A Skirt Caught on Fire

In our extraordinary season finale, Mary Afsari shows us how our unknowable pasts—the tragedies, traumas, and truths—can shape a future and change a life. Many lives, in fact. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Emily returns from a family trip, she tells people she has a “crazy story” but it’s more than that. It’s always more than that.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Casey’s biological mother doesn’t want to be found. But still, Casey seeks to find her. Needs to. And when she does, a deluge of truth pours forth.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tom’s father takes up all the oxygen in the room with a presence that's larger than life. Larger, in fact, than the many lives he keeps hidden from his wife and children. Tom must reckon with this legacy as he sets out to forge his own. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For most of her life, Darcy’s identity is a mystery. Who’s her mother? Who’s her father? And who, in the end, is she? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A childhood rife with political upheavel, violence and loss. An adulthood overtaken by distrust and manipulation. And then, finally, the truest friend and companion -- a Jack Russell terrier named Coco--helps Fatima break free and discover the joy that awaits her. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When tragedy befalls Laurie’s crowded family, she and her eight remaining siblings—and their deeply detached and peculiar parents—must navigate the unthinkable. And too, the unsayable—because in this haunted home, nothing is said at all. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First: a hidden sibling. Then: an unbelievably harrowing hostage situation. As Mimi moves through life, she must confront the scarring secrets stacked against her. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up, Jackie is a self-described “girl’s girl” in family full of women - surrounded by her sister, mother, and several loving aunts. But a generational secret has been kept, and Jackie will slowly learn that she is deeply impacted by this secret and the silence surrounding it — one that shapes her life from the inside out.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A seemingly perfect marriage—a whole life—shatters overnight when Belle discovers her husband’s betrayal and uncovers the silences and stories that have come to define her. As everything collapses, she must decide whether to protect the narrative she’s been handed or finally confront the truth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.