So... you almost died. Or you technically did—for a moment. And then came the tunnel, the music, the relatives made of light, the surgeons flapping like chickens, or the sudden drop into a shadowy void full of screaming. Welcome to the Fresh Hell guide to near-death experiences. In this episode we explore what happens when people come this close to the other side. We cover ancient NDE accounts from Plato and Native American oral histories, the groundbreaking research of Kenneth Ring and Bruce Gr...
Jul 04, 2025•57 min
Congratulations—you’ve died! Now what? In this our version of the "Handbook For the Recently Deceased" (and the morbidly curious). We take you on a cross-cultural tour of the afterlife. Whether you’re heading for a bureaucratic judgment hall, a tunnel of light, a reincarnation lottery, or just... absolute nothingness, we’ve got you covered. This episode explores what different religions and belief systems say happens after death—from ancient Egypt and Catholic purgatory to Buddhist reincarnation...
Jun 27, 2025•56 min
In this week’s episode, Johanna takes us deep into the shadows of pre-WWI Austria-Hungary to tell the true story of Colonel Alfred Redl , once one of the most trusted man in the Austro-Hungarian military....and also its most infamous traitor. From his modest beginnings in Lemberg to the very top of the empire’s intelligence apparatus, Redl’s rise was as improbable as his betrayal was devastating. But was he really blackmailed for being gay, or was he simply a man who liked money and knew how to ...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 18 min
In part two of our deep dive into the 1982 Tylenol Murders, we pick up with the immediate aftermath of the cyanide-laced capsules that killed seven innocent people in the Chicago area. As the city and the whole nation started to panic, Johnson & Johnson faced a nightmare scenario. We’ll walk you through the frantic investigation, the theories that didn’t pan out, the suspect who looked promising but turned out to be a dead end, and the man who wrote an extortion letter demanding money to “st...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 12 min
In September of 1982, a 12-year-old girl in suburban Chicago took a Tylenol for a cold—and never got back up. Within days, six more people would die the same way. The connection? A bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol and a horrifying dose of potassium cyanide. In this first part of our two-part series, Johanna and Annie walk through the events that stunned the nation: who the victims were, how investigators started piecing it together, and how Johnson & Johnson handled the situation. It’s a cas...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 5 min
This week, we’re taking a peel behind the Vatican’s heaviest doors. From popes who put each other on trial...AFTER DEATH...to rumors of devilish deals and sweating tombs. We’ll also tell you about the Vatican’s key master (yes, that’s a real job), the Room of Tears (because popes cry too), and how sometimes it's important that " they hang well"! Vatican, Vatican Museums, Pope Sylvester II, Cadaver Synod, Room of Tears, Vatican Key Master, Clavigero, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo ceiling, papal sc...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 6 min
In the final part of our Nellie Bly series, we follow her through yet another reinvention ...as wife to industrialist Robert Seaman and, after his death, one of the first female CEOs in the U.S. We look at her lesser-known interviews with a ten-year-old Helen Keller and the terrifying Lizzie Halliday, and how she returned to journalism under William Randolph Hearst after her business collapsed under fraud and bankruptcy. She exposed corruption in the adoption system, was one of the first female ...
May 16, 2025•58 min
In Part 3 of our Nellie Bly series, the whole world starts to pay attention. We’ll follow her from the publication of Ten Days in a Madhouse to her globe-circling race against the fictional Phileas Fogg. Along the way, Nellie becomes a household name, fields marriage proposals from strangers, and gets immortalized on trading cards and weird ads. But fame doesn’t make her lazy. She investigates shady servant agencies, interviews America’s most notorious female killer, and keeps writing stories no...
May 09, 2025•53 min
In 1887, Nellie Bly got herself committed to one of the most notorious mental institutions in the country — not because she needed help, but because she wanted the truth. In Part 2, we follow Nellie through the gates of Blackwell’s Island, where the food was inedible, the baths were freezing, and silence wasn’t just expected — it was enforced. What she found wasn’t a place for healing. It was a place where sane women were driven to madness, and no one on the outside was asking questions. Until n...
May 02, 2025•55 min
Before she became one of the most daring journalists in history, Nellie Bly was Elizabeth Jane Cochran — a smart, stubborn girl from Pennsylvania with very few options and even fewer rights. In this episode, we’re going back to the beginning: the poverty, the abusive stepfather, the letter that launched her career, and the fight to be taken seriously in a newsroom that didn’t want women there at all. This is the story of how Nellie broke in — and why no one ever forgot her once she did. Nellie B...
Apr 25, 2025•51 min
From flood panics and flaming cities to gas masks for comet poison, humanity has always had a flair for predicting the end of the world—with spectacular inaccuracy. In this special palate cleanser episode, Annie and Johanna walk us through some of the weirdest, funniest, and most deeply unserious doomsday predictions in history. We'll cover the Great Flood that never came in 1524, London’s fire-and-666-fueled apocalypse panic in 1666, the comet hysteria of 1910 (featuring anti-comet pills), Y2K’...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Between 1960 and 1967, three children disappeared without a trace from the small city of Pirmasens, in southwest Germany. Walter Broschat. Klaus-Dieter Stark. Eveline Lübbert. All of them were between 9 and 10 years old. All vanished on a Friday. And to this day, not a single clue has been found. In this episode, we revisit one of Germany’s most haunting cold cases. We’ll examine what we know about the disappearances, the man once known as the Waldmensch , the theories that still linger, and a d...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr
In this episode, we look at the brief and heartbreaking life of Dorothy Stratten—Playmate of the Month in August 1979, aspiring actress, and the victim of one of Hollywood’s most disturbing murder cases. We trace Dorothy’s rise from a Dairy Queen in Vancouver to the pages of Playboy , her toxic relationship with Paul Snider, her affair with director Peter Bogdanovich, and the events that led to her brutal murder in 1980 at just 20 years old. We also talk about the dangerous power dynamics behind...
Apr 04, 2025•59 min
In this fifth and final part of the Lizzie Halliday story, Lizzie escapes the electric chair—but not justice. She continues to lash out, nearly killing the sheriff’s wife, and ultimately stabbing a beloved young nurse more than 200 times in what would become the first recorded line-of-duty death of a female law enforcement officer in the U.S. Along the way, Lizzie makes a claim to her murdered husband’s pension, attempts to set multiple fires, and spins wild tales of murderous gangs and poisoned...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 5 min
After the discovery of two women’s bodies buried in the manure pile of the Halliday barn, the search for Paul Halliday continues. But as authorities dig deeper—literally and figuratively—they uncover even more horrors. Lizzie Halliday remains in custody, shifting between moments of eerie calm and violent outbursts, but she isn’t done hiding evidence just yet. Meanwhile, the identities of the two murdered women are finally revealed, linking Lizzie’s crimes back to an old family connection. And as...
Mar 21, 2025•51 min
Lizzie Halliday has left a trail of destruction behind her...arson, theft, fraud, and at least one suspicious death! But in this episode, her crimes take a truly horrifying turn. After a year in a mental institution, Lizzie is released back into the care of her much older husband, Paul Halliday. His family and neighbors are already wary of her, and with good reason. Fires, violent outbursts, and unexplained disappearances follow wherever Lizzie goes. When Paul vanishes without a trace, his famil...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Lizzie Halliday is back, and somehow, she’s only getting started. In this episode, we pick up where we left off—with Lizzie abandoning another husband, scamming her way into new homes, and setting literal fires along the way. She takes her insurance fraud scheme to new levels, makes a scene at her father’s grave, and leaves a path of destruction across the Northeast. Meanwhile, a traveling peddler is found murdered in the Shawangunk Mountains, and Lizzie starts spending time with a new crowd. By...
Mar 07, 2025•53 min
Lizzie Halliday is often called America’s first female serial killer, but long before she made headlines, she was already leaving a trail of chaos behind her. In this episode, we look at her early years—from her family’s immigration from Ireland to her first marriages and the, let’s say, unfortunate fates of the men in her life. Lizzie had a habit of marrying quickly, fighting dirty, and possibly poisoning anyone who got in her way. With lawsuits, accusations, and more than a few suspicious deat...
Feb 28, 2025•51 min
In this episode of Fresh Hell , we’re heading up to the remote and brutal heights of the Säntis mountain in Switzerland, where, in February 1922 , Heinrich and Magdalena Haas were found murdered in their isolated weather station. Their killer? A man they knew, a man who had once wanted Heinrich’s job, and a man who decided to settle his grudge in the most violent way possible. Säntis double murder, Gregor Kreuzpointner, Heinrich Haas, Magdalena Haas, 1922 murder, Swiss true crime, historical cri...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr
In our final episode on the world of Freak Shows , we’re closing the curtain with the incredible, tragic, and sometimes triumphant stories of the performers themselves. Meet Schlitzie , the performer who inspired Freaks (1932), a beloved and misunderstood figure of the sideshow world. Krao , the so-called “Missing Link,” whose life challenges the cruel narratives forced upon her. Myrtle Corbin , the "Four-Legged Girl from Texas," who defied expectations and lived on her own terms. And the Two-He...
Feb 14, 2025•58 min
This week, we’re bringing you two of the most fascinating and deeply unsettling stories from the world of freak shows: Chang & Eng Bunker , the original Siamese twins, and Julia Pastrana , the so-called ‘Bear Woman.’ Chang and Eng weren’t just a medical curiosity —they were brilliant businessmen, plantation owners, and, oh yeah, enslavers . Their story is full of contradictions—two men who were once paraded as human oddities but ended up profiting off of the very same system that exploited t...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 4 min
In this final part of our Barnum deep dive, we cover his biggest spectacle yet—The Greatest Show on Earth. From the moment he took his circus on the road to his partnership with James A. Bailey, we explore how Barnum turned entertainment into an empire. And of course, we wrap up with the ultimate Barnum move—reading his own obituary before he died. Love him or hate him, Barnum left a legacy that changed the entertainment world forever." Barnum, The Greatest Show on Earth, James A. Bailey, circus...
Jan 31, 2025•59 min
In this episode, we pick up where we left off with P.T. Barnum. We’ll talk about how he turned Scudder’s American Museum into a New York sensation, why General Tom Thumb became a global star, and the controversy around Joice Heth. There’s also the devastating fire that destroyed the museum(s), Barnum’s first steps into the circus world, and the personal losses he endured, including the death of his wife, Charity. It’s all about setbacks, scandals, and spectacle as Barnum’s story keeps surprising...
Jan 24, 2025•56 min
In this episode, we begin our deep dive into the fascinating and controversial life of P.T. Barnum , the man who revolutionized entertainment and gave the world The Greatest Show on Earth . But before we can fully understand Barnum’s impact, we need to explore the history that paved the way for his success: the origins of freak shows . We trace the roots of these spectacles back to ancient and medieval times, when human oddities were displayed at royal courts, religious festivals, and marketplac...
Jan 17, 2025•54 min
Welcome, true-crime lovers, to New Year, New Binge 2025 Edition! What you’ll find included is your guide to an exciting lineup of podcasts that will make 2025 your best year for listening yet. New Years is a time for resolutions, and mine is simple: to share with you the most captivating, chilling, and downright binge-worthy true-crime podcasts. Whether you’re looking to uncover unsolved mysteries or dive into deep investigative storytelling, I’ve got you covered. Be sure to follow all of the po...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 34 min
Welcome, true-crime lovers, to New Year, New Binge 2025 Edition! What you’ll find included is your guide to an exciting lineup of podcasts that will make 2025 your best year for listening yet. New Years is a time for resolutions, and mine is simple: to share with you the most captivating, chilling, and downright binge-worthy true-crime podcasts. Whether you’re looking to uncover unsolved mysteries or dive into deep investigative storytelling, I’ve got you covered. Be sure to follow all of the po...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr 21 min
In December 1984, Kingston Falls, Pennsylvania, went from a quiet, festive town to the scene of absolute chaos, all thanks to one ill-considered Christmas gift. A set of very specific rules wasn’t followed, and the result was something no one in town could have imagined. We’ll talk about what happened that night, how things went so catastrophically wrong, and why you might want to double-check your own holiday traditions. It’s a holiday story, but definitely not the cozy kind. We Wish You a Merr...
Dec 20, 2024•50 min
In this episode, Annie takes us to the historic town of Sandwich, Massachusetts, for a chilling true crime case set against the backdrop of 19th-century Cape Cod. Learn about the Christmas night murder of 15-year-old Daniel Fogarty Jr. in 1857, the mob mentality fueled by alcohol and gambling, and the tragic events that led to his untimely death. Along the way, Annie explores the fascinating history of Sandwich, from its Puritan roots and glass-making legacy to its evolution into the charming to...
Dec 13, 2024•41 min
In this episode Johanna takes us to the quiet, rural landscapes of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, to tell you about the tragic case of Robert Syrokowski. On a freezing December night in 2002, 18-year-old Robert disappeared after leaving a nightclub and was later found dead, struck by a car in the middle of a desolate road. But this was no mere accident—it was the result of a series of shocking failures by the very people meant to protect him. We explore how Robert’s night spiraled out of control, ...
Dec 06, 2024•49 min
In part two, we focus on the aftermath of the Bloody Benders’ crimes and their shocking methods of murder. The gruesome discoveries at their property reveal the extent of their brutality, and we share stories of those who narrowly escaped their deadly trap. We also look at their dramatic flight from justice, the many theories surrounding their mysterious disappearance, and the possible role of vigilante groups in their fate. Finally, we explore how the Benders’ crimes shaped Kansas folklore, ins...
Nov 29, 2024•52 min
