Ding Dong Darkness Time

That's right, Ding Dongs. The Queen is starting a SECOND podcast. It's specifically geared toward historical true crime (cases prior to 1980, and going back as far as human history itself). After a brief introduction, Allison will plunge you right into 1908 and the world of infamous Midwest female serial killer, Belle Gunness, who was reeling in and extinguishing scores of lonely hearts on...

Coming March 1st, a historical true crime podcast hosted by the Queen Ding Dong herself, Allison Dickson.

The topic of Gone Girl was an inevitable for this show. The 2012 bestselling phenomenon by Gillian Flynn blew millions of readers away with its stunning plot twist, but it also caused one of the biggest plot twists in Allison's own life. This episode, featuring Jayson Blair of the Silver Linings Handbook, explores the dark and faceted marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne, and they discuss the way so...

Recently, Allison appeared on the Silver Linings Handbook with Jayson Blair to discuss our collective fascination with darkness. Why do some of us love things like horror stories and true crime? And are we doing ourselves disservice by avoiding those things entirely? All that and more in this talk. Listen to Jayson's show here: https://silverliningshandbook.com/

As we prepare to hunker down to stuff our faces with delicious delights this holiday season, Allison and her trusty movie buddy Josh from Press Play and Scream bring you a rousing discussion on the diabolically epicurean 2022 masterpiece, The Menu, starring Anya Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and Ralph Fiennes.

For the ultimate Halloween celebration, it seemed an opportune time to discuss  another well-known trope of the season. This week we're joined by Nathaniel Dickson, the eldest spawn of our host! Nate has dabbled in the craft for the last several years, and they're here to bring all their practical knowledge and insights into things like tarot cards, crystals, spells, divination, manifestat...

This week of spooky month, Allison and Jayson Blair of the Silver Linings Handbook podcast sit down for a thoughtful discussion on the long history and complex culture surrounding another one of our universal monsters: the werewolf. From symbolizing the harmony between person and beast in various indigenous cultures, to the fear of our own animalistic natures in Ancient Greek and European history...

Last year, friend of the show Brett from The Prosecutors podcast came on to talk with Allison about ghosts and his time as a paranormal investigator. This time, they're going all in on a discussion of a different form of the restless dead: ZOMBIES, those flesh-craving ghouls that have a lot more going on with them historically and culturally than meets the eye. From folklore born during the e...

We're getting tropey with it this October, with a series of episodes on some core spooky creatures and lore. And no such event would be complete without a comprehensive discussion on everyone's favorite bloodsuckers, VAMPIRES! Josh from Press Play and Scream joins the show and together, he and Allison cover the gamut, beginning with the origins of the lore and mythology before delving in...

This week, Allison sits down with famed author Ed Kurtz to discuss his new anthology, IN THE COLD, COLD GROUND coming soon from Cemetery Dance, but then he sticks around a little longer to open up about his love affair with cinema, and in particular the never-seen low/no budget weird wonders of yesteryear and today. What makes us love "bad art?" What even does that mean? And what is behi...

Better late than never! Back in Episode 29, Allison and her fellow cinephile Josh Bermont discussed director Martin McDonagh's amazing debut crime film, IN BRUGES, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Now you can listen to the rest of that discussion, as they dig into the latest film by this legendary trio, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, which came out in 2022. Unlike In Bruges, which is a...

In the last episode of their coverage on multi-level marketing companies, Allison and Beverly delve into the darkest of the dark side of these schemes, selecting several personal accounts found online as well as talking a little bit about one particularly gnarly company the Feds shut down back in the early seventies for deceptive trade practices, among other things: Holiday Magic. There might have...

Allison and Beverly are BACK to tie up some loose ends from the original Amway episode with this first Ding Dong Ditch episode that has a guest!  We dissect an interesting listener review as well as further flesh out the political influence of Amway and how it came to write the book on current laws governing the industry. Finally, we hope to clarify the discussion of politics in general as it rela...

Recently, news reported on the raid of a YouTuber's home by the Pinkerton agency in the recovery of some potentially ill-gotten gains. Magic: The Gathering cards... yeah... Anyway, you've probably heard of the Pinkertons before. They have a history so rife with blood they should probably be called the Reddingtons. From protecting trains and stage coaches to spying on the Confederacy duri...

It was a billed as the biggest sensation of its time in 1986 when famed TV journalist Geraldo Rivera brought us a 2 hour live special all about the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone and the secret tunnels and vaults discovered beneath one of his old hotels. The idea was Capone had stashed away some of his ill-gotten gains down there, and the world was going to all to witness together a time caps...

Allison and Josh from the Press Play and Scream podcast are back yet again to jibjab about some wacky flicks! This time, they're taking on the brilliant playwright turned cinematic auteur, Martin McDonagh's brilliant 2008 bleak comedy film, In Bruges. Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen who, after a job gone horribly wrong, are ordered to await their fate in the pict...

She was one of the last of the blonde bombshell stars of the 20th century, a singer, actress, comedian, and a cunning rival of Marilyn Monroe. Her life was cut tragically short on a late summer night in 1967, and her death left an unusual legacy that you probably encounter every day without realizing it. Additional Info: https://allthatsinteresting.com/jayne-mansfield-death https://www.ranker.com/...

In the second part of their dive into MLMs, Allison and Beverly pull two more beefy deceivers out of the hat: Amway and Primerica. Whereas a lot of MLMs set their hooks in women, particularly stay-at-home moms looking to make a quick buck, these companies tend to have a much broader net, and when it comes to Amway in particular, you'll find yourself stuck in a genuine cult. We explain all the...

In this first of a multi-part series, Allison and her pal Beverly start a journey of revelation and personal reminiscence through the shady world of multi-level marketing companies, beginning with a couple of the OGs from that world: Avon and Tupperware. These brands are highly nostalgic and carry a lot of cultural weight, but they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the deceptive mar...

In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola released Apocalypse Now, his stunning, surreal Vietnam war-fueled adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1899 book, The Heart of Darkness. But even more harrowing than the events onscreen were the ones happening behind the camera as over a year of filming began to take its toll on everyone involved. Drugs, nervous breakdowns, monsoons, a near deadly heart attack... and th...

We're wrapping up our global tour of the Top 10 Ding Dong Countries by bringing you a mystery from the final five. What are they? Well... we'll leave you to listen and find out, but they do all have one thing in common: GERMANY IS EVERYWHERE. This episode is bringing you Van Gogh (murder or suicide?), a possible cryptic code to a mysterious homicide (YOGTZE), a pair of wicked coin heists...

As promised when we celebrated the Top 10 American listener cities by bringing you an interesting mystery from each one, Allison and Chris are back to deliver 10 mysteries from the show's top listener countries! No passport needed for this epic journey. But you may want to bring a coat. It's a little chilly in some of these locales... Additional Info: The Trude Espås Case: The Unsolved G...

This week, Allison and Chris descend into a discussion of one of their favorite horror films of all time, the 2005 subterranean masterpiece, The Descent.  But is it really a movie about a caving adventure gone horribly awry... or is it a home invasion story?  Also, which ending is your favorite?  So much good discussion and more, so gear up, grab your axes and ropes and glow sticks, and let's...

Allison and Chris round out the shout-out to the show's most popular listener cities by bringing you some pretty heavy hitting mysteries from the Top 5! In Dallas, we bring the story of a possibly haunted landmark, the Goatman Bridge, with some chilling lore that feels true, even if it might not be. Next we travel to the Rocky Mountains of Denver, for a tale of gold prospecting and cannibalis...

At the end of 2022, Allison and Chris decided to craft something of a love letter to the Top 10 cities that regularly tune in to Ding Dong Darkness Time every week. So we started scouring for a mystery to highlight in what might very well be your neck of the woods! We start at a bleeding house in Atlanta before traveling to the odd little enclave of Sun City Center (or rather, Tampa) Florida for a...