Grasping hands rising up from the ground in large numbers

After a long absence we’re happy to report the Horrific History Podcast isn’t dead yet! We’re not just a footnote in the history of podcasts you used to be able to download but left you “starvening” for more; a new season is getting ready to rise one more time!

You can look forward to a lot of brand new exciting content this upcoming season, after we pick up where Season 2 dropped into our unexpected hiatus. A listener mail episode, podcast interview cross-overs about which Eric will only vague-cast the teasing details and a Patron-suggested episode will bring us into Season 3 with a lot of fun squeamish delight.

So enjoy a snack while you listen to this new Horrific History Podcast teaser episode for Season 3 through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more). Just remember, no squeam allowed! Watch you podcatcher for our upcoming release when we’ll get back on track and discuss religious relics!

If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!
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Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!

Horrific History Podcast

Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming.

Slideshow Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

Blog Image by cyanidekiss from Pixabay

 

While trying to work on our upcoming new episode (with a special guest), Eric and Jordan discovered that our technology is having some issues (Jordan blames poltergeists, because that makes about as much sense to her as computers)! Since we need a bit more time to fix our problems so we can have a two-way conversation with our interviewee, we’re resurrecting another one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!

 

The Waking Nightmare: Sleep Paralysis

Have you ever had the experience of waking up but being unable to move? Did you feel the sensation of “the intruder” in your room restraining you? At least 40% of the population has had this experience and people from different times and places have had different explanations for it. Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, your co-hosts, explore folklore and the paranormal as they dig into the history of sleep paralysis through the ages.

 

Discover how these “waking hallucinations” have taken the form of witches, demons, vampires, fairies, ghost children and more (as well as which new theme only appeared after the space race)! Nightmares such as these have been connected (usually erroneously) to all sorts of things in the waking hours, from the Salem witch trials to UFOs and alien abductions! It all depends upon which dream interpretation (or doctor!) you choose! But, if you see in your life the expected result after such an encounter in your waking dreams, would it be a case of causation or correlation?

 

When people from all parts of the world from all across time have similar experiences but see or interpret it differently depending upon their cultural background and time in history, could it be that it’s all the same thing? If you’re religious you’re likely to experience demons or possession. If you like horror movies, sci-fi or conspiracy theories it might be aliens or monsters. And, those with exposure to fantasy or fairy folklore may see goblins or similar fanciful creatures. Depending upon the dream, it wouldn’t be at all uncommon to even have an erotic angle (though we’re not sure if that is more or less traumatic if you’re dreaming of aliens, demons or monsters). Hopefully, you would take to it like Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers and her dreams of zombies.

 

Gastric distress, raccoon scrotums, and house spirits, this episode has it all! Whether you’re interested in things that go bump in the night or how cultural influences can impact your dreams, you’ll find it in this brand new Horrific History Podcast episode! And if this edition inspires a dream, we hope you’ll tell us about it!

 

So sit back and enjoy this episode through one of your favorite podcast services (iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and more)!

 

If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of this episode and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!
Become a Patron!

 

Some of our favorite resources from this week’s episode:

 

Horrific History Podcast

 

Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming.

Slideshow Painting By Henry Fuseliwartburg.eduimage, Public Domain, Link

Blog Image: The Nightmare by Johann Heinrich Fussli

 

One of the children of Petrus Gonsalvus

What makes a man a man? Join all three of Horrific History’s co-hosts for this new special Halloween episode as we go back in history to look at one of the times scholars and religious leaders asked this very question! When unexpected visitors come knocking and ask for a fright, Curtis regales us with his cryptid and folklore knowledge with historical impact from the middle ages. A creature from legend, reported to fight knights, bears, wolves and dragons captured the imagination of scholars who asked themselves, “What does it mean to be human?” Going through the centuries, a recurring theme shows up in artwork and literature- even in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Emulating this creature caused disaster for French royalty and nobles at a very special masquerade, called the Ball of Savages, when their celebration went up in flames and at least one guest was barbequed. The woodwose stay safely confined to legend until the late 16th Century, when in 1547 a boy with congenital hypertrichosis is given […]

Have you ever wondered about the awful, bloody and sometimes downright scary history of a town you’re passing through? Take a trip with our co-hosts and join us for our first live interview recorded at Central City Comic Con in this Horrific History Podcast episode as we explore the macabre history of Ellensburg, Washington with a local expert, Museum Director Sadie Thayer of the Kittitas County Historical Museum!

 

Shootings, hangings and serial killers, this episode has a lot of local history along with […]

10 Oct / 2018

Squeam with us LIVE!

Would you like to squeam live? Check out this special announcement about our first-ever live podcast recording with a special guest interview and find out how you can be there!

 

If you’d like to hear the commercial-free version of our episodes and receive other great perks, become a patron of our podcast on Patreon!
Become a Patron!

 

Click here if you’d like a chance to win a FREE copy of Dead but Dreaming’s Mockingbird EP!

 

Horrific History Podcast

 

Commercial break music by Dead but Dreaming.

Slideshow photo credit: Toolstotal Microphone – Credit to https://toolstotal.com/ via photopin (license)

Blog photo credit: Skakerman Headset & mic via photopin (license)

How have people through history thought of and approached reproduction and family planning? Would you trust their birth control methods or consider it another case of the fallacy of ancient wisdom? Join our co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, as they explore the history of documented birth control methods in ancient Egypt and the evolution of reproductive theory from antiquity to modern history. How do the solutions they devised fit into the context of the culture and their understanding of how conception worked; were their ideas a result of causation or correlation? Why was crocodile dung so significant in ancient Egypt? What does modern science indicate […]

Welcome back Squeamers!

The season of summer lovin’ has come to a close in our hemisphere, but some things stick with you after your One or Two nights with Venus. While we may not have to worry about public bath houses spreading diseases, some intimate encounters still can and this article indicates that STIs (or STDs) are steadily on the rise. Practice safe lovin’ people, to protect yourself and the ones you love (and listen to our linked old episodes to appreciate how much medicine has advanced)! Come back next week to learn the horrible methods of birth control used in history (that we in no way endorse relying on today)!

Just remember, no squeam allowed!

 

Slideshow photo credit: taberandrew Syphilitic Diseases via photopin (license)

Blog photo credit: NIAID Chlamydia trachomatis Bacteria and the PmpD Protein via photopin (license)

Horrific History Podcast has hit (and exceeded) a new milestone, so we’re bringing you a special episode with a guest host you’ll remember from Season 1: Curtis Bender! We hope you’ll enjoy this special recording for our 10,000-12,000 download milestones! So join us for this change of pace and hear about how the destruction of an old hospital gave Curtis rat problems, how the air quality is impacting him at work, and how all of that ties into this brand new special episode.

 

Listen now to learn how the 1952 Great London Smog fits the theme […]

Do you like to push boundaries? Would you go to, and stay in, an area which was legally designated as “off-limits”? If the location was reputed to be haunted, would that spook you out of staying the night? Our co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Jordan Watney, explore areas forbidden to the general public in this brand new Horrific History Podcast episode. What mysterious circumstances caused the destruction and abandonment of the Bhangarh Fort? What Italian island has been reputably haunted by its history with wars, plague and insane asylums? Are the existing rumors and stories about the locations fanciful superstition priming our perception, or is there something more to explain the reported phenomenon which make many visitors squeam?

 

Join us as we dig through the records of history, looking for celestial events and natural disasters for explanations for curses and ghost stories from an Indian city and fortification. Could natural events which brought famine & disease be conflated with supernatural influence? Will we have a bone to pick with legends about […]

While working on our upcoming new episode, Eric and Jordan discovered that there are three noteworthy celestial events coming up! Since they need a bit more time to finish the summer tour of one of our other programs which goes to libraries all across the Pacific Northwest for Summer Reading programs, we decided to raise another one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!

Harbingers of Doom: Celestial Events and Superstitions

 

Aztec Sun Stone

What kind of superstitions or myths do you think of when you look up at the stars? Every culture has them; there have been stories developed all over the world to explain star constellations or natural phenomena like solar and lunar eclipses, comets, meteors and more. When the sun provides warmth to help the crops grow and night skies are used to measure the passage of time, it’s not surprising that any unexpected or unusual phenomenon is assigned meaning when the science isn’t sophisticated enough to distinguish between causation and correlation. Horrific History co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender, explore beliefs related to celestial events from across the globe.  Hindu serpent demons, China’s dragons (or dogs) and modern conspiracy theorists watching for alien spaceships, we have a lot of “bad omens” for your enjoyment.

 

Lunacy and humours, werewolves and witches, […]