Ain't It Scary? with Sean & Carrie

Sean has the podcast reins for two weeks of HANNIBAL. No, not the cannibal - the Carthaginian general who made himself the worst nightmare of the Roman legions. Take a trip with us back to the third century B.C., where new horrors wait around every corner - from children sacrificed to ancient gods, to sieged cities starving behind their walls, to armored men tumbling off high alpine peaks. Oh, and a crapload of elephants...

This week, Carrie takes us on a trip back to the 1930s Mississippi Delta with the mysterious story of Robert Johnson, American blues icon and “first ever rock star.” Johnson has long been identified with the legend that he, desperate to become an incredible guitarist, went down to the crossroads one dark night and sold his soul to the Devil for musical glory...

Since at least the 16th century, the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have told stories of "Black Shuck", a ghostly black dog who appears as an omen of death. But ol' Shuck isn't the only spectral hound going around portending doom in the British Isles! In this episode, Sean takes us on a tour of Black Dog stories from folklore all over England and Great Britain, and tries to get to the bottom of how the best boys got stuck with such a creepy rap...

On Christmas Eve, 1945, a mysterious fire burned the home of George and Jennie Sodder to the ground. George, Jennie, and four of their children escaped the blaze. The five remaining Sodder children, aged 5 to 14, were not so lucky. However, no remains - of any of the five Sodder children who were lost that night - were ever found. As the years went on, it became clear there was a conspiracy of silence surrounding the Sodder case in their town of Fayetteville, West Virginia...

Perhaps the most notorious carnival sideshow performer of all time, Grady Stiles Jr. is known to history as Lobster Boy. Born with severe ectrodactyly, a genetic condition that left him unable to walk and with forked, two-fingered hands, Grady followed his father into the family business playing to the crowds in traveling carnival sideshows...

Hello Scary Squad! We apologize for not getting a new episode out this week - we both came down with pretty rough illnesses in the post-Christmas week. Sean wanted to hop on and give this little update, so you wouldn't think we'd left you in the dust of Christmas past! We hope you've had a lovely New Year, and can't wait to get back to it next week (don't worry - this isn't an extended hiatus!)...

In lieu of taking a total holiday break, we've instead brought you a post-Christmas treat: an interview with local author Patrick Scalisi and illustrator Valerie Ruby-Omen regarding their recent book release Connecticut Cryptids: A Field Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Creatures of the Nutmeg State! Pat and Val discuss what inspired them to compile the stories of Connecticut Cryptids into this extraordinary field guide, which includes tales like that of the Grench, the Black Dog of Hanging...

With the Christmas holiday upon us for those who celebrate, we’re indulging a spooky new tradition with the Ain’t It Scary Holiday Special! Last year, Sean and Carrie presented competing casts for the modern classic, “Ain’t It Scary? Saves Christmas.” This year, having run out of original IP during the writer’s strike, we set out to remake 1988 Christmas classic Die Hard with a cast cobbled together from some of the freakiest and most festive characters we’ve covered in the last three years...

This week we tiptoe around the border between worlds, in an episode dedicated to fairy photography! Taken between 1917 and 1920 by two young girls, the Cottingley Fairy photographs seem to depict tiny, dance-happy fairies (and, in one weird case, a sneaky gnome) playing with the human children...

More than 10,000 people (and, honorarily, one dog) have been made Catholic saints in the more than 2,000 years that the religion has existed - and in all that time, there are bound to be some crazy stories along the way...