Tales of women mysteriously wearing ribbons around their necks, and the secret they keep beneath from their husband have been with us for centuries, perhaps most famously with Alvin Schwarz's "The Green Ribbon" from the book, 'In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories'. In this episode we look into the tale, its meaning, and its origins in the 18th century revolutionary days in France.
In this episode we take a peek into Halloween true horror, from accidental hanging to mistaken corpses, to kick off the spooky season.
In the concluding episode on this series on the Axeman of New Orleans, we see the axeman returns after a long break.
n part two we explore Congo Square, the development of jazz, the culture of New Orleans, and finish coverage of the axeman's first attacks.
Join me for a bonus horror story reading of 'The Body-Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson. If you haven't listened to episode 10, 'Grave Matters in Edinburgh', you may want to listen to that first, to hear the real-story of Burke and Hare, that inspired Stevenson's fiction.
Join me as I tell part 1 of the story of New Orlean's history, it's complicated relationship with race and immigration, its soul and joy, and how one masked himself in darkness to terrorize the city.
On this episode is a collection of haunting winter tales, some new to the podcast and others are old friends from past episodes. So, get cozy and comfortable, get a roaring fire going, and join me as we revive the old Victorian custom of telling scary ghost stories.
In this conclusion of our journey through the Victorian cult of death, we delve into the rise of post mortem photography, 19th century viewings and funerals, the rise in desire for corpse preservation, the birth of the garden cemetery, mourning wear and widows weeds, and the annoyance and perils of crepe, especially crepe veils. You'll also hear the tale of Percy Shelley's death, cremation and how his heart ended up in the desk of his widow, Mary Shelley. Additionally, we look into how the medieval cult of saints influenced the Romantics and Victorians. Death relics, hair art will also be explored, as well as an odd story of how one woman's dead husband ended up as parlor decor.
On this supernatural look at the 19th century Victorian cult of death, as we explore banshees, ominous clocks, death tokens, harbingers, the birth of Victorian gothic literature, and madness brought on by death and body snatchers.
"Dark Parade," a phrase in a Emily Dickinson’s poem, captures the spirit of the Victorian cult of death, a social movement built on strict mourning rules and funerals, the fetishizing of ephemera of the dead, a movement that was meant to beautify and romanticize the horrific. In this first part of our look into Victorian mourning and death, we explore death by fashion, Queen Victoria's mourning, the Victorian concept of "The Good Death", wakes and vigils gone wrong, and premature burial.
This episode gets kind of beastly, as we go through the history of the werewolf from prehistoric times. We follow the wolf man through tales written by Bram Stoker, through the medieval werewolf trials, the lunacy of lycanthropy, and so much more.
Often we want to sequester ourselves in some pretty, little hamlet, and leave the rest of the world behind. But in this telling of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', we find that when you do, you may just lose your head.
Join me as I talk of contagion and fear, ghosts and goblins, and of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane during this spooky time of year.
Join me as I tell part three, THE CONCLUSION, of a ghostly tale I wrote about an old, haunted house in the fictional town of Winthrop Falls, Massachusetts. The curse of Winthrop Falls began on Halloween night in 1866, after a mysterious, bloody, accident befell a young woman alone in a dark cellar, but the curse touches everyone in the house up through current day. And so, Jennifer, the current teen resident, must go through all the clues she can find surrounding the home's tragic history, in order to save herself. Can she do it? Find out in the conclusion!
Join me as I tell part two of a ghostly tale I wrote specifically focused on the Halloween season, though it fits all seasons, if you're macabre enough! The curse of Winthrop Falls, Massachusetts began on Halloween night in 1866 after a mysterious, bloody accident befell a young woman alone in a dark cellar. But was she really alone? In part two, we follow the curse as it touches the young of Winthrop Falls during the 19th century, continuing into the 20th and 21st centuries. Will the curse ever be brought to an end?
Join me as I tell a ghostly tale I wrote specifically for the late autumn season. The curse of Winthrop Falls, Massachusetts began on Halloween night in 1866 after a mysterious and bloody accident befell a young woman who, at the time, was alone in a dark cellar. But was she really alone? In part one we follow the curse as it winds it way through the 1980s and current day to those unfortunate enough to live in the house at 10 Black Manor Gardens.
Monsters have been with us from the dawn of humankind. The monster's history in our mythology and belief systems speaks to the many hidden needs and fears within the human mind. On this episode, we explore why the human mind has always needed monsters, through combat myths, Beowulf, an Egyptian creation myth, Greek tragedy, and more. And in homage to scary monster stories, it opens with a monster-under-the-bed tale I call 'Silver Eyes'.
Clowns, clowns, clowns! This episode starts off with a dramatized clown urban legend, before exploring the long history of clowning that stretches back to ancient times, with a special emphasis on Joseph Grimaldi, the first modern clown. The fear of clowns is also delved into, as the psychological reasons for this fear is explained, as well as the real-life and fictional examples of those who've inspired it, like John Wayne Gacy, Pennywise, and the clown doll from 'Poltergeist'. The role of the clown in society is analyzed as well, from his appearance in Shakespare's plays down to the killer clown panics that began in the 1980s. Send in the clowns!
The custom of telling winter’s tales is not known to most of us today, but it was custom that stretches back hundreds of years. And more often then not, these winter tales turned to horror.
The popularity of these winter ghost tales peaked to an all time high during the Victorian era and became a celebrated Christmas tradition. And this entanglement of ghosts and Christmas, ultimately lead to a ghost story becoming the most enduring Christmas tale of all, Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol’, a story in which the ghosts of past, present, and future, change a man’s life for the better.
Join The Strange and Unusual Podcast, as we explore the tradition of winter ghost stories and the reasons they meant to so much to our ancestors, and maybe ought to kept alive today.
A telling of 'The Masque of the Red Death' by Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the conclusion of A Memento Mori Halloween is in this episode. European witch trials, Macbeth, Irish and Scottish traditions, the evolution of Samhain and Halloween, and the Dance of Death is all a part of this fascinating and spooky story.
In this episode, Halloween, and its predecessor Samhain, is explored with the telling of the ghost story 'The Pale Man' and a dive into its evolving history, which includes a look at the Gaelic Celts, The Black Death, Danse Macabre, All Saints and Souls Days, the concept of Memento Mori, and more.