Can riding a train actually drive you insane? And why have cultures around the world spent centuries telling stories about women with teeth in places teeth absolutely do not belong?

This week on The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro explore two bizarre intersections of history, folklore, psychology, and humanity's most uncomfortable fears.

First, we're heading to Victorian England, where a mysterious phenomenon known as Railway Madness had people convinced that traveling by train could cause sudden, violent insanity. From gun-wielding passengers and naked aristocrats to terrified travelers trapped inside moving railway carriages, the strange incidents sparked a genuine nineteenth-century panic. But were trains actually driving people mad, or was society struggling to cope with a world moving faster than ever before?

Then, Kat sinks her teeth into one of mythology's most unsettling recurring themes: vagina dentata, the ancient legend of the toothed vagina. Found in folklore from Native American traditions to India, Japan, and Māori mythology, these extraordinary stories explore sexuality, power, reproduction, and death. Along the way, we encounter a goddess with a deadly secret, an unfortunate encounter involving a sword scabbard, real medical oddities involving teeth growing inside tumors, and a controversial modern invention that brings this ancient nightmare disturbingly close to reality.

Plus, the great shoes-in-the-house debate, Thailand's unforgettable plus-size clothing stores, and the unexpected dangers of jumbo pants.

Strange history. Disturbing folklore. Uncomfortable anatomy. Just another day inside The Box of Oddities.

Join Kat and Jethro for another journey into the wonderfully weird, where the truth is often stranger than anything we could invent.

Keep flying that freak flag!

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What happens when scientists open a 134-year-old coffin and discover a body that has been remarkably preserved? And what happens when an inventor decides the automobile would be better if the passengers rode inside one enormous wheel?

This week on The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro explore two extraordinary stories where science, mystery, and human ingenuity take some very strange turns.

First, the mysterious death of Robert Kennicott, a 19th-century Smithsonian naturalist who died under suspicious circumstances in the Alaskan wilderness in 1866. Rumors of suicide followed him for more than a century. But when forensic anthropologists exhumed his remains in 2001, they discovered an astonishingly well-preserved body—and evidence of four toxic substances. Could modern forensic science finally solve a 135-year-old mystery?

Then, buckle up for the Dynasphere, one of the most bizarre inventions in automotive history. Developed by British engineer John Archibald Purves in the 1930s, this gigantic motorized monowheel promised to revolutionize transportation. It actually worked! Unfortunately, steering was questionable, braking was terrifying, and passengers faced the deeply unpleasant possibility of something called gerbiling.

Plus, in our spooky season edition of The Thing in the Middle, we explore five unsettling death superstitions from around the world, including ghost portals, mysterious knocking, and the surprisingly sinister implications of an empty rocking chair.

Historic mysteries, preserved corpses, forgotten inventions, strange science, and supernatural folklore. It's another delightfully peculiar journey into the unexpected on The Box of Oddities.

Keep flying that freak flag!

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Inbox of Oddities: Ghostly Voices, Time Travel & Homesick Nipples

The Freak Family has spoken, and once again, we're questioning whether any of you should be allowed out in public unsupervised.

In this episode of Inbox of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dig into another gloriously strange collection of listener emails, bizarre personal experiences, paranormal encounters, and unsolicited corrections.

First, a chilling Halloween ghost story takes us to Kentucky's historic Mayo Mansion, where a late-night ghost hunt produces a mysterious humming voice caught on an audio recording. Was someone—or something—trying to communicate from the other side?

Then, a listener proposes a fascinating twist on time travel: What if we could observe the past without actually traveling there? Naturally, this raises more questions than answers.

Elsewhere in the inbox, we hear firsthand tales of the famous Emma Crawford Coffin Races in Manitou Springs, Colorado, explore the emotional consequences of being mistaken for someone else's mother, and discover why one listener believes Jethro owes a preschooler a formal apology.

Plus, Australian listeners correct our pronunciation, a mysterious connection to Gremlins resurfaces, we revisit flesh-eating turtles, and someone finally finds a community that understands the deeply unsettling phenomenon of homesick nipples.

Yes. Homesick nipples.

And with our 9th Annual Halloween Special approaching, we're looking for your creepiest true stories, unexplained experiences, and paranormal encounters. Record your story on your phone and send it to [email protected] for a chance to be featured!

It's listener mail at its weirdest, funniest, and occasionally most disturbing.

Keep flying that freak flag!

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You’ve seen the Hindenburg footage. You’ve heard the famous radio broadcast. But what was it actually like to be inside the Hindenburg when it caught fire?

Kat and Jethro revisit one of history’s most recognizable disasters through the eyewitness accounts of the people who survived it. Passengers were thrown across rooms as the airship tilted, an acrobat hung from the outside waiting for the right moment to drop, a mother threw her children from a window, and a teenage cabin boy survived thanks to an extraordinary accident involving a ruptured water tank. Of the 97 passengers and crew aboard, remarkably, 62 survived. Their stories reveal a side of the Hindenburg disaster that the famous newsreel footage could never capture.

Then, Kat heads to the Great Lakes, where some Michigan sand dunes aren’t content to simply sit there looking picturesque. They move. Slowly. Relentlessly. And occasionally straight through somebody’s house.

Near Silver Lake, homeowners have battled migrating dunes that can advance several feet a year, burying cottages, orchards, and anything else unfortunate enough to be in their path. And beneath the dunes near Lake Michigan lies the remains of Singapore, Michigan—a once-thriving 19th-century settlement gradually swallowed by sand.

Two stories about being in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time: surviving the Hindenburg from the inside, and the very patient sand dunes that will eventually have your house.

Welcome to The Box of Oddities.

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A body emerges from a California glacier more than sixty years after a World War II training plane vanished in the Sierra Nevada. He’s still wearing his military uniform, carrying coins, a fountain pen, and an address book—but who is he, and what happened to the other men aboard the missing aircraft?

Then, we head to Colorado for the strange story of Emma Crawford, a young woman whose dying wish was to be buried high atop Red Mountain. Unfortunately, death was only the beginning of Emma’s travels. Her grave was moved, her coffin was swept down a mountainside, her remains spent years in a basement—and today, thousands of people gather every year to race coffins through the streets in her honor.

In this episode of The Box of Oddities: the frozen mystery of WWII airman Leo Mustonen and the wonderfully bizarre history behind the Emma Crawford Coffin Races of Manitou Springs.

Strange history, unsolved mysteries, frozen remains, bizarre burials, and one of America’s most unusual festivals. Just another day inside The Box of Oddities.

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It’s time for another Freak Family Favorite, pulled from deep inside The Box of Oddities archives!

First, Kat explores the surprisingly widespread history of dwarf mythology and reverence. From ancient Egypt, where people of short stature could hold prestigious positions and dwarf deities were associated with protection, childbirth, and regeneration, to Norse mythology and legends of mysterious underground craftsmen, the connection between dwarves, gods, magic, and folklore stretches across cultures and centuries.

Then, Jethro revisits the deeply troubling disappearance of five-year-old Stephen McKernan. In 1988, Stephen vanished from a crowded Scottish holiday park after being out of his family’s sight for only seconds. Sixteen days later, his body was discovered six miles away—just beyond the area police had searched. Authorities concluded that Stephen wandered there on his own and died from exposure.

But eyewitness reports, the brutal terrain, a six-foot fence, and one particularly strange detail involving Stephen’s shoes and socks raise questions that have never entirely gone away.

Ancient gods, mysterious dwarves, a baffling disappearance, and a case officially considered solved that somehow still doesn’t feel solved.

It’s another Freak Family Favorite from The Box of Oddities.

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A letter disappears in one of the deadliest tornadoes in American history—then turns up 130 miles away.

In 1925, the catastrophic Tri-State Tornado destroyed the Indiana home of Will Jones. Among the possessions swept away was a letter written decades earlier by his late wife. About a week later, a farmer found that same piece of paper lying in a field more than a hundred miles away—and somehow, against absurd odds, it found its way back to the man who treasured it.

Then, Kat takes us inside Bayernhof, the spectacularly eccentric Pittsburgh mansion built by millionaire Charles B. Brown III. The 19,000-square-foot home is packed with secret passages, an indoor waterfall, a concrete cave, and more than 140 antique automatic musical instruments. But after Brown’s death, his family discovered the house had been designed with a surprising purpose all along.

Plus: strange superstitions involving deadly chewing gum, cursed opals, lethal electric fans, red ink, and the potentially catastrophic consequences of trimming your fingernails after dark.

The Box of Oddities: strange history, bizarre true stories, unexplained events, unusual people, and the wonderfully weird corners of the world.

And don’t forget: our ninth annual Halloween special is coming. If you have a paranormal experience of your own, record it and send it to [email protected] for a chance to be included.

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What if the streets beneath San Francisco aren’t sitting on solid ground at all—but on the remains of abandoned ships?

During the California Gold Rush, crews deserted vessels by the hundreds, leaving ships stranded along the waterfront. Some became warehouses, hotels, saloons, even a jail. Others were swallowed by landfill as San Francisco expanded outward into the bay. Today, dozens of nineteenth-century ships may still lie beneath downtown—including the Niantic, whose buried hull has repeatedly resurfaced during construction, complete with artifacts and bottles of wine and champagne sealed underground for more than a century.

Then Kat takes us into a very different corner of human achievement: toilet-related world records. Meet the man who smashed 46 wooden toilet seats with his head in one minute, the record holder who passed his entire body through a toilet seat ten times in sixty seconds, and the Belgian man who spent nearly five days sitting on a toilet in the middle of a bar—all in pursuit of questionable glory.

Plus: Kat goes to jury duty and, completely on brand, discovers she has brought more knives than expected.

Buried Gold Rush ships, forgotten champagne, toilet-seat martial arts, bizarre Guinness records, and one woman who apparently cannot enter a government building without accidentally carrying a weapon.

It’s another beautifully strange episode of The Box of Oddities.

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The Inbox of Oddities is open, and the Freak Family has delivered another beautifully strange collection of listener stories.

This time, Kat and Jethro dive into an accidentally perfect sign at a spay-and-neuter clinic, a spectacularly unfortunate product mistranslation involving “aging horniness,” a rabbit openly mocking someone’s gardening defenses, and a listener determined to bring a beloved Box of Oddities song back into heavy rotation.

There’s also a Phoenix-versus-Tucson debate, memories of a skateboarding Pope look-alike, mysterious internet rabbit holes, questionable bathroom barbecue-tong etiquette, and plenty of pet pictures.

But things take a decidedly eerie turn with the story of a late-night highway rest stop, a strange older man, and a warning to take the next exit. Minutes later, the listener discovers a serious accident on the road they would have been traveling. When they return from the restroom, the mysterious stranger has vanished.

Coincidence, intuition, guardian angel… or something much stranger?

Plus, Kat and Jethro are looking for your creepy, unusual, and unexplained stories for the upcoming Halloween episode.

It’s listener mail at its funniest, weirdest, and occasionally unsettling best on this episode of The Inbox of Oddities.

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A quiet French town is hit by a wave of sickness, terror, and impossible visions after its residents eat the same bread. Were the horrors of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951 caused by ergot poisoning, contaminated flour, or something even stranger? Then, deep in the Amazon, male pink river dolphins have a baffling social habit involving aerial urination, zigzagging streams, and very interested onlookers.

The Box of Oddities investigates cursed bread, Cold War suspicions, hallucinations, and why nature remains undefeated at being weird.

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An accidental Australian takeover of The Box of Oddities begins with Vegemite and somehow ends with a prehistoric mystery and a disappearance that only gets stranger.

First, buried in ancient Australian rock are the delicate remains of a forest that vanished from the world millions of years ago. Scientists knew these trees only through fossils—until a park ranger climbed into a remote canyon and noticed something he couldn't explain. What he found would rewrite a small piece of botanical history and eventually trigger an extraordinary fight to keep something ancient from disappearing all over again.

Then, 30-year-old Jessica Zarinsky leaves a Western Sydney pub with a man she's just met and vanishes. CCTV traces their journey toward the Blue Mountains, but eventually Jessica disappears from the cameras—and the man she was traveling with disappears too. Years later, investigators find him in one of the strangest places imaginable. But the discovery only deepens the mystery of what happened to Jessica.

Two Australian stories. One survivor from an almost unimaginable past. One woman whose family is still waiting for answers.

Also: wombat poop, penguin fences, Vegemite, and further evidence that Australia may be the most Box of Oddities place on Earth.

The Box of Oddities — where the strange, bizarre, mysterious, and unexplained remind us that the world is much weirder than we think.

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