Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchA Christmas Ghost Story IV
Episode 81
In keeping with the old tradition of whiling away the nights of Christmas telling ghost stories, we bring you a tale published in 1912 by E.F. Benson…
4 years, 2 months ago
America and the Old, Dark Christmas
Episode 80
In earlier centuries, Americans partook in many of the same dark Christmas traditions that gave birth to Europe’s Krampus. This episode examines our…
4 years, 3 months ago
Transylvanian Vampires
Episode 79
Transylvania’s vampire lore inspired the setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, if not the character of the Count, and encompasses not only undead monster…
4 years, 3 months ago
Horror Hosts, Part Two
Episode 78
A break from the usual themes for the Halloween season: the second part of our survey of 40 years of Horror hosts, this time the hosts of the 1960s …
4 years, 4 months ago
Horror Hosts, Part One
Episode 77
Something a little different for the Halloween season: horror hosts and their evolution in the early years. We’ll be doing a second episode (out bef…
4 years, 4 months ago
Ghost Trains & Railway Terrors
Episode 76
Ghost trains and real-life railway terrors intermingle in this episode’s exploration of old train-wreck ballads, nervous and funereally obsessed Vict…
4 years, 4 months ago
Marvelous and Rare III
Episode 75
Duties in the library unfortunately prevent us from presenting a regular episode at this time, but to fill the gap, we’re offering listeners a taste …
4 years, 5 months ago
Bird-Women of Greece and Russia
Episode 74
Bird-women hybrids of Greek legend and Russian folklore are uniquely ambivalent, sometimes bringing death and destruction and at others, prophetic wi…
4 years, 5 months ago
The Dybbuk
Episode 73
A dybbuk is a “clinging spirit” of Jewish folklore, a ghost that can possess a human host.
Dybbuk, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien (1923)Stories of dybbuks …
4 years, 6 months ago
Ashtar, Orthon, and the Rosicrucians
Episode 72
Messages delivered by the extraterrestrials Ashtar and Orthon to Contactees of the 1950s represented a sort of repackaging of 19th-century Theosophy,…
4 years, 7 months ago