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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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  • 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.
  • S E19: Some Wounds Never Heal: Conversations on Love and Letting Go

    S E19: Some Wounds Never Heal: Conversations on Love and Letting Go
    Sep 14 2026
    Hunters speaks with three strangers who are remembering family members they’ve lost, or are losing.-Caty shares the story of watching her mother decline from primary progressive aphasia, a form of frontotemporal dementia. She describes first suspecting something was wrong during her senior year of college, noticing her mother misusing names and making uncharacteristic errors. Her mother was formally diagnosed in May 2022. Katie reflects on the pain of losing the close, almost mirror-image relationship she shared with her mother, the concept of anticipatory grief, and the one-sided nature of their current communication. She also describes finding comfort in signs she believes are sent by her mother, particularly through the song "Dancing in the Moonlight", and explains that she copes by living one day at a time, drawing on the perspective her mother's illness has given her.-Chris speaks about his aunt who passed away around 2010. Though she had no children of her own, she treated Chris, his siblings, and his family as her own, planning baby showers and showering them with gifts and attention. Chris expresses deep sadness that she did not get to witness his growth into adulthood and worries she will not be there for future milestones such as marriage or having children. He keeps her photo as his phone background as a way of staying connected to her memory, though he laments that he has forgotten the sound of her voice. He says that if he could have one more conversation, he would ask her for honest life advice, and credits his father, sister, and close friends with helping him through his grief.-Antony shares the deeply painful story of losing both parents at a young age. His father died from AIDS-related complications, and his last words were an apology to Antony's mother, who contracted the disease from him. Despite this, she continued to raise her four children with unwavering devotion, mourning her husband in black until her own death. Antony describes the heartbreak of his mother losing her voice before she died, leaving the family unable to say goodbye. He holds no anger toward his father, recognizing his suffering and the guilt he must have carried. Antony reflects that, despite immense loss, he feels the ongoing presence of his parents within him, particularly through sharing his mother's smile, and acknowledges that some wounds never fully heal. Chapters:00:00:00 Adapting dreams after a mother's dementia diagnosis00:03:32 Identifying early symptoms and primary progressive aphasia00:07:03 Transitioning to adulthood and losing normalcy with family00:10:33 Navigating language loss and changes in communication00:14:38 Processing anticipatory grief and finding her guiding spirit00:19:10 Reflecting on a beloved aunt who acted as a mother00:23:24 Grieving lost future milestones and forgetting a voice00:27:19 Seeking life advice and finding support through family bonds00:30:38 Remembering a mother's selfless sacrifice and early hardship00:33:24 Uncovering family secrets, terminal diagnosis, and forgiveness00:37:18 Forgiving past choices and recognizing a father's unspoken love00:41:24 Carrying on a mother's legacy and living with griefTopics: Living with a parent's dementiaNavigating anticipatory griefLoss of language from dementiaRemembering a beloved aunt after lossThe quiet pain of forgetting a voiceUnderstanding a father's dying wordsA mother's devotion through illnessChoosing forgiveness over angerLosing a parent during the pandemicFinding signs and legacy after lossFOLLOW 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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    45 Min.
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