Elizabeth Smart Launches Podcast Celebrating Survivors

Elizabeth Smart knows what happens after the cameras leave and the headlines fade. Now she's creating space for other survivors to share that journey.

The advocate and survivor launched "The Survivor Files With Elizabeth Smart" this week through iHeartPodcasts. The weekly series features 48 conversations with people who lived through violent crimes and emerged stronger on the other side.

Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 and held captive for nine months. Two decades later, she's a mother of three who has dedicated her life to helping others through the Elizabeth Smart Foundation.

"The determination to continue moving forward, finding that inner strength, that's the part that just really speaks to me," Smart told The New York Times. She wanted listeners to understand not just what survivors endured, but who they've become since.

The first episode features Kara Robinson Chamberlain, who escaped a serial killer at age 15. Each conversation dives deep into the healing process, asking questions about the small steps forward and the ongoing work of recovery.

Smart approaches each interview with gentleness born from experience. She tells guests they can skip any question, take breaks when needed, or even suggest better ways to frame their stories. "This is your story," she reminds them. "We want it in your words."

Why This Inspires

Through dozens of conversations, Smart has heard one message repeated: nobody knows how strong they are until strength becomes their only option. Survivors she's interviewed experienced trauma 50 years ago and still describe healing as a work in progress.

"There is no timeline on healing," Smart says. "There is no magic formula. We're all just doing the best that we can."

The podcast format allows something rare in true crime media. Instead of experts analyzing victims' choices, survivors explain their own thinking in real time. Why didn't they run? What were they feeling? What did they think would happen next?

These details help listeners move from judgment to understanding. They reveal the complex reality of survival situations that look simple only from the outside.

Smart lives outside Salt Lake City now with her family. She still gets people telling her they could never survive what she did. Her response comes from interviewing countless others who thought the same thing about themselves.

"You don't know how strong you are until you're going through something," she says. "Nobody thinks they're that strong until they don't have another direction to go in."

The series puts survivor voices at the center of their own narratives, proving there's nothing more powerful than someone sharing their own story of darkness overcome by light.