Demystified

Tall, larger than a bear or man, rising up out of the woods. The shapeless mass that walks behind the snowdrift, howling in the deep. Out in the outback, or in the deep jungles, these man-beasts walk, sparking our imaginations and launching a thousand amateur photographers into the wilds to catch a glimpse of the last great thing undiscovered. The missing link.

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Deep in the jungles of Central America stand towering monuments - wide streets, tall towers, pyramids to rival those of Ancient Egpyt - and they all stand abandoned. But it wasn’t always this way. So how did these great and powerful cities go from centres of civilisation to little more than ruins? Their names might give you a clue - a little bit of smoke and mirrors...

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Since time immemorial, the people of the world have marvelled at it. Large chunks of earth, taken from a far away land through great effort, and assembled in such a way as to track the movements of the stars, heal the sick, and produce a sound unlike any other. Why was it built? It would have been helpful had the stone-age people who made it left a tiny hint when they built this giant labyrinth of stones...

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Of all the classic Hollywood movie monsters - the wolfman, the mummy, the creature from the black lagoon - there’s one that stands head and shoulders above them all. From edgy teenagers to billowy symbols of romance, to icons of pure horror, they’ve infiltrated pop culture. And behind them all, in a place past the forests, rests the story of a man so sinister, he’s been immortalised as a monster...

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There are some accounts in history that simply baffle you - the incident itself is fairly self-contained; it happens, then it stops. But the implications of these small, short-lived mysteries can go far beyond their own lifespans. Let's go back to Medieval England, a time of great upheaval and greater superstition, where the arrival of two strange guests to a quiet village in Suffolk threatened to upturn their worldview. It ain’t easy being green...

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Some secrets lie buried, hidden. Some are right under our noses, some are half a world away. When we dig and dig and dig some more, and we finally find them, it can be elating - at last, uncovering wonderful things that haven’t seen the light of day for millennia! But sometimes we get more than we bargained for, and what first seems like a blessing can soon turn out to be quite the curse...

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In every field and vocation, there exists someone whose shadow eclipses everyone else's. Someone who looms so large, you can’t envisage the world without them. They’re a kingpin, a captain of industry, a big kahuna, a true titan in every sense of the word. And then, one day, they’re not. And they never are again. Get in the car, we’re going for a little drive...

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Inventors are a cornerstone of human civilisation. Our greatest gift is the ability to create, to teach, to learn, and to pass our inventions down to our descendants. Leonardo Da Vinci, Nichola Tesla, Ada Lovelace - all titans of human invention. Our subject of today’s discussion is none of them. He was an inventor, of sorts, but his ideas were so strange that even those who followed him couldn’t fully grasp it. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s possible to bring an automaton to life, with a genuine soul...

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Far in the distant mists of the pacific ocean, miles out from any land, sits a rocky outcrop - an island. The island is bare, no trees, little vegetation, sparse animal life. But what it does have boggles the mind - constructs that are so large, and so strange, they warrant a very good explanation. It’s a shame there’s so few people left to give us one. We could ask the statues of course, but getting anything out of them is like getting blood from stone...

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Please Note: This content includes references which may not be suitable for young listeners. Listener discretion is advised. It’s finally time for us to peel off the cover on one of the most gruesome crime sprees of all history... one that would burn the name of it’s perpetrator into popular culture for all-time, and would inspire countless copy-cat crimes and come to define the dark side of modernity. There is a silver lining to be found in this story - it’s just that looking for it involves wading through so much dark cloud. In Victorian London, the pea-soup fog lies thick. Footsteps in the darkness, a silent shadow and a demon from hell. Whitechapel’s an ironic name...

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