What to Carry, What to Burn

Navigator Valerian Albanov escapes an icebound ship--and ends up the reluctant leader of a desperate trek across the frozen sea. Sources for this book include the book In the Land of the White Death by Valerian Albanov, translated from Russian to English by Alison Anderson, and the book The Riddle of Navigator Albanov, by Mikhail Andreyevich Chvanov.

When shark fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga gets caught in a storm at sea, he thinks he'll be able to ride it out. But the motor breaks in his little boat, and he starts to drift across the Pacific...Sources for this episode include the book 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin (highly recommended!), as well as the Guardian article "Pacific Castaway Recounts his 13 Month Odyssey" by Leila Haddou and the Time article "A Castaway who Survived 14 Months at Sea is Being Sued for Cannibalism" by Tiare Dunlap. Other works mentioned are the book A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (also highly recommended!) and the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from which this episode gets its name.

When Lucy Irvine stumbles on an ad in the back of a magazine—an eccentric writer is looking for a “wife” to join him on a tropical island—she thinks she’s found the adventure of a lifetime. But the survival you sign up for is not necessarily the survival you end up in… To learn more about this story, I recommend the book Castaway by Lucy Irvine. There are other sources, as listed in the episode, but I don’t recommend them!

It’s 1976, and a 20-something aspiring painter, Lauren Elder, is flying over California’s Sierra Mountains to pick up a cat named Ferocious. When the plane crashes, she’s faced with a decision: stay and wait for rescue, or cross a wilderness where—in her hallucinatory state—she can’t even tell what's real.Sources for this episode include the book And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder and Shirley Streshinsky, articles in Artforum and the LA Times by Maria Borges and Cecilia Rasmussen, LaurenElder.com, and the Women Eco-Artists Dialogue (weadartists.org).https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-07-me-then7-story.htmlhttps://www.artforum.com/events/lauren-elder-216640/

It's bad enough that 19th-century sailor Bob Holding gets stranded on an island after a shipwreck—but to make it worse, his companions are entitled, incompetent, and straight up murderous. Plus, they're not as alone on the island as they think...Sources for this episode include the books The Wake of the Invercauld: Shipwrecked in the Subantarctic by Madelene Ferguson Allen and Island of the Lost by Joan Druett.

Ada Blackjack wants one thing: To make enough money to bring her son home from an orphanage. But good work is hard to find in 1920s Nome, Alaska, so when four strangers come to town, looking to hire someone for a secret yearlong expedition, Ada embarks on the trip—not knowing that she’ll be the only one of them to survive. Featuring guest Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About.

When five explorers are abandoned on a frozen island, with ever-dwindling food and supplies, they try to arrange their own rescue by dogsledding across the frozen Arctic Ocean. Twenty-three-year-old seamstress Ada Blackjack is left completely alone--with no idea when, or if, she'll escape.Featuring guest Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About.

A brand new podcast by Blair Braverman, launching May 12, 2026. See you soon!