You Cant Make This Up

The Netflix sports documentary series Untold: Chess Mates looks back at the controversy surrounding a disruptive challenger to the Game of Kings. We hear from Hans Niemann and examine the claims he upset the reigning world champion by receiving radio signals in anal beads. It also features interviews with the chess luminaries who accused Niemann of cheating in the ultimate test of cerebral fitness. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews Grandmaster Hans Niemann.  SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Untold: Chess Mates yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

The Netflix documentary series Trust Me: The False Prophet follows Dr. Christine Marie as she pivots from confidante and documentarian to investigator, as she helps authorities build a case against fundamentalist cult leader Samuel Bateman. Featuring interviews with FLDS members and exclusive video from inside this insular community, Trust Me: The False Prophet provides a unique view on a story of coercion, abuse, faith, and redemption.  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews Dr. Christine Marie. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Trust Me: The False Prophet yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Read more about Samuel Bateman and FLDS community and where the survivors are today. Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film The Plastic Detox explores the many ways microplastics are affecting nature and our wellbeing, and seeks solutions to what has become an international, public health problem. It follows one scientist asking the question: if people reduce their exposure and let their bodies flush out the microplastics, can it reverse the growing global trend of infertility? In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Louie Psihoyos. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Plastic Detox yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Find out more about the issue of microplastics and to learn what the Plastic Detox couples are doing now. Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary series Dynasty: The Murdochs goes deep inside the succession battle among Rupert Murdoch and his adult children. It shows how Murdoch used a mix of controversy and conservatism to build an empire — but his unwillingness to settle the question of a successor imperiled everything. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews co-directors Liz Garbus and Sara Enright. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Dynasty: The Murdochs yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.  You Can’t Make This Up is a co-production of Netflix and Partners in Crime Media.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model brings together the stars, producers, and contestants to discuss the show’s success and confront its legacy of problematic segments. The Netflix documentary series explores how the show, envisioned as changing the modeling industry, came to re-enforce its darkest qualities. And it lets Tyra Banks and her co-stars address the criticism that their TV show did not age well.  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews  directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com. There you can read even more about the legacy of “America’s Next Top Model.” Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary series Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model reexamines the TV show’s impact on a nation’s perception of beauty and the troubling situations it put contestants through in the name of entertainment. It offers behind the scenes stories from Tyra Banks, her co-stars, and her producers, and their thoughts today about the program’s most controversial moments. And it features emotional interviews with former contestants who ask, if the show was rooting for them, why were they treated the way they were? In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, former ANTM judges Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker reveal details they've never shared before from behind the scenes of the show. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podc

Today we’re turning things over to our friends at Netflix’s Skip Intro and their conversation with Elizabeth Smart. She reflects on the harrowing experience of being abducted from her bedroom at just 14 years old. In this intimate conversation, Elizabeth opens up about why she wanted to retell her story in more explicit detail in the Netflix film Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, and help other survivors not feel alone. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Read more about how Elizabeth Smart reclaimed a normal life and why she decided to share her story with filmmakers.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart goes deep inside the famous crime with the stories of those who were there - including Elizabeth herself. She talks in detail about her abduction, the abuse she suffered, and lengths she went to stay safe in captivity. We also hear from her family about how they kept the search going to have that reunion with their missing loved one. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews Director Benedict Sanderson & Executive Producer Claire Goodlass. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Read more about how Elizabeth Smart reclaimed a normal life and why she decided to share her story with filmmakers.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

The Netflix series Sean Combs: The Reckoning uses powerful interviews and behind-the-scenes footage to tell Sean “Puffy” Combs’ story from restless kid to federal defendant. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews former business partner Kirk Burrowes about what it was like to build a record label with Combs and his reaction to the hit documentary. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Sean Combs: The Reckoning yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

We return to our discussion of the one true crime story you couldn’t get enough of in 2025: the Netflix documentary series Amy Bradley is Missing. Host Rebecca Lavoie revisits her conversation with directors Phil Lott and Ari Mark. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Amy Bradley is Missing yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

On this episode, we’re revisiting one of the most thought-provoking and conversation-starting films from the past year. We’ll return to our discussion of the Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor. Host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Geeta Gandbhir and producer Nikon Kwantu. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Perfect Neighbor yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Right now you can read more about the fallout from the case.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

In our latest look at the Netflix documentary series Sean Combs: The Reckoning, we’ll hear from Combs’s former personal assistant, Capricorn Clark. She talks about her complex working relationship with Combs, the difficulties of coming forward with her story, what it was like to face him in federal court, and her reaction to the jurors who said in the series that she was not a convincing witness. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Sean Combs: The Reckoning yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo follows war correspondent Gary Knight as he attempts to learn who actually captured the famous “Napalm Girl” picture. The hunt for the unidentified photographer will take him across the globe and put him at odds with a journalistic community deeply protective of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Nick Út’s legacy. Knight enlists a visual forensics team to pinpoint which cameraman in Trảng Bàng was in position to snap the picture that altered the way many viewed the war in Vietnam.  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Bao Nguyen. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Stringer yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The four-part Netflix series Sean Combs: The Reckoning is a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend, and convicted offender. It features never before-seen-videos of Combs in the days before his arrest. It also offers exclusive interviews with those who allege he used violence to succeed in business and exploit women.  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews executive producers Alexandria Stapleton and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Sean Combs: The Reckoning yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film The Carman Family Deaths looks into the strange events surrounding Nathan Carman and whether he murdered his mother and grandfather for a multimillion dollar inheritance. It explores whether police misinterpreted the typical behavior of an autistic person as incriminating, and whether the tragedy on the high seas was an accident or a crime. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews executive producers Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Carman Family Deaths  yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

The Netflix documentary Being Eddie looks at Eddie Murphy’s remarkable life - from superstardom to career lows and back again. For the first time, he tells his own story about his varied artistic choices, avoiding celebrity pitfalls, and living as a dad and a homebody. It features interviews with legendary comedians who discuss Murphy’s legacy and ponder what it must be like being Eddie Murphy.  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Angus Wall. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Being Eddie yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com. Learn more about what’s next for Eddie Murphy - and what classic all-star film he wants to remake. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary series Marines follow the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as they prepare for a high-stakes training exercise that tests their readiness “in the air, on land and sea.” The series follows a group of enlisted men and officers  - snipers, gunners, and pilots - as they push themselves physically and emotionally in order “to claim the title of United States Marine.”  In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews Director Chelsea Yarnell and author & Executive Producer Sebastian Junger. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Marines yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

The Netflix documentary film Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers recounts Aileen Wuornos’s violent childhood, lethal killing spree, and problematic trial. It provides additional context to her story and invites viewers to reconsider her complicated legacy. Featuring never-before-seen footage from death row, Wuornos discusses the trauma she endured, the case against her, and the victims of her crimes. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Emily Turner. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Read more about Aileen Wuornos and how her murderous legacy is being reconsidered. Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film Who Killed the Montreal Expos? revisits the baseball team’s collapse and relocation to Washington. It lets heartbroken fans, beloved players, and vilified owners point fingers at who or what was responsible for the club’s demise. Was it management blunders, labor disputes, political indifference, or basic economics? Or…do all these things share blame for Montréal losing its beloved baseball team?   In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Jean-François Poisson and executive producer Marie-Christine Pouliot. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Who Killed the Montreal Expos? yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! There you can read more about the Expos’s sad and shocking downfall. Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

The Netflix documentary film The Perfect Neighbor offers a real-time look at the simmering dispute between a white woman and her Black neighbors. Told largely through police body cam footage, it reveals the petty complaints that started the conflict - and the heart-wrenching grief when it ended. It also explores whether Susan Lorincz tried to weaponize police against those living around her and whether she tried to exploit self-defense laws to commit murder. In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Geeta Gandbhir and producer Nikon Kwantu. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Perfect Neighbor yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com! Right now you can read more about the fallout from the case.  Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.