Oddball Guests: Jessica Knapik and Her Weirdo Adventures
Oddball Guests: Jessica Knapik and Her Weirdo Adventures
Welcome to a Very Special Episode of The Oddity Shop! In The Shop This Week we have a special guest: Jessica Knapik, paranormal investigator and co-host of What’s Up Weirdo,
She’s the rare guest who can talk travel planning, horror movies, and haunted attachments without losing the plot or the jokes.
If you’re into haunted locations, paranormal podcasts, horror movie recommendations, Her dog Toad, and the real logistics of living a weird life, this one is for you.
30 East Drive: The Black Monk of Pontefract
30 East Drive: The Black Monk of Pontefract
A teenage girl jolts awake after midnight with invisible pressure crushing her throat, her bed shaking like something is trying to throw her off, and dark red finger marks blooming on her neck. That moment is the turning point in the case of 30 East Drive in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, a modest brick house that’s earned a lasting reputation as one of the most haunted homes in England and even Europe.
The Great Lunar Hoax of 1835: Bat People on The Moon!
The Great Lunar Hoax of 1835: Bat People on The Moon!
A New York newspaper once got thousands of people to believe there were bat-like humanoids living on the moon, and the wild part is how reasonable it sounded at the time. We walk through the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, the infamous run of articles published by the New York Sun that claimed Sir John Herschel had a next-level telescope capable of spotting lunar forests, temples, strange animals, and “Vespatrilo Homo” flying around like it was normal field research. The story didn’t spread because people were dumb. It spread because it was written like science, released in a bingeable series, and backed by names that sounded impossible to question.
From there, we connect the dots to today’s world of viral posts, “trust me bro” sources, and even AI-generated answers that sound authoritative while being totally wrong.
Spontaneous Human Combustion: Tales That Turn To Ash!
Spontaneous Human Combustion: Tales That Turn To Ash!
Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale. This week, your Curator Zach may just burst into flames!
In this episode walk through one of the strangest forensic mysteries on record: the 1951 death of Mary Reeser in St. Petersburg, Florida, where investigators found a small burn zone, a greasy smoky odor, a clock stopped at 4:20 a.m., and roughly 10 pounds of ash where her chair once sat.
From there, we zoom out into the unsettling pattern behind spontaneous human combustion reports, including historical cases like Countess Cornelia Bandi and modern controversies like the Irish ruling that officially recorded spontaneous human combustion as a cause of death.
Listen now, share it with your most skeptical friend, and leave a review if you like our weird little shop. What’s your best theory for spontaneous human combustion?
The Scole Experiment: Seances in Norfolk, England!
The Scole Experiment: Seances in Norfolk, England!
A pitch-black basement. A small table. Were chatting about the Scole Experiment, one of the strangest and most controversial cases in modern paranormal research, and we’re taking you through it step by step.
We start in Scole, Norfolk, where a dedicated séance room is built. Over years of sittings, the group reports classic physical mediumship phenomena: floating lights in total darkness, voices that don’t match anyone in the room, objects sliding across the table, bells ringing, and “apports” that seem to appear from nowhere. Then the Society for Psychical Research shows up. With experienced researchers observing dozens of sessions, the story shifts from spooky tale to attempted documentation and a formal write-up that becomes the famous Scole Report.
Listen, then tell us where you land: genuine paranormal activity, brilliant illusion, or something we don’t have language for yet.
Oddball Guest: Jonathan Robinson on Hypnosis and Past Life Regression
Oddball Guest: Jonathan Robinson on Hypnosis and Past Life Regression
We’re joined by Jonathan Robinson to talk past life regression, hypnotherapy, and how the theta state can open a door to memories, metaphors, and emotional roots you didn’t know you were carrying. Jonathan breaks down what hypnosis actually feels like, why it’s closer to guided meditation than Hollywood mind control, and how subconscious healing can create fast shifts in confidence, performance anxiety, and persistent phobias.
The Strangeness Of Superstitions: Tiny Rituals to Subdue Fear
The Strangeness Of Superstitions: Tiny Rituals to Subdue Fear
Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale. This week, your Curator Zach is helping you avoid bad luck?
Ever catch yourself pausing at a ladder, hesitating over a mirror at night, or flicking salt over your shoulder without thinking? We follow those tiny instincts back to their roots and find practical safety tips, ancient theology, battlefield math, and the human need to feel in control.
Through it all, we keep returning to the core question: do these superstitions and rituals change outcomes, or do they simply steady our hands? Maybe both.
If this journey through ladders, mirrors, matches, and midnight whistles sparked a memory or challenged a belief, share the episode with a friend who needs a good story. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the one superstition you refuse to test.
Out Of Body!: How Astral Projection Took Shape
Out Of Body!: How Astral Projection Took Shape
Astral projection didn’t just appear with candles and a playlist. We pull the thread through time to see how humans learned to imagine the self as detachable, mobile, and returnable, then tried to turn that idea into practice. From Egypt’s Ba, a bird-headed emblem of movement, to the Zoroastrian Arda Viraf’s supervised tour of heaven and hell, the early record reveals a sturdy pattern: induction, separation, journey, return, and testimony.
Then Robert Monroe added method. He described the vibrational state, founded the Monroe Institute.
The lab pushed back and helped, too. Neuroscientists can trigger out-of-body sensations by stimulating the temporoparietal junction, while near-death experiences across cultures repeat the same structure with different symbols. So which is it—spirit or synapse?
Is The Earth Hollow?: Conspiracy, UFOs, and...Nazis!
Is The Earth Hollow?: Conspiracy, UFOs, and...Nazis!
We turn our attention below our feet and follow a breathtaking trail through ancient myth, Enlightenment science, wartime secrets, and modern UFO lore to ask whether an advanced civilization could be thriving inside the Earth.
Greek gateways to the underworld, Mayan cenotes lined with ritual offerings, Norse craftsman-dwarves, and the powerful thread of Agartha from Hindu and Buddhist traditions all point to a living world beneath the surface.
The plot thickens in the polar night. Nazi occult expeditions to Tibet, the Arctic, and Antarctica fed persistent rumors of hidden bases and vanished U-boats. After World War II, Admiral Richard E. Byrd led Operation Highjump, a massive Antarctic push that ended far earlier than planned, fueling speculation. We unpack the controversial “Byrd diary” that describes a warm valley inside the ice, a radiant inner sun, telepathic hosts, and disc-shaped craft alarmed by nuclear tests.
Shag Harbor: UFO's Underwater Adventure in Nova Scotia
Shag Harbor: UFO's Underwater Adventure in Nova Scotia
A quiet harbor. Four steady lights on the water. Yellow foam blooming across the surface as something descends without a splash. We revisit the Shag Harbor incident of 1967—not as a dusty legend, but as a near‑perfect template for how we think about USOs and transmedium craft today. No wreckage. No debris. Just witnesses, a Coast Guard search, Navy sonar tracking deliberate underwater movement, and official paperwork that coolly labels it “unidentified.”
Got your own UFO or USO encounter? We want to hear it. Tap play, share this with a curious friend, and drop a review if the Oddity Shop keeps your brain buzzing.