Season 09 Episode 08: A Black Star Over His Shoulder

It's almost inconceivable that, with the advancement of technology and the normalisation of surveillance, someone could suddenly appear in a well-populated town with no trace of who they are or where they came from. And yet, that’s exactly what happened in 2009, during one strange summer in a picturesque seaside town in the west of Ireland… Written by James Conor Patterson and Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With unexplained on a short break for the holiday season we’ll be dipping back into the archive for one more week. In this week’s episode we return to Bennington, Vermont, where between 1945–1950, four people vanished without trace in an area dubbed the Bennington Triangle, so called, because of the many strange and weird occurrences said to have taken place there. In 1946, 18-year-old Paula Jean Weldon became the second of those four people to disappear, in a case one investigator described as the most baffling he ever came across. Written by Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With unexplained on a short break for the holiday season we’ll be dipping back into the archive for the next two weeks.  On Friday January 23rd 1959, a story begins from out of the foothills of the Ural Mountains.   A story that is perhaps the most extraordinary of all the stories ever featured on the show.  Some call it the Dyatlov Pass Incident.  You might know it as Unexplained Season 2 Episode 4, When The Snow Melts... Written by Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In September 1934, amidst wide political unrest, something was stirring in the home of the Palazon family in Zaragoza, Spain.  What started as a strange burst of maniacal laughter, soon transformed into the terrifying haunting known the world over as ‘El Duende de Zaragoza’… ‘The Goblin of Zaragoza’.  Written by Diane Hope and Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some say the MV Joyita was always cursed, others laughed it off. What is beyond dispute, is that on one hot day in October 1955 the ship and its 25 passengers and crew set sail on a routine journey from Samoa to the Tokelau islands. And none of them were ever seen again.  Written by Diane Hope and Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early hours of Tuesday 15th May 1979, 23-year-old David Booth awoke from a terrible dream, sweating profusely with tears in his eyes. In it, he watched as a silver American Airlines plane fell from the sky and crashed right in front of him. Then he had the dream again. And again. Soon he began to wonder, what if it wasn't just a dream? Written by Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The second and final part of Season 09 Episode 4: To Each Man His Castle  We return to the Florida scrubland as Edward Leedskalnin embarks on his strange solitary mission to build a vast megalithic dreamscape carved from oolite limestone. Then the rumours begin; whispers of huge stones being moved about as if freed from gravity itself, and of a strange black box equipped with otherworldly powers... Written by Neil McRobert and produced by Richard MacLean Smith. Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the winter of 1923, Edward Leedskalnin, a small, sickly man, stepped out of the Florida sun and onto a patch of coral bedrock, as though he had finally reached the end of a long and mysterious pilgrimage.  In time, he would carve that ground into a place so strange and improbable that—if the whispers are to be believed—could only have been built with the aid of otherworldly powers... Written by Neil McRobert and Richard MacLean Smith. Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Deep in Alaska, in the ghost town of Portlock, villagers once whispered of something colossal stalking the fog—an unseen presence that is said to have left shredded camps and vanished men in its wake. Decades later, the forest is silent, but the stories have never gone away... Written by Diane Hope and Richard MacLean Smith Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a young woman in a small New Zealand town begins to act strangely, her family becomes convinced that something evil has taken hold of her. What follows is a chilling descent into fear and faith... Written by Richard MacLean Smith and James Connor Patterson Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.