Pleasing Terrors

Join acclaimed ghost storyteller Mike Brown for a bi-weekly tour through the shadows of history. The Pleasing Terrors Podcast features stories about haunted places, creepy history, and forgotten folklore.

  • 54 minutes 11 seconds
    Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures

    In this episode, we follow the Annabel Lee legend backward: from modern ghost tours to nineteenth-century poetry, from pirate treasure maps to academic footnotes, from Sullivan's Island beaches to a forgotten corner of a graveyard. What emerges is not a simple ghost story, but an obsession—shared by scholars, storytellers, and an entire city convinced that something precious was buried in the South Carolina Lowcountry and must be found.

    Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey

    Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle By C.G. Jung

    Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South

    Carolina Lowcountry

    Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys

    Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2

    Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner

    Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles

    The New York Evening Post

    The Charleston News and Courier

    The Sullivan's Island Edition of The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Durham and Elizabeth Verner Hamilton

    14 December 2025, 11:07 pm
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    Charleston Gothic: Part 1- Night Sea Journey

    The Descent has led us to Charleston, and to a haunted historic theatre where we uncover a clue that may bring us closer to finding the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe.

    Sources:

    The Ghosts of Charleston by Julian Buxton

    Charleston Ghosts: Hauntings in the Holy City by James Caskey

    Complex, archetype and symbol in the psychology of C.G. Jung by Jolande Jacobi

    The Mad Booths of Maryland By Preston Kimmel

    The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Peeples

    Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles

    19 November 2025, 11:43 pm
  • 49 minutes 42 seconds
    The Descent: Part 3- Lost

    In this episode we visit the most haunted house of Edgar Allan Poe and then retrace his path to the threshold of a secret world.

    Sources that were either referenced directly or consulted during the writing of this episode:

    Ghosts of Philadelphia by Charles J. Adams III

    A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak

    The Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe: Nevermore in Baltimore by David F. Gatlin

    True Tales of the Unknown: The Uninvited, published in 1989 and edited by Sharon Jones

    The Ghostly Register by Arthur Meyers

    The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples

    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe

    Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner

    The Poe Shrine: Building the World's Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection by Christopher P. Semtner

    4 November 2025, 10:49 pm
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    The Descent: Part 2- Spiral

    In this episode we continue our search for the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe and retrace his path through the final, ill-fated months of his life.

    Sources that were either referenced directly or consulted during the writing of this episode:

    Ghosts of Philadelphia by Charles J. Adams III

    A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak

    True Tales of the Unknown: The Uninvited, published in 1989 and edited by Sharon Jones

    The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples

    Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner

    The Poe Shrine: Building the World's Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection by Christopher P. Semtner

    20 October 2025, 4:47 am
  • 45 minutes 7 seconds
    The Descent: Part 1- Hollow

    In this episode we embark on a search for the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe, guided by Henry David Thoreau and the mystery of the Hollow Earth. Our quest begins with a visit to a haunted saloon and an apartment building that is hiding a dark past.

    6 October 2025, 4:22 am
  • 47 minutes 6 seconds
    The Mermaid Returns: Part 3

    The conclusion of the three part series which combines history, ghosts, true crime and fairytales.

    21 December 2022, 10:52 pm
  • 52 minutes 27 seconds
    The Mermaid Returns: Part 2

    The second episode in a three part series about one of Charleston's lost stories. It is a true story that combines history, true crime, ghosts and fairy tales.

    11 December 2022, 12:56 am
  • 52 minutes 30 seconds
    The Mermaid Returns: Part 1

    This is the first in a three part series about one of Charleston, South Carolina's lost stories. It combines history, ghosts, true crime, amd fairytales.

    1 December 2022, 1:16 am
  • 47 minutes 44 seconds
    Here Are Dragons

    This episode features the untold story of the origin of King Kong.

    29 March 2021, 10:03 pm
  • 1 hour 36 seconds
    Last Breath

    This episode tells a story about pirates and a haunted dungeon.

    30 October 2020, 11:10 pm
  • 47 minutes 22 seconds
    The Mermaid

    This episode tells the story of the Charleston mermaid.

    24 July 2020, 4:52 am
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