Episodes
The team that brought you The Letter has a new show called Unsolved Histories. Season 1 is about a plane crash over the Gulf of Alaska during the Cold War. An airliner carrying 101 people took to the skies near Seattle moving military personnel and their families to their new assignments in Anchorage. One of the pilots radioed air traffic control asking to change altitude. It was the last thing anyone heard from Flight 293. For decades, the families of those who perished have searched for...
Published 10/01/24
We’re excited to tell you about a brand new storytelling show – hosted and produced by the amazing Lupita Nyong’o – that we are just loving. It’s called Mind Your Own, and it’s about navigating what it means to belong, all from the African perspective.  Lupita Nyong’o knows what home feels like. But where exactly is it? In Mexico, where she was born? Kenya, where she grew up? Or the States, where she’s spent the past 20 years? Like Lupita, millions of Africans are spread out across the globe...
Published 09/19/24
KSL Podcasts, the team that brought you The Letter also had a hand in making Ransom, a story of greif and loss and how those emotions are amplified when the person who caused them is a trusted person. Ransom is the story of the kidnapping of 12 year old McKay Everett for a demand of $500,000. It's also a story of greed and betrayal and how red flags, when ignored, serve no one. Link to the show: https://kslpodcasts.com/podcast/ransom/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Published 06/25/24
If you haven’t had the chance to subscribe to our bonus content, we wanted to give you a sample of what we have been doing each week. Children exposed to trauma face challenges that often continue well into adulthood. In this Bonus episode, Amy talks with Jordan Rasmussen’s son, Dave, and a child psychologist, Dr. Matt Woolley, about some of the unresolved emotions that have come up this season. And we get some ideas for how to face the lingering impacts of trauma and how to help those...
Published 06/18/24
In the season finale of The Letter, Michael Moore learns if he will get a parole date. But the families who forgave him and advocated for his release never expected what he did next. They are left to ask themselves if they misjudged him.For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us, please consider subscribing on Apple podcasts for access...
Published 06/11/24
When Michael Moore murdered Jordan Rasmussen and Buddy Booth, he left five children without fathers. When they were young, the adults in their lives made decisions about whether they would oppose or support Michael’s release from prison. But as Michael approaches his fourth parole hearing those children will be old enough to speak for themselves. Is forgiveness something they inherit, or will they come to their own conclusions? For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including...
Published 06/04/24
On this holiday week, we are giving you a sample of one of our premium bonus episodes. Episode 7 will be released next week.Does everyone in our criminal justice system deserve defending? Ed Brass was on Michael Moore’s defense team. Ed is also Amy’s husband (but she didn’t realize the connection until after she started researching the case). Ed and Amy share some remarkable stories from Ed’s career, including even more unlikely tales of forgiveness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
Published 05/28/24
Feelings of rage and retribution were melting away as Leslie Rasmussen drafted a letter to the man who murdered her brother, Jordan. She wrote the letter without talking to any of the family members, who nearly simultaneously came to their own conclusion. Michael Moore writes back.For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us, please...
Published 05/21/24
A decade passes since the brutal murders of Buddy Booth and Jordan Rasmussen. As their families wrestle with loss and rage, the man who killed them, Michael Patrick Moore, readies another plea for his parole. But as the Rasmussens prepare for war, they are caught off guard by what Moore does next. For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to...
Published 05/14/24
The families of Jordan Rasmussen and Buddy Booth realize the end of a trial doesn’t mean the end of their struggles. And only a year after Michael Moore is handed two life sentences, he makes a case for early release. But is the killer ready to take responsibility for the damage he caused?For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us,...
Published 05/07/24
As lawyers prepare for trial, no one can make sense of Michael Moore’s motives. In the courtroom, the double murder suspect tells a paranoid story of assassins and organized crime. The widows of his victims testify at the trial, which will determine if Moore will face a firing squad.For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us, please...
Published 04/30/24
A delivery man making his rounds finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Buddy Booth discovers the body of Jordan Rasmussen at a stop on his delivery route and is shot in the back, forcing a second young widow to raise children without their father. For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us, please consider subscribing on...
Published 04/23/24
When The Letter team made the first season, we never dreamed there would be a second season because the story was so unique. Join host Amy Donaldson and producer Andrea Smardon as COLD podcast host Dave Cawley gives us a behind-the-scenes-look at the new season and how it came together. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Published 04/21/24
When The Letter team made the first season, we never dreamed there would be a second season because the story was so unique. Join host Amy Donaldson and producer Andrea Smardon as COLD podcast host Dave Cawley gives us a behind-the-scenes-look at the new season and how it came together. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Published 04/21/24
An early morning snowstorm means Jordan Rasmussen, a father of three, has to share a ride with his coworker to a meeting he expects will be tense. Jordan gets in the Jeep riddled with bullet holes. He never comes home. For more on the Letter Season 2: Ripple Effect, including pictures, find us on social @theletterpodcast or visit our website, theletterpodcast.com. If you want to hear more and would like to support us, please consider subscribing on Apple podcasts for access to our bonus...
Published 04/16/24
Two fathers are found murdered in a van parked outside an upscale Utah restaurant in 1982. The killer confessed, but his violent choice left five children to grow up with ghosts and grief. The families were forced to wrestle with impossible questions: Who is forgiveness for? Does everyone deserve a second chance? And what if a personal decision can ripple through generations, even reaching strangers? Season 2 of The Letter: Ripple Effect premieres on April 16th. Follow us on...
Published 04/02/24
Thanks for listening to The Letter. We are dropping in the feed to let you know about a new podcast called Stranger Becomes Neighbor - Afghan Arrivals. We will never forget the images we saw two years ago when the Taliban took over and the U.S. scrambled to evacuate refugees from the Kabul airport. Some 80,000 Afghans would eventually arrive in America at a time when the resettlement agencies were critically low on resources. For the last two years, host Andrea Smardon followed the refugees...
Published 08/15/23
The impact of the Snarr family’s decision to forgive their son’s killer continues to reverberate. Since The Letter published, Sy Snarr says she’s blown away by the responses of strangers. We talk to Sy’s grandsons about the generational impacts still rippling through the family. As for Yvette Rodier, she declines an interview, but sends an email. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Published 06/06/23
We’re dropping in your feed today to let you know about a gripping new series from Lemonada Media, BLIND PLEA. In 2017, Deven Grey, a young mother, shot and killed her abusive partner in a remote trailer in rural Shelby County, Alabama. She claimed self-defense and filed a Stand Your Ground claim. Instead of freedom, she was handed a “blind plea” – an option to take an unknown sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. As a Black woman who shot and killed a white man in Alabama, she did the...
Published 05/17/23
Hey listeners! We’re dropping in your feed today to give you a sample of the first episode of Lemonada Media’s brand-new show, Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. On the premiere episode of Wiser Than Me, Julia sits down with the one and only Jane Fonda. With a career spanning over six decades, Jane – now 85 years old – hits all the highlights: staying fit at any age, fantasizing about funerals, getting heckled on set by Katharine Hepburn…and something about a fake thumb. You can hear...
Published 04/12/23
The Letter host Amy Donaldson works closely with Dave Cawley, the host of the COLD podcast. Amy has listened to every episode of COLD and calls herself not only a co-worker, but a fan of Dave’s investigative and thoughtful approach to true crime journalism. Here’s a little more about Season 3: The Search For Sheree.  When Sheree Warren left her job in Salt Lake City in 1985 she told a coworker she was headed to meet her estranged husband at a car dealership. But she never made it. Sheree...
Published 02/20/23
We’re dropping in your feed today to let you know about a new Lemonada Media series, DISCARDED. DISCARDED tells the story of a modern-day Erin Brockovich, set on the Mississippi River in an area known as “Cancer Alley.” Her name is Sharon Lavigne, her community is St. James Parish in Louisiana, and her fight is to keep out one of the largest plastic manufacturing companies in the world. In this investigative four-part series, hosted by Emmy award-winning journalist Gloria Riviera, we unwrap...
Published 02/14/23
Grief is often misunderstood, even by those experiencing it. Why do we think grief is something that will end or something that can be left in the past? Is closure a myth? And why does guilt often play a role in grieving? And how can our own fear cause even more pain and isolation for those we care about most? The Letter host Amy Donaldson discusses these questions with grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith (New Day) in a wide-ranging discussion about one of society’s most misunderstood...
Published 12/13/22
When Jorge Benvenuto sat down to write a letter to the family of the boy he’d shot to death as a teenager, he had no idea the chain of events that would follow. When he penned his apology alone in a prison cell, he never imagined that it would lead to him hugging the mother of that young man. Nor did he have any inkling about the many ways the letter would reverberate through his own life - and the lives of his family members. The Letter opened a pathway for the parents of Zachary Snarr to...
Published 10/18/22