They called it the most inescapable prison in the United States — a cold, isolated fortress surrounded by frigid waters and razor currents. Alcatraz.

But in 1962, that reputation was obliterated in one of the most audacious prison breaks of all time. Or was it...

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1972, a group of schoolboys in Kera, Japan, claimed to have encountered a tiny silver UFO—and even captured it, twice. What followed was a bizarre tale of vanishing evidence, strange lights, and one of the most overlooked close encounters in UFO history.

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1855, strange hoof-like prints appeared overnight in the snow across Devon in southwest England—stretching for over 100 miles, crossing rooftops, rivers, and walls as if no obstacle mattered.

Locals said only one being could leave such a trail.

It was the Devil himself...

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1953, two U.S. Air Force personnel vanished without a trace while intercepting a mysterious radar target over Lake Superior.

Decades later, the skies remain silent, and the truth behind First Lieutenant Felix Moncla Jnr and Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson's final flight is as cloudy as ever.

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Early on the morning of July 28th, 1987, a rescue helicopter was dispatched to the passenger ferry MS Viking Sally, out on the Baltic Sea. 

When the medic stepped onto deck, he realized immediately that this emergency was very much out of the ordinary...

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Second and final part of Season 08 Episode 33: After the Sun Comes Rain 

Left alone, the only surviving member of Lyudmila's hiking team, Valentina begins the long arduous trek to safety - while the spectre of death haunts her every move....

But what an earth could possibly have wreaked such havoc?

Written by Emma Dibdin, Neil McRobert and Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1993, a group of rafters paddling through the Siberian wilderness of the Khamar Daban mountains came across a teenage girl, caked in mud and blood. Seemingly too traumatised to even speak, when she finally found her voice she uttered only five words. 

"They're dead. They're all dead..."

Written by Emma Dibdin, Neil McRobert and Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In the shadows of Greater Manchester’s canals and waterways, some believe something ancient and malevolent might be lurking. This week on Unexplained, we plunge into eerie folklore, mysterious drownings, and chilling whispers of a phantom predator said to haunt the waters - claiming victims no one can explain.

Written by James Connor Patterson and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Three women vanished without a trace from a quiet suburban home in the early hours of a summer morning in 1992.

What began as a hopeful graduation weekend in Springfield, Missouri, spiraled into one of the most chilling and perplexing missing persons cases in American history.

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Due to the recent arrival of another mini MacLean Smith, the next new episode will be with you next Friday on June 13th… 

In the meantime, we’re heading back into the vault for this week’s episode, going all the way back to the beginning of Season 02. 

England’s Black Country, a region just west of Birmingham is considered one of the birth places of the British industrial revolution. It’s centered around a 30 ft-wide and unusually shallow coal seam – a product of once living trees, compressed and buried for millions of years, returning to the surface like an irrepressible secret.

There are some who say the trees can talk. If they could, what secrets might they hold?

This is Unexplained Season 2 Episode 01: Whispers in the Trees, in full for the first time.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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