5 Podcasts to Get You Ready for Spooky Season

Whether you’re stuck at home or at work, running errands or cooking dinner, sometimes a good podcast helps get you through! Now that we’re into October, it is the perfect time for some new creepy stories and spooky history to get you into the Halloween mood. The whole holiday season will likely look a lot different this year, but we’re still making our costumes, decorating the house and yard, and doing our best to be festive as we enjoy autumn. If you need some help getting in the mood for the season, look up these podcasts on Spotify and cozy up with the pumpkin spice item of your choice!

1. Jim Harold’s Campfire: Jim Harold has been sharing spooky stories for 15 years now and his podcast will give you hours and hours of all sorts of interesting paranormal tales! From visits from family members and pets who have passed on to aliens, crytpids, and more, contributors call in and share their personal brushes with the unexplained.
2. Occulture: The now-defunct Occulture podcast has three years of archived shows that delve into everything weird. Topics include the paranormal, offbeat art and music, unique takes on history and religion, magic, surrealism, and more.
3. Last Podcast on the Left: If you’re not familiar with these guys already, you need to check them out – especially if you enjoy some (often crude, in case you’re listening with little ones around!) humor alongside your stories of hauntings, cults, true crime, and weird history, among other creepy topics.
4. Two Girls One Ghost: 2G1G is a chatty, conversational podcast hosted by two friends who discuss a range of creepy topics but still keep it feeling light-hearted. Regular episodes have a particular theme, story, or bit of lore to explore, while Encounters episodes consist of readings of listener-submitted personal experiences with the unknown.
5. Dark Histories: Dark Histories is a well-researched podcast highlighting the unusual and unexplained from the past. I was especially excited to see an episode on William Mumler, the “spirit” photographer of the mid-1800s (I recommended a book on the subject here). I like that this podcast presents stories from the UK, US, Japan, and Australia, to name a few, so you get to learn about a wider variety of stories, histories, and traditions from all over.