Episodes

While the Spanish flu was tearing across the globe, another epidemic began stealing people’s bodies from them. Encephalitis lethargica aka “sleepy sickness” - could make victims sleep almost continuously. It could also cause insomnia, hallucinations, involuntary movements, dramatic personality chang...

Music festivals promise freedom, transcendence, and memories you’ll treasure forever. That's why human beings have been gathering in the dark to drink, dance, lose their minds - and occasionally die - for thousands of years. This week, Chris and Ed follow the music festival from the frenzied worship...

Chris and Ed flash back to when they uncovered three horrifying true stories about intruders found hiding inches beneath sleeping victims - including a babysitter who investigated a child’s claim that there was a “monster” under the bed, a woman who discovered her threatening ex hiding beneath hers ...

Forget Ariel. Forget Splash. Forget the Starbucks logo. This week, Chris and Ed dive into the terrifying pre-Disney history of mermaids, from Greek sirens and Japanese ningyo to Mami Wata, Sedna, Christopher Columbus’s “sightings,” P.T. Barnum’s infamous Feejee Mermaid, and the fake Animal Planet do...

For this week’s Flashback Friday, we’re unlocking our New Fear Unlocked episode on Brazil’s reborn doll craze - a viral phenomenon that saw hyper-realistic baby dolls became the center of a full-blown public freakout in Brazil. SHOW NOTES Originally aired on Patreon: 09/11/25 Become a supporter of t...

Chris and Ed burrow deep into one of summer’s nastiest threats: ticks. These tiny, bloodsucking nightmares can glue themselves to your skin, spread Lyme disease, trigger a life-changing meat allergy...and have even dragged some people into a Cold War bioweapons conspiracy.  SHOW NOTES Become a suppo...

Wet, drunk, and in a basement, Chris and Ed go live from a subterranean location in Pennsylvania to have an impromptu, scatter-brained chat about the horror beneath many of your feet. SHOW NOTES FInd video versions on our YOUTUBE CHANNEL! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/...

This week we flash back to one of history’s most disgusting medical mysteries: the Insatiable Tarrare, an 18th-century French man whose appetite was so extreme he became the fascination of spectators, surgeons, and even the military.   From chowing on garbage and live animals to swallowing secret mi...

Chris and Ed kick off the second annual Summer of Fear with guests Cassidy and Amanda from "Drinking the Koolaid" for a terrifying deep dive into tsunamis. From the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 disaster in Japan to ancient waves that may have helped topple civilizations, the crew explores ...