Pleasing Terrors

By Mike Brown

Personal Journals Society & Culture Arts Performing Arts

What's Pleasing Terrors about?

Join acclaimed ghost storyteller Mike Brown for a bi-weekly tour through the shadows of history. The Pleasing Terrors Podcast features stories about haunted places, creepy history, and forgotten folklore.

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Pleasing Terrors episodes:

01.18.2024
Charleston Gothic (Part 1)
In this episode, we take a look at Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug," a story about an encrypted map that leads to a buried pirate treasure. We will visit a haunted theater and discuss a play a play about...
12.21.2022
The Mermaid Returns: Part 3
The conclusion of the three part series which combines history, ghosts, true crime and fairytales.
12.11.2022
The Mermaid Returns: Part 2
The second episode in a three part series about one of Charleston's lost stories. It is a true story that combines history, true crime, ghosts and fairy tales.
12.01.2022
The Mermaid Returns: Part 1
This is the first in a three part series about one of Charleston, South Carolina's lost stories. It combines history, ghosts, true crime, amd fairytales.
03.29.2021
Here Are Dragons
This episode features the untold story of the origin of King Kong.
10.30.2020
Last Breath
This episode tells a story about pirates and a haunted dungeon.
07.24.2020
The Mermaid
This episode tells the story of the Charleston mermaid.
10.23.2019
Corpsewood
This is a story about a German fairytale and a brutal murder in northwestern Georgia. Suggested reading: The Corpsewood Manor Murders In North Georgia by Amy Petulla
09.17.2019
Through A Glass Darkly
This a story about the Titanic, Victorian sex trafficking and a mummy's curse.
08.15.2019
Shadows of Savannah Part 2: The Dead Time
Haunted houses, midnight witchcraft and famous murder in historic Savannah, Georgia.
02.22.2019
Shadows of Savannah (Part 1): Most Haunted
In this episode I visit some of Savanah's most haunted locations. Suggested Reading: Haunted Savanah: America's Most Spectral City by James Caskey Haunted Savannah by Georgia R. Byrd
08.24.2018
True Ghosts
Harry Houdini and the Halloween Séance.
04.24.2018
Creepy Door Room
An unexpected return to a very creepy place to do a very foolish thing.
04.10.2018
In the Shadow of Oz
This episode features The Wizard of Oz, Greek mythology and a famous unsolved murder.
03.16.2018
Resurrection
Episode 30: Resurrection delves into the history of Chicago's most famous ghost: Resurrection Mary!
12.12.2017
029: Invisible World Part 2 - Satan’s Kingdom
I am with Alyson Horrocks of The Strange and Unusual Podcast. It’s the evening of August 20th, 2017. We are in Danvers, MA which was previously known as Salem Village. We are visiting the Samuel Parris archeological site. Surrounded by...
10.20.2017
028: Strange Terrors
Alyson Horrocks from the Strange and Unusual Podcast took me on a tour of a historical site with a dark past. The site sits in a town called Danvers, but it was once Salem Village. This site was the culmination...
09.29.2017
027: The Dark Path
The history of the Navajo goes back in time to the Four Corners region in Arizona. Where the spider grandmother spun a giant web and threw it into the night sky to create the stars. This area known as Canyon...
09.19.2017
026: Monster of the Deep
On November 20th, 1850 night watchman George Pollard Jr. makes his nightly rounds on the foggy Island of Nantucket, MA. An island once inhabited by proud tribes of Native Americans before the addition of the colonists. An island that was...
08.18.2017
025: A Vampire's Heart
Count Dracula’s story is one of many pieces; a story of a man and the secrets that are hidden inside his castle. Bram Stoker, the story’s author, is also a man of many secrets who constructed his own castle and...
07.31.2017
024: The Devil Inside
Chicago’s West 63rd Street Post Office was built in 1938 over the site of what its creator referred to as “The Castle”, and in 1902 an Ohio Daily News article called it Chicago’s Ghost Castle. Whatever you want to call...
07.24.2017
023: Sins of the Father
The Heriot House in Georgetown, South Carolina was built in 1765. It is now the Harbor House Inn and there are many stories by visitors and Georgetown residents alike of seeing an image of a woman that looks like she...
07.07.2017
022: Hell Broke Loose
In Austin, Texas in 1884 a female servant was killed in a gruesome ax murder. Feeble attempts were made to find the murderer, but to no avail. Soon a series of gruesome ax murders and attacks followed. Each one more...
06.02.2017
021: Hungry Spirits
In Native American folklore, there was a dark creature that possessed the mind and body of men, instilling within them a great hunger for human flesh. The Wendigo was feared by tribes throughout what is now North America and Canada...
05.19.2017
020: True Horror
The Salisbury Plain is the name for the 300 miles of grasslands located in Wiltshire, England. Home to Stonehenge, a rich history, and a wide variety of plants and animals, the Salisbury Plain is one of the most famous locations...
05.02.2017
019: The Dark Séance Polka
The White House: In all it’s glory, from the immaculately-kept gardens to the walls hung with priceless art, is an icon of American history and power. Home to every President since 1800, the White House is seen as a safe...
04.14.2017
018: The Place of the Dragon
Deep within the heart of New Jersey lies an untamed swath of trees and brush, long believed to be the home of the Jersey Devil itself. A horrifying creature with the head of a goat and the wings of a...
04.04.2017
017: A Monster of Many Parts
Who can forget the classic tale of the mad scientist who creates a gorgeously gruesome Creature, only to become frightened and disgusted by his own creation? Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is one of the most widely taught examples of Gothic...
03.17.2017
016: True Crime
Fairy tales often teach an important moral lesson, hidden within the entertaining twists and turns of the story. The tale of Bluebeard, the rich man who keeps the bodies of his murdered wives locked behind the forbidden doors of the...
02.24.2017
015: Condemned, Part Two - The Devil’s Hour
The time between three and four in the morning is said to be the hour when evil is at the height of it’s power -- the time when the Devil ascends from Hell and ghosts haunt the land of the...
02.17.2017
014: Condemned, Part One - Welcome to Hell
Nestled inside Charleston, South Carolina lives a menacing stone monstrosity, often called the most haunted building in America -- The Old City Jail. The square upon which the Jail sits has been home to untold amounts of suffering and torture,...
02.03.2017
013: Place of Slaughter
The railroad tracks over the Tsavo river are flanked on either side with lush grasses. A picturesque river runs below, providing a calming base for the trains that rush from Uganda to Kenya and back again. During it’s construction, men...
01.13.2017
012: The Serpent's Curse
Throughout history, disasters of astronomical proportions have taken place on one auspicious day -- Friday the Thirteenth. Shipwrecks, tsunamis, raging forest fires, brutal murderers, and horrifying accidents have all claimed victims on a day that many believe has been cursed...
12.16.2016
011: The Labyrinth Part 2 - The Hell Below
Underneath our world lies a twisting and complicated maze, a dark mass of underground caves, passageways, and secrets. In part two of our Labyrinth series, we delve into the explorations of Greg Newkirk into the heart of the Kentucky goblin...
12.09.2016
010: The Labyrinth Part 1 - Goblins
The brave Greek hero Theseus made a name for himself when he defeated the monstrous Minotaur and escaped the depths of the Labyrinth by mapping his path back to safety with a ball of red string. The story of the...
11.18.2016
009: The Mourner's Curse
The stories of Charleston, South Carolina are composed of a tangled web of dreams and memories. They’ve been passed through historians, artists, writers, and tour guides, twisting into a new shape with each retelling. Deep within the historic city lies...
11.04.2016
008: Shadows of Gotham
The city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the city with streets paved with opportunities… for many of us, New York represents a glittering place where absolutely anything is possible. Yet for all its glamour and sparkle, there are...
10.21.2016
007 The Married One
The idyllic Fox Hollow Farm boasts of a basement-level swimming pool and sprawling acres of land. But all is not as it seems. A man creeps through the woods nearby, his legs transparent in the flashlight’s beam. There is an...
10.07.2016
006: The Mountain of Madness
Mysteries are a rarity in our world. What used to be unexplainable is now quickly answered by the modern marvels of technology and science. So when a new mystery appears, we drive ourselves crazy searching for an explanation, haunted by...
09.21.2016
005: Shadow of the Wolf
Werewolves have been portrayed in folklore, books, movies and television for centuries. Rageful howls under the full moon. Fangs, claws, fur, muscle and legend. Is it a monster? A ghost or a demon? Is it real? Historic folk tales about...
09.07.2016
004: The Devil's Business
A haunted house should loom out of the darkness, its windows boarded up, ghosts and dust as the only occupants. But horror dwells inside two beautifully decorated homes in the Benedict Canyon of Beverly Hills. While its name means...
08.24.2016
003: The Invitation
Wear garlic around your neck. Carry a wooden stake. Hang a crucifix on the wall, and never, ever, open the door for Dracula. The superstitions that were meant to protect our ancestors from vampires taught them the most...
08.10.2016
002: Who Are You?
Early 19th-century America was a time for the pioneer, the robust adventurer who leaves the familiarity of home in search of fortune and success. One such man was John Bell, a farmer who settled in Adams, Tennessee with his family...
08.03.2016
001: Red Riding Hood & the Wolf
Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The young child in her bright red cloak who gets lost in the forest, only to be preyed upon and devoured by the big bad wolf. Red Riding Hood is freed...