The Box of Oddities

Are We Living Inside a Black Hole? And Why You Should Never Trust a Nazi With a Plate Of Cookies.

What if our entire universe is hiding inside a black hole? The James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered strange new clues about the early cosmos—including an ancient galaxy that appears far more developed than it should be and a mysterious imbalance in the way distant galaxies rotate.

Then, meet the WWII interrogator who extracted secrets from hundreds of Allied pilots without threats or violence. His weapons were casual conversation, carefully placed misinformation…and sometimes a plate of cookies. How did prisoners reveal valuable intelligence without realizing they’d said anything at all?

Two mind-bending stories involving cosmic mysteries, psychological manipulation, snack cakes, and the unsettling possibility that everything we know exists inside someone else’s patch of darkness. It’s The Box of Oddities!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when six teenage boys are stranded on a deserted island for more than a year? Forget Lord of the Flies. The true story of the boys of Ata reveals something far more surprising—and far more hopeful—about human nature.

Then, during World War II, a Muslim family in Sarajevo risks everything to hide their Jewish neighbors from the Nazis. Nearly fifty years later, with Sarajevo under siege once again, an extraordinary act of courage comes full circle.

Two remarkable true stories of survival, kindness, and ordinary people choosing to become the helpers when the world is at its worst. Also: pets may be angels, Kat encounters one at a drive-thru, and we celebrate five astonishing comebacks—including species once believed extinct.

Come fly the freak flag with us as we explore the strange, the inspiring, and the beautifully unexpected.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A listener dreams that Mothman shows up at her patio door—and refuses to let him inside because of his dust. Aerial arts may have accidentally cured another Freak’s lifelong motion sickness. And a woman dreams of playing with her late grandfather in an old hot rod, only to discover it may be a memory from infancy—and that her father dreamed about him on the very same night. Plus, the modern medical condition still treated with bloodletting, a breathtaking encounter in Norway, and a desperate plea for the return of “What You Got for Me?” It’s another strange, funny, and unexpectedly moving journey through the Inbox of Oddities. Fly your Freak Flag proudly!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He Vanished at 14. DNA Found Him 246 Years Later—and Why So Many Towns End in “Kill”

A teenage soldier vanished during one of the American Revolution’s most devastating defeats. Nearly 250 years later, DNA recovered from a tiny piece of bone may have finally given him back his name. The remarkable story of Private John Pumphrey begins beneath the soil of a South Carolina battlefield—and ends with a family hearing the name history had forgotten.

Then, Kat turns a 3,000-mile road trip into a linguistic excavation. Why do so many towns end in kill, ville, burg, ton, and ford? America’s highway signs are filled with language fossils revealing who settled the land, what they found, and occasionally, which important dude owned it.

From the unknown soldiers of the Battle of Camden to the hidden histories embedded in American place names—history is everywhere. Sometimes it’s buried beneath your feet. Sometimes you pass it at 70 miles an hour.

Keep flying that freak flag, beautiful freaks.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A glowing faceless figure stalks the lonely roads of western Pennsylvania—or so the legend goes. But behind the terrifying tale of Charlie No-Face was Ray Robinson, a real man whose tragic childhood accident transformed him into the infamous Green Man of Pennsylvania.

Then, Kat and Jethro explore the bizarre, darkly funny, and sometimes completely unhinged final words of executed criminals—including baked-apple jokes, complaints about SpaghettiOs, one killer’s suggested newspaper headline, and Aileen Wuornos’ promise to return with Jesus aboard a giant mothership.

Urban legends, death-row one-liners, and a Rolex rescued from the sewer after 18 months. Just another perfectly normal episode of The Box of Oddities.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices