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The Pulse

The Pulse

What It Takes to Survive a Disaster

May 14, 2026 · 50m

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On this episode

About this episode

When disaster strikes and the chips are down, who makes it out alive? On this episode, we explore what it takes to survive a crisis. We hear the incredible story of a 17-year-old girl, who after surviving a plane crash, faced a harrowing journey though the Amazon to safety, why some people experience hallucinations when facing death, and how we’re wired to behave in emergencies. On Christmas morning in 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke woke up deep in the jungle, injured, in shock, and utterly alone. She was the sole survivor of a plane crash that had dumped her in the Peruvian Amazon — and now she would have to find her way to safety all by herself. Writer Ellen Cochrane documented…