Unpacking The Eerie

DARK HISTORY: The Weston State Hospital continued
CW: ableism, racism (including eugenics), gender-based violence, psychiatric trauma, abuse

Part 2 of Melancholia, Menstrual Derangement and Bad Whiskey continues deep dive into Weston State Hospital and the history of U.S.-based "mental asylums."  In this episode, we uncover the different “treatments” that  used at these institutions, including the famously horrific “Icepick” lobotomy. We’ll also explore the backstory of the DSM, deinstitutionalization and the decline of asylums in America. Tune in to learn how Weston State was transformed into the tourist attraction that it is today and learn about the psychiatric survivors & disability justice movements.

References

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

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P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that! 

DARK HISTORY/HAUNTINGS: Weston State Hospital/History of Asylums
CW: ableism, racism, gender-based violence, psychiatric trauma, abuse

In the late 1800s, America would become home to a new wave of “mental health” institutions we now know as asylums. The Weston State Hospital (aka The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum) was one of many of these “state of the art” facilities. This episode Is all about how aspirations for palatial, elite experiences for (white) mentally ill patients quickly descended into the picture that you probably have of these places - carceral sites of unspeakable cruelty and dehumanization for those who were multiply marginalized. There was so much information on this, we’ve decided to break it up into 2 parts. In part one, you’ll learn about why Weston State Hospital is considered one of the most haunted places in the country, the history of asylums as a whole and the social-political climate that led to the extreme rise of people incarcerated in these institutions.   

References

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that! 

DARK HISTORY: The Blue Fugates of Kentucky
cw: incest, childhood sexual abuse, rape, abortion 

After a few months off, we’re back y’all! And this time Shaena takes us down to another small town to learn about a family of blue people. Yes, you read that right - Blue People. Join us as we wander down to Troublesome Creek, Kentucky and learn about the Fugates: aka The Blue Fugates, aka ‘The Blue People of Kentucky’. Why are they blue? Listen to find out. Spoiler alert: it has to do with a lot of inbreeding. This episode, Shaena explores the history of this family, asking the question “Why the Fuck Are They Blue?”, and takes us on a few wild and uncomfortable tangents about incest. Buckle Up!

SOURCES

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that! 

UNSOLVED/CONSPIRACY: Disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

On March 8th, 2014,  227 passengers and 12 crew members boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for a 5 hour commute to Beijing, China. The aircraft departed  Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:42 MYT and by 01:19 MYT completely disappeared off the radar -- never to be seen or heard from again. Since then the Flight 370 disappearance has been the subject of countless newspaper articles, online discussion boards, a documentary and numerous conspiracy theories. In this 'sode, we learn about the timeline and theories as well as the people involved with and impacted by this mysterious tragedy. We also talk about the psychology behind ambiguous loss and the role of toxic masculinity in what we think is the most likely explanation behind the missing Flight 370

CW: suicide, mass death

Sources

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that! 

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CULT: Aum Shinrikyo/Shoko Asahara
cw: abuse, terrorism, sexual violence, death

Our fifth and final segment of our Psychedelic Nightmare series examines the story of a lesser-known Japanese cult that was responsible for the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in March 1995 that killed 14 and injured over 5,000 innocent civilians. Aum Shinrikyo was a cult led by - you guessed it - a malignant narcissist, Shoko Asahara. This episode, we explore Shoko's childhood, the development of his cult while also delving deep into its doomsday philosophies that combined a hodge-podge of religious philosophies with Nostradamus-esque beliefs. This story is a wild one with lots of twists and turns tied to religion, Japanese culture, chemical weapons development and more. We touch upon concepts of Shiva, Shakti, & karma in Hinduism, malignant narcissism in cult leaders, and highlight survivor stories and PTSD from the subway attack.  You'll see how this story links back to all four others, creating an unlikely and disturbing tie that spans four decades, three cults and three countries while involving multiple government agencies and of course Albert Hoffman's Problem Child -- LSD.

References

Support the show

Thank you for listening to our passion project <3 You can find us on social media here! We're a team of 2 people & have always been ad-free. If you are enjoying, please consider supporting our sustainability on Patreon or through Buzzsprout.

- your grateful hosts

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!

Send us a text

CULT: Charles Manson

Segment 4 of Psychedelic Nightmare brings us to one of the most well known cult murders in American history. We’re talking about Charles Manson’s racist, LSD fueled doomsday conspiracy and the young people he convinced to execute what we know now as the Tate Murders. Join us as we unpack the evolution of this cult, historical context of the time, the dynamics of grooming, and how mainstream media  consistently positions the murder of these  Hollywood elite above the horror of Manson's white supremacist agenda. We also take some time to uplift the legacy of the Black Panther Party (who the cult unsuccessfully framed for these murders).

CW: grooming, abuse, murder, sexual assault, anti-Black racism


Sources

Support the show

Thank you for listening to our passion project <3 You can find us on social media here! We're a team of 2 people & have always been ad-free. If you are enjoying, please consider supporting our sustainability on Patreon or through Buzzsprout.

- your grateful hosts

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!

Send us a text

CULT: The Family/The Great White Brotherhood/Anne Hamilton Byrne
cw: sexual assault, suicide, child abuse, ritual abuse 

In Part 3 of this series, we travel away from MKUltra, to the other side of the globe to unpack Australia’s most notorious cult – “The Family” (aka The Great White Brotherhood). In mid 1960’s Australia, this doomsday cult was formed by Anne Hamilton Byrne, a yoga teacher-turned-cult leader, who believed she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. This story has eerie ties that link to MK-Ultra and its LSD abuses, as well as Jim Jones. Join us as we learn how several children were drawn into this cult via bogus adoptions and subjected to years of physical, verbal, psychological and emotional abuse at the hands of Anne & her followers. Through dissecting this shocking story, we also explore yoga as a philosophy, white supremacy in wellness communities & the impacts of betrayal trauma.

References

Support the show

Thank you for listening to our passion project <3 You can find us on social media here! We're a team of 2 people & have always been ad-free. If you are enjoying, please consider supporting our sustainability on Patreon or through Buzzsprout.

- your grateful hosts

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!

Send us a text

DARK HISTORY: MKULTRA continued

In part two of this series on MKUltra, you’ll learn more about the roll out of these LSD-fueled experiments and how they came to a close. We take a deeper look at its intersections with racism and criminalization as well as the stark contrast between the trauma and dehumanization experienced by unknowing “test subjects,” the most impacted being incarcerated Black folks, and the bohemian counter-culture cultivated by white beat writers who were willing participants of MK Ultra experiments at their universities. You’ll also learn more about popular conspiracies tied to these experiments and the psychology behind conspiracy-based beliefs.

content warning: violence, torture, anti-black racism, mention of drugs

Check out Akshi's Interview on All Humans Are Human here 

References

Support the show

Thank you for listening to our passion project <3 You can find us on social media here! We're a team of 2 people & have always been ad-free. If you are enjoying, please consider supporting our sustainability on Patreon or through Buzzsprout.

- your grateful hosts

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!

  DARK HISTORY: MKULTRA, Intro/History

In our second series, we explore our first ever conspiracy theory, that is absolutely wild & incredibly true. Project MKULTRA was a secret CIA project that took place between the early 1950s to the early 1970s, in which hundreds of tortuous experiments were conducted on (mostly) unsuspecting human subjects. The project, Sidney Gottlieb, aimed to develop strategies and identify drugs (such as LSD), that could be used for the purposes of “mind-control” (read: how can we psychologically torture, force confessions and manipulate the consciousness of the human mind?). In the first part of this multi-part series, we dig in to Allan Memorial, one of the many institutions where these experiments took place & set the stage for MKUltra. Learn about how the Cold War and the Red Scare motivated the creation of this project, the discovery of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and its unique characteristics and  of course, the project’s lead “Poisoner in Chief”, Sidney Gottlieb. 

Join our Patreon or subscribe on Buzzsprout to access the rest of the series! 

content warning: gun violence, torture, homophobia, racism, drugs 

Uvalde/Buffalo Shooting Resources & References

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that! 

TRUE CRIME: Katherine Knight

We’re back with a horrifying story and, this time, we’re taking you to the small town of Aberdeen in New South Wales Australia. “If I don’t show up to work, it’s because she killed me,” John Price told his co-workers as he prepared to separate from his relationship with Katherine Knight. The next day his neighbors rang the alarm when he never arrived at work without a call — Katherine had murdered….and cannibalized him. This episode, we trace back Katherine’s relationship histories that preceded the killing and explore the question “what the fuck happened to you, Katherine?” Join us as we discuss “personality disorders”, break down the impact of childhood DV and how patriarchy is still the devil in this story. 

cw: domestic violence, child sexual abuse, incest, graphic violence, animal abuse

SOURCES

Reach out to us with thoughts, comments, questions or collab requests!

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

We’ll also be moving minisodes and parts of our series episodes so that they are only available through subscription and on Patreon. If you’re interested and able, the lowest tier is $2/month. This helps us maintain hosting fees and the bare basics of keeping our podcast active. Appreciate your support! 

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!