Messy Minded Podcast

Ever had an emotional reaction that felt way bigger than the situation? Like your body hit the panic button, and you’re not sure why? In this short and snack-sized episode of Messy Minded , Jess explores the limbic system — the emotional part of the brain involved in trauma, fear, memory, emotional regulation, and survival responses. We’ll talk about why the limbic system reacts the way it does, h...

It's Halloweens origin story! Ever wonder why we carve faces into vegetables, hand candy to small pirates, and light fires to celebrate the dark? Turns out, Halloween didn’t start with chocolate — it started with Samhain, a Celtic festival where the veil thinned, the fairies roamed, and people wore disguises just in case something noticed them back. In this episode, I tumble headfirst into the wei...

In this episode Jess explores the cursed objects, haunted legacies, and historical hexes that won’t leave us alone. Jess's co-conspirator, Lolo. joins her again to help weigh in on supernatural etiquette. In Part Two of our Halloween special on curses, we’re diving deeper into the objects and artifacts that seem to carry doom in their wake — from world-famous jewels and tunnel-side tragedies to cu...

Enjoy this teaser clip that'll be in our full feature Halloween episode on Oct. 30th! Before we ever carved pumpkins, there was Jack: a trickster, a drunk, and the reason we light a candle every Halloween night. In this Messy Minded Halloween story, Jess retells the eerie Irish legend that gave us the jack-o’-lantern — and explains why some lights aren’t meant to go out. https://shows.acast.com/me...

 In this special Halloween two-parter, Jess and Lolo dive into the wild, weird world of curses — the spooky kind, the biblical kind, and the ones that sneak up on you through a mirror. Ancient Irish curses, old-school hexes, and whether you might be spiritually Teflon… or a high-risk hex magnet. Don’t miss Part 2, dropping October 23rd, with even more terrifying tales, legendary hexes, and fa...

What do you do when you know too much… and the people you know too much about want you dead? In this episode of Messy Minded , I look into the dark, secretive world of witness protection — from its mob-infested origins in the 1970s to modern-day name changes, fake IDs, and lives rebuilt from scratch. But long before WITSEC existed, people were already faking their deaths, hopping trains, and vanis...

What happens when someone you love looks you in the eye… and insists you’re not real? In this eerie and emotional Messy Morsel, Jess explores Capgras Delusion — a rare psychological condition where the brain recognizes a face but disconnects from the feeling behind it. We’ll step into the shoes of a caregiver, unpack the neuroscience behind delusional misidentification, and talk about what (if any...

What happens when you try something with no guarantee it’ll work out? In this milestone 10th episode of Messy Minded , Jess explores the fun and inspiring stories of people who dared to take a chance — from Notables you know to normies you’ve never heard of. You’ll hear about: Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower , a dream of free global electricity that fizzled before its time. William Hung , the ev...

Plants don’t just sit there quietly photosynthesizing—they plot. Jess and guest Scott (a Master Gardener) dig into the wild science of plant communication, defense, and even fungal conspiracies. From mimosas playing peek-a-boo to trees whispering underground, you’ll never look at greenery the same way again. https://extension.umn.edu/master-gardener/become-master-gardener Music by Geoff Harvey, Op...

From foot X-ray machines and Victorian vibrators to radioactive tonics and lobotomies, this episode dives into the weird world of questionable medical treatments and the history of health fads that definitely didn’t age well. Join Jess and special guest Kate as they explore the bizarre side of medicine — including a shocking look at the Relax-A-Cizor, a guessing game of “Cure or Crap,” and the dee...

In this episode of Messy Minded, Jess is joined by Lolo and they squelch into the haunting, weirdly well-preserved world of bog bodies — ancient humans pulled from the muck of northern Europe, skin intact, stubble visible, and sometimes... missing their nipples (don’t worry, they'll explain). We’ll explore the violent fates and mysterious rituals behind these Iron Age icons: from the towering Old...

The ancient Greeks ran naked. Modern athletes get Tinder Gold. Somewhere in between? A lot of weird stuff. This week on Messy Minded , we explore the strange evolution of the Olympics — from sacred rituals and priestesses to flaming pigeons and suspicious judging. You’ll hear about divine nudity, rigged events, Olympic ghosts, and a marathon so disastrous it involved poison and a guy in a car. Plu...

From candlelit basements to elite forest retreats, this episode of Messy Minded dives deep into the strange, spooky, and occasionally sinister world of secret societies. Jess explores the mystics, the misfits, and the megalomaniacs who’ve operated behind closed doors for centuries — including the Rosicrucians, Bohemian Grove, the dream-walking Benandanti, and Skull and Bones. Along the way, we’ll...

What do a pothole-riddled town in Minnesota, a margarita-fueled island in Florida, and a micronation with a space program have in common? They all tried to secede — seriously. In this episode of Messy Minded , Jess takes you on a road trip through America’s weirdest breakup attempts: Kinney, MN declares independence over water issues; Key West forms the Conch Republic to protest a roadblock; Hell,...

From Nigerian princes to fake tech support, the internet is a scammer’s paradise — and we’ve all almost fallen for something. In this episode of Messy Minded , Jess explores the wild, weird world of online scams: how they work, why they work, and the real people behind the cons. We’ll cover the classics — phishing emails, romance frauds, lottery hoaxes — and dig into how these schemes have evolved...

Let’s be honest — we all lie. Some lies are small and polite. Others are… slightly more elaborate and involve fake résumés, secret second lives, or pretending you read the terms and conditions. In this episode of Messy Minded , Jess explores why we lie, how we lie, and what all this deception says about being human. From white lies to whoppers, from gaslighting to government spin, lying turns out...

Before Iceland became a tourist dream of volcanoes, hot springs, and cozy sweaters, it was an uninhabited island at the edge of the known world — until a few bold or lost people showed up. In this episode of Messy Minded , Jess digs into the strange, winding story of how Iceland was discovered and settled. We’ll meet Norse explorers like Ingólfur Arnarson, the man credited with founding Reykjavík,...

Hey, I’m Jess — your guide, your researcher, and your resident overthinker on Messy Minded , the podcast for curious weirdos who love true stories with an unexpected side quest. Each episode, I deep dive into whatever has hijacked my brain that week — scams, liars, secret societies, Icelandic settlers, bog people, folklore, fake identities... it’s educational chaos with just enough research to mak...