Weird World Podcast

We take a quick trip through oddly real-looking bodies in haunted house attractions, but then rediscover Elmer McCurdy, the best corpse ever. Elmer found fleeting fame as a Wild West outlaw who died in a shoot out, but his body would long outlive his fame.

Pirates of the Caribbean was the most expensive ride built at Disneyland when it opened in 1967. Walt wanted everything to be as realistic as possible. Real-looking pirates, real-looking flames, real stories of comedic sexual assault. And real skeletons. Very real.

Most of us have had a little bad luck on Friday the 13th. Locked your keys in the car, tripped on a curb, steered a massive cruise ship into a reef and sank it. It could happen to anyone. But when your job is jumping from high places into cold water, a little bad luck can be really bad. Plus some other weird things that happened on that cursed day,

Part 2 of spooky urban legends gets spookier still with ghostly stories, vengeful spirits (the Japanese ones are the best), and some urban legend classics like hooks on car door handles and why that car following you on a dark night might not mean what you think it means.

Finally, it is Hallow-Weird World season again! We start with two heapings of the spookier urban legends. In Part 1 we relate some gross out stories (don't pop that spider zit), curses (if something is called the X number of steps to hell, do NOT go down it), and scary creatures (Bloody Mary meet Skinned Tom, Resurrection Mary and the inspiration for Freddy Krueger).

Clarence King was a respected geologist who helped map the American west and start the national park system. But Clarence had a secret - in 19th century America, an extraordinarily strange secret.

Sure, no one wants to be abducted and murdered, but if you are, wouldn't you want your killer to be caught? We know we would. That's where "If I go missing files" come in. Learn all about them in this episode, and, please don't forget to make your "who might murder me list."

Does a huge chimp-like creature rumble through the jungle of the Congo, howling at the moon, walking on two legs, and occasionally killing lions? Let's see if the Bili Ape may be the last undiscovered great ape.

Your plane has crashed into the wilds of the Amazon. The pilot and your mother didn't make it. There was no beacon, so help is not on the way. You are 13 years old and the siblings who survived with you are 9, 4, and 11 months. How will you survive?

Are little undiscovered creatures buzzing around your head when you go camping and you don't even know it? If you have never heard of air rods, you should listen to this episode. Just don't forget to take video because that's the only way you will see them. Just listen, it will all make sense.

Did you watch He-Man battle Skeletor on Snake Mountain? Did you tickle the tummy of your Care Bear plush toy? Did you worry about what might happen to Smurfette at that blue sausage fest? Please God tell me you didn't play Barbies. If you did any of these things then you may have been playing with the Devil. That's right, actual Satan. Can't say you weren't warned.

Another grab bag of strange news ripped from the headlines. We have a website for assassins, some weird fish and worms, a president who apparently thinks elves are real, dumb criminals, then one terrible story from a plane and one uplifting story from a plane to balance it out.

Can a three foot worm be a monster? Well, if it can attack from underground, is poison to the touch, can spit venom, and zap you like lightning, yes. Yes it can.

In part 2 of our study of cattle mutilations, we continue our search for the culprits and then take a deep dive into the most likely explanation for this surprisingly widespread phenomenon that still plagues the Western U.S.

The nuclear core that was going to be the lethal heart of the third atomic bomb that would decimate another Japanese city never got the chance after Japan surrendered. It remained at Los Alamos where it would wreak havoc in a very different, but no less fatal, way.

The aliens are at it again. Or the Satanic Cults, or the guys in black helicopters or possibly chupacabras. Let's find out who or what is doing terrible things to our cows and why.

Tulare Lake sits in the middle of California, larger than four Disney Worlds, covering some of the most fertile farmland in the world - and it wasn't there last year. Plus bonus coverage on the methane-spewing lakes of Alaska and the 1000 new lakes in Switzerland. Its lake week at Weird World!

What might happen if you isolated a bunch of 11-year-old boys and set them against each other? Would it be roasting marshmallows and telling scary stories around a campfire? Or it would be Lord of the Flies? Or worse?

There was foxy boxing. There was barrel jumping. There was tug of war. There was a super racist thing called "Anthropology Days." And there was a grueling, near-lethal marathon almost won by a guy who bummed a ride for half the race, and was won by a guy carried across the finish line while jacked up on strychnine. There was the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.

Without an ounce of exaggeration you need to listen to this episode to save your life. Grapefruit, sexy pineapples, wine and eggs, hooves and horns, drinking only milk. Here are some of the craziest fad diets of the past and a few of the hottest today. CONTENT WARNING - This episode is about fad diets and we discuss some very restrictive and dangerous diets which may make this episode one to skip...

Updates on some of our favorite weird news items - boat-smashing Iberian orcas are getting more aggressive every day, drug-loving animals, and new science that might indicate our favorite cryptid the thylacine hung around longer than thought.

1933 San Jose was in an uproar over the kidnapping of favorite son Brooke Hart. All it would take was a spark. When that spark came, it woud lead to one of the most heinous acts in California history. (Part 2 of 2.)

With the Great Depression in full force, Brooke Hart made an inviting target. Rich, young, and driving a flashy yellow converible. Nabbed in broad daylight, his kidnappers teased the family for a week before they were caught. What they had done brought the city to a bloodhthirsty boill. (Part 1 of 2.)

It may have been 12 feet long, it might have been 60, but it was big and it had no business being in the White River in Arkansas. Where did it go? Will it ever come back? And just what the hell was it?

The state of Ohio didn't think it was any of their business how many and what kind of animals you could keep. One man in Zanesville thought he should have lions and tigers and bears at his ranch. That was never going to end well.