Stalkers — Who Are They?

You said “no.” They heard “try harder.” Hundreds of messages. “Coincidental” encounters. Someone convinced you’re meant to be together—even if you barely know each other. Why do stalkers see love where there is none? How do they justify following someone’s every move? And what is it like to become the focus of someone else’s obsession? In this episode, we explore real stalking cases, the psychology of stalkers, and the digital traces that reveal more about us than we realize. 00:00 John Hinckley Jr.: Shooting Reagan to Impress Jodie Foster 02:03 From Ancient Rome to Dante: A History of Obsessive Love 03:20 Rebecca Schaeffer and the Fan Who Found Her Address 04:50 Erotomania: “The King Is Secretly in Love with Me” 06:07 Margaret Mary Ray: An Imaginary Marriage to David Letterman 06:30 Mark David Chapman: Getting Lennon’s Autograph Before Killing Him 07:30 One More Photo of Your Ex: Why Does Your Brain Keep Wanting More? 08:59 Ethan Kross’s Experiment: Why Rejection Hurts 09:46 John Bowlby: How the Fear of Losing Someone Takes Root in Childhood 10:16 The Zeigarnik Effect: Why Your Mind Keeps Returning to Your Ex 11:26 What a Stalker Looks Like in Real Life 12:03 The Different Types of Stalkers 14:17 Richard Farley and Laura Black: From Rejection to Seven Murders 15:48 Rumination: Thoughts That Keep Playing on Repeat 17:02 “He Just Loves You”: How People Excuse Stalking 17:29 What Stalking Does to Its Victims 19:25 An Address Reflected in Her Eyes: The Attack on a Japanese Singer 19:56 Location Tracking, Apps, and Data Leaks