Folklore Episodes
Discover the beliefs, customs and stories behind supernatural beings, ghost legends and seasonal traditions. Weekly Spooky explores how tales change across communities and generations, distinguishing living traditions, documented history and modern horror fiction.
Start with these three: The Golem of Prague for Jewish guardian folklore; The Wendigo for hunger and greed in Algonquian traditions; and Monthly Spooky’s Halloween Origins for Samhain, trick-or-treating and jack-o’-lanterns. Explore more folklore episodes below.
Start with these three: The Golem of Prague for Jewish guardian folklore; The Wendigo for hunger and greed in Algonquian traditions; and Monthly Spooky’s Halloween Origins for Samhain, trick-or-treating and jack-o’-lanterns. Explore more folklore episodes below.
Oct. 29, 2026
Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman: A Halloween Ghost Story | Thursday Thrills
Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman turns Ichabod Crane’s ride home into a nightmare. Join Henrique Couto as he follows Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from Brom Bones’ ghost stories at an autumn feast to a silent rider and a desperate race for the church bridge. Explore the real Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and an older German headless-rider legend collected by the Brothers Grimm. What was chasing Ichabod—and would the churchyard really keep him safe? Settle in for...
Oct. 12, 2026
Terrifying & True | Hex Hollow Murder: Killing to Break a Curse
The Hex Hollow murder began with a search for a book and a lock of hair. In 1928, three attackers killed Pennsylvania farmer Nelson Rehmeyer, believing he had cursed them. Their attempt to burn away the evidence failed. Follow the York County investigation, the trials, and the headlines that turned a folk healer into a sinister legend. With voices from the Hex Hollow documentary, we separate Pennsylvania Dutch powwow traditions from accusations of harmful magic and return to the man behind the s...
Oct. 2, 2026
Folklore Friday | Vampire Legends & Dark Folklore for Halloween
Why do vampire legends still frighten us? Henrique Couto welcomes folklorist and author D.L. Wainright to explore Romanian strigoi, Dracula, graveyard rituals, and New England vampire beliefs. This Folklore Friday conversation follows garlic, sunlight, shapeshifting, and a party guest hiding a disturbing secret beneath the table. Along the way: Ohio's Butter Street Monster, La Llorona, Slender Man, werewolves, and Halloween traditions. Discover how familiar monsters change as we share their stor...
Oct. 1, 2026
Stingy Jack: The Halloween Legend Behind the Jack-o'-Lantern | Thursday Thrills
Stingy Jack and the Halloween legend behind the jack-o'-lantern welcome October with a bargain gone wrong. Henrique Couto follows an Irish folktale from a coin trapped beside a silver cross to the Devil stranded in a tree—and a promise with a terrible catch. Discover the carved turnip lanterns once used to frighten passersby, and the dark folklore behind that familiar pumpkin grin. What happens when outsmarting the Devil leaves you with nowhere to go? Light your first pumpkin and join Thursday T...
Sept. 28, 2026
Monthly Spooky | Halloween Countdown: Ghost Stories & Midnight Spook Shows
Halloween ghost stories meet the lost world of midnight spook shows. Henrique Couto and Michelle explore the glowing ghosts, stage illusions and blackout scares that turned movie theaters into haunted attractions. Then dig into a claimed Loch Ness Monster sighting, ghost rumors in Indian schools, a Polish 'vampire' burial and a Bigfoot mystery with a human explanation. A creepy roadside encounter rounds out this Monthly Spooky hangout. Join us for paranormal mysteries, cryptids, vampire folklore...
Sept. 17, 2026
Thursday Thrills | Flatwoods Monster to Mothman: A West Virginia Cryptid Road Trip
The Flatwoods Monster and Mothman turn West Virginia folklore into a road trip after dark. In 1952, Kathleen May's group reported a towering figure on a hillside; in 1966, two couples said a red-eyed creature chased their car near Point Pleasant. Henrique Couto revisits these reported cryptid encounters, the original witness accounts and the meteor, owl and crane explanations. Explore the TNT Area legend and the 2026 Mothman Festival, scheduled for September 19–20. What did those beams of light ...
Sept. 7, 2026
Terrifying & True | The Golem of Prague: Jewish Folklore's Clay Monster
The Golem of Prague is Jewish folklore's clay guardian, shaped to protect a threatened community. Terrifying & True follows Rabbi Judah Loew's legend through sacred Hebrew letters, the older golem of Chelm, and tales of a body hidden in the Old-New Synagogue attic. Discover how Yudl Rosenberg's 1909 book helped define a defender against false antisemitic accusations. We distinguish religious tradition and documented history from later fiction. What happens when a protector can obey its maker but...
Sept. 3, 2026
Thursday Thrills | Kyoto's Gate to Hell: Rokudo Chinno-ji & Japanese Folklore
Kyoto's Rokudo Chinno-ji is a real temple at the heart of Japan's Gate to Hell folklore—and Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Legend links its well to Ono no Takamura, a court official said to travel between the living world and the underworld. Thursday Thrills explores the temple's hidden bell, ancestral-spirit rituals, and the stories surrounding this sacred crossroads. Henrique Couto separates documented history from supernatural claims, tracing Japanese folklore beyond the game's setting....
Aug. 28, 2026
When Legends Turn Deadly: True Crime Meets Cryptid Folklore
Can a ghost story expose a murder, or can belief help conceal real harm? Eight Terrifying & True investigations connect the Greenbrier Ghost, the Fox sisters, the Hat Man, and the fatal exorcisms of Anneliese Michel with the stories people tell about...
Aug. 17, 2026
Terrifying & True | The Pale Crawler: How The Rake Became a Cryptid Legend
The Pale Crawler looks like a creature caught between a human and an animal, but The Rake began as a deliberately written horror story. Terrifying & True traces Operation Crawler, alleged Illinois and Kentucky encounters, and the viral trail-camera images that helped turn creepypasta into cryptid folklore. Misidentified wildlife, pareidolia, sleep paralysis, and staged footage offer ways to examine the claims without treating them as proof. Follow the monster from online fiction to reported wood...
Aug. 14, 2026
Cryptids Around the Campfire: Werewolf, Bigfoot, Chupacabra & Wendigo | Halloween Marathon
Railroad workers report a werewolf in Defiance, Ohio. Black-Eyed Children ask to come inside. Seven Terrifying & True investigations gather Bigfoot, the Fouke Monster, Chupacabra, Indrid Cold, and more for over three hours of campfire listening. Follow Ohio's Grassman to Salt Fork State Park, trace changing Chupacabra accounts, and explore the UFO lore around Point Pleasant. The Wendigo segment distinguishes Algonquian traditions from later fiction. Reported encounters, hoaxes, and disputed evid...
Aug. 6, 2026
Solar Eclipse 2026: Supernatural Folklore & Celestial Monsters | Thursday Thrills
What if a monster swallowed the sun? The August 12, 2026 solar eclipse sets the stage for a Thursday Thrills journey through celestial dragons, Rahu, and the Norse wolves Sköll and Hati. Henrique Couto explores the folklore people used to explain a darkened sky, from noise meant to drive a creature away to fears that daylight might never return. Originally released before the eclipse, this episode also covers its path through Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, animal behavior, and viewing safety. Di...
July 30, 2026
Hungry Ghost Month: Supernatural Folklore from Asia | Thursday Thrills
Why is the best seat at a Hungry Ghost Festival performance left empty? Thursday Thrills explores Chinese ghost folklore and unseen guests honored in the seventh lunar month. Henrique Couto follows Singaporean getai, Taiwan's water lanterns, and Hong Kong's Yu Lan traditions, distinguishing Daoist Zhongyuan observances from Buddhist Yulanpen and ancestor remembrance. Food, incense, joss paper, and regional taboos reveal practices that reach beyond a scary story. Discover who the offerings are fo...
June 29, 2026
Monthly Spooky | The Pied Piper of Hamelin Mystery: 77 Headless Skeletons & Gracie the Missing Giraffe
The Pied Piper of Hamelin led 130 children away, according to legend—but what lies behind that medieval story? Henrique Couto and Michelle explore migration, plague, and other proposed explanations in June 2026's Monthly Spooky. The news roundup visits a Slovakian mass grave, alleged ghostly marks in an Argentine shop, and the then-unfolding search for Gracie the giraffe in Texas. A reported disappearing basement closes the journey with a possible explanation. From old chronicles to modern accou...
June 11, 2026
Champ on Camera? Lake Champlain’s Monster & American Lake-Creature Legends | Thursday Thrills
Did a camera catch Champ on Lake Champlain, or did distance and perspective create a convincing shape? Thursday Thrills examines footage filmmakers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor say contains the legendary lake monster, keeping their claim separate from zoological proof. Henrique Couto places it beside Loch Ness searches, the Bear Lake Monster, Texas' Lake Worth reports, and sewer-alligator lore. Wakes, logs, reflections, and partial views offer other ways to read the images. Explore why deep wat...
May 25, 2026
Monthly Spooky | Cryptid Horror & Paranormal Mysteries Declassified
Cryptid horror collides with declassified paranormal mysteries this May. Henrique and Michelle examine newly released UFO files, Ohio's notorious Loveland Frogman sightings, and the USS Indianapolis—where documented naval tragedy intertwines with unexplained phenomena. A Memorial Day deep dive into weird experiences that shaped history, blurring the line between declassified fact and supernatural folklore. Inside this episode: • USS Indianapolis and the real horror of war — A Memorial Day deep ...
May 18, 2026
Terrifying & True | Beast of Bray Road: Wisconsin Werewolf Folklore & Cryptid Horror
Drivers near Elkhorn, Wisconsin, reported a wolf-headed figure beside Bray Road. Linda Godfrey's reporting helped turn those accounts into the Beast of Bray Road, one of America's best-known dogman legends. Terrifying & True follows the early-1990s sightings, the newspaper investigation, and the werewolf folklore that gathered around a rural road. Witness claims meet possible explanations involving bears, wolves, and mistaken identity, with no physical proof establishing a monster. What makes a ...
April 20, 2026
Terrifying & True | Black Shuck: The Hell Hound Behind a 1577 Storm
When a black hell hound with burning eyes supposedly crashed through two churches during a violent 1577 storm in Suffolk and Norfolk, was it folklore or fact? In this episode of Terrifying & True, we investigate Black Shuck—the most fearsome cryptid in English folklore—and uncover the real storm disaster that may have birth one of the world's most enduring eerie legends. From eyewitness accounts to historical records, we separate the supernatural from the historical truth. From the shattered ca...
April 3, 2026
Best of 2025 | Resurrection Mary: The True Story of Chicago’s Vanishing Hitchhiker Ghost
Resurrection Mary, Chicago’s vanishing hitchhiker, Archer Avenue ghost story, and Resurrection Cemetery legend all come together in one of the most haunting and engrossing episodes of Terrifying & True—and for our Best of 2025 revisit, this is absolutely one worth experiencing again. On a lonely stretch of road outside Chicago, drivers have reported the same chilling encounter for generations: a beautiful young woman in a white dress asking for a ride, only to vanish near the gates of Resurrect...
March 30, 2026
Monthly Spooky | Bigfoot in Ohio & Cursed Lake Lanier: Sock Burning, Spring Superstitions, and Lake Shawnee Hauntings
Monthly Spooky paranormal podcast time—Henrique & Michelle dig into spooky news, urban legends, and creepy folklore that hits different when winter won’t let go. We start with the chaos of modern life (yes, taxes), then dive headfirst into spring...
March 23, 2026
Terrifying & True | Deer Woman Legend Explained: Indigenous Folklore and the Dark Warning Behind the Myth
The Deer Woman is one of the most haunting figures in Indigenous folklore and modern paranormal legend—a beautiful woman with deer hooves who appears at the edge of the woods, the roadside, the party, or the dark place where safety ends. In this episode of Terrifying & True, we explore the chilling shape of the Deer Woman story, the many ways it appears across traditions and retellings, and the reason this legend still hits so hard today: because in many versions, she is not random evil. She is ...
March 16, 2026
Terrifying & True | The Real Men in Black: UFO Witness Threats, Government Conspiracy, and Paranormal Cases
What are the Men in Black really — secret government agents, UFO cover-up operatives, paranormal enforcers, or something even stranger? In this episode of Terrifying & True, we dig into the chilling history of the real Men in Black phenomenon, from the earliest UFO-era intimidation reports to later encounters that made witnesses fear for their lives. We trace the legend back to the Maury Island incident, the terror and sudden silence surrounding Albert K. Bender, the disturbing Point Pleasant / ...
Feb. 23, 2026
Monthly Spooky | Evil Ghost Baby Exorcism, Boston Skull Mystery, and the New England Vampire Panic
This time on Monthly Spooky, Henrique & Michelle tear into spooky news, true crime weirdness, and classic American vampire lore—the kind of stories that feel like they should be fake… but we're not so lucky. Inside this episode: - Galway exorcism:...
Feb. 16, 2026
Terrifying & True | Stanley Hotel: The Shining Origin and America’s Most Haunted Hotel
Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel connects a real explosion with the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. Terrifying & True visits Estes Park, Colorado, tracing the 1911 disaster, Elizabeth Wilson's survival, and the ghost stories surrounding F. O. and Flora Stanley. King's 1974 stay helped turn empty corridors into horror history; later television and tourism carried the legend further. Reported hauntings remain distinct from documented events. Explore how a hotel became a destination for pa...