From Valley of Shadows: The Devil's Punchbowl

From Valley of Shadows: The Devil's Punchbowl

Author: Pushkin Industries February 26, 2026 Duration: 47:11

Valley of Shadows is a new Pushkin true crime podcast that digs into a nearly 30-year old secret buried in the California desert. On June 11, 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jon Aujay went for a run in California’s Devil’s Punchbowl park...and never came back. Nearly 30 years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance has only deepened. Some say Aujay is just another missing hiker, claimed by the inhospitable landscape of the Southern California desert. Some say he took his own life out there. But there’s another theory that many of Aujay’s friends and LASD colleagues are convinced is true—that he was the victim of foul play, and that his own department is covering it up. Through exclusive interviews, revealing wiretaps, and buried police files, investigative reporters Hayley Fox and Betsy Shepherd uncover vestiges of the Wild West in a small California town, where outlaw biker gangs crank out methamphetamine and local cops operate on both sides of the law.

Find Valley of Shadows wherever you get podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell's journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every episode re-examines something from the past—an event, a person, an idea, even a song—and asks whether we got it right the first time. From Pushkin Industries. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance. To get early access to ad-free episodes and extra content, subscribe to Pushkin+ in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Revisionist History
Podcast Episodes
The Tipping Point Revisited: Georgetown Massacre Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:28
In the ‘Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal, the government indicted more than 50 people. Business leaders. Celebrities. Actors. Rich people accused of paying millions of dollars to get their children into elite un…
The Tipping Point Revisited: An Excerpt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:54
Today, we’re sharing an exclusive preview of the audiobook of Revenge of the Tipping Point. All about bank robbers and doctors. Find Revenge of the Tipping Point wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener f…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 9: A Plague on Both Your Houses. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:52
In the season finale, we turn back the clock four years, take a side trip to Alabama, meet an extraordinary man named Billy Garland, and ask: What is the right way to reconcile something pure with the messiness of the re…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 8: “Vater, It is to be Fayetteville” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:49
In the early 1930s, a young German law student spent a year in Arkansas, studying American “race law.” The fight over the 1936 Games provided Americans with a chance to study Nazi Germany. But it turns out the Nazis were…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 7: Long Jump, Tall Tale [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:15
Jesse Owens spent the rest of his life retelling the story of the 1936 games and his encounter with Luz Long. We trace the evolution of a tall tale, discovering the hidden life of one of America’s iconic sports heroes.Se…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 6: The Jiggle & the Giddy Up [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:11
The most famous athlete in Berlin was the American sprinter Jesse Owens, and one of the most famous stories from those Games was the unexpected, heartwarming encounter Owens had with the German long jumper Luz Long. The…
Pushkin Goes to the Olympics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:40
Legends are made at the Olympics and this summer shows across the Pushkin network are bringing their unique takes to Olympic stories. This special episode includes excerpts from a few: a Cautionary Tale about underestima…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 5: The Amateur’s Hour [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:25
A German Jewish high-jumper is determined to get her shot at Olympic greatness. And an idealist faces an existential choice. In the fifth episode of Hilter’s Olympics, Avery Brundage faces the reality for Jewish athletes…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 4: Outcast in Olympia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:45
The cheerleader-in-chief for the American Olympic movement was a brilliant, self-made Chicago tycoon named Avery Brundage. Brundage did more to ensure the success of the Berlin Games than anyone except Hitler. But what e…
Hitler’s Olympics, Part 3: Mustache to Mustache [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:44
With the fate of the Olympics on the line, Charles Sherrill travels to Germany to take up the question of Jewish athletes directly with the Führer. We dig through a dusty archive to uncover a long-buried account of their…