The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart

Three-year-old Lori Poland is playing outside her Colorado home when a stranger lures her into his car. He drives her into the mountains and abandons her 15 feet underground in an abandoned outhouse. As police launch a desperate search, Lori's abductor refuses to reveal her location. For four terrifying days, she remains trapped without food or water, until an extraordinary twist of fate leads to her rescue. Now, Lori tells Elizabeth Smart the harrowing story of her kidnapping and what happened to the man who left her to die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elizabeth Smart is back with three extraordinary survivors — Lisa Mae, Eduardo Valseca and Alisa Mathewson — to answer more of your burning questions. They revisit some of the most harrowing moments of their stories, share new details about their experiences, and reveal how surviving unimaginable violence has shaped the way they live today. From the split-second decisions that saved their lives to the challenges of rebuilding afterward, they offer candid answers and powerful insights into what it really means to survive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone is talking about Amy Acton after her estranged mother appeared in a political ad calling the Ohio gubernatorial candidate “a liar.” Acton has also spoken openly about surviving childhood sexual abuse. Elizabeth Smart, Deondra Brown and Michelle Denault — all survivors themselves — talk about the controversy, what sexual abuse can do to families, and what this moment looks like through the eyes of survivors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a desperate escape attempt fails, Alisa Matthewson is recaptured, bound, and taken even farther from safety. When her 55-hour ordeal finally ends, she expects to be reunited with her children — instead, she finds herself fighting a new battle to get them back. In the finale of her story, Alisa reveals what happened when her case finally went to trial and the man accused of kidnapping, raping and trying to kill her chose to cross-examine her himself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alisa Mathewson wakes at 3:00 a.m. with the terrifying certainty that someone is standing in her bedroom. It is her estranged husband — the man she has spent months trying to escape. In Part One of her story, Alisa reveals how her desperate attempts to break free from his control culminate in a middle-of-the-night break-in that leaves her bound, drugged and fighting to stay alive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eduardo Valseca is locked inside a tiny box, its coarse walls tearing at his skin whenever he moves. He doesn’t know where he is, what has happened to his wife, or why the men holding him refuse to speak. Then the message comes: his captors want millions of dollars in ransom — and when his family can’t pay, his captivity stretches on for seven months of beatings, starvation and torture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the sexual assault allegations at Cornell University dominate the headlines, Elizabeth and fellow survivors Kimberly Corban and JoDee Neil engage in a challenging conversation about consent, reporting, bystanders, and what people still getting wrong about trauma. Plus the "Three D" rules for protecting young people at college parties. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After surviving more than 26 hours in captivity, Lisa Mae reaches the police expecting them to help her — only to find herself fighting to convince investigators that her story is true. Then a news report about another murdered woman leads Lisa to a chilling realization: the man who abducted her is the serial killer terrorizing Tampa.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seventeen-year-old Lisa Mae has already decided she doesn’t want to live. Then, riding her bike home through the darkness after a late shift, she notices a car sitting strangely in an empty church parking lot. Seconds later, a man lunges from the shadows, presses a gun to her head, and drags her into his car. Suddenly, the girl who had planned to end her own life is fighting desperately to keep it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the first time, Elizabeth sits down with three fellow survivors — Kara Robinson Chamberlain, Chris Cander and Kimberly Corban — to answer questions directly from listeners. They share new details from their remarkable stories, talk about facing dangerous situations after their attacks, and reveal what surviving taught them about spotting danger, trusting their instincts and staying alive when the unthinkable happens. For information and resources related to mental health, domestic and sexual abuse, child abuse, and human trafficking, go to ElizabethSmartFoundation.org We seek to bring hope, empowerment, and change in the fight against sexual violence.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.