When a Greek life Ritual turns deadly
The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
iHeartPodcasts
3.8 • 14.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fraternity Hazing… we know it exists although many deny it. It’s a longstanding tradition but it can be dismissed as harmless. It’s considered a rite of passage for pledges, but what happens when things go too far?
Jennifer Fessler is joined by Eric and Linda Oakes who have decided to share the story of their son’s tragic death and its ties to his fraternity. Their story was featured in the powerful documentary 4000 Days.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.0 | Hi, guys. |
| 0:04.9 | Welcome back to another episode of Dirty Rush. |
| 0:07.2 | I am your host, Jen Fessler. |
| 0:09.5 | And today is a different type of episode. |
| 0:13.9 | And I'm going to be joined by Eric and Linda Oakes. |
| 0:17.7 | So they are a couple who lost their son, Oaks due to a fraternity hazing incident |
| 0:23.1 | that happened almost five years ago. So their story is highlighted in this really unbelievable |
| 0:29.7 | documentary. It's called 4,000 Days. It's actually premiering soon at the Tribeca Film Festival |
| 0:34.5 | on June 10th. And this is, again, this is a different type of episode. |
| 0:39.5 | And it's, we really try at Dirty Rush to highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly. And this |
| 0:45.6 | certainly is, falls under the ugly category. Hazing, we're talking in this instance about fraternity |
| 0:51.6 | hazing is, it can be scary. And for this couple and fornity hazing is it can be scary and for this couple and for many |
| 0:56.8 | other couples it can be fatal so we think that it's important to you know talk about all aspects of |
| 1:03.7 | greek life and hopefully you guys as listeners will take some of this in and you know can use it in in one way or another so this |
| 1:13.5 | amazing and I mean amazing documentary previewed on June 10th at the Tribeca film festival and it is |
| 1:22.2 | incredible very difficult and sad to watch, but really, really important. |
| 1:29.2 | Hi, Jen. How are you? |
| 1:32.1 | Hi. What a pleasure and really an honor to meet you both. |
| 1:34.1 | Thank you so much for coming on. |
| 1:36.6 | I'm still spinning from this film. |
... |
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