True crime podcasts are incredibly popular. And almost all of them have one thing missing.
A happy ending.
Sure, depending on your point of view there’s often justice or closure. But what about those crimes that fall into a different category—because of what might be perceived as divine intervention?
‘The Miracle Files’
Sisters Holly Worthington and Emily Jones noticed this. Big fans of true crime podcasts, they realized that listening to those tales was beginning to feel dark and depressing. So they set out to find suspenseful, action-packed stories from real people with positive endings. Emily recalled the day they got the idea to do something different. “I called Holly, and she said she wasn’t listening to them anymore.” Holly said, “I felt like I needed to find some entertainment that was more uplifting.” They both searched for podcasts with a more positive tone, but they couldn’t find anything that fit their needs.
And like the old saying goes, when you need something done right, you do it yourself. So they set out to fill a void in the world of podcasting, but with a twist.
Emily wanted to add another element—gripping accounts that offered the possibility that a miracle was involved, that God somehow intervened in a crime or serious accident to make things right. The result is “The Miracle Files,” a regular podcast produced and hosted by the siblings since November 2023. Holly calls them “stories that end in a miracle instead of a murder.”
One recent podcast recounted the day San Francisco 49ers rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot three times in a broad daylight mugging. The player escaped death and made a miraculous recovery. A guardian angel was nearby in the form of a police sergeant who held the bleeding football player in her arms, put pressure on the wound, and told him, “It’s not your time. God is with us right now.”
The bullets missed every vital organ and the spinal cord, which Pearsall’s doctor said was “a one in a million shot to miss all those.”
Unseen Hands
So what “qualifies” as a miracle? Emily says, “It’s something that maybe shouldn’t have happened, and it’s clear that God intervened to change the outcome to His will. Extraordinary events that you can’t explain with science and you can’t explain with logic. That there’s a higher power at work.”
A young man fell 230 feet off a cliff in Australia’s outback, laid unconscious overnight, and survived with relatively minor injuries. Emily and Holly described each twist and turn of his events expertly; from a rescue call where cell service should not exist, to weather that seemed heaven-sent to preserve the boy’s brain from swelling, nearly everything about this episode seemed miraculous.
Holly thinks, “There are these amazing experiences that people have which show that God is real and they can’t deny it. There is some kind of divine intervention.”
It’s not like we hear of miracles every day. So how do the sisters find these inspirational stories? Holly says the stories find them. “Well, first off, we have an amazing audience who send us incredible stories. And of course, these are God’s stories. There are so many stories that never get reported in the news.”
All in the Family
Despite their 12-year age difference, the sisters have always been close. Holly is the oldest of five children while Emily is the youngest. Growing up in Idaho Falls, Idaho (which Holly calls “the frozen tundra”), Holly would do Emily’s hair when she was little. The bond continued when Holly went off to college. The sisters wrote letters to each other, and Emily would come and stay with Holly in her dorm.
While they had no experience producing podcasts, they did possess the necessary skills. Holly is a writer who has written for magazines while Emily was a wedding videographer who had a great deal of experience editing. Basically, they had the skill set of a television news crew.
So far, they’ve done more than 60 podcasts as it has turned into a full time job for both. Emily feels they’re very different from what you’d normally find online. “It’s not a typical podcast where you interview people. We produce it. We call it a movie in your ear. A theater for your mind.” The use of suspenseful storytelling, sound effects, and music heightens the telling.
When putting the podcast together, Holly writes the script, then gets it approved by the people who experienced the miracle. Emily then edits the story while adding music and sound effects. They strive for a really powerful but also an entertaining experience. For the shorter Miracle in the News stories, they sort through the day’s news. Holly says if you want to see a miracle, you don’t have to go far. “They really are everywhere if we have eyes to see.”
Growing Faith
They’ve made it a point to not get into politics or specific religions because they want the podcast to appeal to everyone. Holly said, “No one religion has a monopoly on God’s miracles. People have told us our podcast feels like a safe place where they can come and hear about God.” Emily agreed. “Anybody who wants to come and see the goodness of God and celebrate His miracles, we want [them] to feel welcome.”
The response has been huge, as the podcasts get about 100,000 downloads per month and are often in the top 100 podcasts in the religion and spirituality charts. Globally, “The Miracle Files” ranks in the top 1 percent of podcasts with about 400,000 followers, with about a 30 percent growth each month.
Beyond the numbers, the sisters feel the podcast is making a difference. Holly feels loyalty is a key factor. “We see how people who are loyal to God are willing to be used as instruments of his hand in helping other people.” One of her favorite responses came from a viewer who told her, “I go back and forth about whether there is a God. But your podcast makes me want to believe there is a God. It brings me one step closer.”
Emily said, “If it can help people feel closer to God, that’s what our podcast is for.”
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
