This week on Hysteria 51, we're dealing with two things nobody wants unexpectedly crawling into their lives: 3,000 tarantulas and the ghosts of dead people. And somehow, the spiders might be the less disturbing story.

First, airport authorities in Peru bust a bizarre wildlife smuggling operation involving thousands of live tarantulas stuffed into dirty socks and packed in suitcases. Because apparently, the international spider black market doesn't believe in breathable packaging. Nothing says "vacation nightmare" quite like $1.7 million worth of eight-legged stowaways.

Then, scientists take ghost hunting to a whole new level with a psychomanteum, a darkened mirror chamber designed to summon encounters with the dead. And when 24 out of 30 participants report sensing something supernatural, things get seriously spooky. Are ghosts real, or is staring into a mirror in the dark just a terrible hobby?

From tarantula trafficking and suspicious socks to ghostly encounters and paranormal science, this week's weird news proves the world is stranger than fiction, and significantly harder to explain to airport security.

News Stories Mentioned:

Wiggly Socks

Extreme Corn Maze

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What do you get when you mix a British carpenter, a police station, and Ed and Lorraine Warren? Apparently, a werewolf with a passport.

In 1987, Bill Ramsey became known as The Southend Werewolf after a bizarre incident involving growling, biting, alleged superhuman strength, and firefighters rescuing him from a police cell door. And you thought your last night out got weird.

Things only got stranger when legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren flew Ramsey to America for an exorcism. Because apparently the cure for turning into a wolf is international travel and a priest yelling in Latin.

Was Ramsey demonically possessed, suffering from clinical lycanthropy, a real psychiatric phenomenon, or simply the victim of sensational British tabloids? We're digging into the police reports, medical mysteries, and one seriously hairy exorcism.

All that and more, including why werewolves should never be allowed near a doggy door, this week on Hysteria 51!

Sources:

• The Making of the Southend Werewolf | The History Alchemist (June 2026)
• https://www.thehistoryalchemist.com/blog/3249848_the-making-of-the-southend-werewolf
• The Southend Werewolf | New England Society for Psychic Research (The Warrens)
• https://warrens.net/werewolf/
• Werewolf: A True Story of Demonic Possession | Ed and Lorraine Warren, Bill Ramsey, and Robert David Chase (1991)
• https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/236537
• The Southend Werewolf | Sightings Television Segment (1992)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bucFTvNglM
• 3 Investigations by Connecticut's Warrens Not in The Conjuring Movies | CT Insider
• https://www.ctinsider.com/living/article/ed-lorraine-warren-ct-paranormal-investigations-19854193.php
• William Ramsey Exorcism Photographs, July 28, 1989 | John Cleave / Mirrorpix / Getty Images
• https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/william-ramsey-from-southend-on-sea-in-the-uk-being-news-photo/637653066
• Werewolf: A True Story of Demonic Possession | Kirkus Reviews
• https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ed-warren/werewolf-2/
• When Doctors Cry Wolf: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Clinical Lycanthropy | Jan Dirk Blom (2014)
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24594823/
• A Systematic Review on Clinical Therianthropy and a Proposal to Conceptualize Zoomorphism as a Diagnostic Spectrum | Jan Dirk Blom and Brian A. Sharpless (2025)
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40350004/
• Clinical Lycanthropy: Delusional Misidentification of the Self | The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
• https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.13030057

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Just when you thought the world couldn't get any weirder, Mother Nature said, "Hold my fertilizer," and Halloween decided to take things WAY too seriously.

First up, we're heading to Siberia, where a man suffering from months of headaches and double vision discovered something growing inside his eyeball. Was it a tumor? A parasite? An alien implant? Nope. A FREAKING PLANT. That's right, an actual seed had sprouted roots inside his eye. Apparently, when doctors tell you to get more greenery in your life, they don't mean turning your face into a community garden. We're digging into this bizarre medical mystery and asking the important question: If you grow a tree in your eyeball, does that make you a visionary or just really bad at gardening?

Then, we're heading to Dixon, California, where a trip to the pumpkin patch took a horrifying turn. At Cool Patch Pumpkins, home to one of the world's largest corn mazes, an altercation escalated into a stabbing that left two people injured. Because apparently, getting hopelessly lost in a giant field of corn wasn't stressful enough. Forget Children of the Corn. This is Adults Making Terrible Decisions in the Corn, and frankly, we're ready to go back to apple picking.

From plants growing in human eyeballs to real-life horror in a California corn maze, this week's Hysteria 51 serves up a fresh harvest of bizarre medical oddities, unbelievable true stories, weird news, and the kind of headlines that make you question whether reality has finally fired its writers.

So grab your safety goggles, avoid suspicious shrubbery, and remember: The eyes are the windows to the soul, NOT THE PLANTERS ON YOUR FRONT PORCH.

News Stories Mentioned:

Eye Seed

Extreme Corn Maze

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Scientists have figured out how to grow living human brain cells, hook them up to computers, and make them play video games. Because apparently artificial intelligence wasn't terrifying enough, so we gave computers actual human brain cells and introduced them to Doom. What could possibly go wrong?

Meet the bizarre world of biological computing, where scientists are teaching neurons to play Pong, growing miniature human brains, and building computers that need food and life support. Finally, a computer that can literally die from neglect. Take that, Windows!

But things get even weirder with Darwinian Will, the possibility that brain cells can exhibit goal-directed behavior without consciousness. Could these biological computers eventually become self-aware? And if your computer develops feelings, is unplugging it murder or just a really complicated IT support ticket?

Living computers, human brain cells playing Doom, and the terrifying possibility of consciousness in a petri dish. All that and more this week on Hysteria 51!

Sources

Biological computers, DishBrain, and Doom

• DishBrain: In Vitro Neurons Learn and Exhibit Sentience When Embodied in a Simulated Game-World | Neuron (2022)
• Cortical Labs: CL1 Biological Computer | Official Website
• Cortical Labs: Cortical Cloud | Official Website
• Human Brain Cells Playing Doom | Smithsonian Magazine (2026)
• The Neurons Playing Doom Are Actually Testing a Theory of Intelligence | R&D World (2026)
• Doom Neuron: Sean Cole's Original Project Code | GitHub
• This Melbourne Data Centre Runs on Human Brain Cells | Australian Computer Society (2026)

Darwinian will, learning, and consciousness

• The Free-Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory? | Karl Friston, Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2010)
• Playing Brains: The Ethical Challenges Posed by Silicon Sentience and Hybrid Intelligence in DishBrain | Science and Engineering Ethics (2023)

Brain organoids, medicine, and ethics

• Open and Remotely Accessible Neuroplatform for Research in Wetware Computing | FinalSpark, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (2024)
• Organoid Intelligence: The New Frontier in Biocomputing and Intelligence-in-a-Dish | Frontiers in Science (2023)
• Brain Organoids for Disease Modeling, Toxicity Testing and Drug Evaluation | PubMed
• The Emerging Field of Human Neural Organoids, Transplants, and Chimeras: Science, Ethics, and Governance | National Academies (2021)
• The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks | Johns Hopkins Medicine

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This week's Hysteria 51 is tackling two of life's greatest mysteries: What the hell is flying around in our skies, and can getting busy actually clear your sinuses?

First up, a former NASA astronaut is making headlines with an out-of-this-world claim: UFOs aren't extraterrestrials. They're DEMONS IN DISGUISE! That's right, forget little green men from Zeta Reticuli. Apparently, we should be looking for little red devils from the fiery pits of Hell. Are UFO sightings actually supernatural encounters? Have we been confusing alien spacecraft with demonic joyrides? And does this mean the Pentagon needs an exorcist instead of an astrophysicist?

Then, we're moving from the mysteries of the heavens to the congestion in your head. A scientific study suggests that orgasms might actually relieve a stuffy nose! Yes, apparently the road to respiratory relief might involve a little less Vicks VapoRub and a lot more... vigorous activity. But there's a catch! The benefits may be temporary, meaning your sinuses could be demanding a repeat performance before you've even caught your breath. Move over, Sudafed. There's a new decongestant in town, and it's definitely not covered by insurance.

From demonic UFOs and alien conspiracy theories to bizarre medical studies and unconventional sinus remedies, this episode has everything you never knew you needed to know.

So grab your holy water, ditch the nasal spray, and join us for another ridiculous journey through the weirdest news on Earth (and possibly beyond).

News Stories Mentioned:

Space Devils

Fun Medicine

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This week on Hysteria 51, we're handing over the keys to the asylum! We're finally announcing the winners of our Pick a Topic and Host the Show contest! That's right, a few lucky listeners have officially won the opportunity to join us behind the microphones, choose an episode topic, and experience firsthand just how little adult supervision goes into making this podcast. Congratulations! You've won a prize that's technically just more work for you.

Then, we're heading into space, where scientists have discovered something they previously said couldn't exist: a GREEN STAR! Apparently, the universe has been holding out on us, because researchers have also identified dead stars that could appear pink, purple, and other colors straight out of a Lisa Frank fever dream.

How does a dead star turn green? What does eating the remains of your own planetary system have to do with it? Why are blue stars hotter than red ones? And how did astronomers spend centuries studying the universe only to discover it has more color options than a 1997 Geo Tracker?

From contest winners and questionable hosting decisions to stellar corpses, cosmic cannibalism, and stars that apparently died in a vat of Mountain Dew, we're covering it all.

Sources

• Original Scientific Study (2026)
• Any Colour You Like: The Diverse Chromaticities of White Dwarfs
• CNN (October 16, 2026)
• Green Star Discovery
• Reuters (October 16, 2026)
• Newly Identified Green Star Leaves Astronomers Amazed
• University of Warwick (October 2026)
• Green, Pink and Purple: Astronomers Reveal the Surprising True Colors of White Dwarf Stars
• Smithsonian Magazine (October 2026)
• In a First, Astronomers Identify a Star That Might Glow Green
• NASA Science
• Stars and Stellar Evolution
• NASA Imagine the Universe
• Stellar Colors, Temperatures, and Spectral Classification

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This week on Hysteria 51: The truth is out there... and apparently so is the urine.

Minnesota, we need to talk. Seriously. What the hell is going on up there?! This week, the Land of 10,000 Lakes becomes the Land of 10,000 Questions as Hysteria 51 dives into two bizarre news stories involving mysterious objects falling from the sky and a college professor who apparently never learned what bathrooms are for.

First up, an 11-foot-wide mystery metal object has turned up in a Minnesota cornfield, leaving police scratching their heads and UFO enthusiasts reaching for their tinfoil hats. Is it space debris, a crashed satellite, an alien spacecraft, or the world's most aggressive intergalactic salad bowl? Whatever it is, it certainly didn't come with a return shipping label. And if aliens really are visiting Minnesota, someone should warn them about the second story.

Because over at Macalester College, a former biology professor is facing felony charges after allegedly turning the campus into his own personal splash zone. We're talking urine-soaked backpacks, mysterious deposits in water bottles, and a bizarre string of pee-related incidents that would make even the most hardened janitor consider early retirement. Twenty-five years of teaching biology, and somehow the most important lesson was still missed: THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TOILETS.

So grab your hazmat suit, put on your space helmet, and join us as we investigate mysterious space debris, possible UFO sightings, bizarre college crimes, and the weirdest headlines coming out of Minnesota.

One mystery dropped from the heavens. The other came from a professor who apparently couldn't keep it in his pants.

News Stories Mentioned:

Corny Shenanigans

Collegiate Water Sports

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What if the aliens aren’t coming from space because they never left Earth?

Enter the Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis, the strange and surprisingly thoughtful idea that at least some UFOs, UAPs, alien encounters, and unexplained phenomena could be connected to an advanced intelligence native to our own planet.

We’re talking hidden civilizations, underwater bases, ancient human offshoots, unknown terrestrial species, USOs, the 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac encounter, John Keel’s ultraterrestrials, Jacques Vallée’s control system, fairy folklore, the Silurian Hypothesis, and Mac Tonnies, the writer who helped drag this whole bizarre idea into modern UFO discussion.

Could the beings we call aliens actually be distant cousins? Could something intelligent have been living beneath the oceans or underground for thousands, or even millions, of years? And if another advanced civilization really shares Earth with us, why the hell haven’t we found their cities, their technology, or at least one suspiciously advanced garbage dump?

We give the Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis a fair shake, lay out the strongest arguments from believers, then turn the lights on and let the skeptics start checking under the furniture. Because maybe we’ve spent decades looking for visitors from the stars when we should have been worrying about the neighbors.

All that and more this week on Hysteria 51!

Sources:

The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis

• The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us — Mac Tonnies
• The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis: A Case for Scientific Openness to a Concealed Earthly Explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — Tim Lomas, Brendan Case & Michael P. Masters (2024)

Ancient Civilizations and the Silurian Hypothesis

• The Silurian Hypothesis: Would It Be Possible to Detect an Industrial Civilization in the Geological Record? — Gavin A. Schmidt & Adam Frank (2018)
• The Silurian Hypothesis — arXiv Research Paper
• The Cryptoterrestrials — Anomalist Books, Publisher Announcement (2010)
• The Cryptoterrestrials — Mac Tonnies, Google Books

John Keel, Jacques Vallée, and UFO Folklore

• Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers — Jacques Vallée
• The Mothman Prophecies — John A. Keel

UFOs, UAPs, and Government Investigations

• NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Report (2023)
• AARO Historical Record Report, Volume I — U.S. Department of Defense (2024)
• AARO Congressional Reports and UAP Investigations

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We are digging into the coffers this week for a classic Mad Blurry Hysteria with the crazy doc himself, Chris Cogswell!

It's Mad Blurry Hysteria time once again as we dive head first into the pool with Guinness Book of World Records for the longest time to hold your breath (It Is Crazy!). Then it’s DNA time – from the air… (nothing to worry about there). And finally, George Knapp brings out more UAP photos for us to tackle.

News Stories Mentioned:

Guinness Book of WTF!Air DNA Shenanigans

Alien Baby’s Black Balloon

Follow the Shows:

Mad Scientist - https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com/

Blurry Photos - http://www.blurryphotos.org/

Hysteria 51 - http://hysteria51.com/  

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Brent is out this week, which means Kevin Crispin of Behind Beautiful Things has been handed the keys to Hysteria 51. This was a terrible administrative decision.

First up: a Virginia driver gets caught allegedly doing nearly 50 mph over the speed limit and reaches deep into the Big Book of Excuses to blame the one force powerful enough to override traffic laws: McDonald’s breakfast. Was the Egg McMuffin getting cold? Were the hash browns entering their dangerously soggy phase? Somewhere, Ronald McDonald is being advised not to comment.

Then we head to Beijing, where HYROX learned that sometimes “leaving it all on the course” is not supposed to be taken literally. Australian competitor Joanna Wietrzyk suffered an extremely unfortunate mid-race bathroom incident, kept competing, used shared equipment, and crossed the finish line first. The fallout went viral, HYROX apologized and changed its rules, and humanity received another regulation nobody realized needed to be written down.

So buckle up, clench accordingly, and join David Flora and guest host Kevin Crispin for an episode featuring reckless driving, fast food, extreme fitness, questionable decision-making, and two very different stories about people who desperately needed to slow down.

Because this week on Hysteria 51, whether you’re racing toward a McDonald’s breakfast or racing while becoming a public-health incident, the important thing is apparently to never, ever stop.

Links & Resources

📌McBlunder

📌Racing Stinks

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This week on Hysteria 51, we’ve got vampires, missing people, Minecraft, and a nine-year-old with the advertising budget of a midsize corporation.

First, we sink our teeth into the bizarre disappearance of George Phillip Gall, an Ohio man whose case became tangled in claims involving a Dayton vampire coven, occult rituals, and alleged human sacrifice. Netflix even produced a documentary about the story, Vampires of Gem City, only for the project itself to seemingly vanish into the darkness.

Then, we meet a nine-year-old aspiring YouTube mogul who allegedly spent $118,000 on his dad’s company credit card buying ads for his Minecraft and Roblox videos. His strategy was brutally simple: more money equals more views. Somewhere, an MBA program just spontaneously combusted.

From alleged bloodsucking cults to a kid speedrunning his father’s unemployment, it’s another week where the weirdest part of the news is that everyone involved apparently lives on the same planet we do.

Grab your garlic, change your Google password, and join us for another wonderfully questionable episode of Hysteria 51.

Links & Resources

📌Dayton Suckers

📌Minecraft Oopsie

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