All posts tagged: Survivor

A 100-Year-Old D-Day Survivor Reflects

A 100-Year-Old D-Day Survivor Reflects

Published by Sam Flores

Joe Picard perched atop a precarious mound of 300-plus-pound high-explosive shells as his ship churned toward Normandy’s beaches. The teenager had been at sea only once before, to cross the Atlantic, and now he was sailing across the English Channel to pile into the breach that Allied forces had opened in Hitler’s defenses weeks earlier, on D-Day. Smoke from the fighting still rose on the horizon, but Picard’s eyes scanned the gray water below for signs of German U-boats. “You know,” he told the soldier next to him, “if we ever get hit with a torpedo here, they won’t ever find a trace of us.” More than 80 years later, few men like Picard remain: those who participated in the boldest military operation of the 20th century and can lay claim to membership in the “greatest generation.” Less than 0.5 percent of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive. Before long, the great invasion of France that began on June 6, 1944—and the Second World War itself—will …

Trauma survivor Elizabeth Smart finds strength in bodybuilding : NPR

Trauma survivor Elizabeth Smart finds strength in bodybuilding : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Elizabeth Smart says she has gained confidence as a competitive bodybuilder. She continues to be an advocate for women and victims of sexual violence after she was kidnapped when she was 14. Kim Raff for NPR hide caption toggle caption Kim Raff for NPR The first time Elizabeth Smart stepped on stage at a bodybuilding competition, she was terrified. She says her smile froze. Her hands shook. Every movement had been choreographed and practiced over and over again, down to the turns and poses she would hit beneath the bright stage lights. But there was only so much she could do to prepare for the pageantry. Unlike in training, she was wearing oversized costume jewelry, including a large ring. The blonde hair extensions were new, too. Then, as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, the ring snagged one of the extensions. “I just ended up ripping through the extension and just taking out a chunk of my hair, and then turning around and smiling,” she says, laughing about it now. At the time, she …

Jeff Probst Spoils Survivor 50 Fire-Making Challenge Live

Jeff Probst Spoils Survivor 50 Fire-Making Challenge Live

Published by Daniella Wilson

Jeff Probst mistakenly revealed who won the Survivor 50 fire-making challenge during the live finale episode on Wednesday night, spoiling the top three of the season for viewers. During the season finale of the reality series, Rizo Velovic was brought out onto the stage prematurely before his fire-making competition against Jonathan Young was shown in the episode. Earlier in the show’s episode, Aubry Bracco triumphed in the final immunity challenge and chose Velovic and Young to compete in the iconic Survivor challenge, which determines the final three competitors of a season. Probst pronounced that Velovic had become “the final member of our jury,” as the audience members barely clapped and the rest of the already-eliminated contestants and jury members looked visibly confused. “What just happened?” Probst questioned, to which the eliminated Survivor contestants told the host and showrunner that “fire hasn’t happened yet” in the episode. “I’m not even sure what’s happened,” Probst quipped as he sent the show to a commercial break. Once he returned, he shed light on what really played out live …

Mike White Casts Survivor 50 Charlie, Kamilla for White Lotus Season 4

Mike White Casts Survivor 50 Charlie, Kamilla for White Lotus Season 4

Published by Daniella Wilson

Mike White revealed during the Survivor 50 finale on Wednesday night that his fellow players, Charlie Davis and Kamilla Karthigesu, will be featured on the fourth season of The White Lotus. The Emmy Award winner called into the live finale episode as he’s currently in France shooting for the upcoming installment. While speaking with Jeff Probst, the host asked if season four would encompass any Survivor cameos and if he’d be able to reveal exactly which players were joining the scripted series. “Everybody’s invited, but there are gonna be two contestants that we’re flying out to be in the show, and they are Charlie and Kamilla,” White said. White has famously featured former Survivor players from his first season in every installment of the beloved HBO drama. He originally appeared on the show’s 37th season that aired in 2018, which was entitled David vs. Goliath (he was labeled a “Goliath” thanks to his profession as a filmmaker). Season one of The White Lotus featured Alec Merlino in not just a cameo role, but the recurring role …

Where’s the Survivor season 1 winner now? All about Richard Hatch’s new life including prison stint

Where’s the Survivor season 1 winner now? All about Richard Hatch’s new life including prison stint

Published by Daniella Wilson

Survivor Season 50 is coming to it’s dramatic conclusion on Wednesday, May 20. The final five castaways, Aubry Bracco, Tiffany Ervin, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, and Rizo Velovic, are competing for a $2 million prize. And while this season featured many Survivor legends, from Cirie Fields to Coach Wade, the winner of Survivor season one, Richard Hatch, stayed off the island, leading die hard fans to wonder where he is now. Keep reading to learn all about Richard Hatch’s life, including his controversial prison stint, 25 years after winning the first season of Survivor. © Getty Images Richard Hatch’s villain arc on Survivor In 2000, Survivor premiered and changed reality television forever. Hosted by Jeff Probst, 16 participants were left in a remote area of Borneo, Malaysia. They were tasked with surviving for 39 days, split into two tribes, and competed in immunity challenges to win supplies. Richard became one of reality TV’s original villains, using calculated manipulation and arrogance to last all 39 days.  In October 2024, Richard opened about his reputation, telling People: …

Albrecht Weinberg, a Holocaust survivor who returned to Germany in his 80s, dies at 101

Albrecht Weinberg, a Holocaust survivor who returned to Germany in his 80s, dies at 101

Published by Sam Flores

BERLIN (AP) — Albrecht Weinberg, who survived several Nazi concentration and death camps and lost most of his family in the Holocaust before returning to Germany in his 80s, has died at the age of 101, authorities in his home region said Tuesday. Weinberg died in Leer, in northwestern Germany, weeks after he marked his birthday and the premiere of a film about his life, “Es ist immer in meinem Kopf” (“It is always in my head”), attended by hundreds of guests, the city said in a statement. “Since returning from New York to his East Frisian home 14 years ago, Albrecht recounted tirelessly and with incredible energy his terrible experiences during the Nazi era and warned again and again against forgetting,” Mayor Claus-Peter Horst said. Weinberg, who was born in Rhauderfehn, near Leer, on March 7, 1925, survived incarceration at the Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen camps as well as three death marches at the end of World War II. He spent years teaching high school students and others about the atrocities he had to …

The Secret of ‘Survivor’: It’s About Individualism vs. Community

The Secret of ‘Survivor’: It’s About Individualism vs. Community

Published by José Betancourt

There’s a clue to the secret of Survivor less than 10 minutes into the very first episode. It’s not any of the obvious things: the marooning on remote shores, the obstacle-course challenges, the pathetic attempts at lighting fires or building bamboo shanties. It’s something both subtler and more fundamental, and it is why the show has stayed fascinating for 50 seasons and more than 25 years. It was May 2000, and two of the competitors—Richard Hatch and Sue Hawk—were having a frustrating conversation. The members of their tribe were running around the beach at cross-purposes, trying to set up camp—to set up a society. Richard, a consultant, was consulting. He was trying to marshal them toward a common goal, but it wasn’t working. “Why are we here? And what’s the point?” he vented to Sue. “Oh, I figured that out before I come here,” Sue replied. “And you haven’t?” “I have, for me,” Richard said. “But we haven’t, for us.” That first season had an uncertainty to it. Was Survivor primarily about watching strangers build …

William tells Southport survivor ‘you’re so brave’ at garden party

William tells Southport survivor ‘you’re so brave’ at garden party

Published by Sam Flores

The Prince of Wales told a yoga teacher who survived the Southport attack “you’re so brave”, and she said it was “like meeting an old friend again” after they chatted at a garden party. Leanne Lucas told William about her Let’s Be Blunt campaign when she was invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace on Friday afternoon. Ms Lucas began her campaign in the wake of the attack in Merseyside in July 2024 that saw Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, murdered – and eight children and two adults hurt. Source link

In ‘Conversion Therapy Dropout,’ a survivor exposes the discredited practice

In ‘Conversion Therapy Dropout,’ a survivor exposes the discredited practice

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — When the U.S. Supreme Court passed down its 8-1 decision against Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy last month, Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez knew exactly what was at stake. That’s because he spent eight years in conversion therapy, inundated with messages about the need to change himself to be accepted by his evangelical Christian faith community. Even after his exit from the “ex-gay” organization Exodus International, Schraeder Rodriguez continued to work behind the scenes for evangelical powerhouses like Hillsong Church, Willow Creek Community Church and Elevation Church — but soon grew weary of being accepted for what he could contribute to these groups, but not for who he was. In his debut book, “Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith & Belonging,” Schraeder Rodriguez gives an inside look at his attempt to “pray the gay away.” “Conversion therapy is not a thing of the past,” Schraeder Rodriguez told RNS. “It is a clear and present danger, and data and statistics are one thing, but what changes hearts is people’s stories and their experiences. I …

Jeffrey Epstein ties spur Wexner Foundation alums to start survivor fund

Jeffrey Epstein ties spur Wexner Foundation alums to start survivor fund

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Rachel Faulkner was working at a Jewish nonprofit that advocates for gender equity when she was selected for a prestigious, three-year professional development fellowship through the Wexner Foundation. Established by retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, the foundation headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, had been highly regarded for its competitive and rigorous fellowships that train midcareer Jewish leaders, both clergy and lay. Faulkner said she had heard that Wexner had ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who once was Wexner’s financial manager, when she accepted the fellowship in 2022. But she was not aware of the extent of the two men’s collaboration. Especially after Wexner’s congressional testimony in February on the heels of the Epstein files’ release, she said, she has now felt the need to distance herself from the foundation and to make amends for her association with Wexner’s foundation. Earlier this month, Faulkner and a handful of other Wexner alumni launched a fund to help survivors of sexual violence and exploitation. The Ashru Fund’s first goal is to raise $100,000 for two nonprofits …