Oddity Shop

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This week, your Curator Zach Is telling the dark tale of the plague!

Twelve ships slid into Messina’s harbor and history snapped. We follow the Black Death from its quiet beginnings in Central Asian rodents to the siege of Kaffa, where corpses were catapulted over walls and panic sailed for Sicily. 

What arrived in 1347 was more than a disease; it was a trio of killer plagues—bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic—moving along the arteries of medieval trade and faith, turning crowded markets and cathedral squares into corridors of grief.  You’ll hear how Yersinia pestis adapted to fleas, how Mongol movements amplified spread, and how lancing buboes and burning incense were no match for a pathogen that could leap from breath to breath. 

Check out Our Website for all references used in this episode!

It Can't Be People! 

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Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

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Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

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Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This Week, Curator Kara has another movie review: "The Ring".

A voice counts to nine, pauses, and screams. That image pulls us from modern horror back to a legend that refuses to be quiet, as we explore the eerie thread connecting The Ring to the story of Okiku and the ten plates at Himeji Castle. We open with a simple question, if you were wronged and then died, would you seek justice or revenge, and use it to unpack how different cultures shape their ghosts: Yurē as the mournful echoes of unfinished lives, and Onryō as injustice turned into action.

If you love folklore, film, and the way stories carry memory across centuries, this one’s for you. Press play, share it with a horror-loving friend, and then tell us: given the choice, do you haunt or help? And if the show made you think, leave a rating and review so more curious minds can find us.

Check out our website for all episode references

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome to the Oddity Shop.

This Month, While we start to make new episodes for 2026, please enjoy some of our Favorite Guest Episodes that got buried in with the backstock!

Up This Week: Our Conversation with TikTok Famous Lauren The Mortician

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome to the Oddity Shop.

This Month, While we start to make new episodes for 2026, please enjoy some of our Favorite Guest Episodes that got buried in with the backstock!

Up This Week: Our Conversation with  Exie Smith

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome to the Oddity Shop.

This Month, While we start to make new episodes for 2026, please enjoy some of our Favorite Guest Episodes that got buried in with the backstock!

Up This Week: Our Conversation with the Sam Baltrusis! 

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome to the Oddity Shop.

This Month, While we start to make new episodes for 2026, please enjoy some of our Favorite Guest Episodes that got buried in with the backstock!

Up This Week: Our Conversation with the amazing, Lauren Haunts

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This Week, Curator Zach is Springing you into the New Year with some wild traditions

Midnight isn’t just a timestamp; it’s a thin place where old stories exhale and new ones rush in. We packed our bags and crossed borders to explore how different cultures welcome the year: by smashing plates, hanging onions, racing with suitcases, counting grapes to a chiming clock, ringing 108 temple bells, burning human-sized effigies, and throwing coins into a house lit bright as noon.

Along the way we share origins, folklore, and the practical “why” behind each tradition, then stitch them into a respectful, irreverent New Year relay race you can adapt at home. It’s part history lesson, part party plan, and fully about intention you can sense: noise for cleansing, flame for closure, circles for fortune, bells for release.

 If you’ve got a hometown ritual or a family superstition, we want to hear it. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves weird history, and leave a review with your good-luck tradition—we might try it next year.

Check out our website for all episode references

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This Christmas, your Curator Kara is gifting us all a Michigan True Crime Story.

\We revisit the Michigan co-ed murders across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in the late 1960s, where a clean-cut college student hid behind charm and familiarity while women disappeared. This isn’t a lurid deep-dive into a killer’s mystique. It’s a careful retelling of the victims’ lives, the warning signs people ignored, and the moments of courage that finally cracked the case.

We walk through the shifting “safe” culture of a college town where hitchhiking felt normal and dorms stayed unlocked. Witness after witness noticed the small things: dead, cold eyes in a wig shop, a hovering presence, a fresh coat of paint in a basement that smelled like bleach. When those observations were reported early and clearly, the investigation turned. Forensics aligned with accounts, and the murders stopped. That’s the point: vigilance is a practice. You don’t need to be a detective to make a difference; you just need to act on the feeling that something isn’t right.

If this episode resonates, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a quick review. And tell us: what safety habit will you change today? Your insight might help someone else speak up when it counts.

Check out our website for all episode references!

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This week, your Curator Zach has a Dark Christmas Cannibal Legend.

Somewhere in the borderlands between France and Germany a scarecrow waits by the road. We follow the threads of Hans Trapp, the “Christmas cannibal,” from his roots in the very real Hans von Trotha. A petty, powerful baron who feuded with an abbey and defied the Pope, to the folklore figure who haunts December nights with straw-stuffed sleeves and a sharpened stick. 

We unpack how a historical grudge spiraled into legend: dams built and shattered, towns flooded, papal letters ignored, and excommunication that turned authority into theater. Then we trace the folklore’s second life, as Hans Trapp becomes Saint Nick’s dark companion across Alsace. Santa offers sweets while the scarecrow tallies sins with sticks and chains. Along the way, we talk about why December carries so many shadow-creatures, how negative reinforcement outmuscles kind intentions.

If you love haunted history, European folklore, and the strange places where church politics meet campfire stories, this one’s for you. 

Check out Our Website for all references used in this episode!

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This week, your Curator Kara Has Gone Mad with Nellie Bly

We open the doors to Blackwell’s Island, once home to New York’s almshouse, workhouse, penitentiary, and the infamous asylum, and follow the razor‑sharp path of Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, better known as Nellie Bly, whose undercover reporting forced the public to look straight at what it wanted to ignore. From the ice-cold intake baths to rancid meals and nights spent shivering under thin blankets, we revisit the details she recorded and the people she met: grieving widows, immigrant women who couldn’t be understood, and a teenager who didn’t know why she was there.

We walk through how Bly engineered her commitment, the moment she dropped the act and was believed even less, and the terrifying reality of the “credibility trap” once you’re labeled insane. 

This story isn’t just Victorian scandal; it’s a mirror. Understaffed psychiatric wards, overwhelmed hospitals, and carceral “solutions” still echo the same logic: out of sight, out of mind. 

If this resonated with you, use your voice: share the episode, leave a review, and subscribe so more people find these stories—and the courage inside them.

Check out Our Website for all references used in this episode!

It Can't Be People! 

Click above - Get your copy now!

Support the show

The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935

JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!

Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.