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This Edgar Allen Poe themed dark drama debuted on Netflix in November starring, among other people, Mark Hamill... yes, Luke Skywalker as an evil attorney if you can believe it. Drawing from the Sackler family and the opioid crisis, this is the tale of the fall of a billionaire family who made their fortune off selling a deadly medication with no moral compass, sprinkled with a bit of the supernatural and told by the framework of Edgar Allen Poe. It doesn't sound like it should work, but it does.

Karl and Tonya from When It Was Cool takes a look back at the psychological thriller Knock at the Cabin starring former pro wrestling and MCU star Dave Batista. A mysterious foursome appear at a cabin where a family of three are staying with a strange and dark request- choose to kill a member of their family or the world will end. When they refuse, apocalyptic events begin unfolding.

Karl and Tonya from When It Was Cool return to discuss the new video game inspired horror movie Five Nights at Freddy's. While fans seem to love it and it has made a ton of money, critics have brutalized it. The truth, at least in our opinion, stands somewhere in-between! This also falls right into our pop culture wheelhouse as the animatronics in the movie (and game) are based on the old Showbiz Pizza animatronics which leads to some great fun. Is it creepy or is it fun? Let's talk Five Nights at Freddy's (There are spoilers aplenty so be warned!)

On this edition of When It Was Cool Dark Podcast, hosts Karl and Tonya discuss the latest prequel for the Stephen King Pet Semetary franchise: Bloodline. The seeds for this story were planted in the original 1989 movie/book where we learn about a young Judd, Timmy, his dog, and the origin of the pet cemetery. This movie has seen some harsh criticism and we will discuss why. So, grab some popcorn and come prepare for Halloween with us as we journey to the Pet Semetary.

When It Was Cool Dark looks back at 1939's Universal Monster movie Son of Frankenstein where the son of the original Dr. Frankenstein comes to claim his family estate and discovers The Monster has been saved by Ygor (played by Bela Lugosi of Dracula fame) and is being used as a weapon against Ygor's enemies. Karl and Tonya (from When It Was Cool website) discuss the movie and the changes in macabre films over the years and what are the modern equivalents of this type cinema.

Karl Stern discusses the mysterious Alaska Triangle where supposedly nearly 20,000 have gone missing. There are also reports of UFOs and UAPs and even its own native Bigfoot like creature, the Wendigo! Planes have vanished without a trace and even a high-level U.S. Congressman has gone missing. Is there something going on in this vast stretch of Alaskan wilderness or is this just another mystery that isn't really that mysterious? There is one very strange case in the Alaska Triangle that seems to defy explanation. Join us as we discuss the Alaska Triangle. Support us on Patreon!

If the headlines of today's newspapers sudden screamed "The United States in Possession of Alien Spacecraft!" the world would go crazy. The 24 hour news stations would leap on the story (until the next crisis came along or could be invented) but it was be... well... big news. Yet, it has already happened. Thanks to archives of Newspapers.com, podcast host Karl Stern digs into the start of the "Flying Saucer" sensation that gripped the United States (and later the world) around the time of the reported Roswell, NM UFO crash. 

For several years now you may have been periodically reading headlines like, "Harvard Professor Believes Object Traveling Through Solar System is Alien Space Craft", or recently, "Harvard Professor Discovers Remains of Alien Technology on Earth". So who is this Harvard Professor? He is Avi Loeb and he is, in fact, a Harvard Professor. But what's his deal? If a Harvard Professor has, supposedly discovered all of this why has the world turned upside down at his "discoveries"? Let's dig deeper into who is this Alien discovering Harvard professor and why does his name keep coming up in the news and... has he discovered evidence for aliens?

We need to be able to trust the gatekeepers of science. Science and scientific ideals are at the center of modern political warfare and science should be held to the course of political winds. We need science to be firm and accountable. But what happens when the very process that oversees acceptable science becomes corrupted. There is an outcry among the scientific community that this may well be happening due to a corruption of the peer review process. What is peer review and how could it be manipulated? That is the topic on this edition of When It Was Cool Dark Podcast.

When It Was Cool Dark continues to explore the greatest mysteries of the universe (and, perhaps, beyond) and this episode host Karl Stern takes a look at Satan or, The Devil. It's almost irrelevant if you believe in The Devil or not because billions of other do and those people make up large portions of the government you are under, the places you work, and the people that surround you. So, your life is influenced by The Devil whether you believe in it or not. But you might be surprised that a lot of what you think you know about the ultimate evil is not actually written in religious cannon. This week we look at misconceptions about the devil and what the texts really say.

How did life begin? The prevailing scientific consensus presents us with a primordial soup a few billion years ago which coalesced into life. But wait, the science is not as settled as you might believe. There are problems with that model and some leading scientists are challenging that model. What even is "life"? Even that definition is not as clear in 2023 as one might think. Today at When It Was Cool Dark we will look at some of the latest questions being presented to origin of life researchers. No, we aren't talking creationism either, but the straightforward science.

You can't turn on the news these days without being inundated by news about UFOs or (UAP as they are now branded). The military is seeing them, Harvard (no less) professors are seeing them, the public is seeing them- it's madness! Or it would have been in the 1950s, you would have been branded a lunatic. Now, however, the cat is out of the bag. Something is out there, the question is what? Are we alone in this vast, vast universe? Or is it something else? Today we examine the UAE-UFO phenomenon.

The newly revamped When It Was Cool Dark begins our new podcast journey looking at the mysteries of the universe. The unexplained. The unknown. And we aren't just going to take your word for it. We are going to examine these mysteries and ask ourselves what the evidence says, are we being mislead, what inputs are biased? Today we begin with the first and greatest mystery... how did we get here to begin with. This podcast isn't for everyone. Only you can decide if you WANT to KNOW or if you want to be TOLD. There is a difference. Zero politics. Zero biases.

Our 100 darkest moments in pop culture series concludes with a trio of scandals involving WWE head honcho Vince K. McMahon. Host Karl Stern takes a look at the assault of Rita Chatterton, the 1990s steroid trial, and the multiple payoffs scandal which, temporarily, removed him from power... only to come back richer. Vince McMahon is not only Teflon when it comes to scandals, he somehow escapes any karma and comes back more powerful and wealthy. A supervillain Lex Luthor would be proud of.

The band Fishbone quickly became one of the most influential and inventive bands in all of popular music during the 1980s. However, the bizarre story of band member Kendall Jones threatened to derail this eclectic group. Not only did he allegedly join a cult but another band member, determined to save him from himself, launched a plot to kidnap him. This is the strange journey of Fishbone.

Have you ever seen a show with fellas on the mic with one minute rhymes that don't come out right? Well, pioneering rapper Slick Rick had a lot of things that didn't come out right. Mostly, the U.S. government hated him and sought him out at every turn. This is the story of Slick Rick and he makes the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history because, well, his bodyguard tried to kill him so Slick Rick grabbed a gun, as rappers sometimes do, and went out and managed to shoot a couple of the wrong people. The government then spent decades trying to deport him like Tony the Tiger. Word. 

Thomas Ince was the father of the Western movie genre. During his career in the pioneer days of film making he produced around 800 movies. Thomas Ince also was the first person to build their own movie studio. So how did this influential and pioneering film maker end up on the list of 100 of the darkest moments in pop culture history? Because of legendary historical figure and media mogul William Randolph Hearst, legendary actor Charlie Chaplin and a hole that, may or may not, have been in the head of Thomas Ince. 

Continuing our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history, this week we look at the shocking and tragic death of actor Chadwick Boseman who appeared as the Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including his own critically acclaimed Black Panther solo movie. The world was shocked when, unknown to virtually everyone, the actor died from complications of colon cancer. Today we remember Chadwick Boseman.

In 1997 one of the most bizarre moments in boxing and pop culture took place when, during the second Mike Tyson verses Evander Holyfield fight, Tyson viciously bit the ear of Holyfield not once, but twice! Tyson earned himself a disqualification and tons of negative publicity. This strange incident was a real black eye (err... ear) for boxing and stands as one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.

Look, ok, Mel Gibson is a very good actor. I like numerous Mel Gibson movies. He is certainly famous: Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, Passion of the Christ, and on and on it goes. But there have been enough maniacally outburst to wonder what exactly is going on inside Mel Gibson's head. Apparently, he really hates Jews (and others) and has expressed this in the most vile of terms.

Whitney Houston was one of the most recognized and successful voices in any era of music. She had chart toping hit after chart topping hit. However, a toxic relationship and a reality show with hip hop artist Bobby Brown brought attention to darker problems lurking in the life of Whitney Houston. She would sadly be dead before the age 50 and an iconic voice would be silenced. One of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.

Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Evil. Episode 362.

Join The Desert Rat this week as he looks into the mysteries of the other side near his new digs in the state of Arkansas! Support the platform that houses this podcast. Stop Killing Each other!

Actor Robert Blake was best known for his time as the 1970s TV Detective Baretta. However, in 2002 Robert Blake's wife was shot and killed in the parking lot of a restaurant in Los Angeles and Blake was charged with her murder. Robert Blake was acquitted in the criminal trial but was found liable in a civil trial for her death. This is the story of dark moment in pop culture history.

Lance Armstrong is far and away the most famous cyclist that has ever lived. He dominated the Tour de France and many other world class level cycling events. He was pop culture famous in the United States and beyond… however, that much domination, especially in sports, invites questions about performance enhancing drugs and, in Lance Armstrong's case, it ruined the career of one sport's most famous athlete.

One of our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series. This week, our show has a twist. Yes, it was a tragedy that 26 year old singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died. Like many music deaths, it was likely caused by the usual suspects. But what happened next is... bizarre. The story involves a stolen hearse, fake morticians dressed like cowboys, a gallon of gasoline, and a flaming casket in the middle of the desert. Yeah, this one is dark but in a different way.

Stuck in the Desert Podcast returns (as does the Desert Rat... literally) from travels abroad. So, let's travel to the land of Loki with The Desert Rat to Scandinavia this week as we discuss Nordic Mythology and play a little catch up. It will be a miracle if this actually works, but I have an optimistic nature. From my tool shed to you.

Our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series begins winding down and this week we take a look at the domestic violence scandals of music artists Chris Brown. Chris Brown has been hugely successful and award winning and one of the most influential and important artists of the modern era. However, multiple allegations of battery against women have followed him throughout his career including the infamous assault of fellow music artist Rihanna. On episode 358 of When It Was Cool Dark we take a look at this troubling story.

The 100 darkest moments in pop culture history rolls on and on this episode we return to the world of professional wrestling with, arguably, the first place many people think of when they think of a lot of young deaths in wrestling- the Dallas, Texas based World Class Championship Wrestling. WCCW saw many wrestlers die young, the Von Erichs infamously of suicide (mostly), but there were multiple cocaine overdoses, and more. Let's look back at the dark side of World Class Championship Wrestling. Episode 357.

One of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture series. Tommy "The Duke" Morrison was a rising boxing star in the late 1980s into the early 1990s who famously held a version of the World Boxing Championship, defeating George Foreman. Tommy Morrison also got a break in acting by appearing as the character Tommy "The Machine" Gunn in Sylvester Stallone's 1990 Rocky V movie. But Tommy Morrison's lifestyle caused his star to tumble and a failed HIV test effectively ended his boxing career despite the fact that Morrison protested and denied having HIV or AIDS up to his death at age of 44 in 2013.

One of our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series. Johnny Lewis played the fan favorite character "Half Sack" on the popular Sons of Anarchy TV series portraying the role of a motorcycle gang prospect in the first season, and full member in the second. Fans were stunned when he was killed off the show in season two and no one seemed to know why. This was just the first example of the extremely erratic behavior that would plague Johnny Lewis from then until it finally ends in murder and his own death at the age of 28.

One of our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series. Michael Richards played the quirky character Cosmo Kramer on the popular Seinfeld television sit-com. Kramer was a fan favorite character eliciting cheers every time he popped in the door. After Seinfeld ended its run, while still an incredibly popular show, Michael Richards took a try at standup comedy... then it went wrong. Very... very... wrong.

100 darkest moments in pop culture history series continues and this week it is dark in many ways. The master of dark literature, Edgar Allan Poe, died under the most mysterious of circumstances. The famous writer was found wandering the streets of Baltimore, MD in dire straits, mumbling and dressed in someone else's clothing. There are a number of theories about the death of Edgar Allan Poe and we will discuss a few of them this week on When It Was Cool Dark.

Ernest Hemingway literally changed the entire genre of popular literature. Preceded by the flowery and verbose language of the previous era, Ernest Hemingway wrote in a more straightforward style, often holding back and allowing silence of action to speak loudly in a story. His novels are still read and reviewed in virtually every schoolroom in the United States. However, Ernest Hemingway battled mental demons throughout his life and ultimately they caught up to him in 1961. The death of Ernest Hemingway is one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.

In this week's installment of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history, host Karl Stern takes a look back at the March 20, 1991 death of classic rock legend Eric Clapton's four year old son, who died from falling out a high rise window in New York. From this tragedy, Eric Clapton penned one of his most famous and award winning songs: Tears in Heaven.

In 1999 television viewers tuned into the story about an out of control jet plane flying across the country from Florida toward Canada. The unresponsive plane was tailed by military jets across the country, failing to make contact with any ground control. Military pilots observed the windows of the jet frosted over indicating that the cabin had lost pressure. Adding to the intrigue was that onboard the jet was a famous sports personality- PGA Golf champion Payne Stewart. Part of our 100 darkest moments in pop culture series.

The latest edition of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history takes a look at a football rivalry gone too far in my home state- the Auburn University Tree Killings. Why does the killing of a set of trees in downtown Auburn, Alabama rank as a dark moment in pop culture history? Because it was all about football fandom. The trees, used to celebrate Auburn football victories, were poisoned to death by a crazed Alabama fan who confessed to it on a national radio show.

One of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history, 7th Heaven was a sappy moralistic drama series which ran ten (!) seasons on the CW Network famous for launching the career of Jessica Beal. The story revolved around a Christian family doing Christian things in a sugary sweet world where everything works out fine.  Then the actor who played the father (and Minister) did some stuff. Some very bad stuff.

Inarguably, one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history was the 2000 Paralympic Games where, brace yourself, Spain competed in basketball with players representing themselves as mentally handicapped who weren't. Yes, you read that right. They also won the gold medal and thus outed themselves once it hit the newspapers. The Paralympic sports committee obviously punished someone for this embarrassing atrocity right? Yes... the mentally handicapped who they banned from competing in future games. This one folks, will make your head melt.

Continuing our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history we examine the trading card bust of the 1990s. For generations sports fans, especially baseball, collected trading cards. In the past, these cards packaged often with bubble gum, often also increased in value, especially for rookie players who became big stars. Enter the speculators who were then feed by massive over production. By the early 1990s every sport (including pro wrestling, football, hockey) and even pop culture properties (comic books, TV shows, and movies) had multiple card sets. Over supply lead to a crash in values and once the speculators fled, millions of people were left with boxes of worthless cards.

The 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series continues as we examine the terrorist assault and murder of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, Germany.  Germany, wanting to put the stain of the past behind them, had strongly pushed the "smiling Olympics" and despite warnings, failed to take precautions against a terrorist attack. Then, to make matters worse, they totally botched the response resulting in multiple deaths.

On March 1, 1932 one of most sensational crimes ever to grip America occurred- the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and Murder. The son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, aged 20 months, disappeared from his crib upstairs and was, apparently, held for ransom, which was paid. However, just over two months later the child's body was discovered in the woods near the home. What happened? Why? Who did it? It was America's first truly big true crime story.

The only Major League Baseball player to be killed during a game was Ray Chapman and it happened in 1920. The story is tragic even beyond what was likely an accident. Likely, because, well, the player who threw the pitch had a reputation for hitting batters, on purpose, and after hitting Ray Chapman with the fatal pitch did himself no favors by continuing to be a pretty unlikable fellow. And... that's not all. Ray Chapman's wife was pregnant at the time and neither she nor her child make it out of this story alive either. Truely one of the saddest sports deaths ever. One of our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series.

Welcome to the 2022 When It Was Cool Dark Halloween Special, hosted by Dirty Dawg Darsie and joined by Kid Zombie and the Desert Rat of WhenItWasCool.com and Joe Drilling and Eric Allen of OnTheStick.com to talk all things spooky! Wrestling Halloween stories, UFO encounters, a Roanoke Dogman encounter on the "These Woods Are Haunted" TV show, clips of the 2001 Ghost to Ghost AM with Art Bell, and so much more! I wanna thank Turpak for the opening song with Tony Schiavone! You can find Turpak's work at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFL0ebm06CSK38i--BZhHqw I also wanna thank Karl Casey at White Bat Audio for the song Annihilation! You can find Karl Casey's work at https://www.youtube.com/c/WhiteBatAudio If you wanna watch the clip Joe, Eric, and I reviewed, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-gGjaDe9k

It's the ghost with the most. This week WhenItWasCool.com continues our month long celebration of Halloween as Karl and Tonya take a look back at the 1988 horror comedy Beetlejuice! An all-star cast battles with the afterlife in this late 1980s classic, fun for everyone on your Halloween playlist! Beetlejuice is a cult classic movie that has actually aged pretty well. Just don't say the title three times!

We continue celebrating Halloween all month long here at WhenItWasCool.com and this week Karl and Tonya discuss the classic 1982 horror movie Poltergeist. Into the pop culture lexicon entered the eerie phrase, "They're here!" And, beyond the storyline itself, the movie was followed by the tragic death of its young star. Poltergeist gave birth to multiple sequels and remains a staple of must-see horror Halloween classics.

We are celebrating Halloween all month long at When It Was Cool and we will return in November to our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series, but today we take a look at a real life monster. In fact, a new controversial Netflix series called Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story is currently one of the most popular streaming series of the year. Karl and Tonya from When It Was Cool have watched it and this is our review. We understand there is a lot of negative feelings toward this series and we try to address those as honestly as possible.

We interrupt our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series for the month of October as we are celebrating Halloween all month long at WhenItWasCool.com. So, this episode, host Karl Stern (DragonKingKarl) is joined by his wife Tonya from WIWC to discuss one of the iconic horror movies of ever- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which gave us a young Johnny Depp and one of the greatest monster horror characters ever in Freddie Kruger! One-Two-Freddie's Coming For You!

Who was Fatty Arbuckle? Besides having a hilarious name he was the first big Hollywood scandal. Yes, the sad tale of Fatty Arbuckle is a cautionary tale for the movie industry still to this very day. Fatty Arbuckle was a silent movie era star until his career was destroyed by an allegation that he raped and killed a Hollywood actress. It took three trials with wildly varying verdicts to finally proclaim him, not only not guilty, but the jury issued him a written apology as well. This is the tragic story of Fatty Arbuckle.

Join The Desert Rat this episode to continue our paranormal diving discussing Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons, magician and co-founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. An actual link to military intelligence that adds power to conspiracies about black magic in government.

Continuing our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series. You know your life has taken a bad turn if the government has to name a law after you. Yeah, probably not a good sign. Nor was it for child actor Jackie Coogan, who, after gaining huge success in Charlie Chaplin films, went on to even greater notoriety as Uncle Fester from the Addams Family. So, what is so dark about Jackie Coogan? It is a cautionary tale for all child actors, Hollywood, and human nature.