Hold on tight for a speedy introduction to Wicca! Test your knowledge of animal companions with the game Sounds Familiar then take a look at the history of Wicca and common misconceptions of Wiccans. And don't miss a Snacket update, a listener story about a spooky lighthouse, and more!
What's that light off in the distance? Why, it's a spooky lighthouse, the subject of this week's episode! Hear the horrifying corpse misadventure of the Smalls Lighthouse Incident that inspired multiple films, including 2019's The Lighthouse. Then meet the ghosts of the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse in Florida and the Big Bay Point Light in Michigan. With pirates, sexy Scottish ghosts, and Willem Dafoe's arguably most unique feature, you don't want to miss it! WE HAVE A PATREON. Check it out here:...
WE HIT 100 FULL SIZED PODCAST EPISODES 🎉 To celebrate, we checked out the World Oddities Expo and stayed in the infamous Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Hear about our holiday shopping/treating ourselves haul (from cute badges to jackalopes to getting to hold the tiniest pup) before we recap our ghostly encounter in the hotel room with Mister E, possibly murdered and run out of business by the mob. We've also got some goodies from listeners and friends, including the most excellent...
Happy (almost) Halloween! We talk the appeal of ghost stories with help from the AV Club, wax poetic about the subreddit ghoststories, and the persistence of creepypasta. Then we swap some stories about Alcatraz, the Tailypo in West Virginia, and romantic mishaps with a suddenly shy ghost called Karen. WE HAVE A PATREON. Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/SpoopHour And find us on social media @spoophour and send your spooky stories to spoophour[at]gmail[dot]com....
Happy belated Canadian Thanksgiving! We're celebrating our neighbors up north with an episode on Canadian spoop. With tales of Shaq-sized beavers, poltergeists who throw bullets, hags who cause sleep paralysis, and a cookie with a sordid past, you'll want to grab some maple cookies and settle in for a great time. WE HAVE A PATREON. Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/SpoopHour And find us on social media @spoophour and send your spooky stories to spoophour[at]gmail[dot]com....
Courtney is back from New Orleans! Hear all about the ghosts and spooky history of the Big Easy from the above ground burial traditions to streets owned by boss ladies who don't take kindly to fathers-in-law attempting their murder. Meet a handsy ghost via dowsing rod, learn some of the horrors perpetrated by Delphine LaLaurie, and close it out with our favorite voodoo queen Marie Laveau. And wish Sasha a happy birthday!
It's officially the birthday season for your favorite Spoop hosts, so we're talking all things ZODIAC (except the killer). Get the deets on what it means to be a Libra sun sign Aquarius ascending like us, some of the history behind the western zodiac, and the folklore behind the animal-centric eastern zodiac. Also learn why Courtney's only birthday crisis was her love of Hozier and our birthday goal of loving ourselves as much as Lizzo wants us to.
Do you know the spooky meaning behind common symbols of autumn and Halloween? Get the deets this week! Warm up with the game Is That a Pie I Spell? before diving into the hidden meanings of pumpkins and gourds, witches, bats, apples, and more.
After an excursion to our local Halloween Selfie Museum (yes, that's a real thing), we discuss the spooky art of spirit photography! From the history of ghosts in pictures like Freddy Jackson and the Girl in the Fire to William Mumler and William Hope, probable frauds and spirit photographers, learn about some ghosts popping up in photos and get tips for capturing your own ghost on camera. (AUDIO ALERT: We recorded the first part of the episode in my car on a cell phone, so the audio is less tha...
Turns out Virginia is a weird commonwealth! We take a look at some of the stuff that makes our home state weird, like secret societies at state schools like UVA and one man's giant ham best friend. We also dive into a cultish temple located too close to home for our liking... (cw/tw: 40:33 to 44:55 child abuse; 47:54 to 49:42 sexual assault)
Tall tales: they're like regular tales, but bigger! We dive into a pretty American style of legend this week and talk about Paul Bunyan (or is it Paul Bon Jean?), John Henry the steel-drivin' man, the Great Dismal Swamp, and Virginia's own Chessie. Get the deets on recent llama bites, spiders, and maraschino cherry updates.
It's Spoop Hour's second podiversary special! We've been podcasting for TWO WHOLE YEARS (almost), so we celebrate with a listener story about a haunted farm, two games (spoopy Would You Rather and what cryptid are you with a fun twist), a featured creature, and a ghost tour irl. We've also got some exciting announcements about new merch and our eventual Patreon. Thanks for sticking with us for two years! Take What Cryptid Are You here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/spoophour/what-cryptid-are-you-cs5t...
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS: this week we're talking curses! From King Tut's tomb to paintings that burn down houses, get the deets on how to spot curses, how to break them according to the Traveling Witch and Witchipedia, and infamous stories of cursed Egyptian artifacts. And if you were planning on getting your friend a mummy hand for a paperweight...maybe don't!
In the longest ever Spoop Hour minisode, we catch up with the spooky things we've been up to! With Sasha's ghost tour in Harper's Ferry, Courtney's newly stolen books on Weird Virginia and Victorian ghost stories, and a listener story, we have a spoopy hodgepodge primed and ready for you. Pi-yahtzee!
In our most Mean Girls episode ever, we talk doppelgangers (and toaster strudel?)! The spooky variant on twins, traverse the history of doppelgangers from Egypt to Norse mythology to the term FETCH. Then dive in to pop culture, literature, and historical accounts of doppelgangers wreaking havoc on lives.
Last week it was parents, this week it's BLACK EYED KIDS doing the scaring! Learn about the relatively recent phenomenon of black eyed children, from the first story documenting them to a few tales of otherwordly BEK encounters. Finally, stick around for a discussion of why Nextdoor is the perfect place to solve the mystery of BEK (and who keeps leaving banana peels near our house.)
We collected stories from friends, listeners, and fellow podcasters for an episode on ways our parents scared us into behaving! From threats of removing your batteries to being left at a pumpkin patch/orphanage, hear family lore of all varieties with one goal: to keep you from breaking rules. Hear us talk snallygasters, boogeymen, things that will kill and/or eat you, and then join us for a discussion of why you maybe shouldn't scare your kid. And finally, hear a few stories of kids who scare th...
Regress with us back to past lives this week! How can you tell if you've had a past life? Past life regression, of course! We (sorta) tried to figure out who we might have been, and are talking some interesting instances of recovered past life memories. Featuring shared stories from listeners, podfriends, and various internet people who remember everything from being a monk in Spain in the 1300s to colonizing Africa with the British Army.
SEND THIS EPISODE OF SPOOP HOUR TO 7 PEOPLE or they won't get to laugh at tales from chain letters of yore! We talk classic chain letters, like the clown statue, not turning on the light, and Bye Daddy, to the newer tales of Saki, Teddy, and Carmen Winstead. From the days of paying postage to scare your friends to posting chain death in youtube comments, learn all you need to know about that which plagues your inbox.
It's time for a spoopy sleepover! Dr. Alysa Lucas of Best Forevers and Fataliteas joins us for a discussion of spooky sleepover staples. Hear the most upsetting story you'll ever know about bears with recorded voices, get to know Bloody Mary, and learn the ways we would have died in historical times. Sleep with the lights on!
Cast a distrusting eye at your computer: we're talking ghosts in the machine this week! Get the deets on haunted technology in pop culture, a haunted laptop that made its way to eBay, a probable creepypasta about getting messages from a loved one from beyond the grave via social media, and more. Then we get introspective about the nature of grief and bring it back up with our favorite meme this week!
We bring special ghost Mike back for a MEGA SIZED episode on LGBT spoop! Hear about two haunted gay bars, queercoding monsters and villains like the Babadook, and possibly gay cartoons. Then learn about civil rights icon and incredible gay man Bayard Rustin: his life, his love story, and what we think he'd be like as a ghost. Finally, meet the latest member of the Badass Non-Straight Ladies of History Club: Charlotte Cushman, a lesbian actress known for playing male and female roles and living t...
We're spooping while sleepy on this week's minisode! Hear about Sasha's haunted train toy and Courtney's mysteriously bloodstained hotel bed. Then find out our paranormal futures with a spoopy cootie catcher (aka paper fortune teller).
It's a MURDER EPISODE this week! While not necessarily spoopy, both Courtney and Sasha love some true crime, so we talk two of the spoopiest cases we know: the Andrews family haunting and the Carbon Copy Murders. Then, just in time for Pride and to lift us back up, meet our new favorite bisexual swashbuckling serial stabber Julie D'Aubigny!
SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION. Is it real? (Probably not.) Is it weird? (For sure.) Are we talking about it this week? ABSOLUTELY. We talk the science and theories behind all varieties of spontaneous human combustion before investigating the case of the Cinder Woman Mary Reeser and other historical instances of humans bursting into flame.
We're traveling back in time to explore the spooky lore of ancient Egypt! From historical monsters to one of the world's oldest ghost stories, we're talking about how much we love ancient Egypt one blood-drinking vampire goddess at a time.
The news has been abnormally spoopy, so get caught up on the latest cults, secret identities, and more with this episode! We discuss the Sarah Lawrence cult incident, the mysterious case of Treva Throneberry, and which reclusive cryptid may have finally made an appearance...
It's not a dream: on this week's episode, we're talking nightmares! Everything from deja reve to nightmare logic to zombies to rains of frogs is getting spooped, so grab your baku talisman and tuck yourself in.
Did you wish for a new episode? Wish granted, no lamp rubbing necessary! We're talking jinns, genies, and wishes gone wrong this week, though we take a lengthy detour into the worlds of cloaca, pooping on airplanes, and where the Shrek movies went wrong.
In a very special minisode, we talk to the one and only Snack Czar of the much discussed Snacket! We talk the history and future of the Snacket, favorite snacks, how terrible pickles are, possible snack matchups, and more. Make a charcuterie board and have a listen! (We'll be back with a regular episode next week after our spoopy spring break ends. Check out the Snacket at thesnacket.net, on Facebook, or Twitter @thesnacket.)
