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Stories from a Stranger

Stories from a Stranger

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“Every stranger has a story.” This is what Hunter Prosper realized when he began posting man-on-the-street interviews with real-life strangers to his social media accounts.

Hunter’s genuine connection with strangers and emotional interview moments quickly captured viewers' hearts across multiple platforms and a New York Times Best Selling book. Now, Hunter is expanding his social media series into a new weekly video and audio podcast, Stories from a Stranger, featuring portraits of multiple strangers connected by themes of love, loss, regret, inspiration, illness, family connections, and more.

In each episode, Hunter brings his innate warmth, curiosity, and charm, interviewing people from all walks of life and sharing anonymously submitted confessions. Interviews start with a question and then grow in unexpected ways as strangers open up and share their most defining moments. From the deaths of loved ones to using their most painful moments as inspiration to finding their greatest loves, no subject is off-limits. Their stories are raw, intimate, and bursting with humanity.

Right now, it is easy to feel like the world is irrevocably divided. Stories from a Stranger is a warm reminder that we are all human and more connected than we realize. It’s an invitation to empathy. Every stranger has a story. Let’s start listening.

New episodes every Monday on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.



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Épisodes
  • S E22: Invisible Battles: Living with Chronic Illness

    S E22: Invisible Battles: Living with Chronic Illness
    Oct 5 2026
    This week Hunter speaks with three strangers who are struggling with chronic illness.Lulu is a young woman who battled Lyme disease beginning at age 11. Her background includes years of misdiagnosis, during which doctors attributed her symptoms to POTS, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome, none of which addressed the root cause. A key contribution of her story is the advocacy role her mother played, described as "the reason I'm alive," who argued with doctors and ultimately suspected Lyme disease after years of searching. Lulu underwent a hyperthermia treatment at Clinic St. George in Germany, where her body temperature was raised to 107.24 degrees to break down biofilms protecting Lyme disease cells, allowing antibiotics to penetrate and kill the bacteria. She now lives with deep gratitude, waking each day thankful for her independence and ability to show up for the people she loves. Christi is a young woman who developed intense, chronic health problems during the fall semester of her junior year of college, eventually forcing her to drop out of school. Her primary debilitating symptom was severe nausea that could last hours on end, leaving her incapacitated and at times walking around her apartment complex from 2:00 AM to 10:00 AM just to cope. She pursued a wide range of treatments including homeopathic, acupuncture, nutrition, and Western medicine. A turning point came when a highly regarded doctor in Scottsdale identified parasitical infections, viruses, and bacteria and showed initial progress, only for the inflammation markers to completely regress approximately six months in. Christie connects much of her illness to growing up in a controlling, "borderline cultish" religious group that enforced constant self-abandonment, which she believes contributed to how her body reacted to stress and trauma. She credits her sister as her most supportive person throughout her journey and has come to view her body's physical responses as a compass for living in alignment with her true self. Madelyn has lived with atopic dermatitis, a chronic and severe form of eczema, since she was a baby. At around age seven or eight, a prominent dermatologist told her mother, in front of Madelyn, that they had never seen a case as bad as hers in either an adult or a child, leaving her feeling hopeless. Growing up, she regularly wore knee-high socks to cover flares in joint areas including her elbows, behind her knees, and ankles, and faced questions from classmates asking if her skin was contagious. She was also told by adults in her religious school environment that her condition was a result of sin or punishment, which she describes as deeply damaging to her mental health. In 2019, at age 19, she began taking Dupixent, a biologic injection taken every other week, which she describes as completely changing her life.Chapters:00:00:00 Living with the hidden burden of chronic illness00:03:39 Experiencing early symptoms and physical limitations00:06:56 Navigating painful medical treatments and persistent flare-ups00:10:21 Reclaiming independence and finding gratitude in everyday00:13:31 Severe eczema and childhood mental health struggles00:16:55 Facing public scrutiny and internal discomfort00:20:16 Unpacking medical trauma and the mental health toll00:23:52 Building self-worth and creating safe spaces for others00:27:14 Dealing with sudden debilitating symptoms with no diagnosis00:30:38 Eastern medicine, treatment setbacks, and mind-body connection00:34:17 Uncovering the impact of trauma on physical health00:37:34 Finding healing through self-trust and genuine human connectionTopics: Living with chronic illness strugglesNavigating medical dismissal and careNavigating the search for a diagnosisThe impact of illness on identityFacing the mental health toll of painThe power of family and patient advocacyUnconventional paths to recoveryProcessing religious trauma and healthLiving in the space between sick and wellRebuilding self-worth and resilienceFOLLOW THE SHOW►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiesfromastrangerpod ►Threads: https://www.threads.com/@storiesfromastrangerpod ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storiesfromastrangerpodcast FOLLOW HUNTER PROSPER►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunter_prosper/ ►TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hunterprosper See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    41 min
  • S E21: Chosen: Stories of Adoption, Identity, and the Search for Belonging

    S E21: Chosen: Stories of Adoption, Identity, and the Search for Belonging
    Sep 28 2026
    Hunter speaks to three strangers with one thing in common: they’re adopted.Alyssa is a Black woman who grew up in a predominantly white community as an adopted child of an Italian-American family, making her adoption visually apparent from an early age. Her biological brother found her and reached out via Facebook after their biological father drunkenly revealed her existence to him. Upon reconnecting with her biological family, her biological mother denied her and called her a catfish, which Alyssa describes as one of the most painful things she ever experienced. Despite this, she does not regret the reunion, stating she would have wondered for the rest of her life otherwise. Charley always knew she was adopted and initially viewed it positively, describing it as a gift. However, she experienced recurring feelings of loneliness throughout her life, particularly at night as a young girl. She had no desire to find her biological mother well into her 20s and even threw away research a college friend compiled about her possible birth mother. At age 46, she submitted a 23andMe test for medical background information, and at 47 received a message from a biological relative identifying a possible match to her birth mother. She met her birth mother, but found the relationship one-sided and stressful, as her birth mother never asked Charley anything about herself. After working with a therapist, Charley ended the relationship in a phone call from a parking lot, expressing both love and the need to set a boundary.Sean was adopted from the south side of Chicago, with his adoptive mother spending two years visiting him and his birth mother before taking him home. Sean does not feel anger toward his biological parents but describes living with constant uncertainty and unanswered questions for 25 years. He describes the feeling as "free falling," with a core piece of information missing from his life. He learned that substances were found in his birth mother at the time of his birth, which he describes as one of the most painful pieces of information he received. Sean credits a very supportive family and open conversations for helping him stay afloat, but still feels like a piece of himself is missing.Chapters:00:00:00 Navigating identity and non-traditional family bonds00:03:32 Processing rejection from a biological mother00:06:54 Reconnecting with a biological brother through Facebook00:10:05 Finding closure and setting boundaries after adoption00:13:33 Expressing gratitude to supportive adoptive parents00:16:15 Discovering biological relatives through DNA testing00:19:20 Breaking up with a birth mother for self-preservation00:22:48 Healing from past heartbreak and finding personal growth00:26:07 Reading real letters about adoption and loss00:29:18 Learning the truth about an early adoption process00:32:45 Uncovering biological origins and facing uncertainty00:36:10 Understanding birth parents through empathy and acceptanceTopics:Navigating identity as an adopteeReconnecting with biological familyFacing rejection from a birth motherSetting boundaries with biological parentsGratitude for loving adoptive parentsFinding family matches through DNA testingDealing with unanswerable adoption questionsOvercoming childhood feelings of isolationLearning the truth behind early adoptionEmbracing empathy and self-acceptanceFOLLOW THE SHOW►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiesfromastrangerpod ►Threads: https://www.threads.com/@storiesfromastrangerpod ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storiesfromastrangerpodcast FOLLOW HUNTER PROSPER ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunter_prosper/ ►TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hunterprosper See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    40 min
  • S E20: Fill the Space: How Heartbreak Becomes a New Beginning

    S E20: Fill the Space: How Heartbreak Becomes a New Beginning
    Sep 21 2026
    -Jeremy is a Canadian actor and comedian who put his career on hold to move to New York for his second husband, Zach, whom he met on Tinder. He describes Zach as the greatest love of his life, noting they met briefly on the app before transitioning to a more old-fashioned phone call and then a first date over wine on a rooftop. They married shortly before the pandemic, and Jeremy attributes the end of their marriage largely to the extreme pressures of that period. This was Jeremy's second divorce, and he acknowledges the embarrassment of going through it again, even making it part of his standup comedy material. After the split, he found himself in a foreign country without a strong social network, having paused a flourishing acting career in Canada to be in the relationship. Key contributions from Jeremy include his advice on navigating grief and loss by actively filling the emotional and mental space left behind with positive activities and experiences, as well as his insight that only the individual can do the work of rebuilding themselves after heartbreak, symbolized by a tattoo he got of an anatomical heart half made of bricks.-Anna Laura is an artist who speaks about the profound influence of her mother, Anne Marie, describing her as having the soul of a true artist who introduced her to new ways of seeing the world. She views heartbreak as essential to growth, comparing the darkness of grief to the richness of soil that enables new life. She explains that art is her playground and laboratory for testing her self-concept and connecting with the world on a deep, somatic level. She describes the feeling of making resonant art as akin to spiritual communion.-Cece recently came out as queer and describes falling in love for the first time with a woman she met in Hawaii through a friend app. Their relationship was intense and cinematic, involving last-minute flights, declarations of love, and talk of moving in together, characteristic of what she describes as the "U-Haul lesbian" phenomenon. The relationship ultimately ended, with both parties hurting each other, but Cece does not regret it, calling it a "canon event" in her life story. She now lives in New York with her best friend Annie, whom she describes as a "lavender marriage" partner, finding unexpected fulfillment and stability in that platonic domestic arrangement-Chelsea went through a breakup approximately six months prior to the conversation, ending a relationship with someone who had been a close friend for three years before they began dating. She describes the particular difficulty of leaving a relationship where the other person had not done anything overtly wrong, noting that he was kind and patient but fundamentally failed to ask about her life, her feelings, or her accomplishments. She recounts how she began suppressing her own achievements because he would minimize them, causing her to quell her own excitement. She identifies the turning point as meeting a friend who naturally showed her the curiosity and engagement she had been missing in her relationship. Since the breakup, she reports that positive changes have come quickly, including meeting someone new who asks her about her day and genuinely wants to know her. Topics: Rebuilding identity after a breakupNavigating loss and second divorceFilling emotional space after lossHeartbreak as a tool for growthCreating art through personal painFinding home in platonic friendshipUnderstanding lavender marriagesLeaving emotionally distant partnersRecognizing emotional neglect as harmMaking space for supportive loveFOLLOW THE SHOW►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiesfromastrangerpod ►Threads: https://www.threads.com/@storiesfromastrangerpod ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storiesfromastrangerpodcast FOLLOW HUNTER PROSPER►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunter_prosper/ ►TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hunterprosper See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    42 min
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