Shea is back from her Japan adventure and is bringing you some of Japan's most captivating legends! 

Today, not only does Shea share some insights into driving in Japan, Japanese bathing culture, castles as adult museums, and toilets, she brings the tale of one of Japan's most terrifying Yokai and urban legends, Kuchisake-onna or the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

In this special episode swap, listeners are swept into the ghost-laden corridors of the legendary Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado—the real-world inspiration behind The Shining. Through rich storytelling and a flair for the uncanny, Ani Khajadourian of Audibly Haunted resurrects the hotel’s past: the 1911 explosion that shook room 217, the resilient chambermaid Elizabeth Wilson who still tidies up from beyond the grave, the spectral children racing down the fourth-floor halls, and the gentlemanly cowboy ghost who warms room 428 with a phantom’s charm. Each floor, each door, each whisper carries a century of mystery. The living check out, but the hotel’s other guests never do.

Make sure to visit Audibly Haunted on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and engage with us on social media to share your thoughts or your own ghost stories.

A government-built city rose out of the Columbia River Basin with rules no one could explain and a purpose no one fully understood. Families lived in identical houses, signed confidentiality papers they barely read, and trusted that whatever was happening behind the restricted fences was “for the good of the country.”

What really happened out there shaped world history, rewrote entire landscapes in the Pacific Northwest.

In this episode, Shea and Jody explore the haunting history of the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington with Ellicia Elliott, a theater professional and historian. They delve into the origins of the Manhattan Project, the impact of the nuclear industry on local communities, and the ongoing cleanup efforts. The conversation highlights the complexities of pride and legacy associated with the site, as well as the environmental and health consequences faced by the surrounding populations.

Follow Ellicia Elliott

In case you missed it, we are rereleasing one of our most popular episodes-

Madame Mustache: The Wild West’s Most Badass Gambler

We want to say thank you to our beloved Patreon supporters, so we are creating a bespoke piece of fan fiction starring each of our supporters! These little stories are based on one of our past episodes, chosen at random, and feature a completely fictional tale with a supporter as the main character.

This week, we are thanking Doug Holbrook and his lovely wife Marsha. In this tale, Doug uses his economics background to start a lucrative coffee kiosk business, with a spicy twist. 

Caroline Fraser recently mentioned the tragic tale of Frances farmer in her new book "Murderland" and it is such a great story that I just needed to share this episode again! 

South Sound Magazine recently featured the Elephant House, the former home of Ray Gamble, Tacoma's millionaire magician, in an article, and mentioned our podcast. We thought we would rerelease this episode for you all to explore!

In 1910, two trains—one passenger, one mail—were trapped for nearly a week in a brutal Washington blizzard near Stevens Pass. When lightning struck Windy Mountain, a half-mile-wide avalanche thundered down, sweeping the trains and the town of Wellington into the abyss. Nearly one hundred lives were lost in what remains the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history.

Today, the site is known as the Iron Goat Trail, a scenic hiking path shadowed by eerie tales of ghost lights, disembodied voices, and icy cold spots where the dead once lay. Shea and Jody take listeners on a chilling journey through tragedy and folklore—laughing, theorizing, and debating whether these stories are history, hauntings, or both.

From spectral lanterns to phantom whistles, they explore why the spirits of Wellington refuse to rest—and why hikers still say they’re not alone on the mountain.

The Wild West wasn’t all shootouts and saloons—it also had brothels where life, death, and legends collided. Some of those stories never left.

In this episode, Shea and Jody take you inside two infamous houses of ill repute:

• The Birdcage Theater, Tombstone, Arizona – 26 deaths, bullet holes in the walls, and a love triangle that turned into a ghost story still whispered today.
• The Red Onion Saloon, Skagway, Alaska – where miners, madams, and a lingering ghost named Lydia turned a gold rush brothel into one of the most haunted stops in Alaska.

Along the way, the hosts debate where they’d haunt if stuck for eternity, spill some spicy legends, and prove once again that history is never as tidy as it looks on paper.

Grab your whiskey, dim the lights, and follow us down the rabbit hole… if you dare.

In 1899, a massive four-masted iron ship called the Andelana vanished from Tacoma’s Commencement Bay overnight — leaving behind only a pair of floating logs and a haunting legacy.

In this episode of Rainy Day Rabbit Holes, Shea and Jody are joined by Tacoma historian and tour guide Chris Staudinger of Pretty Gritty Tours to unravel the chilling mystery of Tacoma’s “ghost ship.” From tales of curses and unlucky sailors to divers who met their doom, the Andelana’s story is one of tragedy, unanswered questions, and eerie persistence.

But the ship’s curse doesn’t stop with its sinking. The legend ties into eerie paranormal accounts — including the infamous tale of an eyeless ghost girl said to wander Tacoma’s historic streets. Along the way, we explore the city’s haunted history, connections to human trafficking, and the way folklore preserves Tacoma’s darker past.

If you love ghost stories, maritime mysteries, and local legends that linger in the shadows, this is one you won’t want to miss.

🎧 Listen now and join us on this haunting journey through Tacoma’s waterfront.

We've made our bonus episode with Chris available to everybody for FREE on Patreon!

Beneath the quiet farmlands of Arkansas, a single dropped tool set off a chain of events that could have changed history forever. In this episode, Shea and Jody take you deep underground into the Titan II missile program — the Cold War’s most volatile secret. What happens when human error meets doomsday weapons? And how close did we really come to nuclear apocalypse in 1980?

Strap in. This rabbit hole goes from darkly funny to downright terrifying.

Silver mines, brothels that ran until the 1990s, a highway battle that saved a whole town, and a firefighting hero who invented one of the most iconic tools in history. Wallace, Idaho has it all. In this episode of Rainy Day Rabbit Holes, Jody takes us through the quirky, fiery, scandal-filled history of Wallace, a town that declared itself the Center of the Universe, and you can’t disprove it.

Grab your pickaxe (or Pulaski tool), because we’re heading down a rabbit hole where mining strikes, infernos, and bordellos collide in the Silver Valley.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome to Wallace, Idaho
04:22 – Colonel Wallace and the shady land deal
09:51 – Silver mines and strikes that shook the valley
15:35 – Fires that burned Wallace down twice
21:44 – The legend of Ed Pulaski and the Big Burn
33:10 – Brothels, nightlife, and the Oasis Bordello Museum
40:55 – How Wallace beat the federal government and I-90
50:30 – Declaring Wallace the Center of the Universe
57:00 – Why Wallace is worth your road trip stop

A river is the most powerful force in nature—and blocking one is the boldest act a human can attempt. In this episode of Rainy Day Rabbit Holes, we dive into the colossal story of the Grand Coulee Dam: a project born in the desperation of the Great Depression, built with sweat and sacrifice, and shadowed by broken promises.

From Hoovervilles to hydroelectric power, boomtown brothels to Woody Guthrie ballads, and even the secret connection between the dam and the atomic bomb, this is history at its most epic and unsettling. We’ll explore the triumphs, tragedies, and the question that lingers today: who really paid the price for progress?

✨ And don’t miss the end of the episode—we’ve got a brand new piece of Patreon fan fiction, starring one of our amazing supporters!

💡 If you like your history wild, weird, and a little unhinged, you’re in the right place.

Today, we are proud to present an episode by one of our fabulous Umbrella Podcast Collective members-Rob of Dark History. You've heard us talk about the Portland Shanghai Tunnels before, now go even deeper. Check it out!

In this gripping episode of The Dark History Podcast, we dive deep into one of the most chilling and overlooked forms of human trafficking in history: shanghaiing. From the mid-1800s to the early 20th century, thousands of men were abducted from port cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Liverpool—drugged, beaten, or tricked into signing forged contracts, only to wake up trapped aboard ships bound for Asia.

This wasn’t just the work of shady criminals in back alleys. It was a full-blown industry. Crimps, saloon keepers, hotel owners, and even police officers played their part, all for a quick payout. Some victims were lured by the promise of work or a warm bed. Others were dropped through trapdoors into underground tunnels and chained in holding cells until a ship was ready. Few escaped. Most were never seen again.

You’ll hear the real names behind the crimes, like the notorious “Bunko” Kelly, who once claimed to have sold a ship a crew of corpses. We'll uncover how this brutal system thrived in plain sight for decades, and how changing laws, technology, and public outrage eventually brought it down.

This isn’t the maritime adventure story you’ve been told. It’s about organised trafficking, greed, and the silent suffering of thousands who were stolen from familiar streets and forced into a life at sea. The legacy of shanghaiing lives on in the sealed trapdoors and forgotten tunnels beneath modern cities.

If you're fascinated by the dark undercurrents of history—the parts that rarely make it into textbooks—this episode is a must-listen.

In March 1876, the skies opened above Bath County, Kentucky… and instead of rain, meat fell from the heavens. Was it a divine miracle, a bizarre prank, or an avian puke-fest courtesy of startled vultures? Shea and Jody dig into one of history’s strangest mysteries—the infamous Kentucky Meat Shower.

Chapters:

• 0:00 – Welcome to Rainy day rabbit holes where we take the history of the west off the rails
  00:20 – Today we are covering a meteorological event. Precipitation. Don't you wish we could time travel
  01:17 – Carrie Thompson: I've never made soap. Have you
  05:08 – There are several theories about what caused meat to rain in 1800s
  09:16 – After 150 years, no one has figured out definitively what this is
  10:57 – Did anyone ever get sick from the 1876 Kentucky meat shower
  13:50 – We appreciate the support of our patrons more than you could know
  15:31 – All of our Apple reviews, subscribers and statistics got lost recently