Now this is an unbelievable story. A minister's daughter, Belkora, was pregnant at 17, then a

gold rush prostitute, aka a soiled dove, then with the support of her gambler

boyfriend, one of the most successful

and richest madams in San Francisco, and finally tied to two notorious murders.

All that before her death at just 34.

I'm Patty Steele.

Making a fortune and losing your life in the sex trade.

That's next on the backstory.

Hey, I'm Rachel Martin. You probably know how interview podcasts with famous people usually go, right?

There's a host, a guest, and a light Q&A.

On NPR's new podcast Wild Card, we have ripped up the typical script.

It's part existential deep dive and part game show.

I ask actors, artists, and comedians to play a game, using a special deck of cards cards to ask some of life's biggest questions.

Listen to NPR's Wild Card on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast.

When the Taliban banned music in Afghanistan, millions were plunged into silence.

Radios were smashed, cassettes burned, you could be beaten or jailed or killed for breaking the rules and yet Afghans did it anyway.

This is the story of how a group of people brought music back to Afghanistan by creating their own version of American Idol.

The danger they endured.

They said my head should be cut off.

The joy they brought to the nation.

You're free completely.

No one is there to destroy you.

...