Boggart and Banshee: A Supernatural Podcast

Available Episodes

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Victorian Shapeshifters: Furries, Shaggies or Folk Angels?
Is it a dog!? Is it a calf?! No, it’s something in between or just possibly a headless bear or a giant lolloping rabbit, instead. Simon and Chris debate the appearance and habits of a class of supernatural creatures Simon insists on calling, to Chris's irritation, 'furries': solitary, shaggy shapeshifters that haunted the roads and wilds of nineteenth century Britain. These ambiguous animals, with their trademark fiery, saucer-like eyes, might predict death, assault those who confront them, or protect vulnerable travelers from attack. Then there are the big questions. Did these shapeshifters make their way to the United States as Chris claims? Did they become the Alien Big Cats and Black Dogs of modern folklore, as Simon insists? Are they ghosts, cryptids, fairy-animals, or just a mangy tabby glimpsed in the moonlight? And watch out for swelling sheep on those late-night rambles.Further ReadingWilder Mann, Charles Freger https://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann-fr/Explore phantom black dogs, Bob TrubshawBlack Dog Folklore, Mark NormanMystery Big Cats, Merrily HarpurAmerican Monsters, Linda S. GodfreyMonsters Among Us, Linda S. Godfreyhttp://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/creature-feature-something-between-a-dog-and-a-calf/Past Praying For: Something Sinister in a Field http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/12988/http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/a-ghost-of-evil-odour/http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/black-dogs-and-dynamite-south-mountains-washington-monument/https://esoterx.com/2018/11/06/exit-stage-left-pursued-by-a-ghost-bear/
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Highway to Hell: Road Ghosts and Phantom Hitchhikers
Chris and Simon hit the road with tales of spectral travelers: headless motorcyclists, driverless hearses, ghostly coaches, and hitchhikers who vanish mid-ride. Highway hobgoblins leap into passing carriages and crossroads—where suicides were buried—are haunted by the devil. Chris steers the conversation to carriages as omens of death, while Simon says it’s his way or the highway, as the duo bicker over paths. Chris reveals how she almost became a Canadian road ghost on her vintage BMW R60/2. Simon maps out ghost coach routes, Chris tells of some terrifying first-hand experiences of phantom hitchhikers and the two finally agree on the uncanny habit of road ghosts in always keeping one step ahead. You’ll want to keep the car doors locked for this one.
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Household Helper Spirits: from Brownie to Hob
Simon and Chris are pixelated by household helpers, those elusive, often hairy beings like Brownies, Tomten, and Skrats who muck out stables, scrub pans, rock babies, edit podcasts and occasionally fetch the midwife, all in exchange for a humble bowl of porridge. Our domestic duo explore why these spirits have such complicated relationships with clothing, what draws them to a home (or sends them storming off), and wonder aloud if you can still hire one in today’s difficult real estate market. Along the way, the two squabble over whether houses go up or down in value with a helper, the emotional climate of homes, and the surprising requirements for crafting your own supernatural assistant (spoiler: toes and horses are involved). UK helpers are compared with their Scandinavian, North European, and North American cousins. While Simon berates Chris for her shocking ignorance of the Swiss variety, Chris lectures Simon on a brave new world of railway-building brownies on the other side of the Atlantic.
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Supernatural Feathers: Death Beds, Witchcraft and Angels
Chris and Simon wing it through the strange world of feather folklore — from cursed peacock plumes to pillows that prevent the dying from slipping away. Do feather crowns signal a heavenly reward or a witch’s curse? Simon’s disturbed by beds hiding feather rats and spectral bouquets; Chris dares to suggest a rational explanation. There's a detour into swan-lined pits, angel relics, deer hunting and the suspiciously decorative world of Victorian featherwork. Listener beware: this one might leave you checking your pillow twice.
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The Deerness Mermaid: The Best Attested Nineteenth-Century Cryptid
Simon and Chris dive into a rare cryptid case from Orkney where hundreds of witnesses saw a 'mermaid' swimming in the sea, sitting on a rock, snacking on fish and eels, and tending to her child. Stories of the mermaid went viral in the press. What in the watery world was the creature? Manatee, mutant seal, giant otter or, say it quietly, an actual mermaid? And why, after several years of summer visits to the bay at Deerness, did it vanish from the papers and from history? The duo trade notes about favorite cryptids. Chris goes off on a tangent about giant pink lizards, monsters in the nineteenth-century press and an escaped iguana, and she and Simon nearly come to blows over Cannock Chase and the supernatural/natural nature of unknown creatures. The source book for the episode is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deerness-Mermaid-Attested-Nineteenth-Century-Cryptid/dp/1915574404/ref
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About Boggart and Banshee: A Supernatural Podcast

So a Brit and a Yank walk into a supernatural podcast… Nattering on fairies, folklore, ghosts and the impossible ensues. Cross your fingers, turn your pockets inside out and join Simon and Chris as they talk weird history, Fortean mysteries, and things that go bump in the night.

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