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.
May 15, 2023
Terrifying & True | SUNDS: Hmong Refugee Sleep Deaths, Nightmares & a Medical Mystery
More than 100 Southeast Asian refugees died suddenly in their sleep after resettling in the United States, confronting doctors and Hmong communities with a frightening medical mystery. The deaths drew attention in the late 1970s and early 1980s as seemingly healthy adults—predominantly Hmong men—went to bed and could not be revived. Some family members heard gasping or cries before death. Investigators considered infectious disease, chemical exposure, stress, and cardiac abnormalities before th...
March 27, 2023
Monthly Spooky | Haunted Photos, Crybaby Bridges & Cocaine Cat
Haunted photos, a house that comes with a cemetery and more lead this Monthly Spooky crypt conversation. Photographs offer an apparent record, which makes an unexplained figure or impossible detail especially persuasive to people who want evidence of a haunting. Crybaby Bridge legends work differently, attaching repeated rituals and tragic backstories to local roads. A property sold with its own cemetery and the bizarre Cocaine Cat story push the conversation from supernatural claims into odd n...
March 13, 2023
Terrifying & True | Werewolf of Defiance: Ohio’s 1972 Railroad-Track Sightings
Railroad workers in Defiance, Ohio, reported a towering wolf-like figure stalking the tracks in 1972, creating one of the state’s most enduring cryptid legends. The encounters centered on the Norfolk & Western rail yard near downtown. Workers Ted Davis and Tom Jones described a large, hairy creature with an animal-like head and a powerful build. In one account, the figure approached with a wooden board before disappearing into the darkness. Other reports soon followed, drawing newspaper attenti...
Feb. 27, 2023
Monthly Spooky | Black-Eyed Children, Haunted Rings & Cocaine Bear
Black-Eyed Children, haunted rings, and the real story that inspired Cocaine Bear lead this Monthly Spooky crypt conversation. The episode’s subjects move from a modern paranormal legend to the frightening history attached to objects, then into one of the strangest animal stories to enter popular culture. That variety is the point of Monthly Spooky: one conversation can compare folklore, alleged encounters, bizarre news, and horror entertainment without pretending they carry the same kind of ev...
Dec. 26, 2022
Monthly Spooky | Golem Folklore, Ghost Ships, Grinches & Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
Golem folklore, ghost ships, Grinch-related weirdness, and Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 bring Jewish legend and chaotic Christmas horror into the crypt. Henrique and Michelle begin with strange news involving an alleged ghost ship, an adult-film personality, and a headline worthy of the Grinch. The stories move between the unexplained and the absurd before the episode turns toward one of folklore’s most enduring artificial beings. The hosts explore the golem: a figure from Jewish traditio...
Sept. 26, 2022
Monthly Spooky | La Llorona, Child Ghosts & Halloween Strange News
La Llorona’s chilling legend leads a Halloween-ready Monthly Spooky packed with child ghosts, mystery meat, a real-life Addams family, and strange Reddit tales. With spooky season closing in, the crypt conversation follows reports of ghostly children and deeply questionable meat before diving into the haunted folklore of La Llorona, the Weeping Woman said to wander near the water searching for her lost children. The episode also explores listener-worthy oddities from Reddit and shares reaction...
Aug. 29, 2022
Monthly Spooky | Sleep Paralysis, Dancing Coffins, Nope & Bodies Bodies Bodies
Sleep paralysis, the terrifying “old hag” experience, dancing coffins, and modern horror movies collide in this month-in-review conversation with Henrique and Michelle. The hosts descend into the crypt for strange news involving haunted burial places, sharks, and catastrophic sinkholes before turning to a fear that can follow people into their own bedrooms. Henrique shares his personal experience with sleep paralysis, and the discussion explores why the sensation of waking unable to move is so ...