Left of Skeptic

Happy Spooky Wednesday!

Happy Spooky Wednesday! Today Kala is talking about creepy transportation (one of her favorite subjects) by covering the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts. This tunnel took 20 years to build, and earned the nickname “The Bloody Pit” when tragedy struck during construction and trapped 13 workers in a deep hole filled with water, fire, and toxic fumes. And this was just one of the incidents that occurr...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, dear listeners! This week, Brittany is telling us all about the Edinburgh Vaults in Scotland. Built with multiple levels and 19 arches, the underground vaults served as workshops, taverns, and eventually some pretty sketchy behavior. We’re talking crime, here, folks. We’re talking murders. And they’ve got the ghosts to prove it. Will you encounter the aristocrat? The cobble...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! It may be hot outside, but it’s cold in our hearts. I should explain that… we’re talking about the Yeti this week! This famous cryptid has been inaccurately portrayed in the media for years. This is no bouncing bumble. This is a mysterious bipedal animal that is said to inhabit the Himalayan mountain range in Asia. We’re talking about the long history of personal...

Happy Spooky Wednesday!

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! It’s been a while since we covered a haunted prison, so it’s time to bring it back! Opened in 1858 and built by the very convicts trapped inside, Illinois’ Old Joliet Prison spent almost 150 years hosting a brutal history. Though its gates closed to inmates in 2002, many believe its former residents never left. Are these walls truly empty of everyone except touris...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, dears! And it is spooky indeed as we return to our paranormal roots! Brittany is telling us all about the Merchant House Museum in New York City! Considered Manhattan's most haunted house, this building was home to the wealthy Tredwell family for nearly a century. Ever since it opened as a museum in 1936, visitors and staff have reported extensive supernatural activity....

Happy Spooky Wednesday, all! Last week, Kala shared some of the most famous disappearances in the infamous Bermuda Triangle! This week, we’re talking about the reasons for these disappearances! Did the lost city of Atlantis cause these mysteries? Or is it the reason Atlantis disappeared? Is it time voids? IS IT ALIENS? What do you think?

Happy Spooky Wednesday, dear listeners! This week, Kala has the first part of a two-parter ready and raring to go! This is a subject we’ve referenced many times, but never covered: The Bermuda Triangle! Connected by southern Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, this vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean has mystified the world for years with its disappearances and tragedies. In our first part, we discu...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! This week, we’ve got the exciting (and confusing) conclusion of the Heaven’s Gate story with special guest Dereck Williams! With the tragic occurrence that led to the end (maybe?) of this cult, it has remained a key piece of history for cult enthusiasts. The question is: are they still recruiting? Or is this website still being up a coincidence?

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! IT’S HOMEGROWN WEEK! And we have a very special guest for our last Homegrown episode in 2026. The Big Boss - Dereck Williams! Both Brittany and Dereck are super into cults right now, so we’re gonna hear all about one of the most famous: Heaven’s Gate. This mish-mash of various religions has Kala absolutely stumped, and Dereck and Brittany find it hilarious. Take a...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, folks! This week, we have a special guest, Luke Nyen! If that name sounds familiar is because he is the guitarist in Kala’s band Winzige Hosen! And he is here to bring you nightmares in relation to his own nightmares. That’s right, we’re talking about sleep paralysis. We’ve mentioned it in a few topics in the past, but is there possibly a connection between sleep paralysis...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! This week, Brittany’s telling us all about a lake monster, so we thought it was best to bring in an expert on the creatures that live within lakes: Big Wave Dave! While some may know him from the local Duluth band Big Wave Dave & the Ripples, Dave is an avid fisherman of the Boulder Lake Fishing Club. And when Brittany tells us all about Old Greeny from Cayuga...

Happy Spooky Wednesday! This week is all about Spooky Smutty Little Books and why we love them! We are joined once again by the amazing Hex A’Peel, while Kala talks about the reasons people enjoy Dark Romance, Paranormal Romance, and Cryptid Romance (or Monster F**ker books, as Kala so eloquently puts it.) Why are we so intrigued by the idea of intimacy with horrible people, ghosts, or creatures?...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, folks! This is our first week of April, where we bring in special guests from the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival to discuss our creepy little subjects! First up is Hex A’Peel, a local Burlesque Dancer and Drag King! They join us as Brittany tells us about Sam the Sandown Clown. In 1973, this creature encountered two children on the Isle of Wight. This strange three-fingere...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, folks! This week, we’ve got Kala talking all about spooky funerary sculptures. Giant hooded figures and angels with big wing spans may be beautiful in the sunlight, but when night falls, they seem to take on a haunting nature. And for some, that haunting is more than a figure of speech. Listen as Kala tells us all about statues around the U.S. that are surrounded by urban l...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, friends! This week, Brittany is delving into some true crime with the Watcher Letters.

Happy Spooky Wednesday! Welcome to the exciting conclusion of the mysteries surrounding Lake Baikal! In episode 263, we talked about the things that may be living in the lake, and this week we discussed the other things this water may be hiding. Is there sunken treasure? Do people disappear in the Baikal Triangle? Have aliens made a home base beneath the waves? Is it all tied together? Or a lot of...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, friends!

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everyone! This week, Kala is sharing some of the mysteries of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. This is the world’s deepest, oldest, and largest (by volume) freshwater lake! What could possibly be hiding in its depths? It holds more flora and fauna than any other lake in the world, including the only existing freshwater seals, fish that turn into an oily substance, and… merma...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, folks! We’re heading overseas this week while Brittany tells us all about Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, Scotland. This 16th-century graveyard is infamous for violent disturbances and physical attacks on visitors, particularly around its Mausoleums. And these attacks aren’t from the living… After literal centuries of horrendous occurrences (and we mean like straight out...

Happy Spooky Wednesday, folks! Can a whole town be cursed? Because apparently, that’s exactly what happened. This ghost town is now completely prohibited to the public. Could it be because those who enter will be doomed to die? Or is it the fact that so many people have passed on this land, that the area is plagued by ghosts? Or is it that hikers couldn’t control themselves and damaged the local e...

Happy Spooky Wednesday!

Happy Spooky Wednesday! Question: can you name one fun fact about Finland? No? Maybe it’s because Finland… doesn’t exist? At least that’s what some people have come to believe, thanks to a conspiracy theory that spread on the internet. So if Finland isn’t real, what’s going on up there in Northern Europe? I guess you’ll have to listen and find out!

Happy Spooky Wednesday! For two weeks, we have been asking... when will the Bloody Benders end their murderous ways? Why are they murdering people? Will they be caught? Who ARE the Benders? Are Kate and John really siblings? What was that about Little House on the Prairie?? All that answered (sort of) on this week's episode, the third and FINAL act of The Bloody Benders.