Exit Strategy: They Vanished Into Siberia for Over 40 Years [from Very Special Episodes]
Noble Blood
iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild
4.7 • 13.9K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1978, Soviet geologists flying over Siberia spotted something impossible: a family living in total isolation, untouched for decades by the modern world. But when outsiders finally reached their remote cabin, the family’s hidden world began to change forever.
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Listen to Very Special Episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Special thanks to Rebecca E. Marshall for letting us share clips from her documentary, The Forest in Me. We also want to shout out the film's composer, Xylouris White. You can stream The Forest in Me right now on Pijama Films.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Dave Roos
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Mixing and Mastering by Chris Childs
Voice Actors are Katie Mattie and Chris Childs
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
Got a very special question? You can reach us at veryspecialepisodes@gmail.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:09.0 | In the summer of 1978 in the heart of Siberia, |
| 0:13.8 | a team of four young Soviet geologists made an astonishing discovery. |
| 0:20.7 | Flying in a helicopter over a remote stretch of forest, more than |
| 0:25.9 | 150 miles from the nearest human settlement, they spotted what looked like a clearing below. |
| 0:33.6 | Inside that clearing was a large garden plot with rows of potatoes. |
| 0:39.6 | Next to it was what looked like a shelter. |
| 0:42.9 | Yeah, it must have been very much a surprise for these geologists |
| 0:46.0 | when they crossed the tiger in a helicopter in the 1970s |
| 0:50.1 | and suddenly saw the vegetable plot in the middle of the tiger |
| 0:53.9 | in a place where this was basically unthinkable. We're pregnant. and suddenly saw a vegetable plot in the middle of the tiger, |
| 0:56.7 | in a place where this was basically unthinkable. |
| 1:02.4 | Were people actually living out there, deep in the Siberian woods, |
| 1:05.8 | one of the most unforgiving landscapes on Earth? |
| 1:09.2 | The geologists didn't see anyone, |
| 1:13.0 | but they marked the mysterious location on their map and promised to return. |
| 1:16.8 | A few weeks after making camp at a nearby river, the geologists decided to investigate. |
| 1:24.4 | It was a 10-mile hike through thick strands of birch and Siberian pine. |
| 1:31.0 | Absolutely pristine, undisturbed wilderness. |
| 1:35.8 | It's very slow walking because the forest floor is not very solid. |
| 1:40.1 | It's covered with layers and layers of fallen trees |
... |
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