Back on my cryptid bullsh*t
January 21, 2025 8:20 AM   Subscribe

Looking for podcasts about cryptids and folklore because it is 2025, everything is on fire, and I'm-a need some creepy critters, legends, and folklore to soothe me.

I'm currently listening to Freaky Folklore, which I like okay, but the tendency of it to create stories around the cryptids and creepy-crawlies is not exactly what I'm looking for. I don't really want horror story narratives right now. Maybe another time?

Lore used to scratch this itch but does no longer. I absolutely love folklore, myths, and legends in addition to cryptozoology (MOTHMAN 4EVA). I am really not looking for full-on fiction podcasts. I like hearing people talk about why people believed X or the legends behind X.

Stay spoopy, y'all!
posted by Kitteh to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Loremen
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:31 AM on January 21 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Maybe try Spirits? I've only dipped into a few early episodes, but I think it provides what you're after - more discussion than storytelling.
posted by EvaDestruction at 8:33 AM on January 21


I've not listened to it, but The Cryptid Factor gets a lot of mentions on No Such Thing as a Fish because Dan Schreiber is on both.

The excellent Charlie Cooper (of BBC sitcom This Country) had a recent short BBC TV series called Myth Country - I realise you're after podcasts but it might scratch this same itch if you can access it. (Also, it's only now on typing this comment that I realise that the name Myth Country is probably a play on This Country...)

He was at one time promoting a soon-to-come podcast called Weird Walk, but it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere - I kind of assume someone at the BBC saw it and said "Come to us and we'll help you make it into a TV series instead..." but you could keep an eye in case it ever comes to fruition. It seems to be part of a wider Weird Walk stable, which has a mailing list sign-up, so you could maybe sign up for that, for future updates.
posted by penguin pie at 9:44 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]


Best answer: History Hit has a podcast called After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal. I haven't listened to it, but I really like History Hit in general, including episodes on beliefs in the paranormal on other ones of their podcasts.
posted by catquas at 9:47 AM on January 21


(Bizarrely, I can't find any link from that Cryptid Factor homepage to actually listen to the podcast, but here it is on Apple, and I'm sure is on all the other usual platforms).
posted by penguin pie at 9:48 AM on January 21


Best answer: One more 'not quite what you asked for but you might like it' offering - Ben Edge's documentary Frontline Folklore is 1h40 of weird folklore shit from around Britain, filmed over the course of 2019. There's so much of it, I loved it but didn't make it right to the end. More folk traditions and rituals than cryptids, but it's great stuff.
posted by penguin pie at 9:53 AM on January 21


Cryptid Factor often wanders off, but Rhys Darby is such a master improviser so no regrets, it's always funny.

I don't know if this will scratch your itch exactly, but we never miss an episode of One Strange Thing. They do all the best monsters (including the Squonk), but I often recommend people start with the one about the psychic horse that used a typewriter.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:03 AM on January 21


Not technically a podcast, but there's The Why Files on Youtube.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 12:40 PM on January 21


Best answer: Blurry Photos
Focusing on lesser-known topics of Forteana, conspiracy, history, and folklore, Blurry Photos is driven by the desire for a better understanding of fringe subjects through research, storytelling, and rational thinking.
Note: Older episodes had a more light-hearted, comedy-inspired focus with original sketches for intros/outros and improv mixed with information supplied by co-hosts Dave Stecco and David Flora. Since Stecco’s departure in January 2018, the tone has shifted to a more informational and storytelling focus with Flora at the helm.


American Hysteria
American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes,
the reality we don't.

posted by pepcorn at 1:31 PM on January 21 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I enjoy Some Other Sphere, which often delves into these territories - a few to start with:

An Introduction to Australian Cryptozoology

Mystery Animals of Suffolk

Between Ape and Human

Bigfoot in Maine
posted by reedbird_hill at 1:32 PM on January 21


Best answer: I'd like to suggest the podcast Sasquatch Chronicles. In-Depth, first person accounts of Sasquatch encounters. There's over a thousand episodes.
posted by TorontoSandy at 8:09 AM on January 22


Best answer: I really enjoyed the BBC's limited series Yeti which was a fascinating deep dive into the topic.

Unexplained has a variety of "weird stuff" that has your usual suspects - so some folklore and cryptids but also ghosts, UFOs, other paranormal type stuff.

If you are up for still more "weird stuff" I have a kind of love-hate relationship with podcaster Danny Robins (his current series is Uncanny but he has earlier ones as well). I like the way he has expert guests on to approach from both the skeptical POV and the "believer" POV - and usually even his believer experts have a degree of skepticism and will bring up things like pareidolia, people being primed to interpret things a certain way by the circumstances, etc. The hate part is how completely over-the-top he can get (in a very British way) and the cliffhanger breaks mid-episode, lurching from the source's account of what happened to the experts weighing in and then back. It can disrupt the flow of the story.
posted by Athanassiel at 4:44 PM on January 22


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