In 1999 liet een jonge Amerikaan zijn fiets achter en liep de uitgestrekte Great Sandy Desert in het afgelegen noorden van Australië in. Hij was een brandweerman uit Alaska, iemand die alles leek te hebben om voor te leven. Waarom riskeerde hij alles om alleen de wildernis in te trekken? En hoe zoek je iemand die helemaal niet gevonden wil worden?
In 2022 raakte presentatrice Erin Parke geobsedeerd door het verhaal van Robert Bogucki, een saga die uitmondde in een mediahype en iedereen die erbij betrokken was deed nadenken over leven, dood en wie we zijn wanneer alles wat makkelijk is wordt weggenomen. Het verhaal strekt zich uit over drie decennia, twee continenten en een bizarre cast van personages. Van bloedhonden met een eigenzinnige flair tot een grotere- dan-het-leven, sigaarrokende Amerikaan genaamd Gunslinger, de zoektocht naar de vermiste man werd uiteindelijk een spektakel op zich.
In 1999 a young American dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. He was an Alaskan firefighter, seemingly with everything to live for. So why did he risk it all to go into the wilderness alone? And how do you search for someone who doesn’t want to be found?
In 2022, host Erin Parke became obsessed with the saga of Robert Bogucki, which became a media circus and prompted everyone involved to think about life, death and who we are when everything easy is stripped away. It’s a story that spans three decades, two continents and a bizarre cast of characters. From booty-wearing bloodhounds, to a larger-than-life, cigar-chomping American named Gunslinger, the search for the missing man became a spectacle in itself.
In season 5, Expanse: Nowhere Man, Erin sets out to discover why some people are pushed to lose themselves in the wilderness on a search for meaning. At a time when so many of us feel lost, just how far would you go to feel found?
New episodes released each Wednesday.
Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.
In Series 4: Uncropped, host Danielle O’Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government’s classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.
Spies in the Outback (Series 3) won the Excellence in Radio Broadcasting award at the Northern Territory Media Awards in 2024 for the story of Pine Gap, a secret US/Australian defence base hidden in the outback.
From the Dead (Series 2) won silver in the Documentary: History category at the New York Radio Festival awards. It delves into a wild tale of survival at sea off Tasmania’s rugged southwest coast.
Pink Diamond Heist (Series 1) was shortlisted in the New York Radio Awards, Documentary: History category. This season takes you on a rollicking ride through Western Australia on the trail of a diamond heist.
The search for Robert Bogucki brought together a cast of colourful characters, including a cigar-toting, moustachioed American named Garrison ‘Gunslinger’ St Clair.
