The Box of Oddities

It's Halloween, and the Freak Family has been keeping some very unsettling secrets.

For our 9th Annual Box of Oddities Halloween Special, Kat and Jethro open the inbox for a collection of listener-submitted paranormal encounters, ghost stories, and unexplained experiences that might make you reconsider what happens after we die.

A grieving friend encounters a familiar presence, a mysterious scent, and an ice-cold Coke Zero that nobody can explain. A childhood UFO sighting near Lake Erie comes with an unexpected earthquake. A house cleaner discovers that some former occupants may not be ready to leave. In Sri Lanka, a priest encounters a disturbing spiritual ritual. A young girl makes a mysterious friend at summer camp, and a terrifying encounter with the infamous Hat Man raises new questions about shadow people and the supernatural.

Some of these stories are genuinely frightening. Others are strangely comforting. All of them come from members of the Freak Family who experienced something they still can't explain.

And there's too much weirdness for just one episode! Part Two of our Halloween Special arrives Saturday, October 31.

Plus, don't miss our special release of Box of Oddities Live from Chicago's Den Theatre, with the video version available exclusively to our Order of Freaks supporters on Patreon.

Happy Halloween, you beautiful freaks. Keep flying that spooky freak flag.

The Box of Oddities — strange stories, paranormal mysteries, supernatural encounters, and the wonderfully bizarre.
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In 1829, journalist Anne Royall was dragged into a Washington, D.C., courtroom and convicted of being a common scold. Her crime? Having opinions, challenging powerful men, and refusing to keep her mouth shut. The proposed punishment involved a wooden chair, the Potomac River, and a medieval practice usually associated with witch trials. Naturally, Anne had a few things to say about that.

Then, Kat takes us down a surprisingly strange linguistic rabbit hole. Where did “cool beans,” “spill the beans,” and “full of beans” come from? Ancient Greek voting rituals? French fur trappers? Cheech and Chong? Recreational pharmaceuticals? The history of bean-related slang is considerably weirder—and much less certain—than you might expect.

Plus, William Shatner's bizarre career detours, from professional wrestling and championship horses to space travel and heavy metal.

It's outspoken women, questionable etymology, and Captain Kirk rocking out at 95.

Just another perfectly normal day inside The Box of Oddities.

Keep flying that Freak Flag!

#BoxOfOddities #AnneRoyall #WeirdHistory #StrangeHistory #CoolBeans #WilliamShatner #Podcast
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Ghostly Encounters, Scottish Mario & Halloween Chaos | Inbox of Oddities

The Freak Family has spoken, and things are getting delightfully weird in this episode of Inbox of Oddities!

Kat and Jethro dive into your listener emails, voice messages, and wonderfully unhinged stories, including a haunted Montana farmhouse where disembodied voices whisper from the basement and an unseen presence gets a little too handsy. Because apparently, even ghosts need a lesson in personal boundaries.

Plus, accidental 911 calls, a camper that goes up in spectacular flames, a Bluetooth bathroom mirror with excellent taste in podcasts, and the ongoing battle for Freak Family supremacy: Scottish Mario vs. a certain anatomically questionable ventriloquist puppet.

And with Halloween creeping closer, we're gearing up for our 9th Annual Box of Oddities Halloween Special, featuring YOUR creepy encounters and unexplained experiences!

It's paranormal encounters, bizarre true stories, inappropriate laughter, and the kind of glorious nonsense that only the Freak Family can deliver.

Have a strange story of your own? Send it our way. Your weirdness is always welcome.

Keep flying that freak flag, you beautiful freaks!

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In this Halloween-season episode of Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro explore a grisly chapter of New England folklore: the 1817 exhumation of Dartmouth student Frederick Ransom. As tuberculosis—then called consumption—devastated his Vermont family, his father followed a desperate “vampire” remedy: Frederick’s heart was removed from his grave and burned in a blacksmith’s forge.

Then, from the frighteningly human to the wonderfully alien: octopuses can edit their RNA in response to changing water temperatures, have neurons spread throughout their arms, solve problems, use tools, and may be far more emotionally complex than we ever imagined. Plus, the greatest horror-movie screams of all time.

A tale of vampire panic, Victorian-era disease, eerie folklore, sentient cephalopods, and very questionable mayonnaise-jar security—because normal is overrated.
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Edgar Allan Poe’s Rattling Skull & The Honeymoon Murder at Acadia National Park

What happens when you dig up the remains of one of history’s most famous masters of horror and discover something rattling around inside his skull? And how does a romantic honeymoon in one of America’s most beautiful national parks end in murder?

This week on The Box of Oddities, we’re digging into two disturbing true stories involving mysterious deaths, buried secrets, and some deeply unsettling discoveries.

First, JG explores the bizarre 1875 exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe. More than 25 years after the legendary writer’s mysterious death, workers reportedly discovered something extraordinary inside his skull. Was it his remarkably preserved brain, evidence of a previously unknown medical condition, or something else entirely? Plus, the enduring mystery of the Poe Toaster, the shadowy stranger who visited his grave for decades, bearing roses and cognac.

Then, Kat takes us to Acadia National Park in Maine, where a young bride's fatal fall from a seaside cliff in 1987 initially appeared to be a tragic accident. But investigators soon uncovered a suspicious life insurance policy, a troubling marriage, and a husband's past that suggested something far more sinister. The murder of Kathy Frost Larson would ultimately expose a chilling pattern of deception and death.

Plus, a killer refrigerator, a homicidal gingerbread man, and other wonderfully ridiculous horror movies that probably should never have been made.

Grave robbing, literary mysteries, true crime, Halloween weirdness, and a generous helping of gallows humor. Just another perfectly normal week with the Freak Family.

The Box of Oddities — where the strange, the macabre, and the wonderfully weird feel right at home.

Keep flying that freak flag!

#EdgarAllanPoe #PoeToaster #TrueCrime #AcadiaNationalPark #UnsolvedMysteries #Halloween #MacabreHistory #BoxOfOddities

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