Betrayal Weekly - Betrayal: Secrets & Lies with ABC News Studios | BONUS

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Find out how Betrayal Weekly became a new series on ABC Primetime. Check out Betrayal: Secrets and Lies. Episodes air every Sunday at 10pm EST/9pm CST on ABC.  If you would like to share your sto...ry, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Follow our newsletter and join the Betrayal community at betrayal.substack.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.
Starting point is 00:00:15 But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:00:44 When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriend. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe, on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:01:12 Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become, when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty. that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance.
Starting point is 00:01:42 And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, listeners. I'm Jamal Jordan, the host of Roarshack, Murder at City Hall podcast. In July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis, an ambitious rising star in Brooklyn politics, was murdered inside New York City Hall, shot to death in front of more than 200 people. The killer?
Starting point is 00:02:17 His political opponent, a man named Neil Askew. The full story of this shocking public murder and the relationship between these two men has not yet been told. Until now. I want to let you know that you can get access to all episodes of Rochak murder at City Hall. 100% ad-free with an I-Heart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to all episodes of Rochak Murder at City Hall one week ahead of everyone else,
Starting point is 00:02:49 available only to I-Heart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for I-Heart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. I am joined today by David Sloan and Mariel Pearson. I know who you are, and you guys are huge advocates of betrayal. But can you tell the audience who you are in relationship to the show? David, why don't you go first?
Starting point is 00:03:15 Sure. I'm the creative lead for ABC News Longform, which comprises ABC News Studios, 2020, Nightline, and Impact, our other news magazines. So I'm the creative lead over content. And I'm Ariel Pearson. I'm the executive producer over here overseeing. Your wonderful show, Andrea. And, yeah, I work really closely with David on a lot of the things that he's working on,
Starting point is 00:03:42 but I work really closely with your producer, John Hirsch, on making beautiful television out of your amazing podcast. How did you guys get into true crime? David is the king of true crime. I'm passing that to you. I mean, I have been doing crime since I worked on 20, 25 years ago, or maybe a little longer. And I became the executive producer for 20 years. And it's ferreting out these stories of not only the most notorious. And it's like the seven deadly sins.
Starting point is 00:04:16 I mean, why crimes are committed. It's jealousy. It's envy. It's anger. These are universal kinds of feelings in humanity. But the eighth deadly sin is betrayal. It's almost the eighth's deadly sin. It's not in there, along with gluttony and sloth and all of those other ones.
Starting point is 00:04:34 It really is one of the deadly sins. And again, it has a commonality where someone everywhere on earth has been betrayed by someone, big or small. I'm so curious. What made you guys interested in taking the weekly series and converting it to TV? Obviously, we've done Stacey's story, Jen's story, and Ashley's story. Yes. What made you interested in the weekly format? It's been remarkable, these limited series on Hulu.
Starting point is 00:05:04 have been remarkably received and keep adding viewers all the time in terms of driving subscriptions on Hulu. And then we just thought, like, why are we doing this for the network? But you know what is really remarkable about this is we all ask about how transferable these kinds of stories and the popularity is between platforms. And I think what we've learned from your show and a couple others is with a very, very powerful podcast, that transcends. translates into network. That translates into viewers on Hulu. And it is astonishing to me because there are very few things that migrate cross-platform with the success of betrayal. And we've seen it happen time and again, certainly with the Hulu series and with the network series as well. Your listeners, your audience are tuned in to watch these stories as they evolve on television
Starting point is 00:05:58 series. They're a very loyal community. And so it's really cool to see. them support every phase of betrayal, whether it be when we went from Limited to the weekly, and then when we launched the show on Hulu. So it's really cool to see the feedback from the listeners and then advocate for the show and for the storytellers. What are some of the stories that you're looking forward to the most this season? I mean, obviously I have my darlings, but I'm curious which ones are yours? I'm looking forward to the abduction.
Starting point is 00:06:29 I mean, where do you get the story of, first of all, the best stories have, the perpetrator or the husband, as I will call him, he's really a perpetrator. The best villains are the ones hiding in play sight. So this guy is a devoted father. He's a financial advisor who his clients trust. He's an elder at their church. And to think that he also would get involved in abduction and ransom and soundproof dungeon with victims, it's almost shocks the conscience. And it is really the ones who are hiding in plain sight that are truly remarkable and the most frightening. What about you, Mariel? I am looking forward to Morgan because Morgan is so spunky. Morgan is successful. Morgan is not going to let anybody take her down. Morgan
Starting point is 00:07:23 fights back, as many of these women do. You don't have to be victimized. You don't have to take it from somebody, you can do something about it. And it is fascinating to me how a woman like Morgan kind of shows you a little bit of the heart of darkness. Because one little theme that I've seen emerge from this series is a lot of men who really didn't feel comfortable with their wives' success, that they really, who knows at what point they decided they wanted to take that down, but it was a power thing. It wasn't just a betrayal thing, which is already all. awful enough. But it really raised questions in my mind about what the ultimate, deeper, darker motivation of some of these men was. Were they trying to take that woman down?
Starting point is 00:08:10 It's such a great point. When you watch Crystal Harris's episode, you will find similarities between Sean Harris, which is Crystal's husband, and Rodney, Morgan's ex-husband. Different scenarios. Cristle was the breadwinner. She was working. He was taking. He was taking care of the kids, and then he experiences loss, and he starts to change. The same story is very similar in Morgan's case. It's really, to see things, just, you know, to see those, like, themes come up in these perpetrators and the offenders are so fascinating. Yes. The one thing I was going to say off your point, David, about these perpetrators hiding in plain sight is some of these stories are hiding in plain sight. I remember when Danielle emailed us. I think our email was,
Starting point is 00:09:00 three sentences long. And it was just like big fan of the podcast, you know, really quick in and out. You would have no idea what that woman went through. She just heard the show. She wrote in. And you would never know that her husband at one point had dungeon in a random rental property. You know, it's a real indication of you just don't know what someone has gone through or what they're going through. I'm so full of admiration to the glass group because what you have done with the podcast and we've been lucky enough to meet you and to collaborate with you on the network and on Hulu is that you've created a sisterhood. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:43 You've created a sisterhood not of just listeners, but women who can bear witness to stories like the other listeners. and it's very, very impressive and rare, and the fact that it keeps regenerating and really snowballing into almost this sort of movement of women sharing these stories and taking power and empowering themselves.
Starting point is 00:10:12 It's just this collective strength that I really admire all of you for bringing this about. Oh, thank you for saying that. That means a lot to me. What I kind of love about this series is true crime in the past has taken a little bit of criticism because it's been too much about the crime, the salacious of the crime or the perpetrator. This brings it firmly into the space of the victims of the people to whom the crime is being perpetrated on. But I've got to say that there's
Starting point is 00:10:43 something incredibly emotionally compelling about constantly reframing the crime within that context between a woman's inside of a woman's point of view. Although I shouldn't just say a woman because, I mean, we should tease it a little bit, Andrea, that we have a man. We have a man betrayal in our coming up. We do. Ramon, and he was the first man that we had on the Weekly, and that was a watershed moment.
Starting point is 00:11:12 Obviously, aside from Tyler on the Hulu Doc, it was, I think Tyler really set a stage for men to participate in betrayal. Because I do think that there is a level of shame in every storyteller where they feel they're the only one that got duped. They're the only one that didn't see it. And I think for male storytellers, it's really hard in particular. And Ramon, man, is he not just so strong and willing? And just to stand on his two feet and say, this is what happened to me. I am so grateful to the both of you for believing in betrayal and just being a fan.
Starting point is 00:11:52 of the show and the stories. And so I can't thank you enough. Muriel, do you want to tell the audience where they can find betrayal, secrets, and lies? Betrayal, secrets and lies coming to the ABC News Network near you. Sundays, 10 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus afterwards.
Starting point is 00:12:11 Watch us and be part of that wonderful sisterhood that David was talking about. Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you taking the time. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wode. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.
Starting point is 00:12:39 My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be.
Starting point is 00:13:02 Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot in luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends.
Starting point is 00:13:31 Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe, on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance.
Starting point is 00:14:10 And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, listeners. I'm Jamal Jordan, the host of Roershack, Murder at City Hall podcast. In July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis, an ambitious. rising star in Brooklyn politics was murdered inside New York City Hall, shot to death in front of more than 200 people. The killer? His political opponent, a man named Neil Askew. The full story of this shocking public murder and the relationship between these two men has not yet been told until now. I want to let you know that you can get
Starting point is 00:15:00 access to all episodes of Rochak murder at City Hall, 100% absent. free with an Iheart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to all episodes of Rochak murder at City Hall one week ahead of everyone else, available only to IHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

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