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Brace Belden was 27 when he snuck into Syria to enlist in a Kurdish militia.

April hasn't seen Steve in 15 years. So when a lawyer calls her asking about him, she's not sure what to think.

Twenty years after Daley Dunham donated sperm, a tidal wave of children came crashing into his life.

Stories of unlikely friendships.

A strange dream made My Linh Le wonder, should she finally tell her parents the truth about who she was?

Sunday, Dec. 9, 1984 is a day Beth McGhee will never forget. It’s the day her three year-old daughter, Neola, vanished, kidnapped by her ex-husband. As Beth launched into the painful search for Neola, she had no idea how long she would be waiting for her daughter to come home. Or if she would come home at all.

We've been asking for your stories, and on the last episode of Season 2, we highlight three of our listeners' leaps. Gavin McClurg embarked on a death-defying adventure on the Pacific that changed the direction of his life. Amy Gotliffe decided to adopt a baby as a single mother, an experience that brought her both joy and heartbreak. And, at 58 years of age, Bette Giordano left her husband, her ailing father and her way of life for a journey of self discovery in the West. Gavin McClurg at work on his boat. He has completed nearly two circumnavigations of the globe. (Gavin McClurg/ KQED) Gavin and his first mate, Jody MacDonald, in 2006. (Gavin McClurg/ KQED) Amy Gotliffe lives in Oakland, California. (Amy Gotliffe/ KQED) Amy and Leo River in his nursery. (Amy Gotliffe/ KQED) Amy Gotliffe with baby Leo River. (Amy Gotliffe/ KQED) Bette Giordano at her home in Connecticut. (Bette Giordano/ KQED) Bette Giordano (grey hat) whitewater rafting in Montana. (Bette Giordano/ KQED) Bette in Montana. (Bette Giordano/ KQED)

Henny Kupferstein grew up in the Belz sect of ultra-orthodox, Hasidic Jews in Borough Park, Brooklyn. From early childhood, she felt like a misfit. After getting married to a virtual stranger at age 18, Henny began secretly rebelling against the confines of her sect. When she was 34, a startling diagnosis would lead her on a dramatic path away from the Belz and everyone she knew, including her four children. You can read about Henny's work with autistic kids and her book, Perfect Pitch in the Key of Autism, on her website. Music for this episode was composed by Nicholas DePrey, Chris Colin, Seth Samuel, and Henny Kupferstein. Henny Kupferstein, age 18, with her paternal grandparents on the day of her engagement. (Henny Kupferstein/KQED) Henny Kupferstein concealed by her veil on her wedding day. (Henny Kupferstein/KQED) Henny and her husband on their wedding day. (Henny Kupferstein/KQED) Henny Kupferstein and her four children in front of the New York Aquarium seven years ago, on the last day that she saw them. Her children were 12, 10, 5 and 15 months at the time. (Henny Kupferstein/KQED) Henny Kupferstein holding a picture of her and her four children in front of the New York Aquarium on the last day she saw them. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)

In the early 1960’s, a psychologist named Gary Fisher carried out a radical experiment on severely emotionally disturbed children at a residential hospital in Southern California. Fisher believed these children’s behavioral problems could be traced back to profound trauma they had suffered in their early childhoods, but had never adequately processed. He thought very large doses of LSD might cure them. Whether Fisher’s experiment was reckless or whether it was heroic depends on how you think about science, and what risks we’re willing to take in pursuit of something groundbreaking. Nancy, a patient at Fairview Developmental Center in the 1960s, before she began LSD treatment with Gary Fisher. (Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections/ KQED) Before treatment, Nancy spent much of her time in restraints, in order to keep her from injuring herself. (Courtesy of Erowid and Gary Fisher's family/ KQED) Nancy, after beginning treatment with Gary Fisher, cutting cake at a birthday party. (Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections/ KQED) After receiving large doses of LSD and psilocybin, Nancy (center) was no longer injuring herself, according to Fisher and Fairview records. (Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections/ KQED) Psychologist Gary Fisher and Nancy. (Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections/ KQED) Fairview psychologist Gary Fisher (far left) and Nancy (center) in the 1960s. (Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections/ KQED) Psychologist Gary Fisher tried LSD for the first time in 1959. (Courtesy of the Fisher family/ KQED) Gary Fisher holding his daughter, Bess. (Courtesy of the Fisher family/ KQED) Fisher and Bess. (Courtesy of the Fisher family/ KQED) Recent photo of Fairview Developmental Center, a hospital for individuals with developmental disabilities. California plans to close this center by 2021. (Courtesy of Fairview Developmental Center/ KQED) Recent photo of a hallway in Fairview Developmental Center. (Courtesy of The Center for Investigative Reporting/ KQED)

Jill Sutherlin has been numbing her feelings of emptiness with food, drugs and alcohol since she was a child growing up in California’s Central Valley. Several years ago she did something she's always wanted to do, something she didn't know she was capable of. She embarked on an extreme weight loss plan and lost more than 200 pounds in just over a year. Everyone told her she looked amazing. But she knew something was wrong.

San Francisco International High School is the city’s only high school exclusively for recently arrived immigrants. But you can also think of it as a factory. What comes in are immigrant teenagers speaking 18 different languages, including Arabic, Russian, Tagalog and Spanish. Many haven’t been to school in years. Some have never used a three-ring binder, navigated a city or shared a classroom with a member of the opposite sex. What’s intended to come out are Americans with the full range of American options: go to college, be a scholar, a scientist, an engineer. Every teacher here believes education is central to improving your life. But the students don’t always feel that way, at least at first. Seth Samuel composed the music for this piece.   San Francisco International High School, the only high school in the city exclusively for recent immigrants, prepares 380 immigrant youth for careers and college. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) Students at San Francisco International High School. While these students have widely different backgrounds, nearly all have a story about escaping something: war, gang violence, economic hardship. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) Teachers at San Francisco International High School work with students speaking 18 different languages, from Russian to Tagalog. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) Students between classes at San Francisco International High School. Unlike at conventional high schools, students at SF International arrive and begin school all year long. Some students haven't attended school in years. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) Murals cover the walls of San Francisco International High School, which is in the city’s Mission District. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)

Tesilya Hanauer grew up on a commune deep in a Northern California forest. When she was five, her mother joined a nomadic group of people whose philosophy involved breaking the bond between mother and child. They were called the Shivalila, and they believed that if parental bonds were severed, a communal consciousness might emerge that could eventually transform society. Over the next few years, Tesilya would follow them from California to the Philippines to rural India, hoping always for a glimpse of the mother she once had. Nicholas DePrey composed the music for this piece. Tesilya's mother, Meredith, in India. Tesilya with a family in India. Meredith, Tesilya's mother, in the garden at Black Bear Ranch around 1976. Tesilya and her father, Creek, at Black Bear Ranch around 1975. 3-year-old Tesilya carrying an infant on her back at Black Bear Ranch.

Lately we’ve heard a lot of stories about people who, after years in the closet, found the courage to come out as transgender. But for Shawn, courage was never the problem.

It started with a knocking sound, then whispers, then the strange conviction that he could read people’s minds. In this story, we meet Frankie as he sprints away from his history of mental illness and toward the “normal” life he always wanted.

James Williamson became a punk rock legend as part the 1970s band The Stooges. But, a few years into it, he just walked away.

After a Seattle businessman left his fortune to a San Francisco blindness organization, its director went in search of an explanation. He found a secret the two men had shared.

Two friends, brought together in a tragic coincidence, take a leap back out of the darkness.

What does the smell of butt crack and dead animal have to do with the demise of the American manufacturing industry and the battlefields of Iraq?

The Leap is about what it takes to start out one place and end up somewhere, or someone, else. Here's a sample of what you will hear on the podcast.