Dan Becker Podcast

In February of 2005, brothers Jim and Dave Metza set out for a day of snowmobiling on Wisconsin’s Chippewa River. While attempting to cross the 300-yard-wide river, Dave’s snowmobile suddenly broke through the ice, plunging him into the freezing water approximately 75 yards from safety. Jim watched from the riverbank, knowing that rushing onto the unstable ice could kill them both. A former Coast Guard helicopter rescue crew member, he understood exactly how quickly a rescuer could become another victim. Desperate to reach Dave, Jim rode downstream searching for a safer place to cross. Then the ice collapsed beneath his snowmobile too. Separated by hundreds of yards, both brothers were now fighting for their lives. Jim spent approximately 30 minutes in the water before finally pulling himself onto the ice. Dave remained trapped for more than an hour, breaking ice with his arms as the current carried him downstream and hypothermia began shutting down his body. After reaching a nearby house and calling for help, Jim returned to the river. Believing Dave might still be alive, he crawled back across the unstable ice and somehow pulled his brother from the water. Both brothers survived, but the experience never truly left them. In this deeply emotional conversation, Jim and Dave recount what happened on the river, the impossible decisions Jim was forced to make and the trauma he had never fully processed until now.

In 2005, 16-year-old Craig Hutto was on vacation in Florida with his family, wading out to fish with his older brother Brian, when something bumped his leg. Seconds later, a bull shark latched onto him and pulled him under. Brian swam straight into the attack, grabbed his brother, and fought to drag him back toward shore while the shark refused to let go. Craig tried to pry the shark’s mouth open with his hands. Brian punched it again and again until it finally released him. Craig survived, but the attack cost him his leg. Today, I’m sitting down with both brothers to hear what really happened in the water that day.

Kennedy Bingham was just 16 years old when one ordinary drive home turned into an unbelievable fight to survive. After losing control of her vehicle, Kennedy was ejected from the car, thrown nearly 30 feet into the air, and ended up hanging from a live power line by her broken leg. For over an hour, she hung there fully conscious, badly injured, bleeding, and waiting for rescuers to figure out how to get her down safely. The crash nearly killed her. Kennedy lost her leg, suffered a devastating injury to her arm, and faced a long road of surgeries, pain, and recovery. But what makes her story so powerful isn’t just what happened on that power line. It’s what happened after. In this episode, Kennedy shares the terrifying details of the accident, the moment she realized how badly she was hurt, the emotional weight of losing a limb, and how she found the strength to keep going when life looked completely different than she ever imagined.

Jordan Hatmaker survived what almost no one should survive. During a skydiving jump from 13,500 feet, Jordan’s parachute malfunctioned. Her chute became tangled around her leg, her reserve deployed, and the two parachutes sent her into a violent spin toward the ground. Seconds later, she hit the earth — conscious — with devastating injuries to her back, leg, and ankle. In this interview, Jordan walks me through exactly what happened in the sky, what she remembers from the impact, the fear of possibly being paralyzed, the long road through surgery and recovery, and how she found the strength to walk again.This is a story about survival, faith, fear, recovery, and what happens when the thing you love most almost takes your life.

Brady Lowry was attacked by a grizzly bear while he and his friend Kendell Cummings were out in the Wyoming backcountry. When Kendell saw the bear on Brady, he didn’t run, he jumped in and tried to pull the bear off his friend. The grizzly then turned on Kendell and mauled him too. Then it buried him alive.