On a fall night in 1998, a woman walked into her kitchen after being out all day and tossed her keys onto the counter. She saw the light on her answering machine blinking, so she checked the message. At first, it just sounded like static noise, or maybe someone was breathing heavy. And she figured it was either a prank call or someone had just accidentally dialed her number. But then she heard screaming and crying and then it just went silent, and the message ended. For a moment, the woman just ...
Dec 09, 2024•41 min•Ep 289•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And today’s podcast features 3 stories that demonstrate that. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "The Way" -- You'll never hear this song the same again (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKSqWj3HpQ ) #2 -- "High Stakes" --...
Dec 05, 2024•35 min•Ep 288•Transcript available on Metacast On a cold December night in 2013, a 59-year-old widow stood on stage at a square dance club in Arkansas, watching some of her closest friends dance together. The woman had owned and run the square dance club for years, and the people out on the floor were just like family to her. But as she listened to the music and called out different square dance steps, she didn’t notice that one of the dancers had their eyes fixed right on her. And the woman did not know that this dancer had become obsessed ...
Dec 02, 2024•36 min•Ep 287•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s story is a good old fashioned spooky story. It’s about a missing person in Taiwan, and it takes a totally bizarre turn, and I will say most of you will probably get the most thrill out of the “apartment scene.” You’ll know that scene when you get to it, and that’s towards the end of this podcast. So, make sure you stick around if you enjoy being spooked. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube video: #1 -- "An Unforgettable Fare" -- This story takes a wild turn, just w...
Nov 28, 2024•26 min•Ep 286•Transcript available on Metacast On a summer morning in 2001, a woman in Alabama woke up in a cold sweat – like she’d just had a nightmare. But the woman knew what she saw while she was sleeping was not a bad dream – it was real. So she grabbed her phone and made a frantic call. Later that morning, police arrived at an old wooden house on the outskirts of a small rural town. They stepped inside, and they were absolutely shocked, because the woman really had led them to a horrifying crime scene. For 100s more stories like these,...
Nov 25, 2024•34 min•Ep 285•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories about ghost towns. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Portlock" -- A ghost town with a very dark history (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2u2_q4tFp8 ) #1 -- "Ghost Town" -- A place so evil, it is illegal to go there&nb...
Nov 21, 2024•26 min•Ep 284•Transcript available on Metacast On a Monday afternoon in 1986, medical staff at a clinic in San Antonio, Texas were starting to get worried, because their most respected nurse had not shown up for work and nobody could get a hold of her. So later that morning, two of the nurse’s colleagues drove down to her apartment. But when they got there, they found two notes taped to the door. They were messages from the nurse’s family, who had been looking for her since the day before. By the time the nurse’s family filed a missing perso...
Nov 18, 2024•34 min•Ep 283•Transcript available on Metacast The crime at the center of today’s story is considered one of the most disturbing and heinous of all time. Story name, preview & link to original YouTube video: #1 -- "Clinical Lycanthropy" -- One of the most heinous crimes ever committed in the USA (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRzgmZiZn6U ) For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If you want to reach o...
Nov 14, 2024•36 min•Ep 282•Transcript available on Metacast On a fall evening in 1996, a young detective sped through the streets of Tucson, Arizona towards an upscale country club. All he knew was that someone had reported an explosion in the area, but he didn’t know what had caused it. Minutes later, the detective pulled into the country club parking lot and as he got out of his car, it almost felt like he had stepped into a war zone. Car alarms were blaring, shattered glass covered the ground, and nearby he saw a car with its roof completely...
Nov 11, 2024•34 min•Ep 281•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 2 spooky stories about messages from beyond. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Wrong Path Home" -- A news report about a missing woman has a frightening secret message (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCdzzoB7jrQ ) #1 -- "Mother Know...
Nov 07, 2024•41 min•Ep 280•Transcript available on Metacast On a Monday afternoon in December 2001, a pair of police officers walked in the side door of a big old farmhouse in the woods in Loudoun County, Virginia. They had just received a frantic 9-1-1 call from a man who said he had found his neighbor horrifically injured on the kitchen floor. The police officers crept through the house, peering cautiously around corners in case the attacker was still in the house. But other than the sound of their footsteps creaking on the hardwood, the home was ...
Nov 04, 2024•34 min•Ep 279•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 3 medical horror stories. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Honking Boy" -- A doctor rushes to help a boy who's having trouble breathing, what he finds is truly absurd (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRzdiHG3_eY ) #2 -- "Magic Elixir" -...
Oct 31, 2024•27 min•Ep 278•Transcript available on Metacast In April 2009, in a crowded shopping center in broad daylight, a young woman was walking to her car, when suddenly a strange-looking man came out of some bushes and rushed toward her. The woman tried to get to her car and escape, but the man was too fast – he blocked her way and pulled out a gun. He put the gun to the woman’s head, and before she could even process what was happening, he fired. The woman fell to the ground and died. Then the man turned, calmly walked into the nearby wo...
Oct 28, 2024•34 min•Ep 277•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 3 stories that will make you wonder how many monsters you may have encountered in your life. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Stumble" -- 3 people take pictures near a cliff (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAXfw9MDxg ) #2 -- "Psy...
Oct 24, 2024•31 min•Ep 276•Transcript available on Metacast This story is a fan favorite from MrBallen's Medical Mysteries. A boy in Minnesota is rushed to the emergency room with one of the worst food poisoning cases the doctors have ever seen. A short while later, a little girl shows up with the same illness. Soon, cases are popping up throughout the state, leaving some on the brink of death as doctors scramble to figure out why. Listen Now: Wondery.fm/MBMM For 100s more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -...
Oct 21, 2024•32 min•Ep 275•Transcript available on Metacast In our lives, all of us have to make really difficult decisions from time to time. Sometimes we make the right call, and other times we don’t. Today’s story is about someone who did the latter, but really the story is about what this person did to try to fix their bad decision. Simply put, this story takes a totally unexpected turn, and unless you heard it before, there’s no way you’re going to see it coming Story name, preview & link to original YouTube video: #1 -- "Daydreamers" -- Th...
Oct 17, 2024•25 min•Ep 274•Transcript available on Metacast On a summer night in 1980, the audience in New York’s world famous Metropolitan Opera House rose to their feet and applauded at the end of an international ballet performance. The dancers and musicians rushed backstage and congratulated each other on a great show, but one of the musicians was missing. Her prized violin sat on a chair in the orchestra pit. She had left it there during intermission of the ballet, and she had never come back. NYPD Detectives would soon descend on the Met, wher...
Oct 14, 2024•32 min•Ep 273•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 3 stories that all demonstrate how one seemingly small action can have massive ripple effects on the future. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Skills" -- An aspiring teacher makes an emotional decision... (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/wa...
Oct 10, 2024•31 min•Ep 272•Transcript available on Metacast On the day after Thanksgiving in 1998, a police officer responded to a 9-1-1 call at an apartment in a Florida beach town. But the 9-1-1 call had been vague, so the officer did not know if he was responding to an accident, a break-in, or something else. He knocked on the front door, and nobody answered. He tried the doorknob, but it was locked. So the officer walked around the outside of the apartment, and he found an open window that led into the kitchen. The officer climbed in t...
Oct 07, 2024•35 min•Ep 271•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 4 stories that will remind you to take caution before your next outdoor adventure. The audio from all four stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #4 -- "Livestream" -- Man climbs Mt. Fuji in the winter (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtDAo7jS8Z4 ) #3 -- "Into the Wild" --&...
Oct 03, 2024•33 min•Ep 270•Transcript available on Metacast On a spring night in 2009, a middle aged married couple was closing up the local pizza place they ran in a small Virginia mountain town. The husband walked to the back of the restaurant and grabbed a large bucket of ice. He carried the bucket out the back door, and dumped the ice into the grass. He stood up and felt the cool breeze on his face – it was a nice change from the hot pizza ovens he’d been working around all night. But then, he heard screaming coming from inside the restaura...
Sep 30, 2024•36 min•Ep 269•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 3 horrifying stories about couple’s romantic vacations. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Honeymoon" -- Newlyweds travel to one of the most beautiful places in the world, but don't realize how dangerous it is (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Sep 26, 2024•24 min•Ep 268•Transcript available on Metacast On a February night in a secluded suburban neighborhood, a man sat down to eat at his dining room table. When suddenly, he heard a "POP, POP, POP" coming from somewhere nearby. The man dropped his fork on the plate and ran to the window at the front of his house, but everything outside looked completely normal and calm. Still, the man could not shake the feeling that something bad might have just happened. So he called the police and explained what happened, and they sent an officer ou...
Sep 23, 2024•36 min•Ep 267•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 3 stories of missing people that we just can’t explain. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #3 -- "Todd Geib" -- A man who goes missing after leaving a party (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/idNX6Dm6li8?feature=shared ) #2 -- "40 Years Later…" -- Man found...
Sep 19, 2024•27 min•Ep 266•Transcript available on Metacast On a hot summer day in Illinois, police officers made their way through a field out in the middle of nowhere. They pushed aside the tall grass, and they could see and hear flies buzzing all around them. Suddenly, the officer at the front of the group stopped, crouched down, and called back to the others – he had finally found the body. The other officers rushed to him, and they all stared down at the dead young woman. The cops knew something like this would leave people in the small town ne...
Sep 16, 2024•38 min•Ep 265•Transcript available on Metacast This story is a fan favorite from MrBallen's Medical Mysteries. In 1983, an Italian man finds himself completely unable to sleep, and when he looks in the mirror, his own eyes frighten him. A sense of doom washes over the man. He knows that within a year, he’ll be dead – because he’s just fallen prey to a centuries-old family curse. Listen Now: Wondery.fm/MBMM For 100s more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If y...
Sep 12, 2024•33 min•Ep 264•Transcript available on Metacast Just before dawn on the last Saturday of June 2013, an employee at a Toys ‘R’ Us store in upstate New York was working in the stock room, when suddenly he heard an alarm going off somewhere inside the store. He radioed his manager to turn off that alarm, but the manager didn’t respond. Another employee went to the front office to check on the manager, and they found him unconscious and bleeding from a hole in his chest. Police and paramedics responded and rushed the man to the hospital, but sadl...
Sep 09, 2024•40 min•Ep 263•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s podcast will feature 2 camping horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos: #2 -- "Pelican Valley" -- A beautiful camping spot with a dark secret (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/o-ywxRasv5s?feature=shared ) #1 -- "Blood on the Mountain" -- A middle-aged fisherman cast his line out into the creek’s waters when he ...
Sep 05, 2024•34 min•Ep 262•Transcript available on Metacast 
