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.
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!
I got a mild case of smallpox as a child from the vaccine. I've been told I was the last recorded case of it in NJ. Can't vouch for that. But it was fun watching the health teacher deal with my family. My older sister said I had it and the teacher said I didn't, so my mother wrote a note. Next year I said I had it, teacher said I didn't, so my mother wrote a note. Four years later my little brother said I had it, the teacher started to say I didn't, stopped, said you're from that family, right? OK. Yea, he had it.
Officially, these samples are for vaccine research only. But they're kept in military laboratories so it's safe to say they were at least considered as a bioweapon once.
I remember getting mine as a kid. Everyone had to have it. Had to have it. There was no refusing. It was pretty gross because where the doctor put it, usually by a tiny cut in your upper arm and put a drop of the stuff on it, an actual pox grew. You had to protect it to prevent it falling off too early. I got quite a fever from it and boy oh boy did that thing itch! Way worse than chicken pox. After, you were left with a small round scar on your arm. BTW, this was in Canada. That’s how serious they were about eradicating it.
Now, due to anti-vaxxers, all these almost eradicated diseases are coming back. The biggest disease in this country is stupidity. And, unfortunately, we can't cure that.
And are most likely fully vaccinated themselves by their parents.
Load More Replies...I love how the minute we talk about vaccines the idiot orange turd worshipers come out and say I got sick the vaccine doesn't work freaking idiots for real 😠
And that last case was due to an accident in a lab where the virus was being studied, not in the wild.
No, that is correct. And, the samples exist to study and make sure that we know what it looks like, should it ever creep in again…
Load More Replies...Back then no one was concerned about hurting people's feelings or challenging their beliefs. Hold out your arm and take the shot, don't give us any c**p.
Load More Replies...And unofficially exist in bio weapons labs (or labs that research how to deal with bio weapon attacks). Porton Down has some, Israel have a smallpox inoculation programme so almost certainly have some. There's a big scientific debate whether to destroy the samples or not, since it's not impossible it could come back. The genome is public record. I read a book about smallpox recently and it's just amazing and terrifying.
There have been cases of researchers contracting it from lab accidents, but I can't remember the last time it happened. Smallpox is pretty unique in that the only carriers and victims are humans.
If samples of it still exist, regardless of how small, then it hasn't been eradicated.
It makes me very uncomfortable to know that the only countries who have this disease (that was "eradicated" during the Cold War) are the US and Russia.
I'm thinking there's probably a few more samples hidden in unknown government facilities elsewhere, like, erm, China?
The samples in Russia were poorly secured after the collapse of the USSR. Basically unlocked in a refrigerator at the bioweapons site where the scientists were all out of work. When it was visited by the writers of the book Germs there were also Iranian business cards on one scientists desk. They were hiring.
Polio was nearly eradicated. Then the CIA used polio vaccine programmes to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of Bin Laden, and so the communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan stopped trusting vaccine drives. And so it came back
Load More Replies...Shingles is caused by the Chickenpox virus, not Smallpox.
Load More Replies...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)
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