Every Halloween I explore a suitably spooky topic, from a book about an alleged Canadian haunting, to Japanese books on the supernatural. I’ve also suggested some international ghost stories for Halloween. Still, there is no substitute for hearing spooky tales in audio, so this year I will focus on the best podcasts that cover mythology, mysteries and folklore, all of which have at least some international content. I’ve also included podcasts that take a more skeptical and scholarly look at these issues.
The Night Time podcast covers the strange and the supernatural in Atlantic Canada. This is a relatively new podcast, and it has content that would be difficult to find in detail in other venues. In the first episode the creator of the podcast, Jordan Bonaparte, interviewed his own grandfather about a possible UFO sighting. He then interviewed his own grandmother about the same sighting in a subsequent episode. What I like about the series is that the creator carries out his own research and interviews, on topics such as disappearances, visions and archaeology, usually with a strong Atlantic Canadian flavor. Some of the episodes, such as the “Overton Stone,” shed real light on the region’s history. As an Oak Island skeptic, the interviews regarding that topic intrigued me less. I was glad, therefore, that he also recently did an episode (#21) titled “A Skeptical Look at Oak Island and Bell Island,” which consisted of an interview with Brian Dunning of the podcast Skeptoid.
Some of the best episodes of the Nighttime Podcast have dealt with disappearances, such as strange case of Maura Murray in New Hampshire (episodes 14 and 16), and the three episodes that covered the case of Emma Filipoff (episodes 2, 23 and 24), who vanished from Victoria, British Columbia. As always, Bonaparte interviewed people who were closely involved in the cases. For example, in episode 24, he had a lengthy conversation with one man who had been mentioned in an earlier podcast as a possible suspect in Emma Filipoff’s disappearance. Overall, the Night Time podcast is an original podcast with unique content, which will leave you feeling that you are sitting at a kitchen table in Nova Scotia, while listening to a neighbor tell a favorite story.
The Moth is a podcast in which people tell stories before an audience without notes. I love Joan Juliet Buck’s story
From the ghosts of Paris you can switch to the witches of Burgundy in the 1460s in the CBC “Ideas” podcast episode “Tinctor’s Foul Manual.” This episode is not a scary story, like that of Joan Juliet Buck. Instead, it is an erudite discussion of a single book, which justified witch trials in a city in northwest France during the 100 Years War. The book itself was written by a Dominican inquisitor, who sought to justify the torture (or burning at the stake) of a number of women, many of whom were prostitutes. This particular case was one of the moments that began a witchcraft hysteria that would last over a century, and claim perhaps forty to sixty thousand lives. The academics interviewed drew parallels between this time, and more modern events. As such, the true horror in this podcast is not the supernatural, but humanity’s cruelty to those it fears. If you are a bibliophile, this may be the right podcast episode for you. But for other people it might be a little dry.
Tanis is a mystery set in the Pacific Northwest, which has connections to places as diverse ancient Egypt
![Hans Baldung [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baldung_Hexen_1508_kol.JPG](https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/512px-Baldung_Hexen_1508_kol.jpg)
If you are looking for a skeptical take on cryptozoology and the supernatural, you will certainly want to investigate Monstertalk, a podcast created by Skeptic Magazine. The hosts of Monstertalk typically investigate one topic in detail by interviewing authors and academics. They clearly love the content, and their final question is typically “What is your favorite monster?” Still, they have little patience for the credulity, bad information, and implausibility of most of these traditions. At the same time, their discussion of the Tibetan idea of Tulpas in the context of Slenderman, or the origin of the Jersey Devil narrative, is scholarly, thorough and erudite. My one warning is that most episodes are quite long, often over an hour, so if you listen to the podcast while falling asleep, it may take you a while to finish it.
Brian Dunning has created a wonderful podcast with Skeptoid, which now has over 500 episodes. The episodes cover topics in cryptozoology, the supernatural, conspiracy theories, sham treatments, and more. Most of the episodes are quite brief, unlike Monstertalk, and all explore doubtful claims or stories with reason.
The podcast Lore covers both folklore and mystery, and has risen to the top of the podcast charts based on the quality of host Aaron Mahnke’s storytelling. The host also writes supernatural thrillers, which has doubtless honed his ability to craft a compelling narrative.
If you enjoy listening to true crime podcasts, you’ll likely enjoy the carefully researched and well-written stories on Casefile. For example, in episode 28, “Lindsay Buziak,” the Australian narrator describes a bizarre mystery on Vancouver Island, Canada, with a complex cast of characters. In the end, the narrator interviewed a police officer involved with the case, who corrected some factual errors, and gave the official perspective on the investigation. If you listen to the episode, please be sure to listen the 77 minute original episode, not the 6 minute follow up, which has the same episode number. For some reason, British Columbia seems to have an unusual number of unsolved murder cases involving women, such as that of Lisa Marie Young in episode 26 of Casefile.
Of all Canada’s mysteries, none is as long-standing, complex and disturbing as British Columbia’s “Highway of Tears.” Highway 16 passes through northern British Columbia, including territory pertaining to Aboriginal peoples. At least nineteen women, and likely many more, have either disappeared or been found murdered on this stretch of highway over the last 40 years. What is remarkable is that the first murder took place in 1969 (and there were possible earlier cases), and the killings continued for decades. As many people have commented, it seems likely that more than one killer was involved, given the duration of the murders. If this is true, what has made this particular area so attractive to killers over such a length of time? You can gain some sense of the scale of the crimes from this map of where some victims were found. For much of that time, the disappearances received little attention, likely because many of the women were Aboriginal, or may have been involved in sex work. The podcast, “Stuff they don’t want you to know,” has detailed coverage of this topic in their episode, “What is the Highway of Tears?” This particular episode was thorough, well-researched and chilling.
As the hosts say, how many other women have disappeared in that region without being included in the investigation? The police have only considered cases to be part of the “Highway of Tears” file if the bodies were found within one mile of the Highway. This criteria has received much criticism for being arbitrary definition that excludes many possible crimes. What is most remarkable about this horrific series of murders and disappearances is that only a single killer was ever convicted. You can learn more about that case at the Generation Why podcast, episode 148, “Cody Legebokoff.” In this episode, the two hosts interview author JT Hunter, who wrote a book about Legebokoff, The Country Boy Killer.
If you want to learn more about this haunted highway, you can watch this 48 hours documentary, “The Highway of Tears.” The documentary begins with Peter Van Sant’s interviews with the family of Madison “Maddy” Scott; the case of her disappearance has a shocking twist. Still, for me perhaps the most troubling point in the documentary was when Peter Van Sant was taken back to an archives room, which had 750 boxes of files and evidence on the murders. At this moment, one has a sense of the scale of the police work in the case. According to the documentary, more than 60,000 people have been interviewed, and 1,400 possible suspects have been investigated. As the police officer describes the number of men they’ve found with vans that don’t have door handles on the inside, or with trunks that contain duct tape and wrist restraints, one comes to have a bleak view of men. Even though this a blog post on scary podcasts, I have to mention that in 2012 Outside magazine also had a great article titled “The Vanishing” about the Highway of Tears. Still, I want to close with a podcast. The CBC has a new podcast series titled “Who Killed Alberta Williams?”, which covers the Highway of Tears. It will be an eight part podcast and slideshow, and the website suggests that this will be a carefully researched piece of journalism. The slideshow has been professionally done, and I particularly like that it’s captioned.
The Thinking Sideways Podcast has three hosts -Devin, Steve and Joe- who research and discuss a historical
![Edgar Allan Poe daguerreotype. By Unknown; most likely George C. Gilchrest, Samuel P. Howes, James M. Pearson, or Andrew J. Simpson, all of Lowell, MA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Edgar_Allan_Poe_daguerreotype_crop.png)
If you are interested in Edgar Allan Poe, the Truth podcast has a episode that explores his death with a brief play of about 13 minutes in length. I’d suggest skipping the first three minutes of the podcast to avoid the fund-raising pitch. Still, the play is powerful, the sound work is well done, and the story has a twist. Warning: the episode deals with drug use and is not appropriate for children.
Radiolab is perhaps the most respected podcast today, and has influenced countless other podcasts that have followed it. Radiolab has an episode, “Haunted,” that explores the story of a grieving man and the paranormal. In “Haunted Dreams,” the podcast tells the story of a man troubled by a recurring nightmare, and how he dealt with this challenge. They also have an episode that’s appropriate for Halloween titled “Ghost Stories.”
No discussion of these podcasts would be complete without “Welcome to Night Vale,” certainly the strangest and funniest community in the podcast universe. It’s a good counter-balance to the darker material of the true crime podcasts. The premise of the show is that the listener is hearing public announcements for a very strange town.
I was also just interviewed for the “American Horror Story” episode of Backstory, a history program on public radio, which is also available as a podcast. It was great fun doing the interview in a small sound studio in Portland. The room was soundproofed with egg carton-like foam, I could see the sound engineer through a glass window throughout the interview, and the mike was immense. Despite my nerves, it was a fun conversation. My host was as knowledgeable as he was gracious. You can hear my segment of the episode, “Where the Windigos are,” here. The segment is just under nine minutes long.
If you want to learn more about the Windigo, read my own Dangerous Spirits, which is available in the United States, Canada and the UK. The book discusses an evil spirit, the Windigo or Wihtigo, which could transform people into a monstrous being according to the spiritual beliefs of Algonquian peoples in both Canada and the United States. While the book deals with oral narratives, it also explores the history of colonialism amongst Indigenous Peoples in North America from the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in New France to the present.
I had a lot of fun doing research in old records such as the Jesuit Relations, Hudson Bay Company diaries, the transcripts of Canadian murder trials, and oral interviews held by the Minnesota Historical Society. Although the windigo is perhaps best known in Canada, there are also many stories from the United States, such as the history of one truly terrifying female windigo in Minnesota (p. 35, 53-54), and the Penobscot account of a resourceful wife who faced a windigo in what is now Maine (p. 55). The windigo is a belief woven throughout the history of two nations, which endures in the popular culture, literature, film and video games of both countries (p. 67-75).
Have a good and safe Halloween everyone, and if you are taking out children to trick or treat, please be sure that they have a flashlight or glow stick. And if you want to read about a true mystery, please read my blog post on the ghost ship Baltimore.
Shawn Smallman, 2016