Let's Get Haunted

When relic's of cranium pieces, talk of cannibalism, and death photos began commonplace within the black metal scene, the public began to wonder whether the evil was just a gimmick or if something darker lingered within the lyrics.

Have you ever heard of The Backrooms? The Backrooms are widely considered to be the most popular and prolific internet urban legend in existence. The Backrooms are often depicted as an endless series of empty, yellow-lit rooms with old, stained carpet, fluorescent lights, and monotonous, beige walls. These rooms are said to feel like a surreal or dreamlike version of an ordinary office or storage space, giving an unsettling and otherworldly impression. People end up in The Backrooms by accidentally “no-clipping” out of reality, a concept borrowed from video game jargon, where one passes through boundaries in a game. In the Backrooms mythos, this happens unintentionally, leaving individuals stranded in this strange, featureless space. The Backrooms concept taps into the creepiness of liminal spaces, areas that feel like they exist between worlds (like empty malls or abandoned office buildings). They feel both familiar and alien, evoking feelings of loneliness, unease, or nostalgia. As the concept grew, communities began creating “levels” of The Backrooms, each with unique characteristics and environments (such as flooding or vast warehouse spaces).

This is the episode where our Haunties (aka listeners) write in with their first-person spooky tales of cryptids, ghosts, curses, and aliens AND where Nat & Aly unbox fan mail sent by listeners just like YOU. This week, we unbox mail from: Karen B. And Claudia V.! Listener stories from this week’s episode include: doppelgänger sightings, a grim reaper sighting, a self-lighting candle, a yellow songbird haunting, a visit to Madame LaLaurie’s haunted mansion, a lost keychain resurfaces under improbable circumstances, stories from a haunted nurse, a rediscovered puzzle piece, a ghost encounters a child and appears in a photo, and more! Some of the listeners whose stories are featured in this episode include: Eeva, Anya, Deanna, James C, Madisyn G, Wyatt L, Aby W, Ash, Cyndi, and Sara W!

Thomas grew up on the Colville Indian Reservation in eastern Washington. One day while out for a run in the mountains, he encounters a terrifying beast that he believes might have been a skinwalker. Wyatt was a merchant marine who spent many years on the open seas. Far away from civilization, strange things can be seen both day and night while passing through some of Earth’s less-traveled waterways: from orbs and UAPs to cryptids and creatures. Katelyn and her dad were out geocaching in the Alaskan woods in summer. Try as they might, they couldn’t find the last geocache of the day. A few weeks later, they decide to try again and go on the hunt for it, but when they finally find it they’re left with more questions than answers.

The quest to find this mysterious source of gold was often followed in its wake by a curse of death and destruction. Modern historians dismiss El Dorado as nothing more than myth, but what if a golden empire actually did exist?