Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
Jacob Haendel has been handed a death sentence with a terminal progressive disease. As he slips into a coma, he remains fully conscious but unable to communicate. Friends and family visit less frequently until only one person remains, who begins whispering strange admissions. This true story follows Jake's survival and the terrifying realization that the scariest thing in the room is the person beside him.
Episodes
From Deep Cover: The Family Man
Deep Cover is a true crime show about double lives, from our friends at Pushkin Industries. Their new season, The Family Man, is a story about how families can deceive each other and the lengths we’ll go to to protect our loved ones. Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis, but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them
Out Now: Crime Scene Weekly — Unforgettable True Crime Stories
From The Binge, Crime Scene plunges you into stories you can’t stop thinking about—revisiting cases that deserve a second look.
Join Jonathan Hirsch (My Fugitive Dad, Dear Franklin Jones) and investigative reporter Cooper Moll as they crack open overlooked details, challenge the official narrative, and uncover what others missed. Each episode delivers the depth of a true crime mini-series in
BLINK Q&A: You Asked, Jake Answers Part 2
Hannah Smith sits down with Jake Haendel to answer the questions listeners have been waiting for—what really happened behind the scenes, why the show suddenly paused, and how legal realities shaped what he could and couldn’t say at the time. Jake revisits the sperm-bank situation in greater depth, breaking down what’s known, what remains unresolved, and how returning to it has reshaped his underst
BLINK Q&A: You Asked, Jake Answers Part 1
Journalist Hannah Smith hosts an intimate BLINK Q&A with Jake Haendel, responding to listener questions submitted across platforms. Jake revisits locked-in syndrome, the exact moment he finally broke free—and what it felt like—along with storming, recovery updates, and life after going public. The conversation also explores addiction, resilience, and what comes next.
Part 2 dives into the break
Work in Progress
In the final episode of Blink, Jake brings us into his world today, offering a raw, powerful look at what healing truly means—and what comes after survival.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, mental health crises, emotional distress & mature content.
Resources can be found on our website, blinkthepodcast.com
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Hosted and produced by Corinne Vien
Co-
The Proxy Trap
Jake’s search for answers pulls him into the unsettling world of Munchausen by proxy—a rare, insidious form of abuse where illness is manufactured for attention. And as he revisits his own medical history, he’s left to wonder: did a real diagnosis conceal something even darker?
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, child abuse, child loss, pregnancy loss, medical child ab
Bad Batch
Jake’s long-held theory—that his illness wasn’t accidental—takes a jarring turn when a Facebook message arrives from someone he’s never met.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, death and dying, mental health crises, emotional distress & mature content.
Resources can be found on our website, blinkthepodcast.com
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Hosted and produced by Corinne Vien
Co-cr
One-Hundred Pound Baby
As old memories resurface and old connections are rekindled, Jake starts to suspect that someone in his inner circle may have been orchestrating far more than just his care. Alarming details come to light, offhand comments take on new meaning, and a once-unthinkable theory begins to feel dangerously plausible.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, death and dying, emotional
An Update on Blink
A brief update on our upcoming episodes, tips for accessing past episodes, and how to send in your questions for our Q&A episode.
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The Silent Witness
Jake’s case exposed an unsettling reality: countless patients may be fully aware, yet locked inside unresponsive bodies—misdiagnosed and dismissed. But just as medicine starts to grasp the scope of covert consciousness, Jake’s experience veers into the uncanny. His consciousness didn’t just endure—it slipped free.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, death and dying, emotio
Signed, Sealed, Silenced
What started as a straightforward effort to move on spiraled into a bitter and complicated divorce—one that called Jake’s right to share his own story into question. As the layers begin to peel back, deeper questions emerge—about love, control, and the versions of a relationship we choose to believe.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, divorce, discussions of consent, sexual assault, emo
Dude, Where’s my Sperm?
As Jake lay locked-in and unable to move or speak, a sperm sample was taken without his explicit consent, sparking a complex legal and ethical battle that would stretch far beyond his hospital bed, and Jake’s fight to reclaim what was his.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, death and dying, medical trauma, discussions of consent, marital rape, sexual assault, emotional distress & mature
The Resurrection of Jake
Alone and abandoned in a hospital, Jake is forced to focus on his recovery. That is, until a single phone number suddenly pops into his mind. A phone call sets off a chain of events that will reconnect him with his past and lead to staggering revelations.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, death and dying, medical trauma, sexual abuse, emotional distress & mature content.
Resources can
Blink Twice
Against all odds, Jake was alive. In the depths of suffering, he discovered an extraordinary power within himself—the will to survive. But survival wasn’t the only battle he’d have to fight. As he clawed his way back to life, one heartbreaking revelation at a time, the question remained: Was his recovery truly a second chance… or just another game of control?
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addi
Making Peace with Death
Jake was given just six months to live, and now that deadline is closing in. As his body is wracked by a series of violent autonomic storms, his hospice nurse fears the worst. The final moments seem inevitable—last rites are read, and his wife prepares to say goodbye. But then, Jake comes face to face with death itself… and what happens next defies all expectations.
Content warning: Drug use/abus
Heroin or Heroine
Jake meets the woman who would soon become his wife. The two embark on a whirlwind romance, but life is anything but easy. Jake is an addict, and his addiction to heroin is all-consuming. Tension builds between the two, and we are left wondering who the real hero of this story is.
Content warning: Pregnancy loss, drug use/abuse, addiction, emotional distress & mature content.
Resources can be f
Wayward Son
How does a man like Jake find himself with only six months to live? Friends and family give us a glimpse into Jake’s past—a childhood that seemed ordinary until everything changed. His descent started early, having been introduced to drugs in middle school and running the trade by high school. But when his mother is diagnosed with cancer, his world shatters, and drugs become his escape. What begin
Locked-In
If the disease doesn’t kill Jake, the medical system just might. As his condition worsens, he endures brutal treatment and increasing isolation while tensions explode between his family and his wife. But when he finally slips into a coma, the real nightmare begins—trapped in silence, Jake overhears something chilling.
Content warning: Drug use/abuse, addiction, medical trauma, serious illness, p
Blink
Jake Haendel knows something isn’t right—his body and mind feel disconnected in a way he can’t explain. That realization hits hardest at the worst possible moment... in the middle of getting arrested for smoking heroin while driving. But the real punishment isn’t the cuffs or the charges—it’s the diagnosis that follows. Doctors give him six months to live. A death sentence. And the clock starts no
Blink - Coming February 2nd
Heroin. Secrets. Deadly Betrayal. The untold story of Jake Haendel. Unlocking February 2nd.
https://www.blinkthepodcast.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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