Messy Minded Podcast

This is a different sort of Messy Minded episode in celebration of Halloween.

Jess swaps the research rabbit holes for an original ghost story. Get comfortable, pour yourself something warm, and imagine we’re gathered around a fire. It’s her turn to tell one.

The Hollow Man of Denton Pines is a fictional horror story featuring immersive sound effects and unsettling themes.

Content note: Disappearances, grief, possession, loss of bodily autonomy, and implied sexual violation. Intended for adult listeners.

Big thanks to: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove"

And thanks to Ela Darling for playing Mara's mom, Zazzy for playing young Mara, Scott for playing Mara's dad, and Will Lorentz for playing Dani's husband.

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In this Halloween episode, Jess explores what happens inside the body when fear takes over—and why terror can feel strangely enjoyable when we’ve chosen it. Along the way, we’ll encounter ancient haunted houses, Japanese tests of courage, Derren Brown’s darker performances, an October horror-movie experiment that worked a little too well, true crime as a mental fire drill, and our complicated fascination with death and the macabre.

The monster may not be real, but the racing heart, nervous laughter, and relief afterward certainly are.

This is Scared on Purpose.

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A big thank you for use of the music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Echoes of Lumen for "Tense Music", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", "Eerie - Wizard of Eerie Music" by MFCC, "Eerie" by Music for Videos, "Tension" by Alex Grohl, and "The Haunting" by Alana jordan

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This episode is a Messy Re-Minder!

We're kicking off spooky season by reaching back through the thinning veil and dragging one of last year's Halloween episodes back into the land of the living. Originally released in 2025, this episode explores Samhain, its traditions, folklore, and its connection to the Halloween we know today.

It's Halloweens origin story! Ever wonder why we carve faces into vegetables, hand candy to small pirates, and light fires to celebrate the dark? Turns out, Halloween didn’t start with chocolate — it started with Samhain, a Celtic festival where the veil thinned, the fairies roamed, and people wore disguises just in case something noticed them back.

In this episode, I tumble headfirst into the weird, wonderful history of Halloween — from druids and divine wars to bonfires, banshees, and the night the fairies basically handed humanity the keys to the world. Grab your pumpkin spice and a flashlight — things are about to get folklorically flammable.

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Sources:

Encyclopædia Britannica, “Samhain” – britannica.com/topic/Samhain

Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford University Press, 1996)

National Museum of Ireland, “The Festival of Samhain” – museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Country-Life/Exhibitions/Folklife-Collections/The-Festival-of-Samhain

Library of Congress, Headlines & Heroes Blog: “The Origins of Halloween Traditions” – blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/10/the-origins-of-halloween-traditions

History.com Editors, “History of Halloween” – history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

Wikipedia, “Samhain,” “All Saints’ Day,” and “Cottingley Fairies” – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

BBC, “The Truth About the Cottingley Fairies” – bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42456384

Leeds University Library Galleries, The Cottingley Fairies: A Study in Deception – artsandculture.google.com/story/lgVB6Ceti9WVAw

Music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Sosin Mykola "Halloween Spooky Eerie Music", Mykola Sosin "Mystery Mystic Mystical Music" and "Eerie - Wizard Mystery Music", MMAudio for "Chasing Faries", Hits Lab - Levgren Poltavsky " Halloween Background Music" and War Battle Military Drums", "Hunters of darkness epic and mystical fantasy music", Leigh Robinson " Alban Arthan (The Druids Christmas", scary horror creepy music, "Secret Room"

#Samhain #HalloweenHistory #Celtic #Folklore #Halloween #SpookyHistory #SpookySeason #MessyMindedPod

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In this episode, Jess revisits Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince—a deceptively simple children’s story about imagination, loneliness, love, grief, and the peculiar little prisons adults build for themselves.

We’ll consider what the prince learns from his rose and the fox, how Saint-Exupéry’s turbulent marriage and dangerous life as an aviator may have shaped the story—and whether the Little Prince was ever really there at all.

This episode began with a well-loved family copy of the book that has already passed through several hands and will someday be read to another generation—complete with memories, inscriptions, Cheeto-dusted fingerprints, and an original rock song tucked inside.

Note: This episode discusses the complete story, including its ending, as well as themes of death and grief.

To hear William Lorentz's full song "Kate", follow this link: https://youtu.be/3E3OxV7xMdo?si=Qix1Tz-Bu6gtMLYi

Big thank you for the artist who allow us to borrow their talent for music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Tunetank for "Quirky Children Music", Alex Grohl for "Tension", The Mountain for "Quirky Sneaky Comedy" "funny Comedy Kids", Geoff Harvey for "Spellcraft", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", and of course - William Lorentz for "Kate".

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In this Messy Morsel, Jess explores the true story behind Australia’s Great Emu War, including the desperate former soldiers farming difficult land during the Great Depression, the military operation that became a national embarrassment, but also a fun story for ages!

Have a strange, overlooked, or completely ridiculous true story you’d like Jess to research? Send it to [email protected]. If it becomes an episode, you can be credited for the idea on the show.

Follow Messy Minded for curious true stories, historical oddities, deep dives, Messy Morsels, and the occasional guest—with the odd side quest.

Sources and further reading

• National Archives of Australia: Environmental issues from the not-so-distant past — “Emu wars”
• Murray Johnson, Journal of Australian Studies: “Feathered Foes”: Soldier Settlers and Western Australia’s “Emu War” of 1932
• Australian Geographic: Looking Back: Australia’s Emu Wars
• National Library of Australia, Trove: “War on Emus,” October 21, 1932
• National Library of Australia, Trove: “Emu War,” November 7, 1932
• National Library of Australia, Trove: “Emu War Still On,” November 9, 1932
• National Library of Australia, Trove: “New Strategy in a War on the Emu,” July 5, 1953

Big thank you for the artist who allow us to borrow their talent for music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", The Mountain for "Quirky Sneaky Comedy" and "Quirky Sneaky", Hits Labs for "War Battle Military Drums" , and Geoff Harvey for "Busy Bees"

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Jess is joined by the ever-inquisitive Lolo to dig into the strange history of the Georgia Guidestones: the anonymous people who paid for them, the controversial messages carved into the stone, the conspiracy theories they inspired, and the still-unsolved bombing that finally brought them down.

Who built the Georgia Guidestones—and what exactly were they trying to tell us?

Music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", “Podcast Music good vibe” by Studio3DMusic, "Tension" by Alex Grohl, “Soft Music” by Hits Lab, "Funny and Weird" by epic_musictracks, and "Spellcraft" by Geoff Harvey

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In 1906, Ota Benga—a young man from what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo—was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo alongside primates. It sounds impossible. It isn't.

We trace his story from the atrocities of the Congo Free State and the rubber boom to the rise of pseudoscience and one of America's most shameful public spectacles. It's a short episode, but it's one that stuck with me.

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In the 1980s and early '90s, America was warned about a coming "lost generation."

The media told us that babies exposed to crack cocaine before birth would grow up violent, intellectually disabled, and destined for lives of crime. The phrase "crack baby" became part of our vocabulary almost overnight.

But then...

We stopped talking about them.

Researchers, however, didn't. They followed these children for decades.

In this Messy Morsel, Jess revisits one of the biggest medical and media scares of her childhood to ask a simple question:

Whatever happened to those kids?

Along the way, we'll explore how early science became front-page certainty, how fear can outrun evidence, and why the full story turned out to be far more complicated than anyone expected.

As always, this episode discusses historical events and scientific research and is not intended as medical advice.

• The crack epidemic of the 1980s
• Where the term "crack baby" came from
• Early medical studies and media coverage
• What decades of follow-up research found
• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
• Poverty, bias, and the limits of early science
• Why scientific understanding changes over time

• Frank, D. A., et al. (2001). Growth, Development, and Behavior in Early Childhood Following Prenatal Cocaine Exposure: A Systematic Review. Journal of the American Medical Association.
• Coles, C. D., & colleagues. Long-term studies on prenatal cocaine exposure and child development.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): Research on prenatal cocaine exposure.
• American Academy of Pediatrics: Guidance on prenatal substance exposure.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Information on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs).

If you enjoy curious true stories with the occasional odd side quest, follow Messy Minded wherever you get your podcasts.

And if someone comes to mind while you're listening, share the episode with them. Word of mouth is still the best way for independent podcasts to grow.

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This week on Messy Minded, we're setting sail into one of the greatest adventure stories ever told: Homer's Odyssey.

Join me as we follow Odysseus, the clever King of Ithaca, on his legendary journey home after the Trojan War. Along the way we'll meet unforgettable figures from Greek mythology, including Circe, Polyphemus the Cyclops, the Lotus Eaters, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Calypso, Aeolus, Hermes, Athena, and Poseidon.

We'll explore what these myths meant to the ancient Greeks, the symbolism hidden inside many of the stories, and why The Odyssey continues to influence literature, film, psychology, and popular culture nearly 3,000 years later.

Along the way we'll also talk about:

• The Trojan Horse
• Ancient Greek monsters and mythology
• The Underworld and Tiresias
• Penelope's famous weaving trick
• Argos, perhaps literature's most heartbreaking dog
• Hospitality (xenia) in ancient Greece
• Why Odysseus is one of history's most complicated heroes
• How later writers, including Madeline Miller, reimagined Circe and other mythological figures

Whether you're brushing up before Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation, revisiting a favorite classic, or just curious why everyone keeps talking about "being caught between Scylla and Charybdis," this episode has you covered.

So grab an oar, avoid mysterious fruit, don't taunt Cyclopes, and maybe think twice before accepting wine from immortal witches.

The Odyssey, Homer, Greek mythology, Odysseus, Iliad, Trojan War, Trojan Horse, Circe, Cyclops, Polyphemus, Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, Calypso, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Lotus Eaters, Aeolus, Tiresias, Penelope, Telemachus, Argos, Greek gods, Greek monsters, ancient Greece, mythology podcast, literature podcast, Homer Odyssey explained, Epic poems, Epic poetry.

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In this episode of Messy Minded, Jess explores the fascinating, tragic, and sometimes hopeful stories of isolated peoples and first contacts.

We travel from the remote forests of North Sentinel Island to the Siberian wilderness of the Lykov family, follow the final years of Ishi—the last known member of California's Yahi people—and examine the heartbreaking life of Ota Benga, a Congolese man displayed at the Bronx Zoo in 1906.

Along the way we explore uncontacted tribes, Indigenous cultures, survival, colonialism, first contact, scientific racism, cultural loss, disease, and the question of whether modern civilization always improves the lives of the people it reaches.

Featured stories include:

• The Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island

• The Man of the Hole (Tanaru Indigenous Territory, Brazil)

• Ishi and the Yahi people of California

• The Lykov family and Agafia Lykova

• Ota Benga and the Bronx Zoo controversy

• The Panará people of the Brazilian Amazon

• Indigenous rights and land restoration

• First contact disasters and survival stories

• Uncontacted tribes and isolated peoples around the world

This episode discusses colonial violence, racism, genocide, suicide, disease outbreaks, cultural destruction, and the long-term effects of forced contact.

Major sources include: Lost in the Taiga by Vasily Peskov, Ishi in Two Worlds by Theodora Kroeber, Spectacle by Pamela Newkirk, and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, along with research from Survival International, Smithsonian Magazine, Instituto Socioambiental, historical newspaper archives, and anthropological publications.

Messy Minded is a podcast for curious weirdos who love history, anthropology, strange true stories, forgotten people, and the messy parts of being human.

Music by SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove, “Quirky Sneaky Mystery”, “Quirky Sneaky Comedy” Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov, “Quirky Sneaky Comedy” by the mountain - Dmitrii Kolesnikov , "British Historical Drama" by Roman Dudchyk, “Old Tolcharo” by ArizonaGuide, “Kids Music” “Soft Music” by HitsLab and Levgen Poltavskyi.

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