Episode 301 - A Brief History of Halloween
Why do we trick and/or treat? Why are black cats so big this time of year? Why do we even have halloween in the first place? We answer all the questions you were too afraid to ask about Halloween because, frankly, you're kind of a baby.
Episode 300 - The Vampire of Croglin Grange
Dracula may have been an immigrant but England had a home grown vampire of its own up in the little town of Croglin. He picked his way in through a window with long, clawed fingers, he sucked blood, and he fled back to his coffin in his secret tomb. That sounds like a vampire to us.
Shamless Plug - Please go watch this short film that has nothing to do with the podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFX_0CzivA
Weird Bit 56 - Digging Up The Dead
It wasn't just Mercy Brown when tragedy turned to paranoia turned to gore as the dead were exhumed to stop their vampiric depradations. Here are some other stories of digging up the dead to stop them from feasting on the blood of the living.
Here’s the link to the short film we talk about at the end of the episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFX_0CzivA
Episode 299 - Elmer McCurdy: A Modern Day Mummy Tale
We take a quick trip through oddly real-looking bodies in haunted house attractions, but then rediscover Elmer McCurdy, the best corpse ever. Elmer found fleeting fame as a Wild West outlaw who died in a shoot out, but his body would long outlive his fame.
Weird Bit 55 - The Skeletons in Disney's Closet
Pirates of the Caribbean was the most expensive ride built at Disneyland when it opened in 1967. Walt wanted everything to be as realistic as possible. Real-looking pirates, real-looking flames, real stories of comedic sexual assault. And real skeletons. Very real.
Episode 298 - Sam Patch's Luck Runs Out
Most of us have had a little bad luck on Friday the 13th. Locked your keys in the car, tripped on a curb, steered a massive cruise ship into a reef and sank it. It could happen to anyone. But when your job is jumping from high places into cold water, a little bad luck can be really bad. Plus some other weird things that happened on that cursed day,
Episode 297 - Spooky Urban Legends - Part 2
Part 2 of spooky urban legends gets spookier still with ghostly stories, vengeful spirits (the Japanese ones are the best), and some urban legend classics like hooks on car door handles and why that car following you on a dark night might not mean what you think it means.
Episode 296 - Spooky Urban Legends - Part 1
Finally, it is Hallow-Weird World season again! We start with two heapings of the spookier urban legends. In Part 1 we relate some gross out stories (don't pop that spider zit), curses (if something is called the X number of steps to hell, do NOT go down it), and scary creatures (Bloody Mary meet Skinned Tom, Resurrection Mary and the inspiration for Freddy Krueger).
Episode 295 - The Two Lives of Clarence King
Clarence King was a respected geologist who helped map the American west and start the national park system. But Clarence had a secret - in 19th century America, an extraordinarily strange secret.
Episode 294 - If I Go Missing Files
Sure, no one wants to be abducted and murdered, but if you are, wouldn't you want your killer to be caught? We know we would. That's where "If I go missing files" come in. Learn all about them in this episode, and, please don't forget to make your "who might murder me list."
Episode 293 - New Apes on the Block: Bili Ape
Does a huge chimp-like creature rumble through the jungle of the Congo, howling at the moon, walking on two legs, and occasionally killing lions? Let's see if the Bili Ape may be the last undiscovered great ape.
Episode 292 - Surviving the Green Desert
Your plane has crashed into the wilds of the Amazon. The pilot and your mother didn't make it. There was no beacon, so help is not on the way. You are 13 years old and the siblings who survived with you are 9, 4, and 11 months. How will you survive?
Weird Bit 54 - Quick Cryptid Corner: Air Rods
Are little undiscovered creatures buzzing around your head when you go camping and you don't even know it? If you have never heard of air rods, you should listen to this episode. Just don't forget to take video because that's the only way you will see them. Just listen, it will all make sense.
Link to Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yZrtP2WSr0
Episode 291 - Satan's Toy Box
Did you watch He-Man battle Skeletor on Snake Mountain? Did you tickle the tummy of your Care Bear plush toy? Did you worry about what might happen to Smurfette at that blue sausage fest? Please God tell me you didn't play Barbies. If you did any of these things then you may have been playing with the Devil. That's right, actual Satan. Can't say you weren't warned.
Episode 290 - Weird News 8-18-23
Another grab bag of strange news ripped from the headlines. We have a website for assassins, some weird fish and worms, a president who apparently thinks elves are real, dumb criminals, then one terrible story from a plane and one uplifting story from a plane to balance it out.
Episode 289 - Cryptic Corner - The Mongolian Death Worm
Can a three foot worm be a monster? Well, if it can attack from underground, is poison to the touch, can spit venom, and zap you like lightning, yes. Yes it can.
Episode 288 - A Brief History of Cattle Mutilations - Part 2
In part 2 of our study of cattle mutilations, we continue our search for the culprits and then take a deep dive into the most likely explanation for this surprisingly widespread phenomenon that still plagues the Western U.S.
Episode 287 - The Demon Core
The nuclear core that was going to be the lethal heart of the third atomic bomb that would decimate another Japanese city never got the chance after Japan surrendered. It remained at Los Alamos where it would wreak havoc in a very different, but no less fatal, way.
Episode 286 - A Brief History of Cattle Mutilations - Part 1
The aliens are at it again. Or the Satanic Cults, or the guys in black helicopters or possibly chupacabras. Let's find out who or what is doing terrible things to our cows and why.