A daily campfire-style podcast blending American history, folklore, and true crime. What scares you? Let’s find out.
Latest episodes
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24 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 27: The Witch of Pungo — Virginia's Last Witch Trial
On July 10, 1706, a woman named Grace Sherwood was bound and thrown into the Lynnhaven River in colonial Virginia.Her neighbors had accused her of witchcraft.According to the belie…
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25 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 26: The Devil's Footprints of New England
In February 1855, mysterious hoof-shaped footprints appeared across the snow-covered countryside of Devon, England.They stretched for miles, seemingly crossing rooftops, walls, and…
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21 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 25: The Wendigo — The Truth Behind the Legend
In the winter of 1879, a Cree hunter named Swift Runner returned from the Canadian wilderness without his family.He claimed they had starved to death.But when investigators followe…
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23 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 24: The Ouija Board — The Dark History of Talking to the Dead
In February 1927, William Fuld fell to his death from the roof of his factory in Baltimore.Years earlier, Fuld claimed that a Ouija board had told him to build that very factory, p…
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24 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 23: The North Berwick Witch Trials — The Devil's Halloween Gathering
In the winter of 1590, an elderly Scottish healer named Agnes Sampson was brought before King James VI of Scotland.She had been accused of witchcraft, tortured, and forced to descr…
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22 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 22: The Queen Mary — The Haunted Ship's Dark History
In 1967, the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, after more than three decades crossing the Atlantic.Not long afterward, a marine engineer working deep inside the shi…
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24 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 21: Savannah, Georgia — America's Most Haunted City
In Savannah, Georgia, ghost stories are everywhere.In Wright Square, a woman is said to wander the night asking strangers if they've seen her baby. Her name was Alice Riley, and ne…
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22 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 20: The Amityville Horror — The True Story Behind the Haunting
On November 13, 1974, a young man ran into a bar in Amityville, New York, shouting that his parents had been shot.When police arrived at his family's waterfront home, they discover…
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22 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 19: Friday the 13th — The Truth Behind the Unlucky Day
In 1907, a wealthy Boston businessman named Thomas Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth.It told the story of a stockbroker who exploited people's fear of an unluc…
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24 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 18: The Salem Witch Trials — From Tragedy to Halloween Capital
In 1891, a jeweler in Salem, Massachusetts, began selling a silver souvenir spoon decorated with a witch on a broomstick.Beneath the witch were three small pins.Those pins were mod…
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22 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 17: The Bunyip — Australia's Mysterious Water Monster
In 1845, a strange fossil bone appeared in the Australian town of Geelong.When an Aboriginal man was shown the remains, he reportedly identified the creature immediately.It was a b…
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22 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 16: The War of the Worlds — The Halloween Panic That Never Was
On October 30, 1938, a radio reporter broadcasting from a farm field in New Jersey suddenly stopped speaking.Moments earlier, he had described a terrifying scene: a strange metal c…
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21 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 15: The True Story Behind The Exorcist
In 1949, a thirteen-year-old boy living outside Washington, D.C., began experiencing something his family couldn't explain.Scratching sounds came from inside the walls. Furniture r…
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27 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 14: The Candy Man — The Murder That Changed Halloween
On Halloween night in 1974, eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan came home from trick-or-treating in Pasadena, Texas, with a giant Pixy Stix.His father helped him open it.Timothy complai…
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21 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 13: The Hook — America's Most Famous Urban Legend
In November of 1960, a teenage girl wrote a letter to Dear Abby warning other teenagers about something she'd heard.A young couple had been parked on a deserted road when their rad…
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26 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 12: The History of Haunted Houses
In 1888, a woman named Maggie Fox stood before two thousand people in a New York theater, removed her shoe, and demonstrated how she had spent decades convincing Americans she coul…
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23 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 11: The Woman Who Tamed Halloween
In 1899, Halloween was so destructive in parts of America that grown men sat outside their homes with shotguns, waiting for the pranksters to arrive.People stole gates, overturned…
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23 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 10: American Werewolves in America
On Halloween night in 1991, eighteen-year-old Doris Gipson was driving along a rural road outside Elkhorn, Wisconsin, when she struck something with her car.She stopped to investig…
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20 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 9: The Witches of Pendle Hill
In 1612, a young woman named Alizon Device asked a traveling peddler for some pins.He refused.A short distance down the road, the man collapsed.Today, a doctor would probably call…
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23 min
31 Days of Halloween | Day 8: The Jersey Devil
In January of 1909, strange tracks began appearing in the snow across New Jersey.They crossed yards. Climbed fences. Appeared on rooftops. Witnesses reported hearing wings outside…