Occulture Shock Podcast

Hello Seekers! You've heard the Christmas carol, " The Twelve Days of Christmas, " but have you ever asked yourself... Why? Why twelve days? And what was it about those days that make them such a big deal in the first place? On today's podcast episode, we look into that VERY thing (and it's both super weird and kinda' MEH (all at the same time). I break down what is:  Historicaly documented Folklo...

Hello Seekers! It's a new month, so a new mini-season of topics! Since it's December and the holidays are right around the corner, I'\m going to stick with "weird holiday histories and traditions." First on our list comes straight out of the Alpine regions of Northern Europe - Krampus and Grýla. In the mountains of Austria and the lava fields of Iceland, the gifts the winter spirits came with were...

Hello Seekers! Today we are pulling the curtain back on one of the holiday's most traditional and beloved drinks, Eggnog and its filthu cousin, the Tom & Jerry. Rife with bacteria, potentially poisoned by disgruntled family members and the cause of one of the largest (and most hilarious) riots in U.S. military history, I present to you, the final installment of our mini-series, Nightcap Noire: The...

Hello Seekers! This week, in our podcast mini-series, Nightcap Noire - The Dark History Behind Your Favorite Cocktails, we are taking a gander at the infamous Ward 8. A drink that somehow managed to survive longer than the political system that created it. Old-guard Bostonians liked to hole themselves up in Locke-Ober; a formal, male-only dine and drinks establishment that has a reputation for hau...

Good evening Seekers, I thought I'd try out a new series theme for the rest of November (and maybe a little into Dec. if it feels right) and that is: Nightcap Noire - A series that explores famous cocktails based on gruesome true crimes and the histories behind them. Los Angeles, 1947. A body in a vacant lot. A dark legend in the making. Elizabeth Short, soon to be known as The Black Dahlia, wante...

Seekers! Here's a true crime story that I've been sitting on for a while: The Mysterious death of J osslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll and the scandalous lifestyles of the "Happy Valley Set," a group of British elites in Kenya during the early 20th century. In 1941, a car was found idiling on a desolate road just outside of Nairobi. Inside? A British aristocrat with a bullet in his brain. This we...

Hello Seekers! Well, I'm still rockin' that Shirley Jackson podcast angle this week! After last week's podcast, I ended up falling into quite a deep Shirley Jackson internet history hole and discovered that Mrs. Jackson is connected (however tenuously) to an infamous and unsolved murder case of one of the most important American heiresses within the U.S.'s Gilded Age "royalty." Jane Stanford was t...

Hello Seekers! This week, we take a look at the author who inspired modern day horror writers such as Stephen King and Guillermo Del Toro by turning her ordinary suburban American life into quiet horror. Shirley Jackson lived in a house full of noise - four children, a controlling and flandering husband and a typerwrite on a kitchen table within the middle of it all. From that chaos she wrote fant...

Hello Seekers! Last week we went into the connections between the top 3 Romantic writers of their era:  Mary (Godwin) Shelley , Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. But that just SCRATCHES at the surface of these lunatics (and their friends). This week's episode goes more "behind-the-scenes" of what famously went down at that villa in Switzerland (hint: It wasn't all writing. There was also a fair bit of...

In 1816, under a sunless sky, 18 year old Mary Godwin dreamnt of a man who could re-animate the dead. But the story of Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus wasn't born out of superstition, it was born out of the Ennlightenment itself. This episode unravels how a secret Bavarian order, a volcanic winter and one radical family's  obsession with reason combined to create the world's first modern mo...

Hello Seekers! Welcome to an episode that I've done inn combination with: A). Just getting back from a weeks long vacation in Japan and B). Popular demand for this particular subject matter. What is that subject matter, you ask? It's actually about one of my favorite things in Japan - their toilets! Specifically, their high-tech Toto ones. Because the Japanese didn't just re-invent the toilet into...

Hello Seekers!   Jess here - I'm back from Japan (expect that love-letter podcast to Toto toilets coming your way very soon :) In the meanie, Here is my latest deep dive into videogames and their real-life counterparts. This week, we're loking at: Assassin's Creed Hexe (as currently titled) and the real German witch trials it world-builds around. Plus, it's the first day of October, so it's a rath...

Seekers! This week we're heading deep into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. A million acres of twisted pitch pines, bogs and legends that refuse to die. For over 250 years, locals have whispered about a winged, hoofed creature living within the wilderness: The Jersey Devil. But here's the plot twist: one of the most famous supposed eyewitnesses wasn't a farmer or a trapper. It was Joseph Bonaparte,...

Hello Seekers! Step into the world of the unseen as we explore the strange history of dowsing rods in this episode of: Do You KNow Where Your Ghost Hunting Techniques Come From? From their origins in Germanic medieval mines to their controversial use in modern warfare, this episode uncovers the folklore and the alleged science behind this mysterious practice. Join me as I ask the question: Is dows...

Today's,  "Do You KNow Where Your Ghost Hunting Techniques Come From?" episode is focusing on: Trigger Items. From ancient libations to Victorian scéance tables stacked with dolls and jewelry to teddy bears wired with ghost-tech, objects have always been used as "bait" for the dead. Find out the strange occult history behind the modern use of "trigger items" and how this particular technique to dr...

Do you know where your ghost investigation techniques come from? Hello seekers! This week's episode of Occulture Shock kicks off a new series I'm calling: Do you know where your ghost hunting/investigating techniques come from? And we're starting with one of the most misunderstood investigative tools out there: the spirit box! You've probably seen it on TV (I've handleed a few on my old shows), or...

Hello Seekers! On today's Occulture Shock Podcast: Arcane Algorithms, we dive ibnto the fascinating intersection of psychedelics, counterculture and the dawn of the tech revolution. This episode explores how visionary thinkers, inspired by mind-expanding experiences, laid the groundwork for the digital age. Discover the untold stories of how these unconventional influences shaped the innovative sp...

Hello Seekers! Today on the Occulture Shock Podcast, host Jessica Chobot follows a trail of punch cards and metaphysics garbed in science. We're headed straight into the mind of Charles Babbage: mathematician, inventor...and a cranky scientist with the heart of a mystic. This episode isn't just about the origins of computing. It's about how a man obsessed with order was equally obsessed with the n...

You've most likely heard about the Vatican's Secret Archives: full of old forgotten scrolls and tomes that the church has deemed dangerous for one reason or another. But....did you know about their forbidden time machine ? On this week's episode of the Occulture Shock Podcast, host Jessica Chobot, looks into the mysterious case of the Chronovisor, its disapperance and the priest who said he used i...

Occulture Shock podcast host, Jessica Chobot, investigates the evolution of measurement and mathmatics. From its ancient mystical roots to its modern day applications. How measurement was once a sacred act, deeply intertwined with spirituality and cosmic beliefs, and how it has now transformed into a tool for control and effeciency in modern society. We traverse history: including ancient Egypt, G...

In pt. 2 of 2 of Hollywood's Occult Blueprint, host Jessica Chobot , pulls the curtain back on Hollywood: from the invention of the first movie camera to the swingin' 60s and The Manson murders all the way to 1980s Satanic Panic and today's horror leanings via A24, Midsommar and The Witch. Hollywood has always had the weird, wild and the occult waiting in the wings.

In this Pt. 1 of 2 podcast episodes, Jessica Chobot pulls the curtain back on Hollywood: from sceance rooms and spirit photography to Jack Parsons and JPL in Pasadena to the 1980s Satanic Panic and Dark Disney all the way up to today's A24 phycological thrillers - Hollywood has always had the weird, wild and occult watching from behind the scenes.  

A little update from Jess. See you soon!

Jess takes a break from showing her parents around Europe in order to cover a lil' Weird o' the Week & regain her sanity.  

Jess invite's her friend Jacob Strunk to join her on this week's podcast to discuss the JFK conspiracy theories, her new obsession w. the CIA and an experiment to turn this podcast into a video.