Spoop Hour

Tall tales: they're like regular tales, but bigger! We dive into a pretty American style of legend this week and talk about Paul Bunyan (or is it Paul Bon Jean?), John Henry the steel-drivin' man, the Great Dismal Swamp, and Virginia's own Chessie. Get the deets on recent llama bites, spiders, and maraschino cherry updates.

It's Spoop Hour's second podiversary special! We've been podcasting for TWO WHOLE YEARS (almost), so we celebrate with a listener story about a haunted farm, two games (spoopy Would You Rather and what cryptid are you with a fun twist), a featured creature, and a ghost tour irl. We've also got some exciting announcements about new merch and our eventual Patreon. Thanks for sticking with us for two...

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS: this week we're talking curses! From King Tut's tomb to paintings that burn down houses, get the deets on how to spot curses, how to break them according to the Traveling Witch and Witchipedia, and infamous stories of cursed Egyptian artifacts. And if you were planning on getting your friend a mummy hand for a paperweight...maybe don't!

In the longest ever Spoop Hour minisode, we catch up with the spooky things we've been up to! With Sasha's ghost tour in Harper's Ferry, Courtney's newly stolen books on Weird Virginia and Victorian ghost stories, and a listener story, we have a spoopy hodgepodge primed and ready for you. Pi-yahtzee!

In our most Mean Girls episode ever, we talk doppelgangers (and toaster strudel?)! The spooky variant on twins, traverse the history of doppelgangers from Egypt to Norse mythology to the term FETCH. Then dive in to pop culture, literature, and historical accounts of doppelgangers wreaking havoc on lives.

Last week it was parents, this week it's BLACK EYED KIDS doing the scaring! Learn about the relatively recent phenomenon of black eyed children, from the first story documenting them to a few tales of otherwordly BEK encounters. Finally, stick around for a discussion of why Nextdoor is the perfect place to solve the mystery of BEK (and who keeps leaving banana peels near our house.)

We collected stories from friends, listeners, and fellow podcasters for an episode on ways our parents scared us into behaving! From threats of removing your batteries to being left at a pumpkin patch/orphanage, hear family lore of all varieties with one goal: to keep you from breaking rules. Hear us talk snallygasters, boogeymen, things that will kill and/or eat you, and then join us for a discus...

Regress with us back to past lives this week! How can you tell if you've had a past life? Past life regression, of course! We (sorta) tried to figure out who we might have been, and are talking some interesting instances of recovered past life memories. Featuring shared stories from listeners, podfriends, and various internet people who remember everything from being a monk in Spain in the 1300s t...

SEND THIS EPISODE OF SPOOP HOUR TO 7 PEOPLE or they won't get to laugh at tales from chain letters of yore! We talk classic chain letters, like the clown statue, not turning on the light, and Bye Daddy, to the newer tales of Saki, Teddy, and Carmen Winstead. From the days of paying postage to scare your friends to posting chain death in youtube comments, learn all you need to know about that which...

It's time for a spoopy sleepover! Dr. Alysa Lucas of Best Forevers and Fataliteas joins us for a discussion of spooky sleepover staples. Hear the most upsetting story you'll ever know about bears with recorded voices, get to know Bloody Mary, and learn the ways we would have died in historical times. Sleep with the lights on!

Cast a distrusting eye at your computer: we're talking ghosts in the machine this week! Get the deets on haunted technology in pop culture, a haunted laptop that made its way to eBay, a probable creepypasta about getting messages from a loved one from beyond the grave via social media, and more. Then we get introspective about the nature of grief and bring it back up with our favorite meme this we...

We bring special ghost Mike back for a MEGA SIZED episode on LGBT spoop! Hear about two haunted gay bars, queercoding monsters and villains like the Babadook, and possibly gay cartoons. Then learn about civil rights icon and incredible gay man Bayard Rustin: his life, his love story, and what we think he'd be like as a ghost. Finally, meet the latest member of the Badass Non-Straight Ladies of His...

We're spooping while sleepy on this week's minisode! Hear about Sasha's haunted train toy and Courtney's mysteriously bloodstained hotel bed. Then find out our paranormal futures with a spoopy cootie catcher (aka paper fortune teller).

It's a MURDER EPISODE this week! While not necessarily spoopy, both Courtney and Sasha love some true crime, so we talk two of the spoopiest cases we know: the Andrews family haunting and the Carbon Copy Murders. Then, just in time for Pride and to lift us back up, meet our new favorite bisexual swashbuckling serial stabber Julie D'Aubigny!

SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION. Is it real? (Probably not.) Is it weird? (For sure.) Are we talking about it this week? ABSOLUTELY. We talk the science and theories behind all varieties of spontaneous human combustion before investigating the case of the Cinder Woman Mary Reeser and other historical instances of humans bursting into flame.

We're traveling back in time to explore the spooky lore of ancient Egypt! From historical monsters to one of the world's oldest ghost stories, we're talking about how much we love ancient Egypt one blood-drinking vampire goddess at a time.

The news has been abnormally spoopy, so get caught up on the latest cults, secret identities, and more with this episode! We discuss the Sarah Lawrence cult incident, the mysterious case of Treva Throneberry, and which reclusive cryptid may have finally made an appearance...

It's not a dream: on this week's episode, we're talking nightmares! Everything from deja reve to nightmare logic to zombies to rains of frogs is getting spooped, so grab your baku talisman and tuck yourself in.

Did you wish for a new episode? Wish granted, no lamp rubbing necessary! We're talking jinns, genies, and wishes gone wrong this week, though we take a lengthy detour into the worlds of cloaca, pooping on airplanes, and where the Shrek movies went wrong.

In a very special minisode, we talk to the one and only Snack Czar of the much discussed Snacket! We talk the history and future of the Snacket, favorite snacks, how terrible pickles are, possible snack matchups, and more. Make a charcuterie board and have a listen!   (We'll be back with a regular episode next week after our spoopy spring break ends. Check out the Snacket at thesnacket.net, on Fac...

Special ghost and real life friend Mike joins us to chat superstitions! Whether you're superstitious (or just a little stitious), answer the question Feelin' Lucky, Punk? Then Mike tells us why the left-handed get the short end of the stick when it comes to superstitions. Then look at colors, food, and beverages through the lens of the paranormal to find out how to wear, eat, and drink good luck.

Death is weird! Let's talk about it - specifically, the strange phenomena of exploding corpses and crisis apparitions. First, say OVER MY DEAD BODY with a game about funeral traditions, then find out what makes bodies go boom, what a crisis apparition is, and why they're not the same as ghosts.

Hola from a new episode dedicated to the spoop of Spain featuring special ghost Courtney from the Cult of Domesticity podcast! Learn why you should exercise paranormal caution when using Spain's metro, meet some ghosts of some of the most beautiful and historic buildings in Barcelona, and hear Washington Irving's self-insert fanfic, AKA a love story with a maiden in a tower.

Double dip your holiday spoop with an episode on Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day-adjacent spookiness! Test your trivia knowledge of Mardi Gras versus jazz funerals and meet a few friendly New Orleans ghosts. Then hop the Atlantic to get to know banshees, leprechauns, and several ghosts and poltergeists, including the woman with no face, a lady in white, the Derry vampire, and more.

Hold on to your snacks: we're talking twisty turn-y tales of black widows this week! Learn about the actual spiders, pop culture representations of women who murder, and widow ghosts before hearing the bananas stories surrounding the murders perpetrated by Audrey Hilley and Kelly Cochran. Also discussed: THE SNACKET, the best (and worst) March Madness bracket that deals exclusively with snacks. Ch...