Ain't It Scary? with Sean & Carrie
He’s skeptical. She’s spooky. Together they explore the unknown, unsolved, unbelievable, and just plain weird. With a shared passion for history and the truth, Sean & Carrie bring their different perspectives to crime, the paranormal, and the inexplicable. Sean’s logical eye and Carrie’s open mind combine for an informative hour with a lighter touch.
Episodes
AIN'T IT SCARY RETURNS! Catching Up, Talking 2025, and Checking In With the Asaparamancer
Guess who's back, back again? Sean & Carrie, of course...now in a new Exhausted Parents ™ Edition! But good news for you - we've made the most of our extended hiatus, and we're dipping our toe back in to all things scary.
On this Ain't it Scary Returns! catch-up, we chat:
Life since last December, including the arrival of Baby of the Pod Jack!
True crime news, including the Diddy trial, Ep
Ep. 195: Bad Santas
We're swinging into December with a cavalcade of criminal Clauses this week, as Sean ticks off some notable examples of men who made the Naughty List while dress as Kris Kringle.
Discussion of Santa-themed bank robbers brings us to the aptly-named Santa Claus Bank Robbery of 1927, which was a comedy of errors from the time Marshall Ratliff put on the big guy's suit right up until he was being tied
Ep. 194: The Austin Servant Girl Annihilator, Pt. 2 - BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD!
We return to the autumn of 1885 this week where, in Austin, Texas, six victims - most of them Black domestic servants - have already been claimed by a killer who has successfully eluded police for nearly a year. On Christmas Eve, the midnight murderer's fury reaches its deadly peak.
In the shocking conclusion to our two-parter on this case, Sean details the brutal "double event" that makes the end
Ep. 193: The Austin Servant Girl Annihilator, Pt. 1 - "We Are All Dead"
Beginning in late 1884 and throughout 1885, Austin, the boomtown capitol of Texas, was terrorized and sensationalized by a series of horrific murders. One man, six women and a young girl would be claimed by the spree before the year was out. Most of the victims were Black, and many of them worked as domestic servants. Despite over 400 arrests, the crimes remain unsolved to this day... Officially,
Ep. 192: Vermont Hauntings, Legends and Strangeness
To wrap up the spooky season here on the show (though, let's be honest, that never really ends around these parts) we're taking a trip to beautiful Vermont, where the skiing is top-notch, the leaf-peeping is absolutely beautiful, and the ghosts...well, the ghosts seem to be all around, too.
On our journey through the Green Mountain State we'll meet the son of a former president who can't let go of
Ep. 191: Weather Control
A topical storm washes over the podcast this week as we wade into the controversy and conspiracy around weather modification. As conversation online takes a turn for the unhinged in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we take a quick look at the reality of changing the weather, Ain't It Scary style.
Sean does his best with the science (and pseudoscience) as he takes us through attempts at w
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Spooky Flicks and Halloween Party Invites
In this pre-Halloween special edition of "Spooky Chat," Sean and Carrie run down announcements ranging from the mundane to the life-changing before discussing the flicks we've been watching this Halloween, and the best and worst possible Ain't It Scary party guests.
7:11 - Urban Legend
11:11 - Halloween (1978)
18:55 - The Addams Family
21:20 - Casper
23:41 - IT Chapters 1 & 2
33:24 - Final Destin
Ep. 190: Halloween Urban Legends - Teens in Trouble
Here on the show we love to get in the spooky season spirit by gathering around the virtual bonfire, throwing some sand into the flames, and getting into some famous urban legends. This year is no different - and now, along with our past explorations into the folklore surrounding tainted Halloween candy and the Bloody Mary ritual, we're adding three more legendary deep dives into the mix, all arou
Ep. 189: Legends of the New Jersey Pine Barrens - Ghosts, the Jersey Devil and Pirate Treasure
The New Jersey Pine Barrens: Over one million acres of sparsely populated, occasionally-on-fire wilderness, where the soil isn't good for growing anything but legends. Join us on a tour of Jersey's Pinelands and all the creepies and cryptids that supposedly make them their home, from pirate ghosts to the famed Jersey Devil.
Go easy on Sean, Jersey-ites! He meant to say "pork roll."
_______________
Ep. 188: The OceanGate Disaster
On June 18th, 2023, the underwater tourism company OceanGate launched its Titan submersible, which was heading down with five passengers - billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and the CEO of OceanGate itself, Stockton Rush - to nearly 2.5 miles beneath the ocean's surface to visit the wreck of the legendary
Ep. 187: Son of Sam, Pt. 2 - Son of Hope
Satanic Panic is back, baby, in the second of two parts on the Son of Sam murders!
Sean takes us to the scenes of the last few shootings David Berkowitz committed in the summer of 1977, before covering Berkowitz's tumultuous transition to incarceration and eventual (inevitable?) cellblock conversion to evangelical Christianity. Oh, yes, and a talking dog.
Looming like a conspiratorial shadow is th
Ep. 186: Son of Sam, Pt. 1 - The Chubby Behemoth
Trigger warnings for death and disco this week as we had back to mid-1970s New York to explore the "Son of Sam" murders that left the city in panic for one frantic year.
From July 1976 to July 1977, David Berkowitz embarked on a string of cold-blooded murders with a .44 caliber pistol, killing six innocent people and wounding another seven more. This week, Sean gives us a quick tour of the life an
Ep. 185: The Tylenol Murders
In late September 1982, seven residents of the Chicago metropolitan area collapsed mysteriously, dying mere hours or days later. It didn't take investigators long to realize all seven victims had taken Extra-Strength Tylenol just prior to their deaths. All of them had been murdered, by a stranger, with cyanide, which had tainted the Tylenol capsules as they sat on store shelves.
Join us this week
Ep. 184: Mothman, Pt. 3 - Unifying Theory of Mothman
#HotMothSummer comes to a climactic end this week with the end of the first Mothman flap of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966-1967 and the catastrophic collapse of the Silver Bridge, a tragedy in which 46 people lost their lives. Was the Mothman trying to warn those of the calamity to come...or merely a harbinger of their doom? And what was with all those UFOs, Men in Black, and of course, Ind
A Late Summer Night's Scream: Chatting Horror Content, Spooky Season, Ancient Rome and Hypotheticals
Thanks for your patience as we push through some tiring personal stuff to get to a great end to our Mothman series, and capping off #HotMothSummer just ahead of Labor Day!
In the interest of our sanity, we kept it fairly loose this week with a late catch-up featuring Sean & Carrie gathering round the spooky campfire and talking their recently-consumed horror content (Fallout the TV show, a cameo b
Ep. 183: Mothman, Pt. 2 - Pinkeye in Point Pleasant
This week, we return to Point Pleasant for even more high strangeness as the Men in Black, a fleet of UFOs, and author John Keel descend on the town and get mixed up in a series of bizarre encounters including a little man with a ballpoint pen obsession, Indrid Cold and his posse of Lanulans (including our fave, Kletaw) and one very (and rightfully) pissed-off Native American Chief by the name of
Ep. 182: Mothman, Pt. 1 - Daddy Magneto
This week, #HotMothSummer continues as we finally reach the story we've been building up to: the strange tale of the Mothman, a maybe-cryptid maybe-alien that descended upon the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966 to freak out the locals and eventually nab himself his own festival, museum, and of course, a particularly bootylicious statue.
We begin this bizarre story with sightings
Ep. 181: Men in Black, Pt. 2 - Good Cop, Bathroom Cop
#HotMothSummer presses on this week with part 2 of our primer on the Men in Black!
Sean takes us back to 1953 Bridgeport, Connecticut, as we hear in Albert Bender's own words what he says he experienced that fateful summer. What sounded from the outside like an intimidating visit from government officials quickly spins into a sci-fi thriller full of telepathic messages, astral projection, and the
Ep. 180: Men in Black, Pt. 1 - Middle-Aged White Guy Activities
Best known today for diminishing cinematic returns, the Men In Black have been one of the creepiest boogymen of the UFO community for nearly 80 years. This week, Sean takes us all the way back to 1947 and the first reported incident of someone being approached by a black-suited government agent after a UFO sighting and told to keep quiet.
Next we jump ahead to the early '50s to meet Albert Bender,
Ep. 179: The Culper Spy Ring
As an Independence Day treat, we hop into the time machine for a little "Ain't it Sneaky" here on the show with the twisting tale of the Culper Spy Ring, America's first foray into espionage during the Revolutionary War.
Formed after the tragic execution of newbie colonial spy and forever Connecticut hero Nathan Hale, the Culper Spy Ring was the brainchild of none other than George Washington, who
Ep. 178: Sam the Sandown Clown
This week it's a summertime holiday story for the summertime holiday season as Sean introduces us to the creature fondly remembered as the Sandown Clown.
This C-team cryptid (maybe) is reported to have chatted with two vacationing children on the Isle of Wight one warm day in 1973, introducing itself, "Hello and I am all colors, Sam." The "clown's" eye-catching appearance and inescapable high stra
Ep. 177: Haunted Lighthouses of the Northeastern U.S.
Lighthouses have stood on the Northeastern coast of America for centuries, beacons of hope in dark night or a desperate storm...and, sometimes, silent witnesses to the many tragedies that can befall seafarers and their loved ones in the course of their sometimes dangerous work.
This week, we take a trip through the past 300 years of American history to visit some of the most haunted lighthouses in
Ep. 176: John Reginald Christie - The Monster of Rillington Place
We take a trip back to '40s and '50s London this week to cover the grimy and gruesome story of serial killer John Reginald Christie, who gassed and strangled 8 women to death and stowed their bodies in and around his London flat.
Sean takes us through the case that helped get the death penalty abolished in the UK, and we tackle all the most important unanswered questions - like how this guy stayed
Ep. 175: Black Eyed Kids
For our 175th episode, we're going back to our spooky roots to investigate another internet-popularized urban legend: Black Eyed Kids.
In 1998, journalist Brian Bethel took to the fledgling interwebs to share a strange tale. Sitting in his car alone one night in 1996, he'd been approached by two strange children - children who insisted he let them in the car and acquiesce to their demands. The enc
Ep. 174: Waiting for Vermeer - The Gardner Museum Heist
This week we tackle the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, one of the most notorious and high-value art heists of all time. One March night in Boston, 1990, two men donned police disguises to enter the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Once inside, they subdued security and walked off with a collection of art potentially valued at over $1 billion in 2024.
Vermeers, Rembrandts and more
Ep. 173: Modern Mummies - Crime, Tragedy, and Idolatry
This week, we're celebrating all kinds of mums - but no, that isn't in observance of America's Mother's Day holiday this upcoming Sunday! No, the collection of mums we're discussing are of a decidedly drier type: mummified human remains.
And these aren't the millennia-old corpses of ancient Egyptian Pharoahs; no, all the mummies we're discussing come from the last century (and change) and all acro
Ep. 172: Ancient Aliens
This week we're tackling the "ancient astronaut" hypothesis: the idea that ancient humans had repeated contact with extraterrestrials that is borne out in their myths, art, and monumental achievements.
How were the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Moai of Easter Island erected without modern technology? Could the Bible, the myths of the Babylonians and Mayan religion all be cultural memories of heave
Ep. 171: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, Pt. 2 - Trial of the Century
Last week we shared the first half of the dramatic tale of one of America's so-called "Crimes of the Century" - the kidnapping, and tragic murder, of Charles Lindbergh Jr., toddler son to one of the most famous men in the world: aviator Charles Lindbergh.
In this, our 2nd and final part, we detail the painstaking investigation that eventually led to the arrest of German immigrant Richard "Bruno" H
Ep. 170: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, Pt. 1 - Crime of the Century
On the night of March 1st, 1932, little Charles Lindbergh Jr. was tucked into his crib for a good night's sleep. Mere hours later, the family nurse discovered that Charles Jr. was no longer in his bed...nor was he anywhere else to be found. The disappearance kicked off the beginning of one of America's so-called "crimes of the century", and one of the world's earliest international true crime sens
Ep. 169: The Bell Witch
It's an old school ghost story this week - and we mean *way* old school, as we jump back to the early 19th century to explore the Bell Witch Haunting.
From 1817 to 1821 John Bell Sr. and his family were harassed by an invisible presence with a clear, distinct voice and a penchant for slapping people around. This week Sean introduces us to the Bell family, the mischievous spectral gossip known as K
Ep. 168: Suicide Songs - 'Gloomy Sunday', Lavender Town Syndrome, and the 'My Way' Murders
[Obvious TW this week for discussion of suicide.]
Over the years, certain songs have attracted dark reputations. Reputations like that the songs might drive you mad enough to end your own life... or make others mad enough to end another's. This week, we discuss 3 famous examples of these "suicide songs": the morosely melancholic "Gloomy Sunday", the sinister legend of the Lavender Town Syndrome, a
Ep. 167: Leonarda Cianciulli - The Soap-Maker of Correggio
Born in small-town Italy in 1893, Leonarda Cianciulli had led a hard and tragic life - but her friends and neighbors in Correggio, Reggio Emilia knew her as a kindly woman and a good neighbor. Naturally, they were all shocked when she was arrested for luring three local women to their violent deaths.
Axe Murder March finishes with a bang (a whack?) as we find out why Cianciulli is known as the So
Ep. 166: Metal, Mayhem, and Murder, Pt. 2
This week, we finish our two-parter on the rise of the Norwegian black metal scene and the leaders of the pack, Mayhem, as the culture descends into edgelord-on-edgelord crime - first with a series of arsons across Norway, and eventually spinning into the inevitable end of chaos and murder.
Experience such real-life characters as Varg Vikernes, black metal musician and out-and-proud white supremac
Ep. 165: Metal, Mayhem and Murder, Pt. 1
In the early 1990s, a series of crimes rocked the historically peaceful country of Norway. Churches were burned, home-grown terrorist plots were revealed, and arrests were made.
Then, the murders came.
This rash of crime all stemmed from one seemingly-innocuous source: Norwegian black metal bands and their fans. It seemed like these musicians were trying to out-edgelord each other, and no band pus
Ep. 164: Hannibal, Pt. 3 - With Their Heads Buried in the Ground
The raison d'etre for our whole series on Hannibal and the Punic Wars is here this week, and that's very bad news for 50,000 Roman soldiers.
After being beaten and humiliated by Hannibal for two years straight, the Romans came out swinging in 216 BC with the largest army the Republic had ever raised. Nearly 100,000 men chased the Carthaginian army to the small town of Cannae, which would become th
Ep. 163: Hannibal, Pt. 2 - Shades of My Foully Murdered Countrymen
Welcome back to the dusty horrors of ancient warfare, in part 2 of our rapidly expanding series (well, to 3 episodes, anyway) on Hannibal and the Second Punic War!
It's 218 BC, and Hannibal just marched a whole army across the Alps to surprise the Romans in Italy. The next move is Rome's, and they've got all the wrong ones. We step into the shoes of Roman infantry as tens of thousands of our buddi
Ep. 162: Hannibal, Pt. 1 - Fire and Steel
Sean has the podcast reins for two weeks of HANNIBAL. No, not the cannibal - the Carthaginian general who made himself the worst nightmare of the Roman legions.
Take a trip with us back to the third century B.C., where new horrors wait around every corner - from children sacrificed to ancient gods, to sieged cities starving behind their walls, to armored men tumbling off high alpine peaks. Oh, and
Ep. 161: Crossroad Blues - The Mystery of Robert Johnson
This week, Carrie takes us on a trip back to the 1930s Mississippi Delta with the mysterious story of Robert Johnson, American blues icon and “first ever rock star.” Johnson has long been identified with the legend that he, desperate to become an incredible guitarist, went down to the crossroads one dark night and sold his soul to the Devil for musical glory.
Did Johnson really make some kind of
Ep. 160: Black Shuck and the Deadly Hounds of Britain
Since at least the 16th century, the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have told stories of "Black Shuck", a ghostly black dog who appears as an omen of death. But ol' Shuck isn't the only spectral hound going around portending doom in the British Isles!
In this episode, Sean takes us on a tour of Black Dog stories from folklore all over England and Great Britain, and tries to get to
Ep. 159: The Curious Case of the Sodder Children
On Christmas Eve, 1945, a mysterious fire burned the home of George and Jennie Sodder to the ground. George, Jennie, and four of their children escaped the blaze. The five remaining Sodder children, aged 5 to 14, were not so lucky. However, no remains - of any of the five Sodder children who were lost that night - were ever found.
As the years went on, it became clear there was a conspiracy of sil
Ep. 158: Lobster Boy - The Violent Life and Death of Grady Stiles Jr.
Perhaps the most notorious carnival sideshow performer of all time, Grady Stiles Jr. is known to history as Lobster Boy.
Born with severe ectrodactyly, a genetic condition that left him unable to walk and with forked, two-fingered hands, Grady followed his father into the family business playing to the crowds in traveling carnival sideshows. But as he got older, and had a family who he would also
A Quick Update from Sean & Carrie
Hello Scary Squad! We apologize for not getting a new episode out this week - we both came down with pretty rough illnesses in the post-Christmas week. Sean wanted to hop on and give this little update, so you wouldn't think we'd left you in the dust of Christmas past!
We hope you've had a lovely New Year, and can't wait to get back to it next week (don't worry - this isn't an extended hiatus!). S
AINTERVIEWS: A Chat with 'Connecticut Cryptids' Author Patrick Scalisi and Illustrator Valerie Ruby-Omen
In lieu of taking a total holiday break, we've instead brought you a post-Christmas treat: an interview with local author Patrick Scalisi and illustrator Valerie Ruby-Omen regarding their recent book release Connecticut Cryptids: A Field Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Creatures of the Nutmeg State!
Pat and Val discuss what inspired them to compile the stories of Connecticut Cryptids into this ex
HOLIDAY SPECIAL: Ain't it Scary? Saves Christmas II - Holiday Harder
With the Christmas holiday upon us for those who celebrate, we’re indulging a spooky new tradition with the Ain’t It Scary Holiday Special!
Last year, Sean and Carrie presented competing casts for the modern classic, “Ain’t It Scary? Saves Christmas.” This year, having run out of original IP during the writer’s strike, we set out to remake 1988 Christmas classic Die Hard with a cast cobbled togeth
Ep. 157: The Cottingley Fairies
This week we tiptoe around the border between worlds, in an episode dedicated to fairy photography! Taken between 1917 and 1920 by two young girls, the Cottingley Fairy photographs seem to depict tiny, dance-happy fairies (and, in one weird case, a sneaky gnome) playing with the human children.
Over the decades the Cottingley Fairy pictures have fascinated many fans of the occult - most famously
Ep. 156: Saints, Stigmata, Relics and Remains
More than 10,000 people (and, honorarily, one dog) have been made Catholic saints in the more than 2,000 years that the religion has existed - and in all that time, there are bound to be some crazy stories along the way. Inspired by the holiday season, reformed Catholics Carrie & Sean go through some of the wildest backstories of the saints this week, including tales of stigmata, possible fraud, r
Ep. 155: The Assassination of President James Garfield, Pt. 2
Our two-part jaunt into murder, madness and 19th century elections continues (and ends) this week, as Sean finishes the heartbreaking tragic story of the death of James Garfield — followed by the slapstick comedy romp that was the trial of Charles Guiteau.
Convinced he was destined to play a role in history and spurned in his several half-assed attempts to earn it, Guiteau turned his efforts towar
Ep. 154: The Assassination of President James Garfield, Pt. 1
James Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, just a few months into his tenure as 20th President of the United States. The man who shot him, Charles Guiteau, was a lifelong loser who had previously tried his hand at (manic) street preaching, lawyering and insurance sales - and who had made James Garfield a sworn enemy without the President ever giving him a second thought.
In this first of a two-part
Ep. 153: The Paris Catacombs
Inspired by a viral video on TikTok, Carrie takes us on a journey underground this week into the spooky history and unsolved mysteries of the Paris Catacombs, the world's most famous ossuary - or final resting place - of human skeletal remains.
From the hygienic horrors that forced Parisians to relocate their centuries of dead beneath the streets of the City of Lights to those who have wandered in
ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: 2 Scary, 2 Clip Show
After 50 more episodes since our 100th celebration (and over 150 episodes of the show total!), it's time for another clip show — this time with favorites submitted by you, our wonderful listeners!
From the Gaslight Queen herself, Lizzie Borden, to the tawdriest of Jack the Ripper suspects, we revisit some of the silliest and/or most show-encapsulating moments of our giggly & gruesome last 50 episo
Ep. 152: Deadly Dreams
1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced the world to Freddy Krueger, the besweatered slasher who kills teenagers in their dreams. But Wes Craven says he based his most iconic creation on a real-life horror: a plague of young men dying in their sleep, seemingly during nightmares, that hit the U.S. in the late '70s and early '80s.
Where did these victims come from? How did they die? What exactly
Ep. 151: Colonial Ghosts
As Ain't It Scary's spooky season tour comes to a close, we're giving you a sneak peek of what we've been talking about all October with this episode chock full of colonial-era ghost stories!
Join us for an hour of ghost ships, George Washington's sexy (?) phantom-about-town, and a big oopsie regarding some lost bones. Trick or treat, everyone!
________________________________________
Connect with
Ep. 150: Halloween Urban Legends - Bloody Mary
To mark the 150th episode of the podcast (OMG), we're going back to one of our earliest subjects! At the very start of the pod we investigated the Halloween urban legend of the stranger poisoning trick or treat candy, and how the tale actually originated in the true-life crime of Ronald Clark O'Bryan, the "Real Candy Man" who killed his son with a poisoned Pixy Stick for insurance money. This time
Ep. 149: Vampires, Pt. 3 - Dracula
First published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula laid the foundations for what would become horror fiction, and set up most of the vampire tropes you know on one fell swoop.
Crosses and sunlight? That's a Stoker. Bat transformation? That's a Stoker. Sleeping in dirt from your homeland? You know that's our guy Bram. So what better way to cap off our bloodthirsty trilogy of vampire episodes than with
Ep. 148: Vampires, Pt. 2 - Elizabeth Bathory
The second week of this spooky season's vampire series stars Erzsebet AKA Elizabeth Bathory, the famed Blood Countess of Hungary!
Born in 1560 to one of Hungary's wealthiest families, Elizabeth made herself even more powerful through marriage and soon was soon owner of a personal estate the size of a small country. But rumors of the Baroness's cruel tendencies and baroque tastes spread through the
Ep. 147: Vampires, Pt. 1 - Vlad the Impaler
We're more than halfway through September, and in this house that means it's basically Halloween! Sean kicks off our spooky series on vampires with a look at the man who gave his name to the most famous vampire of all: Vlad Tepes Dracula, AKA Vlad the Impaler.
While the 15th century Wallachian noble wasn't an undead monster, he was certainly...bloodthirsty, to say the least. Join us this week for
Ep. 146: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 6 - Helter Skelter
Here we are: the end of the line for the Manson Family. This week, we bring our epic series on the Manson Family Murders to an explosive conclusion with the August 9th killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, the retaliation murder of Shorty Shea (and possibly lawyer Ronald Hughes), the capture of the Family during a ranch raid, and the final sensational trial that made Charlie Manson, the Manson g
Ep. 145: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 5 - The Devil's Business
And here we are. The infamous murders of August 8th, 1969, where 5 people - some famous - would meet horrific ends at the hands of the Manson Family, directed by Charlie to create "copycat murders" to lessen the heat on the real killer, Bobby Beausoleil, and hopefully spring him from jail before he could rat on Charlie to the cops.
But it's not just about the deaths. It's about the lives - and thi
Ep. 144: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 4 - Creepy Crawl
This week, the horror of Helter Skelter begins on part 4 of our Manson Family deep-dive with the lesser-known murder of the Family's first official victim, former friend Gary Hinman.
We explore the circumstances leading to the powder keg-like situation the family was in, and how it all exploded into violence when Charlie decided that the money required to fund the Family's flight to Death Valley w
Ep. 143: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 3 - The Bottomless Pit
In week 3 of our Manson saga we travel with the Family to the worn-down Western movie set of Spahn Ranch, where Charlie and co set up shop and begin their descent further into shared cult madness - separated from their loved ones, fully dependent on Charlie, hungry, overworked, and addled out of their minds on constant LSD consumption. It's a potent cocktail, ready to explode in the California hea
Ep. 142: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 2: Cease to Exist (w/ Paul Ferrante)
"Cease to exist, just come and say you love me
Give up your world, come on you can be,
I'm your kind, I'm your kind, and I see..."
This week, we take a tour through the epicenter of the hippie movement right at the peak of the Summer of Love, when Charlie Manson finally leaves prison and makes his way to the Haight-Asbury neighborhood of San Francisco. There, he sows the first seeds of what would
Ep, 141: The Manson Family Murders, Pt. 1 - Making a Monster
The innocence of the Summer of Love and the hippie counterculture movement came to an abrupt end in August 1969, when a string of brutal murders in the Los Angeles area rocked Hollywood, the country, and the world. The perpetrators? A strange hippie cult called "The Family", headed by a creepy, scrawny guy with an odd charisma by the name of Charles Manson.
This August, we're diving in to the expl
Ep. 140: The Lady of the Dunes
In the summer of 1974, a body was discovered among the dunes of Cape Cod by a young girl chasing her dog. Despite the efforts of local and state police, the so-named "Lady of the Dunes" would go unidentified for nearly 50 years - as would her killer.
Join us as Sean lays out the facts of the discovery, the investigation, and decades worth of theories - along with stunning developments from just th
A Midsummer Night's Scream: Chatting True Crime, Horror Movies, and FMK
We kept it fairly loose this week with a midsummer (midsommar??) catch-up featuring Sean & Carrie gathering round the spooky campfire and talking their recently-consumed horror content (Bones and All, Diablo 4, True Blood, and more), favorite vampire lore, how Edward got Bella pregnant in the Twilight series (spoiler: you would never have guessed it), who in the Ain't it Scary? archives they would
Ep. 139: The Sinking of USS Indianapolis
In late July 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis had just conducted a top-secret mission, delivering a sealed metal box to a small island in the Pacific. Unbeknownst to the crew aboard, that box held the final pieces of the atomic bomb that would be detonated over Hiroshima in the coming weeks - but that's not the story we're telling today.
On the way back to base in the Philippines from that
Ep. 138: Horrors of the American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War spanned 8 bloody years of war, brutality, and conflict. When the America of today looks back on it now, we tend to look back with reverence and even idolization - but we don't think about the foul hygiene, wretched conditions, and ethical atrocities that occurred for even longer than the 8 years of war leading up to America's hard-fought freedom.
This week, in honor
Ep. 137: "White Mischief" - The Murder of Josslyn Hay
In the 1920s and 30s, colonial Kenya was playground to a social clique of wealthy British expats called the "Happy Valley Set," famed for their excessive tastes and drug-fueled sex parties. One of the foremost members of the set, Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll, caused an international stir when he was found behind the wheel of his car with a bullet in his head.
This week, it's hot summer nights and
Ep. 136: Bohemian Grove
In this episode, Carrie leads a deep dive into the secretive world of Bohemian Grove. Join us as we explore the enigmatic rituals and hidden history surrounding the elusive private Bohemian Club, whose encampment sits nestled deep within the towering redwoods of Northern California.
From its origins as a haven for artists and intellectuals to its contemporary reputation as a meeting ground for the
Ep. 135: The Mysterious Death of Wolfgang Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a penchant for achieving milestones early: he composed his first pieces by age 5, his first symphony by age 8, and tragically, even died young at the age of 35.
Since immediately after the seminal musical genius's sharp health decline and painful demise, rumors have swirled about the medical - or murderous - culprit.
After an overview of Mozart's life and times, we run
Ep. 134: Bigfoot in New England (w/ the New York Mystery Machine podcast)
This week, we're teaming up with the New York Mystery Machine podcast to bring you the best Bigfoots the Northeast has to offer! After Adam and Christina gave us the lowdown on the Sasquatches of New York over at their feed, we bring the NYMM crew into OUR house as Sean shares the best of New England's Bigfoot history, new and old.
From the V-sculpted wildmen of Connecticut to the pizza-loving hai
Ep. 133: Vatican Conspiracies
We're back at it after a 2-week break to travel abroad and move house! And we're chatting another house...of worship, that is.
Catholicism is a mysterious religion based in millennia of faith and worship, and of course in those hundred years, conspiracies have developed around the seat of Roman Catholic power: The Vatican.
Inspired by our Patron Kate's request and a trip to Vatican City itself, Ca
Ep. 132: The Raëlian Movement, Pt. 2 - The Final Prophet
This week we finish our quick tour through the purported adventures of the UFO prophet Raël, whose Raëlian Movement once claimed nearly a hundred thousand followers worldwide.
While Raël was spreading his message here on Earth, his alien benefactors returned in 1975 to take him on a trip through the stars - and a tour of their paradise planet, where Raël and his followers hope to be cloned someday
Ep. 131: The Raëlian Movement, Pt. 1 - Claude Celler
ETs are back on Ain't It Scary in a two-part primer on one of the most prominent UFO religions on Earth - the Raëlian Movement!
In this first installment, Sean introduces Claude Vorilhon - the man who would be renamed Raël - as the erstwhile pop singer-turned-racing journalist meets an ancient alien master and learns the secret origins in the human race. Raël's received wisdom would be recorded in
Ep. 130: Murder in the Adirondacks - The Death of Grace Brown
This week, we explore how a crime story can inform pop culture with the true tale of Grace Brown's murder at the hands of Chester Gillette in 1906.
In a collaboration with the You're Missing Out podcast, we took a (virtual) trip to Upstate New York to investigate the famous "Murder in the Adirondacks": the likely drowning death of Grace Brown caused by her sometime-boyfriend and factory superior,
Ep. 129: Evil Emperors, Pt. 2 - The Artist Formerly Known As Nero
In the second of a two-parter on the Roman Empire's most hated rulers, Sean illustrates the *colorful* life and times of Nero, Rome's fifth emperor, who got up to a lot more than just fireside fiddling.
Join us for a twisted tale of matricide, fratricide, parricide, arson, plain ol' torture murders and more forced suicides than you can shake a centurion at. But above all the violence, Nero conside
Ep. 128: Evil Emperors, Pt. 1 - The Sins of Caligula
We're going back to ancient Rome for a two-part look at the most notoriously evil emperors the empire ever had!
This week, Sean gets us warmed up with Caligula, the man whose name has become a byword for madness and sexual depravity. Rome's third emperor ruled for less than four years, so what could this guy have done to get this kind of reputation? Was Caligula assassinated for being a violent ma
Ep. 127: Mysterious Sounds
Have you ever heard anything that you couldn't explain? The most mysterious sounds in the world vary from impossibly loud deep sea groans to possibly Biblical trumpets calling in the sky. And many, chillingly enough, still have no real scientific explanations. The stories of mysterious sounds we're exploring today include:
...The Bloop, the loudest undersea noise ever recorded,
...The Sky Trumpets
Ep. 126: Clementine Barnabet and the Church of Sacrifice Murders
Between 1911 and 1912, at least 11 Black families were murdered with an axe in their beds, in towns along the Southern Pacific railway line in Louisiana and Texas. The only person ever punished for any of these crimes was a teen girl named Clementine Barnabet.
In this week's episode, Sean caps off Axe Murder March with a gruesome sidecar to last year's "Man From the Train" series, as families kee
Ep. 125: Lizzie Borden, Pt. 4: Lizbeth of Maplecroft
In this 4th and final part of the Lizzie Borden story, we round out the rest of the sensational Borden Murders trial, hear the final verdict, and learn what Lizzie Borden did with the rest of her life after her (spoiler alert) acquittal in June 1893.
Meet the witnesses that added quite a bit of color to the case, including skull-boiling doctors, confusing and contradictory policemen, a lollygaggin
Ep. 124: Lizzie Borden, Pt. 3 - A Bad Day for Lizzie Borden
Screw it, we're doing 4 parts! The tea is too scorching and the drama too intense to not give Lizzie's case room to breathe, so we're dedicating all of Axe Murder March to Miss Borden herself. This week: Lizzie is charged, arrested, and brought to trial.
The press continues their field day with Lizzie's story, hounding her at every turn, insulting her looks, and even falsely reporting a pregnancy.
Recommended
TechnoSnobCast
The Young and Called Podcast .
Snoop Dogg - Flash Biográfico
Deadline: White House
Thrilling Threads - Conspiracy Theories, Strange Phenomena, True Crime, Unsolved Mysteries, etc!
The Daily Conspiracy Podcast
2819 Church
Markus Schulz presents Global DJ Broadcast
Bad Friends
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Joe Rogan Experience
Psalms: The Ancient Songs
