Episode 343 - The Good, The Bad and the BS: A Guide to Investigating the Unexplained

We may live in a "post-truth" era, but that is no reason to give up on discovering the truth when you're researching the paranormal, the strange, the unanswered. So, with humility, we present a guide to some crticial questions you might ask in trying to separate truth from grift.

Episode 342 - Beast of Bray Road

It chased little kids. It ran down cars. It lurched from the woods on foggy nights to terrify those unlucky enough  to stop along Wisconsin's lonely Bray Road. Some said it was a werewolf. Some said it was more like a Bigfoot. All said the Beast of Bray Road scared the hell out of them.

Episode 341 - Sensed Presence: When There Is Something in the Room With You

Every culture the world has ever known has had ghosts. Could there be an answer for those ghosts we feel as an unexplained presence? Are those ghosts "all in our mind," though in a very unusual way?

Weird Bit 65 - The Lady Vanishes

A mother and daughter's trip to the Paris Exhibition in 1900 leads to one of the greatest urban legends of all time.

Episode 340 - The Haunting of Hinton Ampner

It is getting hard to find big old houses that aren't haunted these days, but Hinton Ampner was a big old house by middle of the 18th century and even then it was terrifying master and servant alike. Groans, footsteps, slamming doors, piercing shrieks, badly buried bones, and phantoms rustling slik skirts through hallways, Hinton Ampner had it all.

Weird Bit 64 - The Scream Heard Round the World

You have heard this scream. It has been around for over 70 years, has been heard in over 400 movies, TV shows, and video games. From a cowboy being eaten by an alligator to a stormtrooper being light sabered by Luke Skywalker, they all share the same bloodcurdling scream.

Episode 339 - The James Dean Death Car and Other Cursed Objects

Some things need to be handled with more care than others. Like cursed things. Parts from James Dean Porsche Spyder. Three and a half foot dolls that might be haunted. Cursed paintings that start firres. Ancient boxes and even more ancient mummified bodies.

Episode 338 - Ghost Hunting in Hammersmith

Welcome to Hallow Weird World 2024! An all-white apparition was terrorizing the citizens of Hammersmith 220 years ago. Francis Smith had had enough. But since Egon Spengler had not yet invented the proton pack, Francis went ghost hunting with a shotgun. It did not go well for him or the ghost.

Episode 337 - Cat-Eating Haitians and Other Weird Conspiracies of 2024

If you heard that Haitian immigrants are eating the cats and dogs of their new neighbors in Springfield, Ohio you know that crazy political conspiracy theories are having a moment.

Episode 336 - Air, Land, and Sea - The Monsters of Coney Island

Coney Island has long been done for amusement parks and hot dog eating contests. And now monsters.

Episode 335 - Dorothy Martin, the End of the World, and the Birth of Cognitive Dissonance

Dorothy Martin led a pretty normal 1950s housewife life in Chicago, but she was itching for something to do with her spare time. Lucky for us, she landed on doomsday cult leader as a hobby, because her quest eventually led to the development of a foundtional theory of modern psychology.

Episode 334 - The 67 Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel - Part 2

CONTENT WARNING: TALK OF SUICIDE, DEATH AND RELIGIOUS TRAUMA - Feel free to sit this one out.

In a trial of the century atomosphere, two Catholic priests and the parents of Anneliese Michel go on trial for negligent homicide. A key defense was that Anneliese really was possessed? Was she?

Episode 333 - The 67 Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel - Part 1

CONTENT WARNING - TALK OF SUICIDE, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS TRAUMA - Feel free to sit this one and next week’s second part out.

When Anneliese Michel began having seizures when she was 16, she went to a doctor and was diagnosed with epiliepsy. But as her illness morphed into a severe psychological disorder and medical treatment did not work, Anneliese and her family came to believe her sickness may be the work of the devil.

Episode 332 - Weird News - August 2024 - Big Foot Edition

We have bigfoot sightings for you - from a drone in the snowy mountains of Vermont, in the spooky woods of Louisiana, and even in broad daylight spotted from a train full of tourists. And did an Oklahoma man try to feed his friend to a sasquatch? It's a definite maybe all the way around.

Episode 331 - Crushing Puppies and Murdering Bad Singers

Ever want to squeeze a puppy too hard or bite a baby's toes? You’re not alone, it's called Cuteness Aggression and you need to be careful. Then we veer into folks in the Philippines killing people for singing "My Way" in Karaoke bars. Listen, just stick to "Don't Stop Believing" and everyone goes home safe.

Music Credits:

Cuteness Aggression song by Anthony Vincent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTufAQz5MI

My Way by Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra

Weird Bit 64 - Weird News Special Report - Cocaine Sharks!

If you’re planning on going into the ocean, change your plans. If you are in the water right now while you’re listening to this podcast, get out now. Did you even read the title of this episode!? Get the f**k out of the water!

Episode 330 - The Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold - Part 2

We pick up the story of the oldest missing person case in New York City with the suspects - who might have done harm to Dorothy? We then explore the best theories of what happened to the young woman now missing over 110 years. Was it murder? Suicide? Or had Dorothy had enough of the lap of luxury?

Episode 329 - The Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold, Part 1

People go missing all the time, but when rich young women from Manhattan high society disappear while shopping in the middle of the day on Fifth Avenue it creates a stir. In Part 1 we track Dorothy Arnold's steps until they vanished, then the first halting attempts to find her which seemed more concerned with avoiding scandal than finding Dorothy.

Episode 328 - The Revolutionary Life of PUF

If being different is hard in the 21st Century, imagine what it was like in Revolutionary War era America. So when Jemima Wilkinson recovered from a severe illness and remade herself as a genderless magical creature named PUF you have to figure things got complicated.

Episode 327 - The Moving Coffins of Barbados

If ghosts had raves would they have them in crypts? In Barbados, apparently the answer is yes. How else do you explain how every time the Chase family crypt was unsealed for a new entrant the heavy lead coffins already there would be strewn across the stone floor like matchsticks?