Weird World Podcast

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A podcast that explores the unknown, the unexplained, the mysterious, the unsolved and the just plain strange. Bizarre crimes, disappearing people, odd creatures, creepy phenomena, it's all here. We won't solve every mystery, but we'll try to separate truth from fiction and let you decide.

The Wehrlis


    • May 30, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • every other week NEW EPISODES
    • 55m AVG DURATION
    • 434 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Weird World Podcast

    Episode 365 - Aimee Semple McPherson: God's Prophet in Los Angeles - Part 2

    Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2025 51:29


    Aimee is flying high, her Echo Park megachurch filled every Sunday when suddenly she disappears while swimming in the ocean. It is a sensation. Weeks later she shows up bedraggled at a small Mexican border town with a remarkable tale to tell. But what really happened to Aimee while the police and press frantically searched for her?

    Episode 364 - Aimee Semple McPherson: God's Prophet in Los Angeles - Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2025 50:50


    When James Kennedy murdered his first-wife (allegedly, by Deanonly) he replaced her with his 14-year-old nanny. They had a daughter they named Aimee. Aimee got religion early and preached fire and brimstone to her dolls, as you do. She soon shed farm life and a Mr. McPherson to found the world's first megachurch in the heart of Los Angeles decadence. Then she disappeared.

    Episode 363 - Cheerleader Syndrome: Strange Behavior in LeRoy, NY

    Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2025 63:13


    Katie got it first, a weird tick with her chin she couldn't explain or control. Then Laurie, then Chelsea, then five more, then ten more. An epidemic of strange behavior hit the kids of Leroy Junior Senior High School. The case became a national cause celebre even more baffling than the name of their school.

    Episode 362 - The Bogle-Chandler Mystery

    Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2025 64:08


    It seemed like a straight-up double homicide - two bodies at the river's edge, killed while late night trysting in early 1960s Sydney. But if it was murder, why was there no sign of it? After a year of intense investigation, authorities could still not determine what had killed the victims, let alone who.

    Episode 361 - The Return of the Dire Wolf?

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2025 29:41


    The dire wolf was not just a CGI co-star on Game of Thrones. It was an apex predator until 10,000 years ago when they became extinct. Until now. A bioscience company in Texas says they have rewritten the genetic code of a gray wolf to give birth to three dire wolves. Next up: the wooly mammoth.

    Episode 360 - Ricky McCormick and The Secret in his Pocket

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 51:48


    When police found Ricky McCormick's body dumped in a field they discovered two odd notes in his pocket. The jumble of numbers and letters made no sense. The FBI was convinced it was a cipher - but the best code breakers in the world have never solved it. Who killed Ricky? And what the hell is in those cryptic notes?

    Episode 359 - The Flatwoods Monster

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2025 70:09


    Three kids playing football in their rural West Virginia town in 1952 saw a bright light flash across the sky and, they thought, crash into a neighbor's farm. Quickly a little group gathered to bravely trek into the woods. Something with bright red eyes, a strage spade-shaped head and a metal apron floated down the hill toward them and into UFO history. What was the Flatwoods Monster?

    Episode 358 - Weird News 03/14/25: Dumb Shaming

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2025 57:46


    You might call it dumb, but let's call it poor judgment. This week in weird news we highlight some very poor decisions. Things like do-it-yourself cryogenics, surgeons that did not put sticky notes on the organs they were supposed to remove, people who start a war with raccoons, and so much more.

    Episode 357 - Capturing the Dead - William H Mumler and the Birth of Spirit Photography

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2025 53:10


    Thanks to photoshop, the only limit on how we can mess with pictures is our imagination. But back in the 19th century, William H. Mumler began capturing people in his family portraits that had never been inside his studio - at least not while they were alive.

    Episode 356 - A Town Called Chaos

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2025 65:53


    When a group of hardcore Libertarians took the political reins of a little town in New Hampshire they figured they would face opposition. Hostility from government-loving locals, from the teacher and cops they would try to fire, the usual suspects. But they didn't know they would also be attacked by the bears.

    Episode 355 - Kalanoro - Madagascar's Mini Monsters

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 44:22


    Does an ancient race of small hairy humanoids with sharp claws and nasty fangs still live in the deepest jungles of modern Madagascar? Many locals are terrified of these Kalanoro, because, though only not quite three feet tall, they have been known to kidnap and kill humans.

    Episode 354 - Canada Invents a Gaydar

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2025 42:48


    Every straight guy will say something about their “gaydar” at least 3 times a year if they work in an office. But there was a time when Canada - yes, Canada - thought they really could build a device that could tell if someone was gay or not, and that this was a good thing.

    Episode 353 - The Third Wave: Or How To Turn Your Highschool History Class Into a Cult

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 77:45


    Do you think you could become a Nazi? With the right circumstances, the right environment, the right pressures? In 1967, none of the students in Ron Jones' high school history class thought so - until they did.

    Episode 352 - The White House Farm Murder Mystery - Part 3

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2025 89:26


    The case against Jeremy hinges on the smallest details - was the silencer on the rifle? Whose blood was that on the barrel of the gun? Was it even actually blood? And is Jeremy willing to go to any length to get his hands on the money? Or is it is someone else?

    Episode 351 - The White House Farm Murder Mystery - Part 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 68:43


    The seemingly simple, if horrific case, of murder-suicide explodes when Jeremy's ex tells the police of her deep, dark secret. Did Jeremy in fact extinguish his immediate family to get the family fortune? Or this something deeper going on here.

    Episode 350 - The White House Farm Murder Mystery - Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2025 74:58


    The Bamber family was modern English countryside gentry, but there was trouble broiling beneath the surface. Son Jeremy was loathed by most and daughter Sheila had two children from a broken marriage and serious psychological issues. In the early morning of Aug. 7, 1985, a horrific act started one of the most polarizing murder mysteries in English history. Part 1 of 3.

    Episode 349 - Weird News Update - Fading Drones?

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2024 22:04


    Should this be the last time we trust anything coming out of New Jersey? JK, but it does seem that maybe the drone scare was more War of the Worlds than Pearl Harbor. Let's get into the latest on the New Jersey Drone Invasion (question mark?)

    Episode 348 - Weird World Weird News Special Report: New Jersey Drone Invasion!

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2024 54:58


    The drone invasion of New Jersey has shocked the nation. Or at least New Jersey. Is it China? Is it a secret military project? Is it underfunded alien naturlists studying us in an oddly low-tech way? Or have we just begun to realize that, damn, there are a lot of drones up in the sky these days?

    Episode 347 - Weird News - UFO Edition

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2024 64:12


    Let's catch up on some of the latest UFO-related items from around the world, and also Las Vegas. Tiny alien mummies, the latest unexplained UAP sightings from the government agency investigating those things now, a predicted battle in the sky between us and them, and a 10-foot, bright-eyed, big-mouthed alien that crash-landed in Las Vegas and hung out in a family's backyard for a bit.

    Episode 346 - The Changeling Life of Paul Fronczak - Part 3

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 67:00


    The FBI reopens its investigation into what happened to the real Paul Fronczack. Disturbing details of a brutal childhood emerge with twins disappearing and a family afraid to ask questions. DNA testing finally reveals the truth and decades of lies unwind.

    Episode 345 - The Changeling Life of Paul Fronczak - Part 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2024 55:31


    Paul Fronczack is about to have a baby so wants to uncover more of his murky past. A DNA test proves he is, surprise, not really Paul Fronczack. The story becomes a media sensation as Paul goes down a DNA rabbit hole attempting to solve two mysteries - who is he and what happened to the real Paul Fronczack?

    dna changelings paul fronczak
    Episode 344 - The Changeling Life of Paul Fronczak - Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2024 51:23


    One day old Paul Fronczack was stolen from his mother's arms in a Chicago hospital. After an agonizing year, authorities in New Jersey thought they found the boy abandoned in Newark. The relieved parents took the baby home to raise as their own. But was he?

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

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2024 72:46


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2024 75:55


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2024 59:22


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2024 12:32


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

    weird lady vanishes paris exhibition
    Episode 340 - The Haunting of Hinton Ampner

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2024 83:12


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2024 33:13


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2024 69:33


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2024 68:59


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2024 75:05


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 42:36


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2024 73:59


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2024 65:57


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2024 59:44


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2024 45:32


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2024 45:17


    Ever want to squeeze a puppy too hard and bite a baby's toes? Your 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 Vincenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTufAQz5MIMy Way by Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra

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

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2024 13:50


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2024 70:03


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2024 57:32


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2024 47:57


    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

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2024 56:12


    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?

    Episode 326 - The Devil Baby of Bourbon Street and the Origin of the Grunch

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2024 31:16


    Possibly the spawn of devil baby testicles (we'll explain), the Grunch is a chupacabra-like creature that terrorizes the swamps and bayous outside New Orleans. Is it real? If it wasn't, would so many people keep losing their cats?

    Episode 325 - One Nation, Under Kids

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2024 79:08


    Would you take a bunch of kids from their homes, deny all contact with family, and see if they could survive on their in a New Mexico ghost town? You would if you were a CBS TV executive and had no moral compass. But then we wouldn't have had the sh*tshow that was "Kid Nation."

    Episode 324 - How Flat is the Earth? Part 4

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2024 67:51


    Finally, we get to the answer - is the earth flat and how do we know? Then we wrap it up with what happened to Bob Knodel's expensive gyro experiment and Mad Mike Hughes' daring rocket test.

    Episode 323 - How Flat is the Earth? Part 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2024 64:29


    We continue our deep dive into our flat earth even though we don't know how shallow the crust is. What exactly does a flat earth look like (think a sprial of continents around the North Pole at the center of a disc)? And what do scientists have to say about why the earth might actually be round?

    Episode 322 - How Flat is the Earth? Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2024 56:49


    Never have more people believed the earth is flat than right now. We know this is true because the concept of a flat earth is surprisingly recent and has really only exploded this century. We start a three-part deep dive below the flat surface of the earth by tracing its history up to the modern day.

    Weird Bit 62 - Osama Bin Laden Action Figure!

    Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2024 24:52


    Sure, Osama Bin-Laden was popular in some quarters in the early 2000s, but action figure popular? And would the CIA make that Osama action figure? And send them to kids in Afghanistan? There has to be more to that story. There is.

    Episode 321 - Mr. Dreamy

    Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2024 47:04


    He has a receding hairline over a round face and thick dark eyebrows. You don't know him and have never seen him - except in your dreams. He is "This Man," the dream invader who might calm you or guide you - or terrify you. And thousands of others have seen the same man in their dreams too.

    Episode 320 - Vampire Dog of Cumberland

    Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2024 24:47


    Two words: Vampire. Dog.

    Episode 319 - George Kenney and the Principles of Hypnosis

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2024 78:53


    George Kenney was a school principal who thought he could help troubled kids through hypnosis. If that sounds like a bad idea you're wrong. It was a horrific idea.

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