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IMMERSIVE EPISODE!

Seven investigators enter Waverly Hills Sanatorium on Halloween night. Four disappear. Their equipment begins recording things that shouldn't exist. And the deeper the investigation goes, the less certain anyone can be about what is real.

Welcome to our Halloween Special of The Storytelling Podcast.

Tonight, we're entering one of America's most infamous locations associated with paranormal lore: Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Put on your headphones, turn down the lights, and join me for a Halloween night investigation where every new discovery raises another question.

This is a fictional horror narrative, not a verified account of a real paranormal investigation.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for immersive stories, mysteries, history, forgotten places and tales that stay with you long after the final words.

Chapters

00:00 — The Halloween Night Begins
01:00 — The Shadow of the Hill
03:56 — The First Floor Lobby and the Bleeding Signal
08:08 — The Cold Storage of the Dead
12:06 — The Open-Air Porches of the Fourth Floor
16:32 — The Isolation of Central Command
20:37 — The Rotting Cafeteria and the Detached Shadows
24:03 — The Maw of the Service Elevator
27:50 — The Descent into the Sub-Basement
31:28 — The Mouth of the Chute
34:58 — The Labyrinth of the Second Floor
38:23 — The Surgical Chase
41:36 — The Purging of the Ward
44:52 — The Padded Horizon

Sources and credits:
• Original fictional story written for The Storytelling Podcast by Spotlight Creative Agency.
• Video and Audio editing by Spotlight Creative Agency.
• Original Music made exclusively for this episode by Spotlight Creative Agency, and sound effects: freesound_community via Pixabay.

• Episode imagery: AI-generated.

#HalloweenSpecial #HorrorStory #GhostHunting #WaverlyHills #TheStorytellingPodcast #PsychologicalHorror #ParanormalMystery #HalloweenNight

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/4nbbAIvA8I4

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https://spotlightcreativeagency.com/

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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial/

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
All social media  @thestorytellingpodcastofficial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

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Disclaimer: Some content and visual details might be impactful for sensitive viewers and listeners.

 
Before TikTok horror, viral videos and modern urban legends, the internet had a much darker side.

Welcome to Episode 91 of The Storytelling Podcast, where we return to the early days of the internet to explore 14 vintage creepypastas and digital horror legends that terrified online communities.

But how much of it was real?

Historical and supernatural claims are discussed in the context of their origins and the episode's fact-check segment. Unverified paranormal accounts should not be taken as established fact.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more historical mysteries, unsettling legends, remarkable stories and immersive journeys into the unknown.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – The Early Internet's Darkest Corner
01:30 – Ted the Caver
08:40 – The Dionaea House
13:20 – 1999: Mr. Bear's Cellar
18:00 – The Blind Maiden
22:00 – Username: 666
26:00 – Smile.jpg
29:50 – Pale Luna
37:40 – The Rake
42:25 – Polybius
47:10 – Suicidemouse.avi
52:10 – Slender Man
58:05 – The Mothman Digital Sightings
1:03:15 – BEN Drowned
1:08:35 – The Digital Void: Why We Still Fear These Stories

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/fllWkxw6QrY 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

Hey guys, Alejandra here with your official, behind-the-scenes reality check. Since we are dealing with real internet history, let's break down exactly what was real, what was fiction, and where these legends actually lived.

• Ted the Caver (2001): The cave in the story is entirely real. The author, Ted Hegemann, based the journal entries on his genuine exploration of Interstate Cave in Utah, USA. While the supernatural elements were fictional additions, the original text—often cited as the first true creepypasta—can be browsed via Ted's Caving Page Internet Archive Backup.
• The Dionaea House (2004): This viral masterpiece was actually an early Alternate Reality Game (ARG). It was written by professional screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who later earned an Academy Award nomination for writing the hit film Arrival. Because the original site went offline, content curators often review it via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, as detailed in the comprehensive CreepCast Production Analysis.
• 1999 / Mr. Bear's Cellar (2009): This narrative was pure creepypasta fiction. It was originally written by an author using the alias Camden Lamont on a WordPress blog. There was never an illegal broadcasting channel named Caledon Local 21 in Ontario, Canada, nor do local police records match any of the details.
• Blind Maiden (Mid-2000s): This was a total playground myth. It circulated wildly across early European MSN Messenger groups and text forums. No such functioning URL ever existed to initiate a webcam broadcast at midnight; it was an early form of digital chain folklore.
• Username: 666 (2007): The horrifying YouTube channel glitch was an art piece. It originated on the Japanese video platform Nicovideo before spreading to YouTube. The famous video showing the un-closable, bleeding screen was a clever flash animation created by a legendary Japanese net artist known as Nana825763.
• Smile.jpg (2008): The infamous husky image is a pure Photoshop creation. The original creator of the image remains anonymous, but the underlying curse of insomnia and forced digital forwarding perfectly mirrors traditional paper chain letters adapted for early imageboards.
• Pale Luna (1998): This text adventure game never existed on physical media. No 3.5-inch floppy disks containing a secret real-world coordinates drop were ever distributed in San Francisco. It was a standalone piece of short-form horror fiction tailored to exploit the nostalgia of retro MS-DOS computing.
• The Rake (2005): This creature was entirely crowdsourced from scratch. Users on an early 4chan community text board intentionally started a collaborative thread with the explicit goal of "forming a new monster". Users agreed on the physical descriptors (pale skin, long arms), and individual writers began weaving independent firsthand logs.
• Polybius (Early 2000s): The government arcade cabinet myth trace back to a specific website. The legend officially surfaced around the year 2000 on an arcade collector database called Coinop.org. While real medical cases of kids getting sick or experiencing seizures in Portland arcades occurred in 1981, they were caused by competitive exhaustion and epilepsy triggers during high-intensity sessions of Asteroids and Tempest.
• Suicidemouse.avi (2009): Disney archives have confirmed this file does not exist. The video that circulated across early video-sharing websites was a fan-made loop consisting of a basic Mickey Mouse animation overlaid with distorted static, backward tracking piano notes, and visual distortions.
• Slender Man (2009): We have definitive proof of the exact day this boogeyman was born. On June 10, 2009, user Eric Knudsen (under the digital alias Victor Surge) uploaded the original black-and-white photos to a specific online contest thread, which you can view in the archived Something Awful "Create Paranormal Images" Thread. The subsequent explosion of modern tulpas and real-world sightings is covered extensively in the Inside A Mind: Rise and Fall of Slenderman Documentary.
• The Mothman Digital Sightings (Late 90s): The digital panic was a product of movie hype and early bulletin board culture. While the original 1966 events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia are a true staple of American cryptid lore, the late 90s "live forum postings" were internet hoaxes engineered to generate buzz surrounding the theatrical release of the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies.
• BEN Drowned (2010): This legendary haunted cartridge was a brilliant hoax. It was created by a college student named Alex Hall (known online as Jadusable). He utilized standard Nintendo 64 emulation tools and video editing software to fabricate the glitched gameplay footage of Majora's Mask. The complete archival history of the ARG can be explored directly on the Official Jadusable Wiki Database

Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

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Children are supposed to represent innocence. But across folklore, paranormal accounts, and unsettling historical cases, the figure of the child can become something far more disturbing.

I'll also share my own personal experience with a creepy child in a clinic.

Welcome to Episode 90 of The Storytelling Podcast, where we enter the world of creepy kids and explore the stories that blur the line between reality and legend.

Chapters

00:00 – Entering the World of Creepy Kids
01:20 – The Black-Eyed Children of Abilene
04:25 – The Phantom of Cannock Chase
07:00 – The Ancient Irish Changelings
10:30 – The Secrets of the Montauk Project
14:30 – The Vallecas Possession Case
18:20 – The Children's Ward of Valongo
21:15 – My Personal Experience with a Creepy Child
28:30 – Final Thoughts

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/I2Q6hxN5wCo 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

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http://alejandraslife.com/

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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial/

▶️ YouTube:
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Sources and further reading

The episode's fact-check notes discuss the origins and credibility:

- Black-Eyed Children legend:  Emma Cieslik, Death as a Child: The Modern Legend of the Black-Eyed Children, Atlas Obscura (2024): https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-eyed-children-urban-legend

Black-Eyed Children, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_children

- Cannock Chase ghost story: PBS, Monstrum: Don't Let Them In! The Urban Legends of Black-Eyed Children: https://www.pbs.org/video/dont-let-them-in-the-urban-legends-of-black-eyed-children-oht8de/

- Celtic changeling folklore:  C. F. Goodey and T. Stainton, Intellectual Disability and the Myth of the Changeling Myth, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (2001): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11466710/

Rose A. Sawyer, The Medieval Changeling: Health, Childcare, and the Family Unit, Boydell & Brewer (2023): https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2x4kp7q

Changeling, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling

- Montauk Project conspiracy theory:  US Army Corps of Engineers, Camp Hero: https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Civil-Works-Budget-Information/Projects-in-New-York/Camp-Hero/

The Secrets of Camp Hero and the Montauk Conspiracy Theories, Roadtrippers: https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/camp-hero-montauk-conspiracy-theories/

On Montauk, article on the Montauk Project: https://onmontauk.com/2020/05/23/elementor-23599/

- Vallecas case:  Cuatro, Expediente Vallecas: el único informe paranormal de la Policía en España (2018): https://www.cuatro.com/cuarto-milenio/expediente-vallecas-informe-paranormal-policia-espana_18_2627100016.html

Telemadrid, Caso Vallecas: el Expediente X español (2023): https://www.telemadrid.es/noticias/madrid/Caso-Vallecas-El-Expediente-X-espanol-que-culmino-con-el-unico-informe-policial-que-recoge-sucesos-paranormales-en-el-pais-0-2609439095--20231026075340.html

Archivo 13, Expediente Vallecas: el atestado de 1992 y los hechos documentados: https://www.archivo13.com/expediente/expediente-vallecas-el-atestado-policial-de-1992

- Sanatório de Mont’Alto:  Ana Rodrigues, Mont’Alto Sanatorium – Valongo, academic research hosted by the Polytechnic Institute of Porto: https://recipp.ipp.pt/bitstream/10400.22/17470/1/Ana_Rodrigues_MEIN_2020.pdf

NiT, O sanatório abandonado há 50 anos em Valongo que parece cenário de um filme de terror: https://www.nit.pt/fora-de-casa/na-cidade/o-sanatorio-abandonado-ha-50-anos-em-valongo-que-parece-cenario-de-um-filme-de-terror

JornalismoPortoNet (JPN), A história de um Sanatório que chegou fora de horas: https://www.jpn.up.pt/2018/07/17/a-historia-de-um-sanatorio-que-chegou-fora-de-horas/

Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

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Welcome to Episode 89 of The Storytelling Podcast, part of our Nightmare Season Halloween series.

In the early twentieth century, the swamp communities of Frenier, Ruddock and Napton were home to families who farmed, worked in logging and relied on the Illinois Central railroad. Among them lived Julia Brown, a Black landowner and traditional healer remembered in local folklore for singing about a day when the town would die with her.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more forgotten histories, eerie legends, remarkable lives and stories that linger long after the final words.

Chapters

00:00 – Into the Black Waters of Louisiana
01:10 – The Forgotten Towns of Manchac
03:10 – Julia Brown and the Song of Doom
05:30 – The Night the Bayou Rose
08:00 – The Towns Lost to the Hurricane
09:40 – Voices Beneath the Cypress Trees
11:20 – The Rougarou: Cajun Werewolf Legend
12:40 – The Curse Versus the Historical Record
15:20 – What Remains of Frenier
16:30 – The Real Meaning of the Cajun Curse

Sources and further reading

• National Weather Service, New Orleans: https://www.weather.gov/lix/20thcenturytopten
• NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hurricane_blog/100th-anniversary-of-the-great-new-orleans-hurricane/
• The Historic New Orleans Collection, Julia Brown’s Curse and the Storm That Swamped Ruddock: https://hnoc.org/publishing/first-draft/julia-brown-curse-hoodoo-hurricanes-and-storm-swamped-ruddock

Hashtags

#TheStorytellingPodcast #ManchacSwamp #JuliaBrown #LouisianaHistory #CajunFolklore #Rougarou #HauntedPlaces #HistoricalMysteries #GhostStories #NightmareSeason

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/rWkd3n_Kmi4

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
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❤️ Support the podcast:
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🌍 Website:
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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
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Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
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Beneath the streets of Savannah, Georgia, lie the remains of thousands of people who were buried long before the modern city took shape. But Colonial Park Cemetery holds more than forgotten history. According to visitors and local storytellers, some of its secrets may not be resting quietly.

Welcome to Episode 88 of The Storytelling Podcast, part of our Nightmare Season Halloween countdown.

Established in 1750, Colonial Park Cemetery served Savannah for more than a century. When burials officially ended in 1853, an estimated 10,000 people had been laid to rest there. Today, only a fraction of that number is represented by visible headstones. As the city expanded, streets and pavements covered parts of the original burial ground.

In this episode, we explore the cemetery's history and three unsettling accounts submitted by listeners.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more true stories, forgotten history, mysteries and unsettling tales throughout Nightmare Season.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: The Dead Beneath the Streets
01:46 Savannah's Forgotten Graves
05:02 The Guide Who Saw Too Much
09:17 The Uninvited Shadows
12:10 The Sound of the Trenches
15:07 The Digital Hauntings and the Myths
18:14 The Weight of Savannah's Soil

Sources and further reading

• Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia: historical site and cemetery records - https://www.georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/colonial-park/
• Savannah's colonial burial history and yellow fever epidemics: https://www.savannahnow.com/story/lifestyle/2021/08/04/savannah-history-cemeteries-colonial-park-yellow-fever-deaths-graves/5476392001/
• Historical accounts of the American Civil War occupation of Savannah: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/military-history-and-science/battle-savannah/
• Listener-submitted stories featured in this episode

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/j8PzFL23g98

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

🌍 Website:
http://alejandraslife.com/

📱 Follow us:
@thestorytellingpodcastofficial
@AleLifeOfficial

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
All social media  @thestorytellingpodcastofficial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

Send us Fan Mail

THE STORYTELLING PODCAST PRESENTS: NIGHTMARE SEASON

Two weeks. Terrifying stories. No safe nights.
For the next 2 weeks, there will be 3 stories per week, and a special episode on Halloween! 
Make sure you subscribe, tune in, and have fun! 

About this Episode:

Behind the rusted gates of Eastern State Penitentiary lies a history darker than its reputation as one of America's most haunted prisons.

In this Halloween episode of The Storytelling Podcast, Alejandra travels to Philadelphia to explore the prison that attempted to reform inmates through absolute isolation. Opened in 1829, Eastern State was built around an ambitious and deeply controversial idea: that solitude and penitence could transform a person's life.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more historical mysteries, remarkable lives, forgotten places and unsettling encounters.

Chapters

00:00 — Entering Eastern State Penitentiary
01:15 — The Prison Built to Break Isolation
04:30 — When Solitude Became Psychological Torture
07:00 — Al Capone and the Prison's Dark Reputation
09:00 — Willie Sutton's Daring Escape
10:00 — Paranormal Investigations Behind the Walls
12:00 — Voices from the Internet
16:00 — The Locksmith of Cellblock 4
18:00 — History, Hauntings and the Final Verdict

Sources and credits

• Eastern State Penitentiary history and the prison's solitary confinement system: https://easternstate.org/about/history-of-eastern-state-penitentiary
• Charles Dickens' 1842 visit and his criticism of solitary confinement: https://solitarywatch.org/2010/02/27/charles-dickens-on-solitary-confinement-immense-torture-and-agony/
• Historical accounts of Al Capone's imprisonment and Willie Sutton's 1945 escape: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-daring-escape-from-the-eastern-state-penitentiary-180947688/
• Paranormal reports and local legends, presented as claims rather than established facts.
• Music and sound effects: freesound_community via Pixabay.
• Visual credits: AI-generated images, real images credited on the video.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/gF606eevE84 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

🌍 Website:
http://alejandraslife.com/

📱 Follow us:
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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial/

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
All social media  @thestorytellingpodcastofficial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

Send us Fan Mail

THE STORYTELLING PODCAST PRESENTS: NIGHTMARE SEASON

Two weeks. Terrifying stories. No safe nights. Our 2 Weeks of Halloween stories start TODAY!!
For the next 2 weeks, there will be 3 stories per week, and a special episode on Halloween day! 
Make sure you subscribe and have fun!

About our Episode today:
Miles of empty fields. Abandoned farmhouses. Barns that should be silent after dark.

In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, seven listeners from the United States and Canada share unsettling stories about the farms, ranches and family properties they say they will never forget.

Which story would frighten you the most if it happened on your own property? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more true stories, mysteries, forgotten places and unsettling encounters.

Chapters:

00:00 — Welcome to the Isolated Farms of North America
01:15 — The Inherited Silence
05:48 — After the Storm
09:55 — The Rows Are Watching
13:49 — The Whispering Barn
17:48 — The Red Horizon
21:25 — The Uninvited Guest
24:56 — El Duende del Sótano
28:55 — Until the Next Story

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/xDuixvMxARU 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

🌍 Website:
http://alejandraslife.com/

📱 Follow us:
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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial/

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
All social media  @thestorytellingpodcastofficial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to The Storytelling Podcast, your cosy corner of captivating tales.

In Episode 85, we explore five unsettling Reddit-style stories about mysterious staircases hidden in remote forests. 

Which staircase would frighten you the most? Listen to all five stories and decide for yourself.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more remarkable lives, mysteries, historical stories and unusual tales every week.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Welcome to the Woods
01:13 – Story One: The Staircase at Mile Thirty-Two
11:00 – Story Two: The Woman Who Heard Her Son
19:57 – Story Three: The Staircase That Wasn't There Yesterday
28:30 – Story Four: What Came Down the Stairs
36:14 – Story Five: The Last Staircase
50:04 – Final Thoughts and Outro

Sound effect: freesound_community via Pixabay.

Visuals: AI-generated images.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/NdM6CDKXtVU 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
[email protected]

🌐 Buzzsprout:
https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

🌍 Website:
http://alejandraslife.com/

📱 Follow us:
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https://www.instagram.com/alelifeofficial/

▶️ YouTube:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
Website: https://thestorytellingpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
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⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses Nazi atrocities, antisemitism, concentration camps and unethical human experiments. Discretion is advised.

What happens when a government turns myths into weapons and uses its own twisted ideology to justify real-world atrocities?

In the final years of Nazi Germany, the image of the werewolf became associated with a desperate campaign of resistance against the advancing Allies. 

Behind the propaganda lay a regime determined to prolong a war it was losing, punish those who sought surrender, and preserve its grip on a collapsing nation.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — A Dark Chapter in Real History
02:20 — Hitler, Wolves and Nazi Mythology
05:10 — The Werewolf and the Vampire Narrative
07:50 — Operation Werwolf: Germany’s Last Resistance
09:25 — The Assassination of Franz Oppenhoff
11:35 — Inside the Ahnenerbe
12:50 — Atlantis, Ancient Myths and Racial Pseudoscience
15:25 — Sigmund Rascher and the Human Experiments
17:25 — The Jewish Skeleton Collection
19:10 — The Real Monsters of the Third Reich

SOURCES

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Holocaust Encyclopedia: Natzweiler-Struthof (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/natzweiler-struthof)
• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — August Hirt and the medical crimes associated with the Jewish skeleton collection (https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/medical-experiments/august-hirt)
• German Historical Museum — The Werwolf organisation and its activities (https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/ordnung-und-vernichtung/en/raum4.html)
• Arolsen Archives — Historical records concerning Natzweiler-Struthof (https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/1-1-29-2_01012902-oS)
• The 86 victims: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90z8NW9i2Y
• The 86 remains: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/86-remains-used-for-nazi-human-experiments-discovered-in-strasbourg-labratory.html
• The only remaining audio of Radio Werwolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxfsZ99bWPY

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/I78HUr3GSUw 

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Before Dresden became a symbol of wartime destruction, it was known as the “Florence of the Elbe”, a city of music, art, architecture, industry and life along the River Elbe.

Then came February 1945.

In Part One of this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we travel back to Dresden during the final months of the Second World War and explore the events surrounding the bombing of the city on 13–15 February 1945.

In Part Two, we move from the historical record into literature and memory, speaking with Vic Echegoyen, author of Blitz: La destrucción de Dresde, about the people and personal stories behind the ruins.

Chapters

00:00 — Dresden Before the Bombs
02:45 — The Florence of the Elbe
06:10 — A City of Art and Industry
09:15 — Dresden Inside Nazi Germany
12:20 — Refugees Arrive From the East
15:20 — The Age of Area Bombing
18:10 — 13 February 1945
21:00 — The Firestorm
24:20 — The Morning After
27:05 — How Many People Died?
30:00 — Dresden and the Power of Propaganda
32:15 — Kurt Vonnegut and Dresden
34:15 — Remembering the People
36:05 — Part Two: The Story Continues

Sources

• Dresden Historical Commission: Victims of the Air Attacks on 13–15 February 1945
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Bombing of Dresden
• History.com: Firebombing of Dresden
• BBC: Dresden bombing research supplied for the episode
• Truman Library Institute, WWII 80: The Bombing of Dresden
• U.S. Air Force Historical Analysis, research on the bombing of Dresden
• Peace Palace Library: Dresden 1945: An Allied War Crime?
• Kurt Vonnegut's experience of Dresden, discussed through his literary work Slaughterhouse-Five
• Vic Echegoyen book: Blitz: La destrucción de Dresde

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/W0puaUAAT90 

🎧 Available on all podcast platforms.

📩 Story submissions:
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🌐 Buzzsprout:
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❤️ Support the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2443276/support

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@AleLifeOfficial

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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to [email protected].

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

------------------

Story submission: [email protected]
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Website: http://alejandraslife.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlejandrasLife