Weird World Podcast

We're not saying monsters are real, but we're not saying they're not. But do we get monsters right? In part 1, we take a look at how modern storytelling has reshaped vampires and werewolves from their "true" selves.

We are all over the place with this Weird News episode, from Area 51 to the nuke dogs of Chernobyl to the Gateway to Hell to the pitfalls of relying on tech to solve your problems.

Turns out Joe Biden was "executed" in 2020 and all this time he has been a clone pretending to be Joe Biden. Or a robot. Or a "soulless entity." Maybe even a demon because his eyes are black. Who knew? Thankfully there are people out there willing to tell the truth, including one who lives in Washington, DC.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?)

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?

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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!

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?

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.

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.

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?

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?

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."

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.

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?

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.

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.