(Sort of) The Story

Send us Fan MailHello! Because of microphone troubles (Janey's pink mic decided to step out and we wish her luck on her journey), this week we are releasing the November 2026 BONUS episode on the main feed! This was our excuse to talk at length about how much we enjoyed the film "Wicker", and to give Ursula Willis her flowers for writing one of the best fairy tales this century. And on top of this, Max is going to ALSO tell us a story about the laziest boy in the world (who may or may not end up with his sister at the end.) We hope you enjoy it (you little freaks!) Thank you, Story Babies! We love you to the moon and back <3 Janey's Sources - The Wicker HusbandLOCATION: England“Wicker” or “The Wicker Husband”, by Ursula Willis “Wicker” film review by Robert Daniels  Max's Sources - WoodpeckerLOCATION: Germany"The Turnip Princess: And Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales" by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth  Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailWe're getting a message from the Great Beyond. It's your great-great-great-great grandpappy? He says "'sup"?! And he also says to head over to our Patreon and sign up for the $7 tier??? Well, if that's what GGGGGP wants, I guess you'd better skedaddle on over... We hope you enjoy this episode about Sherlock and Houdini's great and terrible friendship!Sources: “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” on Wikipedia “Harry Houdini” on Wikipedia “The Spiritualist versus the Illusionist: The Battle Between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, Part 1” “For Harry Houdini, Seances and Spiritualism Were Just an Illusion” “Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle: a friendship split by spiritualism” “A Haunted Friendship: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” “The Strange Friendship Between Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” “Elementary, My Dear Houdini: How Doyle and Houdini Went from Friends to Foes” Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello and happy episode 190! This week Max is going to scary us with a spooky tale about a skeleton that's a little weird, and Janey is going to tell us the moral consequences of stepping on bread. Hope you don't go to hell!Janey’s Sources - The Girl Who Trod on a LoafLOCATION: Denmark“The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf” by Hans Christian Andersen FULL STORY  Max’s Sources - Botan-Doro, The Peony-LanternLOCATION: Tokyo, JapanFull free text of “A Passional Karma” by Lafcadio Hearn from “In Ghostly Japan” About Botan-Doro Japans’s Three Great Ghost Stories  Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello and welcome to another Off Topic! This week, Max is going to tell us all about the French opera singing- dueling- disaster bisexual, Julie d'Aubigny, and the many reasons why she deserves to be added to the pantheon of "hot scary women we love but would be afraid to invite into our homes". We hope you enjoy!Sources: “Julie d'Aubigny: La Maupin and Early French Opera” “The Real Life of Julie d’Aubigny”  Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello and welcome to another episode! This week, Janey is going to tell us one of the most unhinged Norse myths we've ever heard, and Max is going to scare us with a lesson on why you shouldn't leave your children with the elderly. Enjoy!Watch this! Janey’s Sources - The Mead of PoetryLOCATION: Norway“Seasonal Folktales: Myths, Magic and Folklore of the North, from Scotland to Scandanavia” by Morvern Graham  The myth  The Aesir/Vanir War  VIDEO of the Aesir/Vanir war by Extra History  Max’s Sources - Czarny LudLOCATION: Upstate New York“Corpse Cold: New American Folklore” by Brhel and Sullivan with illustrations by Chad Wehrle Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello and welcome to another week of stories! This week, Max is going to give us an origin for a story most of us know very well, and Janey is going to tell a Grimm story that is 99% sincere (and then the last sentence reminds us who we're dealing with.) We hope you enjoy!PLEASE NOTE: Support for veterans in crisis: National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 1-877-4AID-VET (1-877-424-3838)Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988, then press 1, or text 838255Janey’s Sources - BearskinLOCATION: Germany“The Complete Grimm’s Brothers Fairy Tales” illustrated by Arthur Rackham “The Body Keeps the Score” by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk  “Bearskin” on Wikipedia  National Coalition for Homeless Veterans info  History of PTSD in Veterans: from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs  Max’s Sources - The Story of the Tooth FairyLOCATION: United States“The Story of the Tooth Fairy” by Tom Paxton, illustrated by Robert Sauber https://archive.org/details/storyoftoothfair00paxtSupport the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello! This week, Janey is going off topic to talk about a woman who not only survived a horrific plane crash at 17, but then also survived 11 days in the Amazon rainforest. If you follow our schedule, you'll no doubt notice that this week we were supposed to release a regular episode. Life got in the way, and we ended up not being able to record a regular episode in time. Thanks for listening anyway! We'll see you next week!Sources:“How Teenager Juliane Koepcke survived a plane crash and solo 11-day trek out of the Amazon” by Rebecca Armitage for ABC News  “Juliane Koepcke: How I Survived a Plane Crash” for BBC News  MEMOIR: “When I fell from the Sky: The True Story of One Woman’s Miraculous Survival” by Juliane Koepcke  “Wings of Hope”, 1998 documentary by Werner Herzog  “Mama Cocha: The Sacred Mother of Waters” for Inca Medicine School  Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to another magical week of Off Topics! Today, Janey is going to tell us the story of a hot nerd who tunneled his way under the streets of New York, Mole Man-style, to help commuters get to work. Sources:“Secret Subway: The Fascinating Tale of an Amazing Feat of Engineering” by Martin W. Sandler for National Geographic  “Alfred Ely Beach and His Wonderful Pneumatic Underground Railway” by Robert Daley for American Heritage (1961)  Biographical Info: Alfred Ely Beach, from The Linda Hall  Biographical Info: William “Boss” Tweed from Historical Society of the New York Courts  Biographical Info: Thomas Nast, from Illustration History Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailHello and welcome back to another episode! Today we're telling two stories that remind of us one fundamental fact of life: Italians are weird, man. (Enjoy!)Janey’s Sources - Cannetella LOCATION: Italy “Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic Fairy Tales” Barnes and Noble edition  Andrew Lang’s “The Gray Fairy Book”  “The Pentamerone (The Tale of Tales)” by Giambattista Basile  Full Basile version  Max’s Sources - The Little Mouse with the Stinky TailLOCATION: Palermo, Sicily"Catarina the Wise: and Other Wondrous Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales" by Guiseppe Pitrè, edited by Jack Zipes Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]

Send us Fan MailWelcome to another Off Topic season! This week, Janey is going to deep-dive into all the craziest things mega-pop star Katy Perry has ever done. From performing in yellow face to killing a nun, we're discussing all of it! Enjoy!Sources:“Katie Perry vs Katy Perry: Australian designer wins trademark over popstar” by Lex Harvey and Angus Watson for CNN “Why all the fuss over Katy Perry's geisha performance at the AMAs?” By Patricia Park for The Guardian “Katy Perry Acknowledges Her Past Cultural Appropriations” by Madison Madeiros for Refinery29  JACL Statement on Katy Perry’s AMA performance  “'American Idol' contestant didn't love Katy Perry kissing him” by Lisa Respers France for CNN “Katy Perry’s Convent Purchase Now Awaiting Vatican Approval” by Peter Kiefer for Hollywood Reporter “Katy Perry tried to buy a convent. It ended with lawsuits, bankruptcy and a dead nun” Liran Friedmann for Ynet News.  “Son of Veteran In Lawsuit With Katy Perry Over $15 Million Montecito Mansion Lays Bare Toll of ‘Exhausting’ Case on His Ailing Father”, by Charlie Langston for Realtor.com (2025)  “Katy Perry’s Never Met an Elderly Person With Property She Didn’t Want to Bully” by Lauren Tousignant for Jezebel “What we know about 85-year-old disabled veteran ordered to pay $1.8 million to Katy Perry” by Jen Thomas for Tyla “KATY PERRY AND ORLANDO BLOOM’S MONTECITO MANSION WAR: NEUROLOGIST SAYS ‘LUDICROUS’ TO CONCLUDE HOME OWNER WAS DELIRIOUS” by Nancy Dillon for Vice The PERRY Act  “Katy Perry Responds to Outrage Over Working With Dr. Luke by Saying New Album ‘Comes From Me’ and ‘My Experience’: ‘He Was One of Many Collaborators’” by Zack Sharf for Variety “Katy Perry Defends Decision To Work With Controversial Producer Dr. Luke On New Album” by Conor Murray for Forbes “Katy Perry Under Fire for Abortion Rights Tweet After Endorsing Rick Caruso” by Megan Cartwright for Newsweek “Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez jet off on a controversial trip to space. Why their ‘glam’ getaway isn’t a giant leap for womankind” by Leanne Delap for The Toronto Star “Blue Origin faces backlash ahead of historic all-female spaceflight with Katy Perry” by Samantha Mathewson for space.com  “Why Is Blue Origin Facing Backlash? Inside the All-Female Space Trip's Controversy — and How Its Crew Is Responding” by Christopher Rudolph for People “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism” by Moira Donegan for The Guardian “Katy Perry and Blue Origin's all-female rocket crew get Monse designer flight suits” by Tariq Malik for Space.com Katy Perry’s HRC Gala speech  Support the showCheck out our books (and support local bookstores!) on our Bookshop.org affiliate account!Starting your own podcast with your very cool best friend? Try hosting on Buzzsprout (and get a $20 Amazon gift card!)Want more??Visit our website!Join our Patreon!Shop the merch at TeePublic!If you liked these stories, let us know on our various socials!InstagramTiktokGoodreadsAnd email us at [email protected]