Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast

Episode 38: Happy Halloween 2024

I discuss the 2024 OTIS Halloween Season that I do every year on oddthingsiveseen.com and how it kinda went awry from my original intention, and I go deeper into this year's theme of "Is Halloween Getting Annoying?"

• Support this podcast and other of my oddity initiatives on my Patreon.
• Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Buy my latest book, Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives. (buying through my bookshop store maximizes support for me and for indie bookstores). 
• Check out my other spooky books, 

Episode 37: Chasing Zombies in Romero-Land and Savini-ville

In this episode, we travel to Pittsburgh to see horror movie sites connected to George Romero and Tom Savini, while waxing (and waning) nostalgic on how much has changed at both the sites and in my own life since my original 2006 visit to the place back in the first days of OTIS.

• See photos from my trip here.
• See photos from the Living Dead Museum here.
• Read my original OTIS piece on my first visit to the Dawn of the Dead Mall.
• Support this podcast and other of my oddity initiatives on my Patreon.
• Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Buy my latest book, Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives. (buying through my bookshop store maximizes support for me and for indie bookstores). 
• Check out my other spooky books, 

Episode 36: Giant Sky Clams! A Reading from THE UNITED STATES OF CRYPTIDS

In this episode, I read the introduction to my book, "The United States of Cryptids," as well as an entry on one of the weirdest cryptids in its pages: The giant sky clams of Nevada. Come for the bigfoot parties. Stay for the flying mollusks. 

• Buy The United States of Cryptids here.
• Support this podcast and other of my oddity initiatives on my Patreon.
• Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Preorder my next book, Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives. (buying through my bookshop store maximizes support for me and for indie bookstores). 
• Check out my other spooky books, 

Episode 35: Movie Monster Museums I Have Loved

I have visited probably a dozen movie monster museums across this country in my time searching out oddity. Three of these museums stand out as my favorites--one in Nevada, one in Connecticut, and one in Massachusetts. Come with me and let's be old-fashioned Monster Kids for a while.

• See photos from my visit to Tom Devlin's Monster Museum here.
• See photos from my visit to Cortlandt Hull's Witch's Dungeon here.
• See super-out-of-date photos of my visit to Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery here.
• See photos from my visit to the Twilight Zone paintings on the carousel in Rod Serling's hometown of Binghamton, New York, here.
• Support this podcast and other of my oddity initiatives on my Patreon.
• Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Preorder my next book, Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives. (buying through my bookshop store maximizes support for me and for indie bookstores). 
• Check out my other spooky books, 

Episode 34: Digging Through Mulder's Office: The X-Files Preservation Collection

The X-Files is my favorite show of all time. I was on the couch for its debut on September 10, 1993. So when I found out a museum of original props had opened a mere three hours from me, I wasted only two years to get there.

• See photos from my visit here.
• Visit the museum website here.
• Read about my top eight favorite episodes here.
• Support this podcast and other of my oddity initiatives on my Patreon.
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Preorder my next book, Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives. (buying through my bookshop store maximizes support for me and for indie bookstores). 
• Check out my other spooky books, 

Episode 33: Visiting the Sites of the Martha Stewart of Serial Killers

My fascination with serial killers comes with a heaping load of shame, except for in one instance: Ed Gein. That's because without Gein, we might not have Norman Bates. Or Leatherface. Or Buffalo Bill. Or the Firefly family. So my shame load was only a mild one as I visited sites related to him in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. With my wife and two kids.

• See photos from our visit to Plainfield here.
• Hardware Store Address: 110 S. Main St., Plainfield, WI. 
• Plainfield Cemetery Address: 6590 5th Ave, Plainfield, WI.
• Property Address: Archer Avenue and Second Avenue.
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
• I also write spooky books, including my latest The Smashed Man of Dread End.

Episode 32: The Place Where the Music Died

On February 3, 1959, a small plane carrying pop stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper crashed into an Iowa cornfield, killing all three instantly and inspiring Don McLean to write American Pie. We trudge into that cornfield, to see the place where the music died.

• See images from our jaunt to the death site here.
• Death site address: 315 St. and Gull Ave., Clear Lake, Iowa.
• More information on The Smashed Man of Dread End sticker offer.
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
• I also write spooky books.

Episode 31 (Special On-Location): Cryptid Kaiju of the Dakotas

In this special on-location episode, I head to North and South Dakota to see a couple of gigantic cryptid statues. In Bismarck, North Dakota, a quartet of Thunderbirds glower above a lightning storm on the banks of the Missouri. Then I drive five hours southwest through snow and rain and flocks of pheasants to Keystone, South Dakota, to see the world's largest Bigfoot statue, right in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. Come with me.

• See images of the world's largest wooden Bigfoot statue.
• See images of the Thunderbird statue of Bismarck.
• Bigfoot statue address: 121 Roy Street Highway 16A, Keystone, SD.
• Thunderbird statue address: 1605 River Rd, Bismarck, ND
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
• I also write spooky books.

 

Episode 30: That Time I Bought a Cursed Object

In this episode, I read from my latest nonfiction book, Cursed Objects, to talk about what exactly is a cursed object, as well as to tell the story of the time I bought one to see what would happen.

• Buy Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items.
• See bonus Cursed Objects materials that didn't make it into the book.
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
• I also write other spooky books.

Episode 29: The Man Who Built a Mechanical Messiah

We visit High Rock Tower Park, where nineteenth century spiritualist John Murray Spear built his New Motive Power, aka, the God Machine, aka, the Infant Motor, aka, the Mechanical Messiah, all based on plans that the ghosts of Benjamin Franklin and Socrates gave him. Then the story gets weird.

• Photos from my visit to High Rock Tower Park
• Address of High Rock Tower Park: 30 Circuit Ave, Lynn, MA.
• A book about John Murray Spear.
• My Cursed Objects book is out now!
• Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
• I also write other spooky books.