Silver Linings Handbook Podcast

12/25/2025

✨ *Listeners Episode, Part 2* is here.
Joelle Brouner and Maria Holdridge take the mic in a powerful, honest conversation that had me stepping back just to listen.
A celebration of community, stories and connection.
Listen: https://bit.ly/3YbwPgZ

12/25/2025

✨ *Listeners Episode, Part 1* ✨
A heartfelt roundtable on the year, the holidays, family, friendship and community — featuring voices from our amazing listeners.
Listen now: https://bit.ly/3KK4jQE

12/24/2025

Part 1 of our annual Listener Episode is here, and it’s one of the most meaningful conversations of the year. I sat down with Marie Holdridge, Allison Dickson, Brian Santana, Lauren Ater and Cameron Santana to reflect on the year behind us, the year ahead and what the holidays truly mean. Grateful for this community and for everyone who makes this show possible.
https://bit.ly/3KK4jQE

12/23/2025

🎙️ Top 10 of 2025: The Silver Linings Handbook 🎧
This year, we chased truth, honored grief, and demanded justice. These ten episodes shook us, shaped us, and reminded us why storytelling matters.

🔍 Layla Santanello’s Disappearance — A mother’s fight and the media’s silence
📺 Jodi Huisentruit — A journalist lost, and the anchor who won’t let go
🚨 From Delphi to Idaho to JonBenet — Law enforcement’s reckoning with modern crime
🕵️‍♂️ True Crime’s Fallen Star — Billy Jensen on ethics, fame, and the unraveling
💔 Dawn Holt — A daughter and sister confront decades of mystery
🛣️ Colonial Parkway Murders — Bill Thomas on advocacy, trauma, and ripple effects
🕊️ Sabrina Schooner — A haunting murder and the woman who won’t forget
🌄 Ashley Loring Heavy Runner — A sister’s search for peace and answers
🎤 Follow-ups with Jennifer & Caroline — Because some stories demand more than one chapter

Which episode stayed with you? Which one made you rethink everything?

12/21/2025

A fingerprint match changed everything. Nearly 30 years after her mother vanished, Krissi Haas learned the truth: she’d been murdered. This episode follows Krissi’s 20‑year fight for answers and justice for Wilma June Nissen. Listen and share her story.
https://bit.ly/4aurVmN

12/18/2025

🎨 A little peek behind the canvas. I sat down with our podcast’s artist, Hannah Hill, to talk about how we found each other, how she builds the visual identity of the show, and why her work carries stories words can’t always reach.

Some collaborations in life feel inevitable. This bonus episode touches on the strange ways we were searching for each other long before we met —and how she turns narrative into art. Our Patreon bonus episode is live now. You can check out more of Hannah's work at on Instagram.

Tap the LinkTree link in our bio or go to this link:
https://bit.ly/4aurVmN

12/18/2025

Krissi Haas was just one year old when her mother vanished from her life. For more than a decade, she believed she’d been abandoned—until fingerprint evidence revealed the truth: her mother, Wilma Jean Nissen, had been murdered and left in a ditch off a gravel road in Rock Rapids, Iowa.

Since that moment of identification, Krissi has fought for answers and worked to understand the mother she never got to know in life. In our latest episode, she shares her journey, her grief, and her determination to keep Wilma’s story alive.

The episode art, created by Hannah Hill (), features Wilma’s signature white go-go boots—found alongside a friendship ring in what may have been a staged scene.

Listen to our conversation here: https://bit.ly/49eqqI7

12/16/2025

A daughter’s decades‑long search for the truth.
For 20 years, Krissi Haas believed her mother had simply disappeared. Then a cold case review revealed the devastating reality: Wilma June Nissen had been murdered.

In this episode, Krissi shares the emotional journey of uncovering what really happened, the power of a fingerprint match, and her continued fight for justice.

Watch the full episode: https://bit.ly/49eqqI7

12/16/2025

Join me for a discussion with retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley, of The Consult: Real FBI Profilers, as we dig deeper into the haunting, unsolved 1996 murder of Karina Holmer — a case that continues to raise questions nearly three decades later. In Part 2 of our conversation, we explore what the killer’s behavior may reveal, how geography shapes the investigation and why early media narratives pointed in the wrong direction.

If you’re fascinated by behavioral analysis or the complexities of cold cases, this episode offers a thoughtful, evidence‑driven look at a mystery that still matters.

Listen here: https://bit.ly/4iP1me2

12/15/2025

My friend, Jason Usry, a podcast editor likes to say "blame the editor." But little does he know how much we appreciate them. I am consistently grateful to mine, Alyssa Miller. 🙌Thanks for making the audience's experience so good and joining me for this quick conversation on Patreon.
https://bit.ly/48VwmVi

12/15/2025

Vangie Randall Shorty and I first connected at CrimeCon Nashville in 2024, where she shared the heartbreaking story of her son, Zach Randall Shorty—found dead just days after being dropped off at the Journey Inn in Farmington, NM. This September, we reunited at CrimeCon Denver, standing together beneath the banner of the organization she founded to fight for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.
Three men have now been arrested for Zach’s murder.
Listen to Vangie’s powerful episode: https://bit.ly/3XUTsWR

MMIP

12/15/2025

Just after meeting her at a panel on MMIP cases Nashville in 2024, Vangie Randall Shorty came on the podcast to tell the story of searching for answers in the murder of her son, Zach. After years of searching for answers, arrests have been made in rhe case.

https://www.crimeonline.com/2025/12/08/zachariah-shorty-3-men-arrested-for-navajo-nation-mans-death-found-shot-and-left-along-dirt-pathway/?fbclid=IwdGRzaAOsaFVjbGNrA6xoT2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlKpP0IsXpUqPYTC6QkDvdVfB0EPlXSI5Iz3jIQ1G81nKw26cE_xeOG6gK9t_aem_B42QWDRjB5KLsd_MYDl79A

Over five years after the death of Navajo Nation member, Zachariah Shorty, three New Mexico men have been arrested. According to KOAT, Austin Begay, Jaymes Fage, and Joshua Watkins have been indicted on federal charges in connection with Shorty’s death. Begay has been charged with first-degree mur...