Campfire: Tales of the Strange and Unsettling

This week, we’re discussing a peculiar case from 1994 in Celina, Texas. Following the tragic loss of their beloved son, Travis and Olivia Mabel went their separate ways. Travis moved to Boston in hopes of moving forward, but Olivia went inside. Receding from the world in a four year period of grief-stricken seclusion that would culminate in her bizarre death. However, this is not a simple case of...

This week, we sat down with one of our dearest friends, Ryan Moore. We dig into his brushes with multiple full-body apparitions, ouija board attachments, and the evident strength of his spiritual bond with elder family members.  We also just did some catching up. He’s an old friend! So, strap in for this fun and spooky trip down memory lane.  Campfire: Tales of the Strange and Unsettling is create...

This week, we’re discussing one of the most terrifying entities from Native American folklore: The Wendigo. Tales of a perpetually starving monster roaming the forests of Eastern North America. The Wendigo originates in the lore of tribes like the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Algonquin. Its name roughly translates to "the evil spirit that devours mankind". An obvious boogeyman to battle against t...

This week, we’re releasing one of the first interviews that we conducted for the show! It’s a great chat with an old friend: Alex Dougherty! This girl is a total badass and this was a super fun conversation. She is a certified Reiki Healer and a retired Air Force mechanic. We talk about a few experiences that she had at paranormal hotspots near the little town that we grew up in, a UFO sighting th...

On December 6, 1990 a military battalion led by Colonel Tzvetko Kanev rolled into the small Bulgarian village of Tsarichina. Under the auspices of a legendary lost treasure, they cordoned off a tract of land and began excavating. After the discovery of a decidedly unnatural spiraling subterranean tunnel, things on the surface to a turn toward the bizarre. Failed equipment, UFO sightings, shadow fi...

This week, he sat down with the brother and sister pair responsible for the fantastic strange history podcast, The Wicked Side. Brenna and Tom are intelligent and curious and both charming in very different ways. They have a fantastic dynamic and their show has a quantum leap esque premise that I’ve never seen in another podcast. We had a great chat about the history of their family with the paran...

On December 9, 1965, a mysterious and shocking image streaked across the skies from Ontario to Kentucky. Hundreds of reports flooded into radio and police stations describing a bright fireball at just above treetop level. Ultimately, reports described a crash landing in the woods outside Kecksburg, PA. In an era of intense Soviet-induced paranoia, was this a prime example of mass hysteria? Was it...

This week, we had the chance to sit down with the creator behind the brilliant gonzo comedy cryptozoology podcast, Darwin’s Deviations. We discussed his history and worked on getting to the bottom of what drives him and his future with the brand new show, Tracing Owls! We grazed the surface of about a hundred topics that he will absolutely be coming back to discuss. Enjoy! Campfire: Tales of the S...

This week, we dive into the deep end of mystery with our first foray into a world of nautical nightmare. The Ivan Vassili was a Russian steam freighter that was conscripted at the onset of the Russo-Japanese war. It’s brief history of service would be marked by paranormal encounters and incredible tragedy. Was the ship cursed? Was it haunted? Was it just the least lucky ship of all time? Regardles...

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Heather Moser. Heather is a writer, a classics professor, a top tier researcher for Small Town Monsters, and the host of The Lore You Know podcast. As a fan of basically everything that she does, this was a big get for me, but at the end of the day she’s just a brilliant and charming person with some very important insights about best practices f...

In January of 1996, a series of sightings and encounters struck the city of Varginha, Brazil. Reports of cigar-shaped crafts, diminutive alien creatures, and run-ins with the Men in Black would surge over the city in the following weeks, culminating in an encounter story that went nationwide on Fantastico. After the story aired, news stations and papers were inundated with reports of aliens all ov...

This week, we’re once again sitting down to discuss the incredible history of paranormal encounters endured by our very own co-host, Ryan. In part two, we get to some truly traumatic experiences that quite literally haunted his teen years, then move into the more peaceful acceptance that he currently enjoys. Tune in for a chance to understand the set of experiences that it takes to form the true b...

Strap in for a terrifying tale of one man’s encounter with the single most terrifying cryptid ever encountered. Dogman is the second most reported cryptid on earth with hundreds of sightings happening every year all over the globe. From a wealth of encounters in Northern Michigan to Deep South swamp sightings. The Land Between the Lakes to the Beast of Bray Road. We take a deep dive into the lore...

This week, we had the honor of chatting with our friend Jeff Foran! He’s the brilliant and fascinating host of the Strangeology podcast, the front man of the absolute killer skate punk band Doom Service, and the proprietor behind the best merch store on the internet. We discussed his history with podcasting and a few of his run-ins with the unexplained. So, welcome him with the warm embrace that o...

This week, we discuss one of Northern California’s most enduring mysteries. In February of 1978 five friends attended a basketball game at UC Davis. After a great evening watching their favorite team win, something caused their lives to take an unexpected turn. It’s what caused that turn that remains a mystery. Join us as we explore the evidence, stories, and theories of the Yuba County Five. DEFI...

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with our friend and fellow Fortean philosopher, Aaron Deese! He hosts the Hey, Strangeness podcast alongside his wife Sara and has quickly become a pillar of the community. We discussed his history with anomalous experiences, rural Florida ritual sites, the current state of cryptozoology, and our shared lifelong love affair with literature! Go support...

In March of 1978, a 39-year old service engineer named Kenneth Edwards had an alarming run in with an anomalous entity. This hulking humanoid stood near eight feet tall, at least three feet shoulder to shoulder, and appeared to be bright metallic silver from head to toe. After an aggressive encounter where Edwards was blasted with some type of energy discharge, a police investigation ensued. What...

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with our dear friend, Jeremiah Byron. He is a beloved member of the Fortean podcasting community. He is the founder the cryptozoology club on Clubhouse and the host of The Bigfoot Society podcast. The accolades do not stop there. He is a community organizer, a seemingly endless font of curiosity and insight, and to be completely honest, we are just ve...

In 1962, a car rolled off the Chrysler assembly line that would lead to untold amounts of suffering. This particular Dodge 330 would come be known as the Golden Eagle. Over the course of 40 years this vehicle would be connected to the deaths of over 30 people. From several bizarre suicides to lightning strikes and outright poltergeist activity, this vehicle that served as the inspiration for Steph...

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Addey Lloyd. She is the Administrative Manager for one of our favorite podcasts in the world: Monsters Among Us. We discuss her history with the paranormal and they’re some of the friendliest, nicest ghost stories we’ve ever heard! On a decidedly less friendly note, we discuss her experience ghost hunting in some of Wyoming’s most haunted locatio...

Following one of the bloodiest battles in United States Military History, the Battle of Okinawa, a minor air strip was acquired by Allied forces. Yara Hikojo Airfield soon became Kadena Air Base. Over the next 60 years the small set of runways would transform into the single largest U.S. military installation in the Eastern Hemisphere. But personal and aware acreage were not the only things to bui...

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with close friend of the show and real life camp counselor, David Chastain. He describes his first encounter with the paranormal, the difficulty and excitement of what seems to be a lifelong attachment with a shadow person, and get nostalgic about the years he spent scaring children around a campfire as a real life honest to goodness camp counselor. S...

In September of 1994, the private Ariel School in The Ruwa region of Zimbabwe was set upon by three amorphous alien crafts. A group of 62 school children had an encounter that would change their lives forever. Telepathically communicated messages of impending terrestrial doom filled their minds as they watched a pair of otherworld creatures float around them. Strap in for one of the wildest mass s...

This week, we had the honor of sitting down with one of our favorite new friends: Mothboy Matt! Matthew Schang is one-third of the Mothboys Podcast, a co-founder of the universally loved Cryptid Bash, and an absolute cornerstone of the Fortean community. We discuss a harrowing double encounter with ghost lights and a poorly placed fence, the nature and state of cryptozoology, and the  vital import...

This week, we have for you another grand mystery! The lighthouse at Eilean Mor was constructed in December of 1899. In that first year, it was manned and maintained by a team of four proven and dedicated lighthouse keepers that consisted of a Head Keeper, two Assistant Keepers, and an Occasional Keeper that alternated with each man every three months. One year into their station, the light went da...