Bedtime Stories

The Vietnam War was a conflict defined by brutality and uncertainty. Dense jungle concealed ambushes, artillery shattered the night, and young soldiers were forced to fight an enemy they could rarely see. It was a war of exhaustion, paranoia and relentless fear. Yet for some who served there, the Viet Cong were not the only threat moving through the trees. In whispered accounts that surfaced years...

We have previously examined three forested regions of the United Kingdom, each of which has become a focal point for reports of high strangeness. Cannock Chase brought with it accounts of shadowed figures, cryptids and unexplained encounters. Clapham Wood revealed whispers of spectral entities and deeply unsettling phenomena. Pembrey Forest, outwardly quiet and unassuming, carried its own catalogu...

Throughout history, there are countless examples of places or objects said to bring suffering to those connected with them, earning a reputation for being cursed. In earlier episodes, we have explored several of these stories, from infamously unlucky motor vehicles to the final resting place of a convicted murderer. In this episode, we turn our attention to the preserved remains of an Ice Age hunt...

Some places sit quietly on the map, rarely drawing attention beyond those who live nearby. Others become known not for what happens there once, but for what keeps happening again and again; events that resist explanation, leave no clear record, and blur the line between history and testimony. In the mid twentieth century, a remote corner of Indonesia became the focus of a series of accounts that d...

He set off expecting nothing more than a long drive. A journey from Oregon to Florida, planned, ordinary, and uneventful. Somewhere along the way, however, Timothy Braddy disappeared. His truck would later be found parked beside a high school, undamaged and unlocked, as though he had stepped away briefly and never returned. There were no signs of violence, no clear reason for him to stop, and no t...

In late 2021, an ordinary man from the north of England reported two encounters that would alter the course of his life. The first took place in the early hours of the morning and left him questioning the nature of consciousness itself. The second occurred months later. Between those two events lay a period of illness so severe that doctors could not explain how he survived it at all. Whether thes...

When a thirteen-year-old boy growing up on a remote farm in Mexico takes part in what he believes is nothing more than a harmless game, he has no way of knowing what he is about to invite into his life. What begins as curiosity soon gives way to fear, as subtle changes take hold and the atmosphere within the household begins to shift. Over the following months, the boy’s family becomes convinced t...

Most of us move through time without ever noticing it. Seconds pass, days accumulate, years slip quietly behind us. But on rare occasions, something appears to go wrong. A person finds themselves somewhere they do not belong, surrounded by a world that feels unfamiliar, faster, louder, and strangely hostile. In the winter of 1951, in the heart of New York City, witnesses reported seeing a man step...

In the great deserts of the American Southwest, people vanish with unsettling regularity. Some leave behind traces that hint at what happened. Others seem to step out of the world entirely, swallowed by a landscape vast enough to hide anything and quiet enough that no one hears it happen. But every so often, a disappearance leaves behind more questions than answers. A hiker known for pushing his l...

In a previous episode, we explored several disturbing encounters involving a creature long feared within Navajo tradition; an entity said to move with unnatural speed, mimic familiar voices, and stalk the lonely highways of the American Southwest. Those stories were unsettling enough, yet they represent only a fraction of the reports that continue to emerge. In this episode, we return to the shado...

During the late 1970s, a fully laden DC-10 passenger jet crashed shortly after take-off, killing everyone on board. The disaster shocked the nation, prompting investigations, headlines, and a long search for answers. Yet in the days leading up to the tragedy, something quietly unsettling had been unfolding elsewhere. One man, living hundreds of miles away and with no connection to the flight, bega...

In 1955, a small silver sports car rolled out of a California garage and into American folklore. It was sleek, fast, and dangerous. A machine built for the racetrack. But within weeks, its young owner would be dead, and the car itself would become infamous. What followed were decades of bizarre accidents, unexplained fatalities, and eerie coincidences, all linked to the same deadly machine. Some n...

In 1947, a cargo ship was discovered drifting aimlessly through calm waters in the Indian Ocean. When rescuers finally boarded, what they found defied all logic. Every member of the crew lay dead, sprawled across the decks, their eyes wide open, mouths frozen mid-scream. Yet the vessel itself showed no sign of fire, struggle, or damage of any kind. No wounds, no blood, no explanation. To this day,...

Throughout history, humankind has turned its gaze towards the heavens in search of mystery. Yet time and again, it is beneath the ground where the most enduring enigmas are found. Across every continent lie tales of ancient tunnels, lost chambers, and sealed structures that predate all known civilisation. One such story emerged from the mountains of wartime Slovakia, where a wounded soldier claime...

One night, while walking through the woods on the outskirts of her town, an elderly woman discovered what she thought was an abandoned infant lying in the dirt. She carried it home and resolved to raise it herself, but what began as an act of compassion would soon spiral into a mystery that left her community asking whether the baby Aleshenka was even human. MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission o...

In 1996, the quiet Brazilian town of Varginha became the centre of one of the strangest UFO cases in modern history. Nestled amongst the hills of Minas Gerais, its residents reported encounters with a bizarre, non-human creature, an event that would draw global attention, military involvement, and decades of speculation. Was it all an elaborate hoax to put this small town on the map, or did someth...

Experience tells us there are certain professions in which people are far more likely to encounter the unexplained than others. As the many accounts featured on our sister podcast Wartime Stories clearly demonstrate, one such group is military personnel. But another, just as frequently, is the world of law enforcement, where officers across the globe have reported experiences that defy logic, reas...

In the woods just east of Louisville, Kentucky, an old railway bridge cuts through the treeline. To many, it would appear no different to any other trestle found in the rural US. But locals believe that this particular overpass is guarded by a goat-like beast so disturbing that it causes those who see it to instantly run for their lives, or, in some cases, their deaths. For more than half a centur...

In 1988, a new section of road was carved through the hills of the Peak District in Northern England. Built to divert heavy traffic away from the small town of Stocksbridge, the bypass was meant to bring relief. But almost from the start, strange reports began to surface from workers on the site - sightings of figures where no one should be, and unsettling incidents that defied explanation. In the...

Fact or fiction, is there anything more terrifying than the idea of being abducted by aliens? History is littered with such accounts, depicting scenes of horrifying experimentation. But what if some of these beings were benevolent, instead inviting us to learn from them? In 1980, one man may have been given that chance. Whether still on this planet or not, his disappearance has left us asking; wha...

On the 25th June 1986, a routine journey across Spain turned tragic. In the early morning, a tanker truck carrying thousands of litres of sulphuric acid crashed whilst crossing the Somosierra mountain pass. But the driver was not alone. He had brought along his wife and 10-year-old son. When authorities arrived to investigate, they found something truly unexpected: the boy was missing. Over the en...

For centuries, the deserts and mountains of the Middle East have been steeped in myth and mystery. From ancient conquerors to modern armies, those who marched into these lands often returned with stories of strange and unexplainable encounters. In more recent times, the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq have become the backdrop for some of the world’s most intense conflicts — and with them, unsettli...

On the evening of 24 February 1978, five friends from Northern California - Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Jackie Huett, and Gary Mathias - set off to watch a basketball game. They never returned. Months later, four of them were discovered dead in the snowy wilderness of the Plumas National Forest, seventy miles from their intended route. The fifth man has never been found alive… or dead...

David Paulides, a former police officer turned researcher, has spent years investigating unexplained deaths and disappearances in North America’s national parks. His work has catalogued thousands of cases that defy easy explanation. In this episode, we follow his findings and ask the question: is there something in the woods - something that stalks and hunts human beings? MUSIC  Tracks used by kin...

For centuries, reports of mysterious flying beings have surfaced across the Americas. Witnesses describe them as humanoid in form yet moving without wings, descending silently from the skies to terrify those who encounter them. But in the early 2000s, northern Mexico became the focal point of some of the most striking and widely reported cases. Police officers, farmers, and ordinary residents all...