strange. However, since it was nothing too out of the ordinary, people didn't think much of it. But when he suddenly passed away one day and his body was examined, a secret was uncovered about him that BLEW everyone's mind, and suddenly, some of his past actions and behaviors started to make a lot more sense...
In 1971, a 17 year old girl named Juliane Koepcke excitedly boarded a plane with her mom to return home for Christmas. Little did they know that this flight would soon go very wrong…
In 1956, a 26 year old named Thomas Fitzpatrick made a seemingly impossible bet with his friends while drunk at a bar. Here’s the unreal true story of how, against ALL odds, he managed to pull it off…