Spooky Science Sisters

Happy Halloween and welcome to our fifth (!) annual listener stories episode where we discuss and debunk spooky stories sent in by listeners. This episode features three stories about a haunted forest, a haunted lightbulb, and finally, a haunted chapel! ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod ** Links...

Welcome to the second episode in our series on the history of ghosts! In this episode, we start in Ancient Greece and Rome (where you'll hear one of the most famous haunted house stories of all time), then make our way through the Americas, before heading back to medieval Europe. ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreo...

We're finally back! And we're starting off on a topic we're really excited about - the history of ghosts! In this episode, we'll start in prehistoric times and talk about what archaeological evidence might suggest about belief in ghosts, and then make our way through ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes...

Meagan is joined for our first official bonus episode (originally shared to Patreon last October) by friend of the podcast and fellow skeptic, Tyson Kemp, to talk about his ghost hunting experience on Blennerhassett Island located in West Virginia. As far as we're concerned, every potentially haunted island should come with a mysterious caretaker and House of the Dragon and Hamilton tie-ins.  ** Y...

Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister Dr. Vikram Baliga (AKA The Plant Prof of the Planthropology Podcast) to talk about eight of the world's spookiest plants. From plants with eyeballs to others that reportedly "eat" sheep, this episode has a little bit of everything for the horticulturally-minded. ** Links to Vikram's social media, his book, and the Planthropology Podcast can be found here: http...

For this episode, Meagan is joined by Geo Rutherford, an artist, author, and amateur limnologist, who is well known for her Spooky Lakes video series that takes place each October on TikTok and Instagram. We talk about what inspired Geo to become the internet's Lady of the Lakes, and take a dive into the haunted hydrology of three of the world's spookiest bodies of water. ** Links to Geo's social...

Listeners, it has been way too long since we've talked about aliens. Let's fix that! In this episode, Meagan is joined again by Substitute Sister and astronomer, Dr. Allison Kirkpatrick, to talk about the Fermi Paradox, which asks us to consider why we haven't heard from any intelligent extraterrestrial life yet, especially given the likely large number of habitable planets in our own galaxy that...

Can it be? The third and final part of our series on the Salem Witch Trials has arrived! You'll have to excuse the delay, we probably had sleepy sickness. In this episode we talk about the scientific/medical explanations that have been proposed for the events in Salem, and share a little about our own experiences visiting the Witch City! ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, wh...

Welcome to Part II of our three-part series on the Salem Witch Trials. In this episode, we discuss the specifics of the events of 1692-1693, coming to the completely logical conclusion that people generally suck. If the word "suck" bothers you, this episode is not for you. ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/s...

Almost four years into our time as the Spooky Science Sisters and we are finally delivering on our promise of talking about the Salem Witch Trials. What we thought would be one of our original set of episodes back in 2020 was pushed back, along with our own trip to the Witch City. Well, in September 2023, we finally took that trip, and we are so excited to share our thoughts about Salem with you!...

Another Christmas episode!? What a merry surprise. Grab some nog and join us to hear about a few spooky Christmas traditions we weren’t able to get to in our 2022 episode. Happy Holidays, and we’ll see you in the New Year! ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod ** Links to our social media & more: Li...

A lot of you have probably come across social media posts and even news articles that the holiday we know as Christmas is just ripoff of Pagan mythology and traditions. Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister Tyson Kemp to discuss and debunk many of these claims. ** You can find Tyson telling wonderful, well-researched spooky and skeptical stories @tysonunkempt on TikTok and Instagram! To read more...

Welcome to our fourth (!!!) volume of Halloween Listener Stories. Yes, we know it's almost a month after Halloween, but it's always Halloween in our hearts, right!? Listen to hear us try to debunk three creepy tales featuring a haunted (?) hotel room, mysterious nocturnal jewelry removals, and a phantom smell. Have your own story to share? Be sure to send it to us any time to hear it debunked next...

Let's talk about death, baby! Burying and memorializing the dead is typically thought of as a distinctly human (or at least hominid) act. In this episode, Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister and history teacher, Amy Manlapas, to talk about what that has looked like for the last few hundred thousand years (we've been digging graves for a long time!). Starting with the 400,000 year old (and pre-bu...

Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister and Professor for the History of Science at Kean University, Dr. Brian Regal, to talk about the O.G. spooky science - alchemy and its influences on science as we know it today. Although alchemists came to be associated with gold, mysticism, the Philosopher's Stone, and in some cases, fakery, many were careful experimentalists who made significant discoveries i...

Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister and host of the Just the Zoo of Us and Spellbound & Gagged podcasts, Ellen Weatherford, to discuss the man, the moth!?, the legend - Mothman! Join us to hear all about the history and science behind one of America's coziest cryptids, and get our thoughts on important questions such as "Is Richard Gere actually Mothman," and, "is Florida the Carboniferous Perio...

It is time for our fifth round of Short & Spooky stories, which, according to The Fast and the Furious franchise naming scheme, must be called Short Five. This also means that we are bringing you five spooky stories and each one has to have some aspect including or related to the number five. There's a little bit of everything here from alien encounters, to haunted dolls, to cursed phone numbers,...

Struggling to figure out who you are in this world? Never fear - there's a test for that! In fact, there's A LOT of them. In this episode, we discuss the historical origins of personality tests, and discuss two popular ones available today - the MBTI and the Big Five - with a focus on what's "real" and what's pseudoscience. You'll even get to hear our results! ** The free MBTI we took: https://www...

Several times throughout human history, people have experienced extreme events that made them believe their world might be coming to end. In this episode, we discuss two of these terrifying times, the Late Antique Little Ice Age that began around 536 CE, and the Dust Bowl that plagued American and Canadian prairies from 1930-1936. We then journey further back in time to discuss the mass extinction...

In this episode, Paige and Meagan are joined by Tanner and Taylor of the Beyond the Breakers podcast to talk about one of the worst environmental disasters in history - the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Because what's scarier than an enormous explosion on a deep-sea drilling platform and massive oil spill caused by the "gross negligence" and " willful misconduct" of one of the largest companies in...

Join us for a discussion on all things fairies (AKA faeries, fae, fay, Little People, Wee Folk, Fair Folk, etc. etc., etc.). Turns out, when it comes to Celtic and western European fairy lore, pretty much EVERYTHING comes down to the fae, and they are not having it with our human sh*t. From changelings, to banshees, to boggarts, to brownies - Holy Cow - it's all fairies! ** Want to listen without...

In this episode, Meagan is joined by two Substitute Sisters - archaeologist and television producer, Annelise Baer, and the host of the podcast Digging Up Ancient Aliens (and also an archaeologist), Fredrik Trusohamn, to talk about everything Ancient Aliens. Our discussion includes the origins of the ancient astronauts hypothesis that inspired it, behind the scenes info from Annelise's time as a r...

In this episode, Meagan is joined by Substitute Sisters Tyson Kemp and Jeremy Foster, both residents of Appalachia, to talk about the internet phenomenon that is Appalachian folklore. We discuss the history of the region, America's long-standing fascination with its folklore, and how stereotypes about Appalachia and its people have developed and evolved over the past 300 years. ** Want to listen w...

It's time for our fifth installment of spooky true crime stories! This episode kicks off with a discussion about sensationalism surrounding the crimes of infamous serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett, AKA H.H. Holmes. We then recount the tale of the Hammersmith Ghost, who terrorized a small village on the outskirts of London for two months in the winter of 1803, and try to answer the question, "Is...

Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister and astronomer Dr. Allison Kirkpatrick for a discussion on all things spooky (or, more accurately, completely terrifying) about space. We cover rogue black holes and planets, asteroid deflection, gamma ray bursts (oh hey Betelgeuse!), and the mysterious Great Attractor (is it God!?). ** Want to listen without the ads? Check out our newly launched Patreon, wher...