The Box of Oddities

Bodies Left Behind: The True Story of Alabama’s Memorial Mound

In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro Gilligan-Toth begin the new year by pulling apart something we all use but rarely question: the calendar. From Julius Caesar’s ego-driven timekeeping decisions to the leap year, misplaced months, and how entire civilizations quietly agreed on when the year should begin, it’s a surprisingly strange history of how humans try — and often fail — to organize time itself. But once the clock runs out, the episode takes a much darker turn. Jethro dives into the true story of the Memorial Mound in Bessemer, Alabama — an underground burial mausoleum inspired by ancient Roman catacombs and Indigenous burial traditions, designed to last for centuries. Instead, it became one of the most disturbing cases of abandonment in modern funeral history. After the site quietly closed, human remains were left behind for years. Caskets stacked like warehouse inventory. Bodies decomposing in sealed darkness. An infant among them. When urban explorers finally entered the structure in 2014, what they found triggered a federal investigation and raised troubling questions about oversight, neglect, and how easily the dead can be forgotten. Along the way, you’ll hear:• The strange origins of month names and New Year’s Day• How calendars slowly drifted out of reality• A “Thing in the Middle” packed with bizarre machine and technology facts• And a documented case of human remains abandoned inside an American mausoleum It’s a story about time, memory, and what happens when systems fail — quietly, slowly, and out of sight. Keep flying that freak flag. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bizarre Smuggling Stories & Snake Island: The Deadliest Place You Can’t Visit

This week on The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro Gilligan-Toth open the lid on some of the strangest true stories the world has to offer — from bizarre smuggling schemes that absolutely should not have worked, to an island so dangerous Brazil made it illegal to visit. You’ll hear verified cases of smugglers hiding gold, drugs, wildlife, and even live animals in places that defy both logic and anatomy. From marijuana disguised as carrots and cocaine packed inside frozen shark carcasses, to turtles smuggled through airport security inside a fast-food sandwich, these are real criminal attempts that prove human creativity has no off switch. Then, we shift from border absurdity to genuine biological horror with Snake Island — Ilha da Queimada Grande — a real, government-restricted island off the coast of Brazil where thousands of golden lancehead vipers evolved into some of the most venomous snakes on Earth. Learn how isolation, evolution, and a diet of migratory birds created a nightmare ecosystem so lethal that even scientists need military clearance to visit. Along the way, you’ll also hear:• A true “Thing in the Middle” miracle involving a church explosion that spared every choir member• The evolutionary science behind hyper-toxic venom• Why wildlife smuggling is one of the most dangerous black markets in the world• And why, for the love of all that is holy, airports are not storage facilities It’s strange history, real science, true crime stupidity, and unsettling natural horror — all documented, all factual, and all deeply odd. Keep flying that freak flag. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weird Ways To Survive Holiday Parties

his Christmas Box contains a fine selection of fascinating topics you can bring up during awkward moments at holiday parties. (or anytime, really) Jethro discusses the bizarre and intriguing histories of common foods while Kat shows us how numbers can be weird. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Christmas Greeting From Kat & JG

Happy Christmas, Freak Fam! 🎄✨ From the bottom of our weird little hearts, thank you for another year of curiosity, kindness, and glorious oddity. You make this community what it is, and we’re endlessly grateful to share the strange with you. May your days be filled with joy, your nights be peaceful, and your holidays come with just the right amount of mystery. With love and appreciation,Kat & Jethro 🖤 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stories of Christmas Past

Holiday Oddities: Stolen Santa Bones, Pooping Logs, and the Strangest Christmas Traditions on Earth This holiday bonus episode of The Box of Oddities unwraps the weirdest, darkest, and most unexpectedly heartwarming Christmas stories from history. Kat and Jethro explore the true fate of Saint Nicholas’s bones, including the medieval relic theft that scattered Santa’s remains across Europe—and the unsettling legend of “Santa juice” still collected from his tomb. From there, the episode sleighs straight into bizarre holiday traditions from around the world: Catalonia’s infamous pooping nativity figure, the gift-pooping Christmas log that children beat with sticks, Iceland’s child-eating troll Grýla and her terrifying Yule Cat, and the unsettling folklore behind Santa once writing threatening letters to children instead of the other way around. Balancing the strange with the sincere, the episode also highlights true stories of compassion and humanity during wartime, including the Christmas Truce of 1914, enemies sheltering together on Christmas Eve during World War II, George Washington returning an enemy general’s dog, and a Japanese pilot gifting his ancestral samurai sword to an American town decades after bombing it. It’s a holiday episode filled with macabre history, unsettling folklore, absurd traditions, and genuine hope—a reminder that even in the darkest seasons, people can still surprise us. Listener discretion advised… and Merry Weird Christmas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices