A rerelease of a classic episode of A Study of Strange about the most notorious account of poltergeist activity in Canada. This infamous paranormal mystery involves Esther Cox, a young woman who began experiencing unexplainable events including objects moving, physical attacks, and fires starting on their own. These strange occurrences were reported on extensively, but they're still debated to this day. 

Check out our guest, T.J. Rotell's, work! twitch.tv/channel29 linktr.ee/channel29 linktr.ee/geekyteej  

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/ Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com Hosted by Michael May Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected] ©2022 Convergent Content, LLC 

Links: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Amherst-Mystery-Supernatural-Collectors/dp/0809481081 https://www.amherst.ca/esther-fest.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Amherst_Mystery https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2021/10/28/the-great-amherst-mystery-1888/ http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cox_esther_14E.html

On September 20, 1988, 19‑year‑old college student Tara Calico left her Belen, New Mexico home for a morning bike ride and never came back. This episode examines the haunting 1989 Polaroid that made this case a national obsession, witness accounts of an old pickup truck, and the recent breakthroughs in 2023. Tara Calico's case is a bizarre, true-crime mystery.

With special guest, filmmaker, Robert Cannon.

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbct63zPK0c

https://www.scribd.com/doc/270970248/New-Mexico-State-Police-Tara-Calico

https://charleyproject.org/case/tara-leigh-calico#:~:text=day%2C%20Doel%20found%20a%20Boston,riding%20away%20from%20her%20residence

https://people.com/crime/tara-calico-polaroid-photo-true-story/#:~:text=Calico%27s%20mom%2C%20Patty%20Doel%2C%20believed,Alive%20was%20a%20Horrifying%20Polaroid

https://www.taracalico.com/new-blog/2023/7/3/press-conference-on-update-on-tara-calicos-case

https://www.taracalico.com/press

https://www.patreon.com/VANISHEDPod

The internet promises answers to everything, but it creates more mysteries than most care to admit. In this episode of A Study of Strange, we dive into four of the web’s most cryptic mysteries.

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

When my nine year old son said, “I want to be on your podcast and hear about UFOs,” I proceeded as any dedicated podcaster would: by recording this episode.Great Mountain UFO Encounters looks at some of the early unidentified anomalous phenomena in the beautiful state of Vermont, before sharing the terrifying abduction claim known as the “Buff Ledge Abduction”. One of the most famous UFO accounts from Vermont.

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

In this chilling episode of A Study of Strange, we look at the terrifying real-life mystery that inspired A Nightmare on Elm Street: unexplained deaths of healthy Southeast Asian men who died suddenly in their sleep. Known as “Asian Death Syndrome” or Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS), this phenomenon was first noted in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Was it genetics, trauma, or nightmares themselves?

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

A summer re-release of a classic episode! On July 10th, 1967, 25 year old mother of three, Leota Camp, was found by her young children, stabbed and bleeding in a small bedroom of the family’s home in Des Moines, Iowa. There was no sign of a robbery, forced entry, or sexual assault. In short, there doesn't seem to be a motive, and the attack happened when family and neighbors were within earshot. The murder of Leota Camp still haunts her family and friends to this day and has become one of Iowa's most notorious cold cases.

With special guest Bill Whirity.

Anyone with information about Leota Camp’s unsolved murder can contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010 or email at [email protected].

Theme Music by Matt Glass https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

 --------------

Links:

https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/leota-camp/ https://www.dsm.city/departments/police-division/index.php https://www.communitynewspapergroup.com/independence_bulletin_journal/news/article_d8c57172-3d40-11e5-84c3-63934fcead6e.html https://iowacoldcases.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/1967-7-11-dmr-leota-camp-six-unsolved-murders-2pgs.pdf https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2015/07/25/years-later-memory-mothers-brutal-death-lingers/30682451/

https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=leota%20camp&p_province=us-ia&dr_year=1967-1967 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/76258647/leota-maecamp 

https://madison.com/news/iowa/who-killed-leota-camp-48-years-later-and-still-no-answer/article_5959062c-ddfa-5c02-a8e9-bdb7e4dea47a.html?mode=comments 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZpgfnOm8w&t=10061s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51AzHqs_N6I  

We conclude the devilish and mysterious story surrounding the disappearance of a group of women involved in a small cult run by new age author Carlos Castaneda. 

Not many are aware that one of the most successful New Age authors, Carlos Castaneda, lead a cult. The women that made up the inner circle of his cult were called “the witches” and five of them disappeared after Castaneda’s death in 1998. In an all too familiar trope, Castaneda’s mythology was built on lies, narcissism, hypocrisy, and abuse, yet the witches remain missing. Did they commit mass suicide, or are they still in control of the cult’s workshops (Tensegrity) and publishing empire?

With Special Guest Mariah Klapatch! 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088.Carlos_Castaneda

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APXVFG

https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a60923618/carlos-castaneda-cult-geoffrey-gray/

https://deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/people/carlos-castaneda/

https://www.castaneda.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Sorcerers-Apprentice-Life-Carlos-Castaneda/dp/1583942068/ref=asc_df_1583942068?mcid=0d8519cc17a73ea982de07dd78440a03&hvocijid=5328905483217033375-1583942068-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5328905483217033375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031201&hvtargid=pla-2281435177378&psc=1

Not many are aware that one of the most successful “new age” authors, Carlos Castaneda, lead a cult. The women that made up the inner circle of his cult were called “the witches” and five of them disappeared soon after Castaneda’s death in 1998. In an all too familiar trope, Castaneda’s mythology was built on lies, narcissism, hypocrisy, and abuse, yet the witches remain missing. Did they commit mass suicide, or are they in control of the cult’s workshops (Tensegrity) and publishing empire. 

Theme Music by Matt Glass: https://www.glassbrain.com/

Instagram: @astudyofstrange

Support the Show! astudyofstrange.substack.com/

Website: www.astudyofstrange.com

Hosted by Michael May

Email stories, comments, or ideas to [email protected]!

©2025 Convergent Content, LLC

LINKS

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088.Carlos_Castaneda

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APXVFG

https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a60923618/carlos-castaneda-cult-geoffrey-gray/

https://deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/people/carlos-castaneda/

https://www.castaneda.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Sorcerers-Apprentice-Life-Carlos-Castaneda/dp/1583942068/ref=asc_df_1583942068?mcid=0d8519cc17a73ea982de07dd78440a03&hvocijid=5328905483217033375-1583942068-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5328905483217033375&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031201&hvtargid=pla-2281435177378&psc=1

What makes an object haunted? These four paintings have strange and mysterious backgrounds, along with claims of supernatural phenomena. #1 The Hands Resist Him, #2 The Anguished Man, #3 Woman of the Rain, #4 The Crying Boy

In 1908, something tore through the skies over Siberia and exploded with the force of a thousand Hiroshima bombs. Trees were flattened across 800 square miles, yet no impact crater was ever found. What caused the Tunguska Event? A meteor? A comet? Something stranger?