True Weird Stuff

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Swimmers    In 1982, Russian Navy divers were conducting a military exercise 50 metres deep in Lake Baikal when they noticed something observing them. Tall, humanoid creatures with silvery silhouettes lingered; a sight that would terrify even the toughest soldier. 7 divers entered those waters that day…only 4 survived. What lurks below in the world’s oldest lake? See...

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bishop's Dungeon    Bishop Vladimir was at the center of significant rumors during his tenure in San Francisco in the late 1800s: arson...financial recklessness...death threats. But it wasn't until 1891 when his bitter rivals uncovered something truly heinous: a dungeon full of abused and tortured children. Bishop Vladimir wasn't just a religious leader...he was a wo...

Hammer Time Love is a beautiful thing, but jealousy is an ugly monster. That's why American showgirl Clara Phillips stalked her imagined rival and beat her to death with a hammer...because she loved her man so much. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Moon Struck Ever look up at the night sky and wonder, what is the moon? Has the moon always been there? That humble, dusty little satellite that hangs in our night sky and has inspired everything from love songs to werewolves to snack cakes, but until fairly recently, we had no real idea what the moon really is, or why it’s even here. See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Wild West Pearl   Forced to work in a brothel as a young girl, Pearl Hart rebelled and ran away. She broke all the hearts and she broke all the rules, and once she even broke out of jail. And then she got an idea…let’s rob a stagecoach. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Don’t Let Them In A child you’ve never met – a complete stranger – approaches you and asks for help. What would you do? In 1996, reporter Brian Bethel encountered two children whose presence consumed his soul with fear. Some believe it’s paranormal; others believe it’s a prank. But one glance is all it takes..from the black-eyed kids. See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Killer Crush and the Incel Bryan Kohberger is sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder in the horrific stabbing deaths of four college students at the University of Idaho. And he’s at the center of two perplexing and bizarre phenomena: one, the adoration and infatuation of female fans. As crazy as that sounds, right? And two, Kohberger is a...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Ice Pick to The Brain   What if there was a quick and easy outpatient procedure that promised to cure whole list of ailments? Insomnia, post-partum depression, a nervous stomach, headaches…All easily fixed with the minimally invasive tap tap tap of an icepick hammered into an eye socket. Not a Saw movie – it was medicine in America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Pig Lady Haunting   Forbidden love, deception, murder…and a mystery that has remained a mystery for more than a hundred years. The double homicide of a married preacher and his equally married mistress. From the eerie crime scene to the complete circus that was the trial, this is a story where there can be no justice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Talking SETI with Dr. Seth Shostak   When it comes to aliens, you probably either think an invasion is imminent, or that the government is running a massive disinformation campaign to conceal military technology. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. SETI as in, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. No tinfoil h...

Today's True Weird Stuff - We The People If you had to shout out some of the founding fathers of the United States of America, chances are your go-to guys would be George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin. But there was another architect of American independence...the guy who coined the phrase, “We the people”. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bone Wars   Once upon a time, there were two men who lied and tricked and undermined each other every chance they got. They weren’t warriors or soldiers...kings or conquerors. They were a couple of paleontologists...both hellbent on being the world’s authority on dinosaurs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Fifth Commandment24 Have you done one of those DNA tests – like 23 & Me or AncestryDNA? It can be so much fun, learning that your ancestors come from places you’d never dreamed of. Until the moment you learn that spitting into that little vial might reveal that you aren’t exactly who you think you are. Because your mother or your father isn’t who they claim to be...

Today's True Weird Stuff Episode - Subproject 68   Imagine going into a hospital for something minor…and finding yourself restrained. Injected with paralyzing drugs, zapped with massive amounts of electro-shock treatments, and placed in a medical coma for weeks and sometimes months on end. A blacked-out helmet strapped to your head; a voice droning on and on into your ears for up to 20 hours a day...

Today's True Weird - Time Travel   Time. We always seem to be giving it, taking it, and running out of it. We always, always want more of it. And we dream of being able to control it. We dream of machines that would let us skip through time as easily as we move through space, in our cars, trains, and planes. What if time travel was possible? There are people who claim THEY are time travelers…do yo...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Sea Demon You’re at the beach, standing at the water’s edge. Shielding your eyes from the sun glaring off the water, you gaze out at the far horizon. Did you see it? Was it a trick of the light or was it...a fin? You’re about to hear a shark tale unlike any other. One that makes Jaws look like Finding Nemo. This is the terrifying true story of...the Sea Demon. See omnyst...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Talking to Heaven   What happens when we die? Are you a person who believes that we flicker into and out of existence like earthbound fireflies, here and then gone? Or maybe you believe in an eternal soul that recycles itself lifetime after lifetime? What if you could know, what if you did know what happens when we die? In this episode, you’ll hear from internationally a...

Cattle mutilation stories are all weird. And all sound kind of similar, don’t they? There’s the dead animal, missing various body parts – with no blood or tracks or footprints or evidence of any kind. Something is happening to these animals. Something we can’t explain. 50+ years, 10,000+ cattle…that’s no load of bull. So, what is it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Bloody Benders  You’re heading west, with big dreams of staking your claim to one of those parcels of land promised in the Homestead Act. Word has it there’s a family up the road yonder that takes in travelers. Nothing fancy, just a simple cabin over in Labette County. They say the daughter talks to the dead, but you know how folks like to gossip about their neighbors. J...

Today's True Weird Stuff - Weird Taxidermy   Ever looked around your house and thought, what this place needs is a taxidermied rat wearing a Victorian frock coat? Maybe sporting a couple of human teeth? There’s a whole world of taxidermy beyond mounted deer heads and crouching bobcats. In this episode, you’ll meet a guy who turns roadkill into weird, strange, make-believe creatures…and you’ll also...

Prohibition was such a weird and terrible idea that it’s hard to believe it really happened. But this is the story of Daisy Dell Simpson, one of only 12 female Prohibition agents hired by the IRS to help bust bootleggers, gangsters, and speakeasies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Medicine has come a very long way since the early days of bloodletting and leeches. But once upon a time, human beings trusted a very different kind of cure…the kind that doesn’t come from a fancy laboratory or a big chain drugstore. Some of our ancestors opened wide and swallowed the stuff of nightmares: blood. Bone. Human flesh.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scientists are increasingly using AI and machine learning in their search for extraterrestrial life, and one man’s algorithm may be the biggest breakthrough yet…leaving us one step closer to the biggest question a human gazing at the infinity of the stars can ask: Where is everybody? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who doesn’t love a bunny rabbit? Especially the ones that tote baskets of candy. But rabbits are so much more than the cotton-tailed critters of fairy tales and cartoons. Being all cute and harmless and fluffy has helped them keep their freaky secrets…secret. Until now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Bloody Prankster (Airdate 3/31/2023)   Are you one of those people who cook up a successful April Fools’ prank? If you’re lucky, the worst that happens is a little embarrassment, maybe some hurt feelings. But if you’re unlucky, terribly unlucky, that prank can end in bloodshed. In murder. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.