Show Notes
In 2009, Australian security contractor Rob Langdon shot and killed an Afghan colleague during a confrontation in Afghanistan. Rob says the man pulled a pistol and that he fired first in self-defence. What happened next would cost Rob seven years of his life.
In Part 2 of Rob's story, he takes Jack inside the moment that changed everything — the shooting, the chaotic hours that followed and his attempt to get out of Afghanistan.
He made it as far as Kabul International Airport. With a flight to Dubai waiting, Rob was just minutes away from leaving the country when he was arrested. Rob was charged with murder. He maintained that he had acted in self-defence, but an Afghan court convicted him and sentenced him to death. His sentence was eventually commuted to 20 years imprisonment.
He would spend the next seven years inside Kabul's notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison, living among Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners in conditions his Australian lawyer described as extremely dangerous.
Rob takes us inside those years — the reality of surviving an Afghan prison, the fear that he might never leave and the extraordinary chain of events that eventually led to a presidential pardon.
In August 2016, seven years after his arrest, Rob Langdon finally returned home to Australia.
This is Part 2 of Rob Langdon's story on What I Survived. SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from What I survived
Zoya Phan was 14 when the Burmese army attacked her Karen village in Burma (Myanmar) and her family fled through the jungle towards Thailand. On What I Survived, Zoya Phan tells her story of surviving ethnic cleansing by Burma's military. We trace the roots of the Karen conflict, one of the longest-running civil wars in the world, from British rule to the military coup, and follow Zoya's family from Manerplaw to a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. Settle in, get comfortable, and let us tell you the story of Zoya Phan. SIGNAL AWARDS 2026 VOTE HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Former Australian soldier Rob Langdon went to Afghanistan as a private security contractor. He would eventually be convicted of murder, sentenced to death and spend seven years inside one of Afghanistan's most notorious prisons.
After surviving malaria, starvation and near death in the Amazon, Benedict Allen was left with a question he couldn't shake: why had he survived? His search for an answer would take him deep into Papua New Guinea and into a brutal initiation ceremony designed to transform young men into “crocodile men.”
Lost and alone in the Amazon, British explorer Benedict Allen contracted two forms of malaria, including a potentially deadly strain. Starving, feverish and running out of options, the 22-year-old faced a decision that would stay with him for decades.
At just 22 years old, British explorer Benedict Allen set out to travel 600 miles through the remote northeast Amazon. It was supposed to be an expedition. Instead, it became a fight for survival. Gold miners hunted him. His canoe capsized, swallowing his supplies. Malaria burned through his body — two types of it, including one that could kill him in 24 hours. Starving, feverish and alone, Benedict made a choice that would haunt him for decades.