NPR's Throughline podcast sort of feels like stepping into a time machine.

Each episode, our Peabody Award-winning show, travels beyond the headlines to answer the question, how did we get here?

Listen to one of Apple's favorite podcasts of 2024 by searching for ThruLine on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast app.

I hate to say this because I'm a woman, but I think that a lot of women see successful men,

self-made men, attractive men. They think, I want a piece of that.

They're traveling at a high rate of sea.

It doesn't matter if they're married or not.

Oh my goodness.

Francis and Bill Hall met when they were in high school. I think they were around 16.

Neither of them had very much money.

They started dating and they were married by 18.

Francis Hall is someone that you wish was in your family.

She's very selfless, caring, and really always thinking about other people.

Bill Hall loved Francis and his children.

But Bill's fatal flaw is that he also liked the attention of younger women.

Bonnie Contreras is Bill Hall's mistress.

He had been dating her for about three years, and by most accounts it was a pretty open

affair.

I'm trying to think of the most flattering way to describe Bonnie Contreras.

Bonnie Contreras is almost like a master manipulator.

She would take compromising photos, kind of just gather all these nuggets, that if things ever

went south, she had all the proof she needed to kind of force you to do what she wanted.

...