1 | No Place Like Nome

Often Nome, Alaska is claimed to be settled by gold miners, but Alaska Natives have been in the sub-arctic area for thousands of years. It is also unfortunately the site of a disproportionately high number of missing Indigenous and Native Alaskan women. When Up and Vanished host, Payne Lindsey, receives a tip from one of his producers about Florence Okpealuk, an Alaskan native who went missing in 2020, he is drawn to the mystery of her disappearance. As Payne begins his research, he finds an email from Okpeluk's family asking him to cover her case, and is compelled to continue. He will soon learn the difficulty of covering a case in the Land of the Midnight Sun as he begins his journey northward to Nome.

Follow the show on Instagram: @upandvanished

Subscribe to Tenderfoot+ for ad-free listening, exclusive bonuses and early access starting on 2/23. {apple.co/upandvanished}