It’s ‘I Put a Spell on You’ Month all October! Happy Halloween??

When you really think about it, we all live in mystery houses. Secrets and blood are two things that really help shape our notions of ‘family’. Perhaps the most well known mystery house of all, that of Widow Winchester in San Jose, California had one more feature that helped define it, a family curse. Join us this week as we explore family curses throughout history. from the Hapsburgs and their ravens to Henry VII and his monks, a good curse seems to be almost status symbol for European royalty. We’ll discuss the machinations of general cursing and the curse of original sin before taking a look at one of America’s own cursed Colt family.

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Whether it's a ghostly double staring at you from across the street, or a mirror image whose expression doesn't quite match your own; finding 'twins' in unexpected places is quite unsettling. Having an experience like this can make us confront aspects of ourselves we'd really like to ignore; unmoor relationships with reality; and send even the most self-assured into an identity crisis. Doppelgängers are haunting manifestations of the uncanny, a thing that is, or almost is, and yet cannot be. It is little wonder then that so many 19th century writers explored this territory as they searched for their own voice. Join us this week as we discuss the phenomena of doppelgängers and the ways they have haunted authors from Poe to Wilde; from Maupassant to Anderson. Can this all be explained away by Jung's theory of the shadow self? Or is there something more sinister, perhaps even supernatural behind these battles?

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How can the adoration of a traitorous act against the US sit side by side with American patriotism? What are the intentions behind the lofty monuments and wistful narratives constructed in the south after the American civil war. Join us this week as we dive into a land where cotton was king, the belles were pure, the bondsmen were happy, the yankees were agitators, and the truth didn't matter. That's right. We're tackling the myth of the Southern Lost Cause.

The secret to eternal life has long eluded all of us mortals. The secret to perpetual youth? Also a tricky thing to pin down. That has not stopped wild speculation about what these secrets might be, and who might know them. No, the gossip about immortals is as old as the fear of not being one of them. Lace up your best pair of wandering shoes, and join us as we try to locate the fountain of youth, and gaze at the many guises of the perpetual stranger cursed to roam the earth for eternity. Of course, any story of mysterious immortals that does not mention Count St. Germain is a story half told. We will spend some time unraveling his complicated pasts, and asking the questions no one has dared to ask, and forming some new theories you won't find anywhere else.

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When someone says, 'what is an urban legend?' Which story do you reach for to illustrate the concept. If you said, 'I just text them a link to your show,' you get a prize; but thats not the point. The point is, you probably, at some point in this hypothetical discussion, bring up the story of alligators in the sewers. Yes, this is, in many ways, the quintessential urban legend. It is necessarily urban, sufficiently widespread, and despite its easily disproven premise, quite persistently shared. Join us this week as we discuss this iconic urban legend; the human relationship to the sewers and their history; and the persistent fears that threats to society lurk just beneath our feet.

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The boogeyman will get you if you don't mind your manners... or go to sleep... or listen to your parents. Everyone knows that. But who is he? Where did he come from? What does he want? This week we will look at the shadowy characters who keep children in line and seem to have a natural appetite for destruction. Join us as we discuss villains from El Hombre de Saco to the Beast of Jersey. We'll also discuss Goya's Saturn, and the ways in which it shows it's not only our kids who should fear these men.

 

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The Mandela Effect is a modern discovery that explains everything about why our current world has stopped making sense. It's a pretty great get-out-of-jail-free-card for the year 2017, which really does owe us all an explanation. What is the Mandela effect? You will have to join us to learn the mind-bending secrets of mysteriously changing vowels and subtle shifts in historical memories when compared to the facts. This week we are exploring alternate universes and the humans who have slipped into them by accident. Don't worry, much like string theory this episode will either explain absolutely everything; or absolutely nothing. Also we will determine once and for all whether Schrödinger's cat is alive in a box, just waiting to be rescued.

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It's that wonderful, whimsical twist you've been hoping for... Just A Story is once again becoming Just A Movie for one whole episode! This week we are taking a look at the spy who loved us all; drank martinis like it was January 28, 1919; and had license to both thrill and kill. We explore the legendary character James Bond and the man who dreamt him up, Ian Fleming. What makes us love Bond? Where did Fleming find his inspiration? And in the case of this bombastic, over-the-top series of stories; could the truth be stranger than fiction? Join us as we reveal the mysterious history of the English spy ring that inhabited Washington DC in the years preceding World War II. The Baker Street Irregulars, as they called themselves, included people like Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl, and they just might have helped inspire the most well known secret agent of all time. 

 

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What is it about ravens that captures the collective imagination? With their prominence in so many cultures, and importance in so many legends the raven is an iconic symbol, and revered, though sometimes feared, creature the world over. Join us this week as we search for answers to questions to the riddles of ravens? We'll ask; what happens if they leave the Tower of London? Is the raven a symbol of good, or evil? And, just how smart are they?

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We all know that Lizzie Borden took an axe. We know she gave her father forty whacks; her mother forty-one; and that she got away with murder. Or do we? Her father received under twenty axe wounds, her STEPmother under ten. The murder weapon was probably a hatchet; not an axe, but nothing rhymes with 'hatchet' in the same catchy way. If we are honest about the number of whacks we lose that attractive assonance with 'Borden' and 'forty'. Do these poetic elements justify Lizzie's bad wrap? What really happened on  August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts? Join us this week as we take a look at the famous unsolved murders of Abby and Andrew Borden, and the things about their daughter Lizzie that made people believe she was just dangerous enough to be suspected. We will take a look at the cultural ideas of spinsters, and the rise of the independent women in America; as we try to separate fact from fiction.

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