• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Fortean Podcasts

I do like Spooktator for the Skeptical side and Weird Tales Radio Show is one that I can drop off to. Shame that Janey is another screacher.
 
_Danforth_ said:
Unexplained: Initially I thought this was a British guy copying Lore, but that's unfair; it's delivered in a similar style, but it's much more focussed on the spooky stuff. I've probably listened to it the least of the three, but intend to remedy that.
Click to expand...

I do like Unexplained, it is one i look forward to very much. Don’t confuse it with The Unexplained with Howard Hughes which can be great on its day but he seems more interested in Conspiracy episodes latterly and some of his guests are “Upton Park” or Two Stops Short of Barking!
 
Tempest63 said:
I think FT should include a “One to Avoid” to save me downloading some of the paranormal podcasts that are hosted by a group of screeching blokes who giggle and squeal like a dormitory full of prepubescent school girls. You know the ones, they grunt instead of talking and the only words they seem able to form are usually classed as “Industrial Language”.
Click to expand...

That would be "Hysteria 51" - awful.

If you however enjoy the sound of two very Aussie Sheilas talking about local mysteries - while swearing like troopers - then have a listen to the "All Aussie Mystery Hour". More entertainment than anything else, but it beats the "Morning Drive" show with Shazza, Kazza and Bazza.
 
KOFY_Fitz said:
Thank you for the recommendation! I've only just noticed this was here or I would have thanked you sooner :)
Click to expand...

Another big like is KOFY, would like to see it appear a bit more often and with a bit more regularity, but each episode is gratefully received.
 
Kingsize Wombat said:
That would be "Hysteria 51" - awful.

If you however enjoy the sound of two very Aussie Sheilas talking about local mysteries - while swearing like troopers - then have a listen to the "All Aussie Mystery Hour". More entertainment than anything else, but it beats the "Morning Drive" show with Shazza, Kazza and Bazza.
Click to expand...

My morning commute takes me through Romford, I’m sure the local girls could be a match for any Sheila on the Trooper scale; and on the commute back home after they have imbibed a few Vera Lynne’s...shocking!
 
Tempest63 said:
My morning commute takes me through Romford, I’m sure the local girls could be a match for any Sheila on the Trooper scale; and on the commute back home after they have imbibed a few Vera Lynne’s...shocking!
Click to expand...

Oh the girls from the Podcast aren't shocking - just disarmingly blunt.
 
I do like the Paranormal Podcast with Jim Harold but the constant advertising breaks are way OTT. It makes you think his desire to make money far far overrules his wish to entertain. I don’t think I will ever subscribe to Gaia as the word itself makes me want to scream due to Jims massive fawning overexposure
 
Kingsize Wombat said:
That would be "Hysteria 51" - awful.

If you however enjoy the sound of two very Aussie Sheilas talking about local mysteries - while swearing like troopers - then have a listen to the "All Aussie Mystery Hour". More entertainment than anything else, but it beats the "Morning Drive" show with Shazza, Kazza and Bazza.
Click to expand...

I'll have to give this one a try. There's a lot of very shitty podcasts out there so any recommendation here is bound to be half decent. There are plenty out there full of dull people who "um" and "ah" their way through an hour as apposed to those who screech like banshees, hooting and a hollering. Just because one owns a microphone doesn't mean one should use it.
 
Lord Lucan said:
There are plenty out there full of dull people who "um" and "ah" their way through an hour as apposed to those who screech like banshees, hooting and a hollering. Just because one owns a microphone doesn't mean one should use it.
Click to expand...

Well put
 
Tempest63 said:
I do like the Paranormal Podcast with Jim Harold but the constant advertising breaks are way OTT. It makes you think his desire to make money far far overrules his wish to entertain. I don’t think I will ever subscribe to Gaia as the word itself makes me want to scream due to Jims massive fawning overexposure
Click to expand...
I really like that too, just press the skip button 5 or 6 times until the 3 minute ad is past.
 
New-ish Australian Podcast that has been going since November. It's called "Believe" and features regular Strayans talking about their encounters with the batshit insane. Battling UFOs, Yowies, Glowing Orbs, Ghosts, Witches, Alien Abductions and any combination thereof told by the people who experienced them - rather than the usual suspects.

https://ccradio.com.au/bufo4/
 
I've been listening to podcasts from the Parcast Network of late. Many Fortean topics, with their podcasts grouped into serial killers, extraterrestrials, assassinations, mythology, cults etc. Professionally recorded and very well made. Worth listening to.
 
Lord Lucan said:
I've been listening to podcasts from the Parcast Network of late. Many Fortean topics, with their podcasts grouped into serial killers, extraterrestrials, assassinations, mythology, cults etc. Professionally recorded and very well made. Worth listening to.
Click to expand...
Yeah, after being initially put off but the strangely robotic house style, I find the parcast podcasts are very good content-wise.
 
James_H said:
Yeah, after being initially put off but the strangely robotic house style, I find the parcast podcasts are very good content-wise.
Click to expand...

It takes one or two episodes to get used to their style, it is as you say a little robotic and lacking emotion, however, for content and facts and certainly for listenability (is that even a word?) I find them superior. I'm a late arrival to the world of podcasts, but I've found a lot of others to be difficult to listen to insomuch as the 'personalities' presenting the podcasts often take predecence over the content being presented.
 
I tried a couple of early Blurry Photos episodes and I don't think it's for me - they've gone one low-voiced guy and one higher-voiced one and apparently no idea how to balance the sound from their respective microphones, because if I can hear low-voiced guy then every laugh (and there are many) from his co-presenter is wincingly loud! Also it's a very jokey presenting style, I do prefer the semi-scripted approach (KOFY) or fully-scripted (Lore, Unexplained). This one is more like a "zany" radio DJ... I only lasted ten minutes of the two episodes I tried! YMMV of course, and at least they weren't mocking the material they were using, it was more about enjoying themselves. I just wanted them to shush :)
 
XEPER_ said:
Those Conspiracy Guys were covered in a recent FT so I downloaded three of their podcasts as they were apparently really good.
Not for me. I wanted to hear a chat about the flat earth theory but what you get is three guys cracking mostly poor jokes for literally 6 hours. There was very little discussion about flat earth, it was mostly daft nonsense like 3 guys in the pub would come out with. Don't get me wrong, lots of it was rather funny, but I wanted to hear a podcast about flat earth theories, not a comedy show.
Gave up on it after about an hour and a half, tried the one about Aleister Crowley and gave up on that too. Took them about half an hour even to start talking about him!
Click to expand...
Sorry for the late response here, but I felt I had to chime in with an opposing view. I actually like this one. If you're looking for a show that sums up its subject in 30 to 60 minutes this is not the podcast for you. Similarly, if you don't want to hear people joking around about the subject, go elsewhere.

This is a show with (mostly) comedians discussing fortean topics for hours on end. Its primary focus is fun. They do eventually get around to discussing the topic semi-seriously, and they always sum up with each participant's opinion of the matter. You can learn a bit more about the topic, especially if you don't know much about it to begin with.

It is a bit like chatting with a bunch of guys in a pub, but since I don't know of any pubs where intelligent people with interests in conspiracy theories and other fortean topics hang out, this is the next best thing.
 
Anyone interested in religious cults would do well to check out 'end of days' from BBC radio 5 live, which follows the British branch davidians (there were quite a lot of them) at Waco and their families.
 
Conspiracy Unlimited with Richard Syrett is very good- the host guides the conversations while allowing his guests to speak, lots of different topics covered too.

The best of Coast to Coast A.m is ok too, there is a new episode every day, generally between 7 and 15 minutes, the topics vary a lot, tends to be very different from one day to the next.
 
http://www.traveloddities.com/

It's one of the original humorous paranormal podcasts, one of which Blurry Photos ripped off. If you don't like Blurry Photos or Hysteria 51 then don't bother with it.

I actually find Hysteria 51 pretty hit and miss.
 
Last edited:
The thing that annoys me about some of the podcasts is when they get facts so blatantly wrong. Stuff they don't want you to know does this often. https://www.stufftheydontwantyoutoknow.com/

For example, "George Martin was the manager of the Beatles" - come on guys do your homework.
 
Last edited:
Naughty_Felid said:
For Android there' loads {of podcatchers}. https://player.fm/ https://www.stitcher.com/ https://www.iheart.com/genre-options/ https://soundcloud.com/ I usually use Player, Sticher and Soundcloud. (Player Fm tends to have more British podcasts)
Click to expand...

Do any of these three have proper playlists?

I have only used Google Podcast so far and it's free, no ads (naturally the podcasts themselves have ads, but there's none from the app itself) and responsive... but also very basic. It'll autoplay the next episode in a series, using my data allowance - but can't be set to, for example, play through a bunch of things I already downloaded.

My goal is to download anything which looks interesting, browsing once or twice a week to find them; then, as part of my preparation for each long car journey (work gives me quite a few of these) pick a playlist from the downloads. Google Podcasts won't let me!

You'd think the phone's music player would do the job but for some reason, it can only see some of the downloaded podcasts not all...
 
I use Player FM after trying out a few different ones. You can create a Play list, though I never manage more than one cast in a session. Most are quite long.
 
I've been using Podbean. Great app and super easy to use. I both download and stream and haven't had any issues. Get's a good rating on the Google store too if that counts for anything.
 
I went for Podbean. The in-app adverts turn out to be image-based (I had visions of audio apps inserted between the podcasts, in addition to the creators' own ones within them) so I see them when downloading but not when driving. Fast and fairly light, and plays through a bunch of downloads in order, rather than trying to stream new ones, which is all I wanted.

I now have a mix of science, technology, hobby and Fortean topics cued up for morning drives, and music for the return journeys. Very happy :)
 
Podbean is the one I use but some of the podcasts aren't available on there (like Monster Talk) so I also use Google Podcasts.

Recently I've been listening to Strange Matters, Astonishing Legends and a new one called Nightmare 365 which is a couple of young guys (brothers) just chatting about various weird topics. It's not perfect but well worth a listen.
 
XEPER_ said:
Podbean is the one I use but some of the podcasts aren't available on there (like Monster Talk) so I also use Google Podcasts.

Recently I've been listening to Strange Matters, Astonishing Legends and a new one called Nightmare 365 which is a couple of young guys (brothers) just chatting about various weird topics. It's not perfect but well worth a listen.
Click to expand...
I've been listening to this podcast and I'm still laughing at the joke of the podcast...
https://castbox.fm/vb/149601476
 
I finally decided to pay a monthly fee using Patreon for one of my favourite podcasts - Strange Matters. I don't even listen to all the episodes because the ones about children being murdered are too upsetting for me, but it seems like the guys making these podcasts are doing it without being rewarded. Some of them, like Mysterious Universe, Jim Harold's Paranormal, and now Unexplained, have advertising so they get paid that way, but the ones without ads are working for free essentially, which seems a tad unfair.
 
Oh, and also, Richard McLean Smith of Unexplained is doing a talk at a library near me (Balloch - they actually have a poster with one of my book covers on the wall!) so I'm taking my 11 year-old daughter along to listen and get our book signed. Should be a good afternoon!
 
I’m still listening to many podcasts but find my choice shrinking as I delete numerous podcasts from my library.
I’ve noted before that I cannot stand those podcasts where silliness reigns, those who want to laugh, shriek, excessively swear or generally act the goat and cannot be serious will be delete, usually 2 or 3 minutes into the show.
I now find that I am deleting some of the more “respectable” shows who rely on guests pushing books that are totally ridiculous. Guests coming out with the most outrageous claims and who constantly contradict both themselves (and previous guests) without being challenged by the host. The latest one to be deleted is Rune Soup after a ridiculous interview with someone who claimed to be psychic after being struck by lightning and Jim Haralds Paranormal Podcast after the goddess of the stones interview. The author talked about getting to know the stones etc,etc, etc, only to claim that you didn’t really need to own the stones as the pictures in his book are so well taken that you can use these instead. Utter codswallop! IMHO.
 
Tempest63 said:
I’m still listening to many podcasts but find my choice shrinking as I delete numerous podcasts from my library.
I’ve noted before that I cannot stand those podcasts where silliness reigns, those who want to laugh, shriek, excessively swear or generally act the goat and cannot be serious will be delete, usually 2 or 3 minutes into the show.
I now find that I am deleting some of the more “respectable” shows who rely on guests pushing books that are totally ridiculous. Guests coming out with the most outrageous claims and who constantly contradict both themselves (and previous guests) without being challenged by the host. The latest one to be deleted is Rune Soup after a ridiculous interview with someone who claimed to be psychic after being struck by lightning and Jim Haralds Paranormal Podcast after the goddess of the stones interview. The author talked about getting to know the stones etc,etc, etc, only to claim that you didn’t really need to own the stones as the pictures in his book are so well taken that you can use these instead. Utter codswallop! IMHO.
Click to expand...

Ah, I'm right with you. I also follow Jim Harold's PP, and I agree - that stones interview was a lot of shite. I listened to it for 5 minutes then skipped it to the next section which was a much better interview (although I forget who the guy was).
Mysterious Universe seems to mostly be them talking about ludicrous books written by "Psychics" but I find them amusing enough as hosts that I still enjoy listening to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top