Unexplained Mysteries

Alexandrina da Costa was a Portuguese mystic who, from the 1920s until her death in 1955, suffered paralysis and chronic pain. She also reportedly had visions of Jesus and Mary, and was tormented viciously by Satan. Were her encounters real? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The mysterious caves in Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest hold everything from golden statues, to metallic books, to architecture that can only be described as otherworldly… if you believe the Swiss author who wrote about them in his hugely popular 1970s book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They might dress alike, pursue similar interests, even finish each other’s sentences… but do twins also share a bond that science can’t fully explain? Today we’re looking at stories of twin telepathy that defy explanation, and what happened when a psychologist began studying separated twins in secret. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad cho...

Here one moment, gone the next. Is it possible to blip into another location at the snap of a finger? There are stories that date back hundreds of years of people doing just that. And now, scientists are engaging the question on a quantum level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As other ships in the area reestablished contact with the mainland, the Andrea Gail remained silent. Hours turned into days, and it became clear that the crew didn’t survive the brutal Nor’easter. What wasn’t clear was why not. What happened to their emergency beacon? How did the vessel go down? And what’s going on with the supernatural stories surrounding its lost crew? Learn more about your ad c...

In late October 1991, the crew of a commercial swordfishing vessel sailed through the collision of three separate storms — a “perfect storm” that ravaged Canada’s Grand Banks with 70 ft. waves and 90 mph winds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After years of research, Dr. Maria Reiche formed one mainstream idea about how and why the Nazca Lines were made. But who were they made for? In the 1960s, Swiss author Erich Von Daniken proposed a theory: that aliens visited our ancestors and imparted onto them the knowledge needed to create our greatest earthly treasures. Most experts ignored these claims. Others believed he was on to something....

Discovered in the early 20th century, the Nazca Lines are a group of vast, mysterious formations in Peru’s Nazca Desert. For years, archaeologist Maria Reiche researched the origins of these geoglyphs, ultimately determining how and why they were built. But who were they a message for? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...

The spree continues into Christmas Day and beyond, during which the teen gang murders their third, fourth, fifth and sixth victims. After a tip, police catch the group wearing victims’ clothing, driving a victim’s stolen car, and in possession of the guns they used in their murders. A Parcast holiday special from Serial Killers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...

In the early hours of Christmas Eve 1992, a senseless murder in Dayton, Ohio, marks the beginning of a rampage. What started as a desire for Christmas cash turns into a three-day killing spree that leaves six people dead. Even more shocking was that the brazen killers were just teens. A Parcast holiday special from Serial Killers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

Every day, we’re seeing advancements in artificial intelligence with the potential to radically change lives. Question is, will they change for the better — or worse? Will machines be our saviors after the dawn of the Singularity? Or will sentient A.I. tip us toward an apocalypse of our own making?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choic...

We don’t have to rely on our imaginations to predict what an all-out atomic war would do to us, and everything else on the planet. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings tell us enough, and even if they didn’t, we have examples of atomic accidents and reactor meltdowns to relay the horrors of nuclear fallout. The question today is, how close have we come to an atomic WWIII — and if it happene...

Threats from space aren’t limited to extraterrestrial life forms. Celestial rockfall can do damage on a global scale — and it already has. From the KT Event 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, to the Tunguska Event in 1908 Siberia that felled 80 million trees, cosmic collisions have apocalyptic aftermaths. Luckily for us, systems are being developed to protect our planet — whether f...

If the prophecies of a mystic named Baba Vanga are true, Earth is due for an alien invasion any minute now. And she’s not the only one who’s sounded the alarm. Scientists have voiced concerns for years, fueled by credible reports of UFO sightings that suggest we’re far from alone in the galaxy. The only question is, do our interstellar neighbors come in peace? Or with a will to conquer the cosmos…...

Ancient texts can paint a grim picture of humanity’s demise — but what’s in store depends on your source. We could be in for anything from global disasters and epic wars, to supernatural ascensions, to enlightened beings shepherding us into the next age. With prophets to warn us, and preppers to guide us, what do major religions tell us about the end times? And how do we know if we’re living in th...

In 1980, a massive British carrier disappeared in a region of the North Pacific — adding to the area’s bleak legacy of lost ships. It’s said these waters are one of the twelve “vile vortices” of the world… and that the strange things that happen within them are decidedly paranormal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

Over the ages, arsenic has had many lives — beauty fad, household product, medical prescription… and weapon of choice wielded by killers everywhere from Alabama to ancient Rome. Brine your turkey, knead your dough, and listen to our Thanksgiving Special on the regime-changing, assassination-aiding King of Poisons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more abou...

How would a time machine work? Physicists have been engaging the question for decades — and building theoretical frameworks to make it happen. From designs like the Tipler Cylinder, to the paradoxes that imply time travel's improbability, how close are we really to folding the fabric of space-time back on itself... and breaking free from the constraints of time as we know it? Learn more about your...

Is it possible… and has it happened already? Today we’re investigating the most famous — maybe even most credible — timeslip in history (involving two respected academics and Marie Antoinette!), and the alleged time traveler from 2036 who’s connected to a mystery no one’s been able to crack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

From cardboard cutouts to DNA matching, British Big Cat hunters have tried to pin down exactly what kinds of felines haunt the British Isles. They’ve also offered some believable explanations about where they came from and how they ended up in the U.K. But some researchers don’t think they’re cats at all. They believe the animals could be spirits… from another world. Learn more about your ad choic...

The British Isles were once home to a diverse population of powerful cats like lions, leopards, and lynxes. Scientists believe humans wiped them out more than a millennium ago. But… maybe we didn’t. Since the 1500s, British people have sporadically seen huge felines on their home soil. Experts claim they shouldn’t exist. Those who have survived their attacks disagree. Learn more about your ad choi...

Ethnobotanist Wade Davis returned from Port-au-Prince with the ingredients for a zombie potion that made people appear dead. But this only completed half his mission — he needed the antidote. But no matter how much Davis studied, he couldn’t explain how one would work. At least, not scientifically. For that, he would need to infiltrate Haiti’s most dangerous secret societies… in search of spells....

In 1982, Canadian ethnobotanist Wade Davis flew to Port-au-Prince, hoping to find the ingredients for a poison said to turn the living into the living dead. If real, Davis believed the potion would revolutionize science. But in order to attain it, he would first need to immerse himself in voodoo traditions, accept the existence of magic, and come face-to-face with a real-life zombie. Learn more ab...

Secret doors, a cast-off wig, mummified arms — strange and exhilarating clues have peppered the search for Nefertiti’s final resting place. What happened to the famed leader, once branded a heretic? The evidence uncovered by archaeologists isn’t definitive. The debates rage on… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic...

More than 3,400 years ago, Nefertiti and her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, brought sweeping changes to their kingdom. Several years later, she suddenly vanished from the historical record. Some believe she died of the plague. Others think she was banished. But some Egyptologists cite evidence that she ruled as co-regent with Akhenaten — and then on her own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...