The world can be a scary place. That’s why learning more about the darker side of humanity and history can be educational. Other times, it can satisfy our (in some cases morbid) curiosity. So if you're a fan of mysteries and the unknown, you've come to the right place.
Once again, we're featuring the Creepy.org X account here on Bored Panda. It's a place to explore the darker corners of the world. The page features "weird videos, historical oddities and unexplained mysteries." So scroll down and see the newest additions from them. That is, if you dare!
Bored Panda sought out the creators of a podcast about strange, bizarre and unexpected phenomena. Kat and Jethro Gilligan Toth host The Box of Oddities show and are the recipients of the Webby Award. We had a chat with them about what makes people interested in the mysterious and the unknown. They also told us about their research process and shared their favorite stories from the podcast. Read our interview with Kat and Jethro below!
More info: Creepy.org | The Box of Oddities | Listen to The Box of Oddities here!
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The Creepy.org account has almost 600k followers. That is a lot when you consider it's not even 1 year old – its inception was in February 2023. Bored Panda wrote about Creepy.org back in May and we even had a short conversation with the creator.
They were kind enough to tell us the backstory of the page. "I have a great passion for creepy things in general, but what inspired me to create a community in this niche was when I bought the domain name http://creepy.org last year through an auction."
"My first thought was to create a site about morbid curiosities and oddities, but due to lack of time, I abandoned the project and focused on a Twitter account instead. That's how the 'Creepy' Twitter page was born, and now I use the http://creepy.org domain to redirect to it," the creator of the page told us back then.
F**k fundamentalists of every religion on Earth. They are the best proof God does not exist. If there were a god, s/he would not let these monsters speak in his/her name.
Even then, the creator was taken aback by the success of the page. "I think I was kind of lucky that my page became so popular because many big accounts started following me and retweeting my posts right from the beginning," they said in May.
The 'Creepy' owner also talked about how they find content to post on X . "I must say that I'm an avid Redditor and also a moderator of some large subreddits, and from there I choose most of my posts."
Never before have I wondered what Parkinson's smells like... but now I do.
The creator must know the secret to why morbid and scary things are so on the rise right now. They had a theory about why we like creepy and scary things: "It happens because when we are terrified, the brain releases a hormone called dopamine, which some people find thrilling."
"Also, creepy stuff is often intriguing: is the devil real, are ghosts real, does hell exist? Humans have a tendency to find solutions to everything, but these are questions humans don't have a definitive answer for yet," the creator concluded.
did a bit of googling and apparently the sister that was pronounced dead had an epileptic seizure and was incorrectly pronounced dead. she was buried the following morning. there is a snopes page about it and its been unproven as to whether the story is true or not.
But what do The Box of Oddities hosts have to say about why we're into scary and unusual stories? Kat says it's likely because it's a way for us to escape from mundane everyday life. "I think a lot of people are not particularly wowed by the everyday small talk that we end up having on a day-to-day basis," she says. "They want to get deeper and see what makes us, as humans, tick."
Jethro seconds her: "We're drawn to the things on the fringe of society because they are interesting, they’re the things we couldn’t learn at school or that we shouldn’t talk about at the dinner table."
If you haven't clocked it yet, Kat and Jethro are married. The couple says that the contents of their podcasts are things they would end up discussing with each other at the end of a day.
"These are the kinds of things that intrigue us and we'd end up talking about at the end of the day," Kat says. "Things like 'Did you know they found a 12,000-year-old fossilized Viking poop in York, England?' is kind of our 'pillow talk,'" Jethro steps in with his quick wit.
Kat and Jethro say that they rarely have trouble finding stories for their podcast. Even after 600 episodes! "There are so many things that fit into The Box of Oddities," Jethro says. "Because the world around us is composed of the bizarre and the paranormal, we have no problem finding incredible things to talk about."
I could be in Alaska in a blizzard and a mosquito would find me and attack.
The process of research is organic for them. "We each choose a topic to surprise each other and we both have our own research and writing style," Jethro tells Bored Panda. The pair tries to balance more outrageous stories, leaving the more lighthearted ones for the ending.
"[We] decide, if one of us has a particularly rough story, that should 'go first' so as not to leave the listener with a bummer topic," Kat says. Jethro calls himself more of a believer of the two. “[Kat] says sometimes my topics require more fact-checking,” he chuckles.
I wonder if this means they could grow these kinds of mushrooms to absorb radiation when needed
This looks like a scene from a kids movie or TV show, I can’t believe this is actually real
Jethro shares a story that left a deep impression on him. "One of my favorite topics was about Cheddar Man, the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in Britain, dating back over 10,000 years to the Mesolithic period. The skeleton was discovered in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, 1903."
I'll get downvoted, but he was an idiot for going out there without proper preparation. Darwin Award
I went to a similar place, and I hated it. Spent just over 5 minutes in there before it was too much.
What about it was so unsettling, if you don't mind my asking? Is it something you can describe (I'm just very curious as I literally cannot wrap my mind around this level of silence.)
Load More Replies...I'd be intrigued to try it as I have tinnitus so always hear something!
I just wrote almost the same thing. Great minds and all that!
Load More Replies...Smithsonian: "The quietest place on earth, an anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota, is so quiet that the longest anybody has been able to bear it is 45 minutes. Inside the room it's silent. So silent that the background noise measured is actually negative decibels, -9.4 dBA."
Sounds (pun intended) like a torture chamber. What would happen if you lock someone in there for an entire day
Load More Replies...There was a famous experimental composer who spent time in a space like this, and was surprised and frustrated to realise it wasn't "really" silent, though he did come away with the useful thought that maybe there's no such thing as "true" silence, which he used as inspiration for his very weird music. Damn, what was his name again? Oh yeah, John Cage! The guy who went on to compose a "piece" which was literally four minutes and thirty three seconds of the pianist just sitting in front of the piano without ever touching the keys. It's all just too highbrow for me, unfortunately.
It's not just sitting there not touching the keys, it's actively not playing. Focussing upon all the things you can hear that aren't the piano. It's kinda an interesting way of making people focus upon the now and their surroundings.
Load More Replies...*mom goes in* "Ah, 5 minutes should be fine" *10 seconds later, family comes in* "Where's my {object}, What's for dinner, I'm bored"
That entirely depends on how large this room is. If it would be small enough to touch the walls and ceiling from a normal standing position, say like an elevator, hell to the no. It's be having a panick attac in no time with those spikes - which are probably soft, but the look of them is horrible!
I think the shape swallows the soundwaves instead of reflecting them.
Load More Replies...I suffer from pulsatile tinnitus- I can hear my own heartbeat in my head. The more anxious I am, the louder and freakier it sounds.
Yes it’s the worst. It’s tinnitus to a rythym and it never stops and only gets louder under stress.
Load More Replies...I would want to go in for a bit while wearing medical recording equipments I measure what how my body reacts to such silence. For science!
I'd love to go there, a few hours without noisy neighbours slamming doors & waking me several time through the night sounds like bliss
I was thinking the same. I wonder if my brain would go into hypermode trying to process all the noises my body is making while "Hips don't lie" by Shakira plays gently in the background.
Load More Replies...apparently, you can also hear your nerves, popping and zinging away. eerie stuff
I worked one place where I would be the only one left in the building late at night. Sometimes I would sit and listen to the silence. That's how I know there were rats in the ceiling, I could hear them running around!
Thank you to the people talking about their tinnitus. I wish no one had it, but at the same time it's comforting knowing that so many others have it.
Hell no. Over and Understimulation at the same time. I could never.
When I was 10 my father took me to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. At the very bottom of the cave they turn out the lights for a couple of minutes. You literally cannot see your hand in front of your eyes. I can imagine when everyone has departed for the day, the silence is deafening.
I am always in company of my tinnitus (both ears, for at least 30 years now). I would so much like to feel silence again. This room wouldn't help anyway
Yes want to know what my bones sound like when they move. Yes I'm a weird cookie.
Nope, couldn't do it. I need some kind of white/background noise at all times regardless of where I am and what I'm doing or I crawl with restlessness and anxiety. My family and I listen to talk radio at the dinner table because I can't stand the awkward silence in between sporadic conversation and eating.
The quietest place recorded on earth is a cave in a mountain range in Italy
I'm sorry, the only thing I can think of is "pull my finger". Would you hear anything? ;-)
I know this can be terrifying, but I think it's an experience to be had.
In my bedroom, when I'm still, I can only hear myself breathing. If I hold my breath, I hear nothing. It's very restful.
... Ummm... Do other people not hear their heart beating & their bones move? I do...
Being neurodiverse and having audio sensory issues, I think I'll give that one a miss. I really don't fancy hearing my bones moving.
The Veritasium guy spent ~50 minutes in one without experiencing any adverse sensations. Very anticlimactic.
For work, I once had to visit a lab with a quiet room similar to this because we needed to test how loud a new product was. The lab technician was almost 2 hours late. I ended up taking a really good nap in the room while waiting.
If anyone is from the UK? Didn't Stephen Fry go into this room and try it on a TV programme? I think it was him.
Nope. Can't stand the distant, roaring diesel-engine sound when it's quiet. I need my white noise.
I'm intrigued by this, mainly because I have tinnitus and I wonder how loud it would be
I can already hear my heart beat and my bones move. What this would actually do for me is make my tinnitus completely unbearable.
The story had a breakthrough in 2018 – experts conducted a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Cheddar Man's remains. "It revealed that the 9,000-year-old skeleton had a living relative named Adrian Targett," Jethro continues. "Separated by nearly 300 generations, Adrian taught history less than a mile from where the skeleton was discovered."
We also asked the hosts whether they've ever encountered a story that they deemed too heavy for the podcast. "There's not been anything that we COULDN'T put in the podcast, but there have been many topics we've chosen not to," Jethro admits.
Kat says that they've perhaps become more selective over the years. "We have changed as people, our topics have changed. For example, there are events that we've talked about in earlier episodes that I think now I maybe wouldn't have abandoned, but certainly might have approached differently," she reflects.
Don't hesitate to check out Kat and Jethro's podcast on your preferred platform. The Box of Oddities podcast covers everything from strange medical conditions to unsolved mysteries, from the paranormal to unusual cultural practices.
And it's not just a podcast about creepy phenomena. The hosts Kat and Jethro approach each episode with humor and provide entertaining commentary. If you're thirsty for more weird and unusual things, give them a listen!
Folks, don't believe everything right away, because the German is far too modern for the 17th century...the oldest still legible engraving dates from 1616, but this engraving is from the 20th century...this »hunger stone« is located in the town of Děčín in the Czech Republic...
Frogs also push down their eyes to help them swallow, if you want another creepy frog eyes fact.
I feel like that’s a pretty decent trade, just stay away from boats
Hydrocephalus is a condition in which an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occurs within the brain. This typically causes increased pressure inside the skull. Older people may have headaches, double vision, poor balance, urinary incontinence, personality changes, or mental impairment. In babies, it may be seen as a rapid increase in head size. Other symptoms may include vomiting, sleepiness, seizures, and downward pointing of the eyes. (wikipedia)
I’ve never liked when dares go too far, but this just breaks my heart.
Please in the future creators of posts like these need to click the 'show more' link and copy that so that we aren't left with half posts and half sentences. Thank you.
Are you using the app? I feel I've always had problems like that using the app and since I started using only the website it's been fine
Load More Replies...I LOVE POSTS LIKE THESE!!!! GIVE ME MORE CREEPY FACTS AUAHJYAGIUYAHGH
What is wrong with people on this site?! A young man decides to go explore the wilderness and tragically dies and people go “oh good another idiot gone” and “well thank god he’s dead. He influenced other people to accidentally get killed. And it’s good that they’re dead! Less idiots!” You people disgust me
Please in the future creators of posts like these need to click the 'show more' link and copy that so that we aren't left with half posts and half sentences. Thank you.
Are you using the app? I feel I've always had problems like that using the app and since I started using only the website it's been fine
Load More Replies...I LOVE POSTS LIKE THESE!!!! GIVE ME MORE CREEPY FACTS AUAHJYAGIUYAHGH
What is wrong with people on this site?! A young man decides to go explore the wilderness and tragically dies and people go “oh good another idiot gone” and “well thank god he’s dead. He influenced other people to accidentally get killed. And it’s good that they’re dead! Less idiots!” You people disgust me