Would Your Relationship Survive a Shipwreck?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After a whale struck Maurice and Maralyn Bailey’s boat in 1972, the British couple found themselves stranded on a tiny rubber raft in the Pacific Ocean. In a new book, journalist Sophie Elmhirst looks at how the shipwrecked couple survived together for months – starving and pushed to their emotional limits. We’ll talk to Elmhirst about relationships under extreme conditions and why we’re so drawn to survival stories. And we want to hear from you: How do you think your own relationship would fare under similar circumstances? Guests: Sophie Elmhirst, author of "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union.
0:04.8	Give your savings account the love it deserves.
0:07.8	When you keep your money with Star One, you keep more of your money.
0:11.5	Star One Credit Union in your best interest.
0:14.9	Introducing the five-year price guarantee from Xfinity.
0:18.4	No matter how your life or your taste and music changes
0:20.9	in five years,
0:22.1	your internet price
0:23.0	will stay exactly the same.
0:25.2	Restrictions apply,
0:26.0	new residential customers only,
0:27.6	taxes and fees extra
0:28.4	and subject to change.
0:30.7	From KQED.
0:32.0	Thank you,
0:34.1	Thank you. From KQBD in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.
0:50.9	Coming up on forum, would your relationship survive a shipwreck? It's a question
0:56.1	that inevitably comes up as you read Sophie Elmhurst's new book, A Marriage at Sea. It's an account
1:02.0	of a British couple who spent four months lost in the Pacific and starving on a tiny life raft
1:08.2	after a whale struck their boat in 1972.
1:12.2	We'll talk to Elmhurst about how the couple survived being pushed to their physical and
1:16.7	emotional limits. And we want to hear from you. Has your own relationship been tested under
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.