Check your skies for figures on broomsticks, check your socks for candy, and make sure you have a nice cheese plate out because Alex and Addison are welcoming La Befana into our collective home for this week's episode! Come spend some seasonal good times with us as we learn about Italy's iconic Christmas Witch and all of the wholesomeness and joy she comes to represent. This week we discuss Wintertime Holiday traditions of the past and present, the Pagan concept of The Divine Grandmother, and how we both dream of being simple country mice enjoying oatmeal and cordial. From our family to yours, Happy Holidays and Stay Safe out there! 

CW for discussions of food and alcohol 

Episode 120- La Befana

What common ground do an Appalachian folklorist and a horror-savvy scream queen have? Cryptids. Come laugh, learn, and get creeped out!

Comedy

Well friends, we've reached the end of this particular journey together. Please don't worry, we're both okay and planning to create more projects together in the future! But after some long, hard conversations (that have been quite a long time coming) we realized that it's time for this particular one to come to an end. We know it may feel sudden from the outside, but we would not make this decision rashly or without careful consideration.  
Thank you all so much for joining us for 145 episodes of this show that started with just a couple of friends and a microphone on a living room floor. We never expected it to last this long or come this far. It's been an incredible journey and we're so grateful for all the learning, laughs, and love that have come along the way. Don't think of it as an ending, but as a chance to start fresh with something we can all be proud of together. We hope you'll stick around with us for whatever the next chapter holds.  
From Alex, Addison, and the whole Cryptid Keeper team: 
Stay Safe out There.

Episode 145 - Endings and Beginnings

Will-o-the-wisps, haunted dolls, and big box stores with a ghost problem? Looks like it's time for another listener stories episode! Treat yourself to a buffet of creatures, critters, and stories submitted by out very own Cryptid Keepers (that's all of you)! Our inbox was overflowing with stories yet again, so we decided to put together a collection to share with you all! Gather round the campfire and hear us spin some tales! Or rather, share some pre-spun tales that we put together. 
NOTE: In this episode, we shared a story from a listener detailing their experience with a giant bird. In their story, they repeatedly refer to it as a Thunderbird. We should have said something on the air, and it was wrong of us not to. White people have a long history of appropriating, bastardizing, and commodifying Native culture, it is not ok to treat important aspects of Native culture as cryptids or behave in a culturally insensitive way while talking about them. It was wrong on this episode, and it has been wrong when we’ve done it in the past. While we have appropriated and behaved insensitively in the past, we do not condone it nor do we wish to further normalize it. We understand that our ignorant behavior hurt people. We are sorry, and we are making a commitment to do better. Thank you to those that reached out, we are immensely grateful. We will do our best not to let you down.
Content Warning: Mention of animal death, ghosts, shadow people, death

Episode 144 - Listener Stories #4

It's a dark and stormy night, and we're going to call on some voices from the beyond. Just put your fingers on the planchette, clear your mind, ask a question, and hope the wrong thing doesn't answer. This week is all about the world's most controversial board game, the Ouija Board. Derived from the Spirit Boards of olden days, this tool of contacting the dead is now the property of the Hasbro corporation! Join us as we discuss scary Ouija Board stories, the history of the board itself, and how housewives have moved and shaped American culture. 
Content Warnings: Death, violence, supernatural/demonic elements

Episode 143 - Ouija Boards

Let's go for a swim! Don't worry about that feeling of something brushing up against your feet, it's just algae! OR it's the subject of this week's episode, the Naheulito! Native to Argentina, this little (okay, big) lake monster has made quite a name for itself, inspiring news coverage, hunting parties, and more! Join us as we discuss what kind of creature it might be, the bizarre history of hoaxes and hunts surrounding it, and whether it would be nice to ride on its back and be its best friend.

Episode 142- The Nahuelito

My my my, this sure is some scary spaghetti! Some menacing manicotti! Some...creepy pasta, if you will? This week we're covering the intersection of internet horror and cryptid culture, a spindly pale humanoid creature so scary it spawned an online horror movement and a subreddit to boot! We're here to discuss Crawlers, a type of unsettling creature made famous by the creepypasta story of The Rake. Join us as we get into the origins of The Rake, the cryptozoological possibility of crawlers, and more than a fair share of spine-tingling sightings. 
Content Warnings: Body horror, frightening imagery, mention of animal death

Episode 120- La Befana

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