Fortean Podcasts

[Spookdaddy]

Very good. Some of our skeptical posters should take a look at it.

Robins' style reminds me a little of Will Storr's in the excellent, Will Storr vs. the Supernatural. Both are happy to entertain other theories, but neither automatically falls back on them - for me, that is the perfect balance. I binged on ghost story podcasts for a while, but very quickly became frustrated with the complete lack of enquiry that tends to accompany them. I mean, I like to hear the stories - and some of them really do stand alone as memorable tales - but, for me, without enquiry most lack any sort of depth, and the repetition of the same box-ticking motifs and memes can become depressingly tiresome. I'm not a hardened sceptic, but I think its reasonable to apply a little balance - I believe in elephants, but if you tell me that you've got one in your handbag then I reserve the right to go into the subject a little deeper. I kind of feel that's how Robins (and Storr) approach the issue.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...(Even just thinking about The Thing in the Attic still gives me major goosebumps.)

Someone please listen to this and tell me that I'm not a massive wuss. I love a good spooky story but am generally quite unperturbable - however, I was in my workshop at night when I first heard this one, and when it came to the reveal I actually stopped what I was doing mid-action and told my radio to get the fuck out of town.

 

[TangletwigsDeux]

Danny Robins - of the above podcast and the BBC radio series The Battersea Poltergeist - has a new radio series: Uncanny.

Just one episode so far, with a cracking story at its heart.

In Haunted, Robins had a knack for picking convincing and sympathetic witnesses. He's also good a providing other more sceptical viewpoints without falling back on them as actual explanations. Judging from this first episode, I think he'll be following the pattern established in the older podcast - and I'm very much looking forward to the rest.

This episode struck a chord. I like stories that take place in apparently incongruous modern settings. It also bought back memories of my own possible polt experience in student accommodation - related elsewhere on the forum, and thankfully much less frightening. (I've also just finished Joseph Knox's novel, True Crime Story - the setting for which is very similar to that in the broadcast, and although a crime novel it manages to turn a relatively bland concrete tower block full of students into somewhere that can, under the right/wrong circumstances, feel distinctly uncanny.)

Uncanny / Case 1: The Evil in Room 611.

Definitely worth half an hour of your time.

OK this one got me hook,line and sheet with eyeholes in it. Most excellent and forwarded to daughter who has Goth inclinations. She will love it.

 

[kamalktk]

Weird Darkness is at 1000+ podcasts. I've enjoyed the first few I listened to. There's some true crime mixed in them, which isn't normally my thing but so far have at least been ok.

https://weirddarkness.com/

 

[kamalktk]

Monsters Among Us is a podcast that is "it happened to me" type reports people call in, with a host/nararrator that makes some attempt to explain what the people report. The host has sounds like a character in a spooky movie.

http://www.monstersamonguspodcast.com/

 

[Spookdaddy]

From memory, it was that 3 ICU nurses had gotten freaked out by a patient's death and had some form of mini mass hysteria. Because ICU nurses lose their shit when someone dies.

I think that's a story from the old Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia - covered in the two last episodes of Danny Robins older podcast, Haunted:

The Night Shift: 1.

The Night Shift: 2.

Well worth a listen (you can always turn the sound down for the sceptical bits).

 

[catseye]

I've just picked up on Banshees and Boggarts, which is reasonably new. Listened to 'The Clothes Cutting Poltergeist of Wooster' this morning and found myself wondering about the son of the family, whom nobody seemed to consider during the entire episode as being a possible perpetrator.

 

[catseye]

Still trying with 'Knock Once for Yes'. Its positives are that it's British, so doesn't do the whole 'must be a demon' thing, the two presenters have personable and listenable voices and they cover a wide range of supernatural topics. The biggest drawback for me is the 'listeners' stories'. I guess these help to pull in listeners and encourage participation, but they lean far too heavily on the 'I'd just woken up and I know I was awake...' stories or the 'I've always been psychic...' ones, for me.

 

[uair01]

Interesting alt-right and conspiracy podcast:
https://www.opb.org/news/article/bundyville-occupation-podcast/

“Bundyville: The Remnant” explores the world beyond the Bundy family and the armed uprisings they inspired. The series scrutinizes extremist violence that has made headlines in recent years, and how those events share ideas with the anti-government movement. The series also investigates who is inspiring that violence and who stands to benefit.

The most loyal supporters of the Bundys’ ideology live their lives amid conspiracy theories and paranoia. In this second season of “Bundyville,” Sottile asks what happens to the anti-government movement when the Bundys aren’t setting the agenda, and how the increasingly mainstream conspiracy theories of that movement are pushing people already on the fringe toward violence.

Part 1 is good, I will listen to part 2 now.

 

[Sharon Hill]

MonsterTalk investigates the Hairy Hands of Devon/Dartmoor

https://www.monstertalk.org/the-hairy-hands-of-devon/

 

[KOFY_Fitz]

Still trying with 'Knock Once for Yes'. Its positives are that it's British, so doesn't do the whole 'must be a demon' thing, the two presenters have personable and listenable voices and they cover a wide range of supernatural topics. The biggest drawback for me is the 'listeners' stories'. I guess these help to pull in listeners and encourage participation, but they lean far too heavily on the 'I'd just woken up and I know I was awake...' stories or the 'I've always been psychic...' ones, for me.

Thanks for giving us a try!

 

[Spookdaddy]

Should anyone else have been palely loitering around the Talking Till Dawn website wondering when the next episode was due - it seems that particular site (the one I linked to back at post #361) is not up to date. The two most recent have not appeared there, but are up on Apple Podcasts, and on their YouTube channel:

Great stuff, that's my Saturday evening sorted out.

(???

Hold on...that's my Saturday night? How on earth did it come to this?)

 

[Tempest63]

I listen to Paranormal podcasts, though there are very few out there that are worth listening to and fewer that I subscribe to.
So why does apples podcast keep suggesting crime podcasts?
I don’t subscribe to one crime podcast yet that’s what they keep offering me.

 

[Tempest63]

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/haunted-morgue-q-a/id1533375725?i=1000494447472

In my search for a decent UK based paranormal podcast I downloaded a number of episodes of After Dark which appeared to hold some promise. I listened first to the one linked above and was sorely disappointed. The two hosts challenge nothing, a light anomaly is conclusive proof of life after death, and given it is a morgue with refrigeration, compressors cutting in and out, they are astounded by the readings of their EMF meters. I deleted the rest without listening to them.

I have also struggled with Strange Familiars for a long time. This US based podcast is heavily focused on Bigfoot stories but does venture into other streams of the paranormal occasionally. The last episode was about a visit to a Gazoo wood where they encountered…a lot of noises, knocking etc., and they were visited by A Crow. How fecking weird, a crow in a wood. It might have been more tolerable if the audio was any good but it was absolute crap. Finally lost patience and hit the unfollow button. There is really a dearth of good paranormal podcasts out there.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/evocation-of-gazoo/id1203110397?i=1000549131887

 

[Tempest63]

I was listening to the Bizarre Tales podcasts. It is one of those podcasts that are far from professionally produced, are not scripted and often sounds like a pair of pissheads arguing down the pub; they have also started to hide some of their stuff behind a pay wall.
Listening to their podcast #8 (since they renamed the podcast, I forget the previous name) one of the hosts stated that when selling your house in the U.K. you have to declare if it is haunted.
Is that complete bollocks or is there any truth in it?

 

[Spookdaddy]

...one of the hosts stated that when selling your house in the U.K. you have to declare if it is haunted.
Is that complete bollocks or is there any truth in it?

The last time I looked at this an alleged haunting was not classed as the sort of 'material information' that has to be voluntarily offered to a buyer as standard.

However, if the buyer asks the vendor or their agent specifically about such a thing, (presumably because it's the sort of stuff that might put them off) and the vendor or their agent has knowledge of such a thing, but withholds the information, then they're potentially in serious trouble.

The rules on murder and suicides having taken place in a property used to be the same, but I think this has shifted (although I'm not sure there's any applicable case law). The argument is really a purely practical one, as it's not based on the idea that the property is affected in some intrinsic and concrete way by the history involved, but that it might affect the value of a future sale by a prospective buyer.

Edit: There was a court case regarding a property/haunting issue somewhere near me - I think back in the 90's. I'm going to have to dig around the memory banks, though.

Edit...again: Here's the story I was thinking about. And a quote from David Clarke's excellent Supernatural Peak District:

Press reports said the action claimed the Smiths were not given disclosure of the cottage's reputation for 'paranormal activity' when they made the offer

 

[gordonrutter]

I'm dipping my toes into the world of podcasting. I've put two on my website at a private link

http://www.gordonrutter.com/podcast-test

The first is a biography of Charles Fort and the second is a look at two different sets of fairy coffins.

You can listen to them on the website or download them by right cicking and using save as.

If people think its worthwhile I will make more and get a proper podcast host etc.

I hope you enjoy them and any feedback is welcome.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm dipping my toes into the world of podcasting. I've put two on my website at a private link

http://www.gordonrutter.com/podcast-test

The first is a biography of Charles Fort and the second is a look at two different sets of fairy coffins.

You can listen to them on the website or download them by right cicking and using save as.

If people think its worthwhile I will make more and get a proper podcast host etc.

I hope you enjoy them and any feedback is welcome.

Nothing seems to be there.

 

[gordonrutter]

Nothing seems to be there.

OK, I'll set it up differently.

 

[gordonrutter]

Nothing seems to be there.

Ok, it should be visible now, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Ok, it should be visible now, thanks for the heads up.

Thanks!

 

[brownmane]

Ok, it should be visible now, thanks for the heads up.

Hi Gord. I have not yet listened to them, but definitely plan to. My first positive comment is that I like that both seem to be under the 1 hour listening mark. Yay. I listen to podcasts when I am ready for bed. The 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour is great for me. I have problems with longer because I listen fairly late in evening and usually drift off to sleep. I find, in general and only my opinion, that unless there is a lot of information/research on a particular topic, longer than an hour podcasts tend to ramble.

 

[brownmane]

Should anyone else have been palely loitering around the Talking Till Dawn website wondering when the next episode was due - it seems that particular site (the one I linked to back at post #361) is not up to date. The two most recent have not appeared there, but are up on Apple Podcasts, and on their YouTube channel:

Great stuff, that's my Saturday evening sorted out.

(???

Hold on...that's my Saturday night? How on earth did it come to this?)

Hi Spook. What are the air dates for these podcasts? I have been following Talking til Dawn on Spot*** and the last one is back in December. I know that they don't record often (monthly, maybe?).

I love the guys' voices and their bad sense of humour, but some of their stories are entertaining.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Hi Spook. What are the air dates for these podcasts? I have been following Talking til Dawn on Spot*** and the last one is back in December. I know that they don't record often (monthly, maybe?)...

Roughly monthly, I think - but I'm not sure if there's a fixed time for release. They obviously have real world jobs and commitments, and Michael Whitehouse clearly puts a considerable amount of effort into his Ghastly Tales podcast.

You could try emailing them for details - I've contacted them in the past and got a very personable response.

 

[Tempest63]

I'm dipping my toes into the world of podcasting. I've put two on my website at a private link

http://www.gordonrutter.com/podcast-test

The first is a biography of Charles Fort and the second is a look at two different sets of fairy coffins.

You can listen to them on the website or download them by right cicking and using save as.

If people think its worthwhile I will make more and get a proper podcast host etc.

I hope you enjoy them and any feedback is welcome.

I’d subscribe to those. No shouting, screaming or fannying around.
If I could change one thing it would be the music; I listen to podcasts in bed as I’m dropping off and anything bold or loud makes me jump and it’s back to square one, but I like the content.

 

[gordonrutter]

I’d subscribe to those. No shouting, screaming or fannying around.
If I could change one thing it would be the music; I listen to podcasts in bed as I’m dropping off and anything bold or loud makes me jump and it’s back to square one, but I like the content.

Excellent, thanks for that.

 

[brownmane]

I listen to podcasts in bed as I’m dropping off and anything bold or loud makes me jump and it’s back to square one, but I like the content.

Funny, this is when I listen to podcasts as well. I agree with the bold or suddenly loud comment.

Not saying that the podcasts make me fall asleep , but I do like smooth melodic voices to listen to. I use podcasts to unwind from the day and to, hopefully, learn something interesting and new.

And I do often trail off, but if the topic is interesting, I will replay the episode again from where I lost track.

 

[brownmane]

Gord, I have listened to about half of your Fort podcast. Not yet finished for reasons mentioned in my above post.

I found it interesting and will continue to listen tonight. I am looking forward to your second one about fairy coffins. I have not heard of those.

So, add on, accessing your podcasts was easy and sound quality is very good.

 

[gordonrutter]

Gord, I have listened to about half of your Fort podcast. Not yet finished for reasons mentioned in my above post.

I found it interesting and will continue to listen tonight. I am looking forward to your second one about fairy coffins. I have not heard of those.

So, add on, accessing your podcasts was easy and sound quality is very good.

Thanks, appreciated.

 

[XEPER_]

MonsterTalk investigates the Hairy Hands of Devon/Dartmoor

https://www.monstertalk.org/the-hairy-hands-of-devon/

I listened to that, and today finished the one about the "Moving coffins" in Barbados. I honestly find that guy's puns so irritating, and the fake laughter from everyone after them, that I don't think I'll listen to the show any more. It doesn't help when they always prove our old favourite ghost stories are made up either!