Pleasing Terrors
44 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1.2K ratingsJoin 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.
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Episodes
Charleston Gothic (Part 1)
January 18, 2024 01:37 - 1 hour - 138 MBIn this episode, we take a look at Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug," a story about an encrypted map that leads to a buried pirate treasure. We will visit a haunted theater and discuss a play a play about the death of Poe that was first performed there in 1994. The story, the ghosts, and the play are all clues that lead to a hidden treasure that Poe was attempting to find in Charleston in 1828. This is the first installment of a two-part story. Works Cited: Buxton, Julian T., The ...
The Mermaid Returns: Part 3
December 21, 2022 22:52 - 47 minutes - 108 MBThe conclusion of the three part series which combines history, ghosts, true crime and fairytales.
The Mermaid Returns: Part 2
December 11, 2022 00:56 - 52 minutes - 120 MBThe 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.
The Mermaid Returns: Part 1
December 01, 2022 01:16 - 52 minutes - 120 MBThis 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.
Here Are Dragons
March 29, 2021 22:03 - 47 minutes - 65.5 MBThis episode features the untold story of the origin of King Kong.
Last Breath
October 30, 2020 23:10 - 1 hour - 111 MBThis episode tells a story about pirates and a haunted dungeon.
The Mermaid
July 24, 2020 04:52 - 47 minutes - 86.7 MBThis episode tells the story of the Charleston mermaid.
Corpsewood
October 23, 2019 21:58 - 46 minutes - 107 MBThis is a story about a German fairytale and a brutal murder in northwestern Georgia. Suggested reading: The Corpsewood Manor Murders In North Georgia by Amy Petulla
Through A Glass Darkly
September 17, 2019 20:58 - 34 minutes - 79.3 MBThis a story about the Titanic, Victorian sex trafficking and a mummy's curse.
Shadows of Savannah Part 2: The Dead Time
August 15, 2019 22:00 - 38 minutes - 87.5 MBHaunted houses, midnight witchcraft and famous murder in historic Savannah, Georgia.
Shadows of Savannah (Part 1): Most Haunted
February 22, 2019 01:40 - 33 minutes - 77.6 MBIn this episode I visit some of Savanah's most haunted locations. Suggested Reading: Haunted Savanah: America's Most Spectral City by James Caskey Haunted Savannah by Georgia R. Byrd
Creepy Door Room
April 24, 2018 23:28 - 30 minutes - 55.5 MBAn unexpected return to a very creepy place to do a very foolish thing.
In the Shadow of Oz
April 10, 2018 22:09 - 31 minutes - 57 MBThis episode features The Wizard of Oz, Greek mythology and a famous unsolved murder.
Resurrection
March 16, 2018 04:17 - 26 minutes - 49 MBEpisode 30: Resurrection delves into the history of Chicago's most famous ghost: Resurrection Mary!
029: Invisible World Part 2 - Satan’s Kingdom
December 12, 2017 10:00 - 40 minutes - 74.4 MBI am with Alyson Horrocks of The Strange and Unusual Podcast. It’s the evening of August 20th, 2017. We are in Danvers, MA which was previously known as Salem Village. We are visiting the Samuel Parris archeological site. Surrounded by a rail fence there are two stone lined cellars marking the location of the house that once stood here. Next to this location is a grassy path that leads to the back of a house with a wolves head door knocker. A wolf can be a monster of many faces and a bad o...
028: Strange Terrors
October 20, 2017 15:08 - 38 minutes - 70 MBAlyson Horrocks from the Strange and Unusual Podcast took me on a tour of a historical site with a dark past. The site sits in a town called Danvers, but it was once Salem Village. This site was the culmination of a strange mix of religion, superstition, folklore, slavery, patriarchy, truth, and lies. A place where people’s imagination or secret motives ran wild and story or lie or desperate attempt at redemption led to the basis for one of the darkest times in colonial American History. W...
027: The Dark Path
September 29, 2017 09:00 - 40 minutes - 74.8 MBThe history of the Navajo goes back in time to the Four Corners region in Arizona. Where the spider grandmother spun a giant web and threw it into the night sky to create the stars. This area known as Canyon de Chelly is also known as the Canyon of the Dead after a misguided weaver’s warning resulted in a cruel cave massacre. Like the art and designs of the Navajo weaver’s blanket, the Navajo legends are intertwined with a ranch purchased by a Utah couple. The Sherman ranch seemed like an ...
026: Monster of the Deep
September 19, 2017 09:00 - 29 minutes - 27.5 MBOn November 20th, 1850 night watchman George Pollard Jr. makes his nightly rounds on the foggy Island of Nantucket, MA. An island once inhabited by proud tribes of Native Americans before the addition of the colonists. An island that was the whaling capital of the world for over a century. The inhabitants and the whalers themselves were haunted with superstition and legends about the dark underworld of the sea and the evil that lied beneath the depths. The dangers were all too real, yet it...
025: A Vampire's Heart
August 18, 2017 17:18 - 37 minutes - 68 MBCount Dracula’s story is one of many pieces; a story of a man and the secrets that are hidden inside his castle. Bram Stoker, the story’s author, is also a man of many secrets who constructed his own castle and built a fortress around his heart. The puzzle of Count Dracula is not complete until the intertwining pieces are put together. When put together what do the pieces reveal about the story and the man behind it? Episode Highlights: A young lawyer encounters strange experiences insi...
024: The Devil Inside
July 31, 2017 09:00 - 30 minutes - 55.7 MBChicago’s West 63rd Street Post Office was built in 1938 over the site of what its creator referred to as “The Castle”, and in 1902 an Ohio Daily News article called it Chicago’s Ghost Castle. Whatever you want to call it, this site was once or possibly still is the home to a notorious killer. A figure who built a home that included a 2nd floor full of secret passages, trap doors, and hidden staircases. The basement so notorious that a crowd would lay on the sidewalk and try to peer throug...
023: Sins of the Father
July 24, 2017 09:00 - 43 minutes - 79.3 MBThe Heriot House in Georgetown, South Carolina was built in 1765. It is now the Harbor House Inn and there are many stories by visitors and Georgetown residents alike of seeing an image of a woman that looks like she doesn’t belong there. Is this woman the ghost of a forlorn lover or does she represent something more sinister? Something that ties in with the four circles of Dante’s Inferno and stretches all the way from the old Heriot House to a Greenwich Village neighborhood located on J...
022: Hell Broke Loose
July 07, 2017 09:00 - 32 minutes - 58.9 MBIn Austin, Texas in 1884 a female servant was killed in a gruesome ax murder. Feeble attempts were made to find the murderer, but to no avail. Soon a series of gruesome ax murders and attacks followed. Each one more horrific than the other, and the murders spread beyond the black servant population to the white community. What originally was considered a black problem in the South twenty years after the Civil War became society's problem. This was a birth. The birth of legions of Demons ca...
021: Hungry Spirits
June 02, 2017 09:00 - 24 minutes - 45.1 MBIn Native American folklore, there was a dark creature that possessed the mind and body of men, instilling within them a great hunger for human flesh. The Wendigo was feared by tribes throughout what is now North America and Canada as stories of bloodshed and terror spread across the continent. Picture it: Your best friend, your husband, your sister -- crouched down and feasting upon the flesh of someone you love. It’s been many, many years since a Wendigo was rumoured to be wreaking havoc...
020: True Horror
May 19, 2017 09:00 - 28 minutes - 51.9 MBThe Salisbury Plain is the name for the 300 miles of grasslands located in Wiltshire, England. Home to Stonehenge, a rich history, and a wide variety of plants and animals, the Salisbury Plain is one of the most famous locations in England. For the residents of Wiltshire, however, the area is notorious for more than its archaeological features and mystical energy. The great grassy plains of Salisbury border the mansions of Wiltshire, whose walls are painted in blood and sorrow. In these gre...
019: The Dark Séance Polka
May 02, 2017 09:00 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBThe White House: In all it’s glory, from the immaculately-kept gardens to the walls hung with priceless art, is an icon of American history and power. Home to every President since 1800, the White House is seen as a safe haven for the President and their family. Not even the heavy iron fence that borders the grounds of the White House can keep dark magic from harming its inhabitants. A curse muttered on a bloodied battlefield in 1812 has left over a hundred years of President’s scared for ...
018: The Place of the Dragon
April 14, 2017 09:00 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBDeep within the heart of New Jersey lies an untamed swath of trees and brush, long believed to be the home of the Jersey Devil itself. A horrifying creature with the head of a goat and the wings of a bat, the legend of the Jersey Devil has haunted the Pine Barrens for generations. Yet the Jersey Devil might not be the only degenerate creature lurking within the shadows of the Pines. What dark secrets does the Devil guard? Episode Highlights: The many forms of dragons What secrets does...
017: A Monster of Many Parts
April 04, 2017 09:00 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBWho can forget the classic tale of the mad scientist who creates a gorgeously gruesome Creature, only to become frightened and disgusted by his own creation? Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is one of the most widely taught examples of Gothic literature, yet most readers don’t know the true story behind Shelley’s most famous work. Was Frankenstein really the product of a writing competition between friends while on summer vacation, as most people believe it to be, or was the story of the sc...
016: True Crime
March 17, 2017 09:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBFairy tales often teach an important moral lesson, hidden within the entertaining twists and turns of the story. The tale of Bluebeard, the rich man who keeps the bodies of his murdered wives locked behind the forbidden doors of the dungeon in his castle, doomed to have his wrongdoing exposed by his newest wife, serves as a reminder to young women that curiosity can sometimes be your downfall -- or your savior. In real life there are rarely happy endings to tragedies and moral lessons must b...
015: Condemned, Part Two - The Devil’s Hour
February 24, 2017 10:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBThe time between three and four in the morning is said to be the hour when evil is at the height of it’s power -- the time when the Devil ascends from Hell and ghosts haunt the land of the living. In part two of my experience of the Devil’s hour inside Charleston’s Old City Jail, I receive a message from Hell itself, and discover the truth about one of the jail’s most famous prisoners -- Lavinia Fisher herself. Episode Highlights: 3 AM inside the Old City Jail Torture chambers, the cran...
014: Condemned, Part One - Welcome to Hell
February 17, 2017 10:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBNestled inside Charleston, South Carolina lives a menacing stone monstrosity, often called the most haunted building in America -- The Old City Jail. The square upon which the Jail sits has been home to untold amounts of suffering and torture, making it the perfect breeding ground for the supernatural to take hold. As part of my training and experience as a storyteller and tour guide, I have been visiting haunted locations for the past 19 years. There have been many times that I’ve been in...
013: Place of Slaughter
February 03, 2017 10:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBThe railroad tracks over the Tsavo river are flanked on either side with lush grasses. A picturesque river runs below, providing a calming base for the trains that rush from Uganda to Kenya and back again. During it’s construction, men from all over India and far parts of Africa gathered at the Tsavo river, working for months on end. At first, the men were oblivious to the twin pairs of golden eyes stalking them from the grasses… until half-devoured bodies and screams in the night became com...
012: The Serpent's Curse
January 13, 2017 10:00 - 23 minutes - 22 MBThroughout history, disasters of astronomical proportions have taken place on one auspicious day -- Friday the Thirteenth. Shipwrecks, tsunamis, raging forest fires, brutal murderers, and horrifying accidents have all claimed victims on a day that many believe has been cursed since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same serpent who tested the pair has become the dark figurehead of Friday the Thirteenth, feared by ancient cultures for centuries. The fear of 13 seems like o...
011: The Labyrinth Part 2 - The Hell Below
December 16, 2016 10:00 - 25 minutes - 57.6 MBUnderneath our world lies a twisting and complicated maze, a dark mass of underground caves, passageways, and secrets. In part two of our Labyrinth series, we delve into the explorations of Greg Newkirk into the heart of the Kentucky goblin mystery. Episode Highlights: The m-cave mystery in the desert The “other grandma” Return of the Kentucky goblins Secret missions and underground battles Amazing Stories Brown Mountain: Finding a way into the Labyrinth Mummified remains Fo...
010: The Labyrinth Part 1 - Goblins
December 09, 2016 10:00 - 25 minutes - 57.4 MBThe brave Greek hero Theseus made a name for himself when he defeated the monstrous Minotaur and escaped the depths of the Labyrinth by mapping his path back to safety with a ball of red string. The story of the Kentucky Goblins is much like the twisting, mysterious Labyrinth. Many researchers have found themselves lost within the details of the tale, searching for the truth of what lives in the middle of the maze. Was 1950’s Hopkinsville, Kentucky, really home to a colony of extraterrestr...
009: The Mourner's Curse
November 18, 2016 11:00 - 37 minutes - 85.8 MBThe stories of Charleston, South Carolina are composed of a tangled web of dreams and memories. They’ve been passed through historians, artists, writers, and tour guides, twisting into a new shape with each retelling. Deep within the historic city lies a graveyard. Cloaked in ivy and wildflowers, the cemetery is a tranquil spot for a walk and a popular sightseeing destination… as long as the sun is shining. In the dark of night, the graveyard belonging to the Unitarian Church of Charleston...
008: Shadows of Gotham
November 04, 2016 09:00 - 27 minutes - 62.6 MBThe city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the city with streets paved with opportunities… for many of us, New York represents a glittering place where absolutely anything is possible. Yet for all its glamour and sparkle, there are dark secrets lurking within its shadows, and history has done little to wash away the blood that once soaked New York’s prosperous streets. They say the population of New York City reaches nearly 8.5 million people. Does that count the haunted souls whose g...
007 The Married One
October 21, 2016 10:00 - 21 minutes - 50.4 MBThe idyllic Fox Hollow Farm boasts of a basement-level swimming pool and sprawling acres of land. But all is not as it seems. A man creeps through the woods nearby, his legs transparent in the flashlight’s beam. There is an incessant knocking at the front door by hands unseen. Night swims in the pool end with ghostly fingers clenched tight around a throat. For Joe Leblanc, Fox Hollow Farm was meant to be an escape from a long commute and skyrocketing rent. For the dozens of men buried on i...
006: The Mountain of Madness
October 07, 2016 10:00 - 24 minutes - 55.4 MBMysteries are a rarity in our world. What used to be unexplainable is now quickly answered by the modern marvels of technology and science. So when a new mystery appears, we drive ourselves crazy searching for an explanation, haunted by what we can’t explain. One modern mystery is reasoning behind the strange events that took place on a Siberian mountain in 1959, in which a group of experienced hikers were found dead in bizarre circumstances. Since the day of the discovery, many have been ...
005: Shadow of the Wolf
September 21, 2016 10:00 - 25 minutes - 59.5 MBWerewolves have been portrayed in folklore, books, movies and television for centuries. Rageful howls under the full moon. Fangs, claws, fur, muscle and legend. Is it a monster? A ghost or a demon? Is it real? Historic folk tales about werewolves often evoke images of crisp nights in dark ages of Europe. Yet in the United States, the state of Georgia has one of the longest histories of werewolf encounters in the country. This is the story of the Georgia Werewolf. Personal accounts and anec...
004: The Devil's Business
September 07, 2016 10:00 - 28 minutes - 65.7 MBA haunted house should loom out of the darkness, its windows boarded up, ghosts and dust as the only occupants. But horror dwells inside two beautifully decorated homes in the Benedict Canyon of Beverly Hills. While its name means “heaven” in Spanish, 10050 Cielo Drive was nothing but Hell for the five victims brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s “Family” within its walls. Some say their spirits still haunt the area, having taken up residence in the nearby Oman House. Two men, fil...
003: The Invitation
August 24, 2016 19:09 - 25 minutes - 59 MBWear garlic around your neck. Carry a wooden stake. Hang a crucifix on the wall, and never, ever, open the door for Dracula. The superstitions that were meant to protect our ancestors from vampires taught them the most important lesson of all: never invite a monster inside. Yet with the birth of Spiritualism in the 19th century came a rise in the belief that the dead harbor secret knowledge from the living, and inviting a monstrous spirit into your home became easier than ever. The Ou...
002: Who Are You?
August 10, 2016 10:00 - 28 minutes - 64.7 MBEarly 19th-century America was a time for the pioneer, the robust adventurer who leaves the familiarity of home in search of fortune and success. One such man was John Bell, a farmer who settled in Adams, Tennessee with his family and slaves. Their idyllic country life was soon disturbed after the youngest Bell child, Elizabeth, drew the attention of a sinister spirit. Strange creatures stalked the property as the sounds of clawing, choking, and banging haunted the Bell household, whose inha...
001: Red Riding Hood & the Wolf
August 03, 2016 18:50 - 28 minutes - 65.8 MBEveryone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The young child in her bright red cloak who gets lost in the forest, only to be preyed upon and devoured by the big bad wolf. Red Riding Hood is freed from her fate by a passing Huntsman, who slaughters the In the time when fairy tales served more to caution than to entertain, Little Red Riding Hood was a warning to always follow the marked path, listen to your elders, and never talk to strangers. The sad, strange story of Elisa Lam mirr...