Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast

Gather 'round, and I'll elucidate, everything I've learned over a decade of visiting Sleepy Hollow, New York, during the Halloween season. The only thing you need to know in advance is that the Headless Horseman is my favorite monster.  All of my OTIS articles on Sleepy Hollow . The 2019 OTIS Halloween Season is in full swing over at oddthingsiveseen.com .  Want to learn about the oddities I visit...

In this episode, I answer the four questions I'm always asked about Salem, Massachusetts: When to go there, what to do there, what are my favorite spots there, and how do I feel about partying on the corpses of the murdered? All of my OTIS articles on Salem . My book on Salem, which I wrote after living there for all of October: A Season With the Witch: The Madness and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem...

We're one month away from the 58th anniversary of the most famous alien abduction in the history of the lore: The Betty and Barney Hill Incident. On the 47th anniversary, my wife and I, newly arrived in New Hampshire, spent a night retracing their route through the White Mountains, and then we saw their graves, actual artifacts from the incident, and a bathroom gas station exhibit dedicated to the...

In a first for this podcast, I present a candid, unscripted story of my recent visit to The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. The museum is owned by Zak Bagans (of "Ghost Adventures" fame) and features the earthly remains of Charles Manson, Jack Kevorkian's van, a dybbuk box, and a jaw-dropping array of other oddities, murderbilia, and paranormal artifacts. Address for the Haunted Museum: 600 E...

In our second ever Special On-Location episode, I take you with me on a recent road trip we took to Baltimore, Maryland, to see some of the sights that make the state so spooky, including the unmarked grave of Herman Munster, the site where the Ouija board named itself, the Edgar Allan Poe House, and on a whim, we head up to the top of the Washington Monument...Baltimore's Washington Monument. Pho...

In this episode, I take you behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum in London to witness the most mindboggling biological artifacts in the entire collection: Archie the Giant Squid and actual specimens bottled by Charles Darwin himself on his world-changing HMS Beagle voyage. Oh, and I embark on a side quest for an infamous cursed jewel. Lotta stuff going on in this episode. Photos of Arch...

In this episode, I take you to the house where infamous occultist Aleister Crowley enjoyed a magick retirement and then to the severed arm of Saint Edmund. Surprisingly, neither of these two sites are in Europe. They're in New England. And they are mere hours from each other. The depth of oddity in any given state is astounding. Aleister Crowley House: 14 Church Lane, Hebron, NH Arm of Saint Edmun...

In this special episode of Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast, I take you on location with me on a road trip I took last Saturday to see five oddities in Connecticut: Two sites connected to a Great Awakening preacher who has haunted me since childhood, a minor witch memorial, the house of a serial killer who inspired a delightful comedy movie, and an abandoned amusement park. This is the episode I...

We're going international in this episode, heading to Italy to see what it's like/how exhausting it is to visit both Pompeii and Vesuvius in a single day. Volcanic ghost towns might be the most fascinating ghost towns. Pics from out stroll through Pompeii . Pics from our ascent up a foggy Vesuvius . Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on  Twitter ,  Facebook , or  Patr...

Plants are 80% of the planet's biomass. So it makes sense that there are some odd plants out there. I've seen a few in my day. Like a swamp full of cobra lilies in Oregon and a seven-foot-tall phallus-shaped corpse flower in New Hampshire. Let's get botanical. Pics from our time among the cobra lilies . Pics of our our meeting  with a corpse flower . Address for Darlington State Park: 5400 Mercer...

The story of Lizzie Borden and the ax murder of her parents has been told...to death. But the oddest part of the story is that today...you can stay the night at the crime scene. Which. We. Did. Pics from our night at Lizzie Borden's . More pics from our night at Lizzie Borden's . Address for Lizzie Borden's B&B: 230 Second St., Fall River MA Address for Maplecroft: 306 French St., Fall River, MA A...

We head out to the Nevada desert to play chicken with Area 51. And see an Independence Day (the movie) time capsule. And eat at an alien-themed eatery.  And generally look for the truth that is out there.  Pictures from The Extraterrestrial Highway . Pictures from Area 51 . The video of the tour group accidentally crossing the line into Area 51 . Address for the Little A'Le'Inn: 9631 Old Mill Rd,...

Centralia, Pennsylvania, is a ghost town...on fire. Beneath its grass blades, a coal fire rages that has burned for half a century and will burn for centuries longer. Smoke wafts over the sites where neighborhoods once stood. Roads choke on overgrowth. Pockets beneath the topsoil are waiting to cave in at the next footstep. The idea of the place is terrifying. But the reality of the place is...fas...

A suicide brought it into existence. A copy of it turned evil. You can find a version of it in a graveyard, at the Smithsonian, at an artist's studio in New England...and outside, just around the corner from the White House. Come with me, J.W. Ocker, as we visit the Adams Memorial and its Mr. Hyde, the Black Aggie, and learn the strange story that entwines them. Photos on OddThingsIveSeen.com of t...

My name is J.W. Ocker. For more than a decade, in my spare time, I have sought out odd sites and artifacts. I'm terrible at maps and bad at driving, but I believe that within a tank or two of gas of any point in the country are oddities worth trekking to on a Saturday afternoon. And I have the stories as proof.