Episodes

SHOW NOTES Content warnings: Elephant hunting, brief mention of murder-suicide, old-timey racism, lung disease, feces, violent strike-breaking, dire poverty/food insecurity, mass death of children which is the topic of the episode but is not discussed until 58:15 and is addressed without graphic detail, trampling/stampeding/crushing deaths Links: 1913 Massacre 1913 Massacre Amelia Earhart Mystery: Was the Lost Pilot Eaten by Giant Coconut Crabs? Anna Clemenc Anna Klobuchar Clemenc Calumet, MI Ch...

SHOW NOTES Content warnings: Drowning, water search, missing people Links: 25 years ago, thousands watched a balloon launch on Public Square Balloonfest '86 Balloonfest 1986, the spectacle that became a debacle: Cleveland Remembers (video) Claim to world record for 'Balloonfest '86' is not all hot air: Michael K. McIntyre's Tipoff Cleveland Summertime Memories: A Warm Look Back Releasing 1.5 Million Balloons Into The Air Is A Bad Idea That Time Cleveland Released 1.5 Million Balloons and Chaos E...

SHOW NOTES Content warning: this episode discusses the large-scale death of children in moderate detail. BACK IN THE DAY: EPISODE 9 | OUR LADY OF THE ANGEL'S SCHOOL FIRE 1958 Chicago Fire Dept. - Our Lady Of The Angels School Fire 1958 Chicago Tribune 04 Dec 1958 Hunt Ransom Hoax Sadist in Pupil Deaths FLASHOVER AND BACKDRAFT: A Primer Our Lady of the Angels blaze. Chicago, 1958. Documents #2. Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School fire Our Lady ...

SHOW NOTES A good Samaritan helped a woman who was being beaten in a parking lot. Now he’s dead. Bad Blood and Not Bad Mood Most Likely The Cause For Toys R Us Shooting Black Friday Death Count Black Friday sales: moments of madness Black Friday Shoppers Hit By Suspected Drunk Driver In Walmart Parking Lot (VIDEO) Black Friday: Target Shoppers Step Over Walter Vance As He Collapses, Dies Black Friday: Virginia Man Stabbed In Walmart Parking Lot Over Space BREAKING NEWS: Transwoman assaulted at K...

SHOW NOTES 5 Cool and Curious Facts About Maps 27 Facts About Maps Agloe, New York CBC Mississauga Train Derailment November 10 1979 Chemical leak at LG plant in India kills 11, about 1,000 ill City plans to rename Mississauga library in honour of Hazel McCallion’s 100th birthday Firefighter Warner was ready to help First-person stories wanted to lighten up Mississauga train derailment anniversary Hazel McCallion Larry Krupa Leonarda Cianciulli — A Serial Killer Who Turned Her Victims Into Cakes...

A Town with a Hot Problem Decides Not to Move Mountains but to Move Itself Centralia Loses Another Resident, Home Abandoned Centralia, Pennsylvania Centralia, Pennsylvania’s least-populated town, has been sitting on top of a burning mine fire for 60 years Centralia’s ‘Graffiti Highway’ is finally getting erased How the Mine Fire Nearly Killed Todd Domboski I Live In Centralia, PA: It's America's Creepiest Ghost Town Remaining handful of residents can stay in Centralia for the rest of their lives...

SHOW NOTES Content warnings: Sleep paralysis, paranormal stuff, poltergeist activity, clowns, accidental non-fatal strangulation, misuse of human remains, exorcism, cancer, brief mention of rape, very detailed/graphic discussion of spousal abuse and injuries sustained, non-fatal intentional strangulation, failure of 911 to intervene, murder, coma, attempted suicide, death of child from GI illness 58:04-1:11:00, emergency surgery, birth defect, aliens Show notes: 13 Cursed Movies for Friday the 1...

This week, we come close to free-balling an episode, Brianne has a horrific encounter while on her sleep bullshit, Curious George lightens the mood, we identify the spooky-lookers in our lives, and a savage six year old might be the only anecdote for Hat Man. Content warnings: sleep paralysis. Links: All Shadow People Are Terrifying, But The Phantom Hat Man May Be One Of The Worst Of All Shadow People: The Hat Man The Hat Man The Hat Man: Documented Cases of Pure Evil (2019 documentary)

This week, Aunt Vada's dad is not having it, we envision a possessed child as Roland Schitt and a ghost as Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a sadistic director curses a film production. Content warnings: demonic/occult topics, reference to crucifix scene from The Exorlicist, possession, exorcisms, guns used to scare people, child abuse, spinal fracture, alcoholism/alcoholic relapse, family annihilation, fire, angiogram, murder, violent homophobia, dismemberment, hurricanes. 5 Movies That Wanted Audrey He...

This week, Brianne returns from the dead, we speculate about our nemeses, Brianne coaches Melanie on how to care less, a haunted house surprise does not go according to plan, we revisit the Indiana State Fairgrounds, a prop noose isn't a prop noose, a chaotic magician's act goes wrong, a Halloween display isn't a display, a buried alive theme park attraction goes wrong, and a prop knife isn't a prop knife. Content warnings: Multiple accidental deaths by hanging including some by teenagers, multi...

This week, our Britney episodes conclude even as Britney's plight does not, weird interviews about, and emojis tip off fans that something is amiss. Content warnings: conservatorship abuse, mental illness, emotional abuse. Links: #FreeBritney: Secrets Britney Spears's Conservatorship Does NOT Want Public?? 730 Evaluation About Probate Conservatorships Association of Trial Counsel Bessemer Petition Britney Spears' Conservatorship Legal Fees Cost Her Over $1.2 Million Britney Spears’ dad calls #Fr...

This week, Melanie goes totally spooky with it and meets her put-together neighbors in a Britney t-shirt, Midwesterners are polite aloof little goblins, we reinvent the disaster wheel, Britney eats crawfish, Brianne courts a lawsuit from k-fed, and the Britney machine does Britney wrong. Content warnings: abuse of conservatorships, discussion of mental health and mental illness, unsafe driving with child in car, abuse by paparazzi, toxic relationship dynamics, inpatient mental health treatment, ...

This week, Melanie doesn't know the safe word (because it's really The Audio Guy guest starring), TAG victim blames dinosaurs, frogs are dying, we're angling for a curriculum sponsorship, and TAG sucks at palate cleansers. Content warnings: extinction events. Links: Killer frog disease 'part of Earth's sixth mass extinction' Frog chytrid fungus Fungal Parasites and Pathogens Caecilians: The other amphibian What we lose when we lose the world’s frogs Why the Loss of Amphibians Matters Threats Pos...

This week, the day all podcasters dread arrives, Melanie encounters a choad in the wild, we set a demon safeword, a bedroom disappears in an instant, we learn a lot of spooky sinkhole geography, wonder about grief rituals, and unpack religious rhetoric around death and randomness, and a wolf spider makes crude gestures. Content warnings: Joking references to demons/possessions/exorcisms, death of adult in natural disaster, child witnessing non-gory death of adult, discussion of disaster prepared...

This week, Brianne is cooked medium well and wants to be a freelance brain surgeon, Adelaide gives a bird presentation, Melanie gets slammed by a hurricane and joins the current millennium, sugar turns out to be combustible, we commemorate the Great Glitter Explosion of 2020, and a factory explosion changes OSHA standards. Content warnings: brain surgery, hurricanes, structure fire, death by explosion/fire. SHOW NOTES 2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion A burning chemical plant may be just the...

This week, Melanie is evacuating a hurricane double-whammy, Brianne hits up Taco Bell in her wedding dress, Melanie is inspired to step up her jammy game in case she ever has to watch her house burn down in the middle of the night, firefighters don't need an address to locate a fire, a Prince Charming with bleach blond hair and a Hummer comes along, Brianne tempts litigious Indiana men, there's a derpy brother named Bob, a renowned arsonist sucks at starting fires, good henchmen are hard to find...

This week, Brianne and Melanie go back to the podcast coal mines, Melanie discovers that she's a ghost, we get a Drunk Melanie Math Lesson, a 5,000 foot dam collapses, and there's an 80 foot wall of water. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: water disaster, dead cattle, drowning, multiple deaths. Links: FAMOUS FAILURES:REVISITING MAJOR DAM CATASTROPHES Museum of Rexburg: Home of the Teton Flood Exhibit Museum of Rexburg: Teton Flood Exhibit Report to U.S. Department of the Interior and State of Idaho o...

This week, Brianne doesn't have malaria, Melanie buys a house full of demons, a squeamish firefights meets a terrible end, Brianne is mad about college sports, an arm falls out of a car, there's a guy named Humpy Wheeler, and a decapitation fails to end a NASCAR race early. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: ghosts/demons, car accident, death, description of gore/decapitation/dismemberment with in-episode warning. Links: Crash Claims Young Race Driver Russell Phillips Sportsman Driver Killed at Charlo...

Bad news - no new episode this week. Good news - lots of stuff coming up for the ten dollar patreons! Marked Safe is on a one week hiatus. Sorry horrible ghouls!

This week, Melanie tells us about a guy named Carl, there's an old-timey inventor brawl, discoveries are licked, pompous assholes are always celebrated, ugly wallpaper makes someone throw up, Melanie needs to make a report to The Director of History, Melanie overlooks a huge shaft. and beautiful green dye kills a bunch of people. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: poisoning, deaths of children 16:46-17:36, graphic description of death by poisoning. Show notes: Carl Wilhelm Scheele Carl Wilhelm Schee...

This week, Brianne peaks in episode 11, we all get a villain to cathartically blame, a ship full of 13s is doomed from the start, an off-duty captain gets shit done, a guy with a punchable face gets his ass handed to him by a guy who looks like Ed Harris, and someone maybe uses cocaine as dry shampoo. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: sinking ship, kids in peril, older couple being separated in a particularly upsetting way 25:50 and again at 47:36, water rescue and body recovery, various deaths, refu...

This week, Brianne finally watches Hamilton, something brushes a leg underwater, there's a whole explosives hospital, a shark turns somersaults in a few feet of water, Melanie's husband has a hammock phobia, it turns out sharks grunt, we fall in love with the name Erna, and the South African government bombs the ocean. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: Indirect reference to child loss in the context of Hamilton, sharks, severed leg, various deaths of people of varying ages, various shark-attack relat...

This week, Melanie bites off more fireworks than she can chew, fireworks warehouses detonate, a hot dog is replaced with TNT, a fire department takes one look and peaces out, an obituary tells it like it is, a Gaston actor meets a terrible end, a suburban middle-aged couple has a secret in their garage, and we draw a line in the sand on Transitions lenses. SHOW NOTES Content warnings: explosions, gore/decapitation 18:00-19:19, multiple deaths of adults, alcoholism. Links: 20 Questionable Firewor...