The Box of Oddities

The Box of Oddities

The Webby Award-winning “Box of Oddities" is a podcast that delves into the strange and mysterious aspects of our world, exploring topics ranging from bizarre medical conditions to unsolved mysteries, and from paranormal phenomena to strange cultural practices from around the world. With a focus on oddities, curiosities, and the macabre, each episode is a journey into the unknown, where hosts Kat and Jethro Gilligan Toth share their love for unusual stories and inject their humor and commentary. From the strange history of medical practices to chilling true crime stories, to natural (and unnatural) events, "The Box of Oddities" satisfies your thirst for the weird and the unusual, offering an informative and entertaining look into the dark and mysterious corners of our world. JIMMY KIMMEL, ABC-TV says, "Should you be the type who has an interest in weird stuff, this is a fun thing to allow in your head!" “Truth is stranger than fiction, and the Box of Oddities is the strangest of all!” -SLUGGO, SIRIUS XM LITHIUM “Kat & Jethro wring humor from bizarre, macabre and perplexing places.” -BOSTON MAGAZINE

Episodes

December 1, 2025 37 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro and Kat dive deep into the mind-bending story of Michel Siffre, the French researcher who willingly descended into total darkness—twice—to learn what happens when humans are cut off from time itself. With no sunlight, no clocks, and no sense of day or night, Siffre’s body drifted into bizarre 30- to 48-hour “days,” entire memories vanished, and even astronauts later admitted they’d fel...
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The feast continues! Volume 2 of our Thanksgiving Cannibal Special delivers another helping of the most jaw-dropping, unsettling, and weirdly compelling cannibal stories we’ve ever told on The Box of Oddities. In this second collection, Kat and Jethro unwrap: Infamous cannibal crimes that shook entire communities Documented anthropological cases of ritual cannibalism Stranger-than-fiction historical accounts from ...
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This Thanksgiving, The Box of Oddities serves up the strangest feast imaginable: a curated collection of our wildest, weirdest, and most unbelievable stories involving real cannibals, bizarre survival tales, and historical accounts that are far too dark for the dinner table—but perfect for Freak Family listening. In Volume 1, Kat and Jethro revisit fan-favorite episodes featuring: True stories of cannibalism throughout histor...
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November 24, 2025 31 mins
In this mind-bending episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive into two stories that push the boundaries of communication, perception, and the very nature of time itself. First, Jethro unpacks the extraordinary modern effort to build the world’s first dolphin chatbot—a real AI project inspired by a quirky 1960s SETI club called The Order of the Dolphin. From Carl Sagan and Frank Drake’s early theories to Google DeepMind’...
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November 21, 2025 30 mins
In this special interview episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro sits down with acclaimed science journalist Becky Ferreira—author of the new book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens. Together they explore humanity’s oldest question: Are we alone? Ferreira, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Popular Science, MIT Technology Review, and NPR’s Science Friday, guides us through the deep history of ...
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November 19, 2025 33 mins
What lies beneath the Great Sphinx of Giza—and why does it continue to fuel global obsession? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro uncovers the strange history, disputed radar scans, ancient legends, and modern controversies surrounding the Sphinx. From Edgar Cayce’s “Hall of Records” prophecy to seismic anomalies beneath the limestone, this deep dive explores why some experts insist it’s just geology while others believe...
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November 17, 2025 34 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, JG resurrects one of America’s strangest carnival legends: the so-called “Mummy of John Wilkes Booth.” What begins with a mysterious deathbed confession unravels into a 60-year sideshow tour involving embalmed drifters, Civil War conspiracy theories, broken limbs, arsenic preservation, and a carnival circuit that cashed in on America’s morbid curiosity. Was the assassin of Abraham Lincoln sec...
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November 14, 2025 30 mins
This week’s Inbox of Oddities brings a rapid-fire mix of weirdness, heartfelt moments, and full-blown BoO Effects. A listener questions whether Kat’s chicken-arm pistol props make a rooster “half-cocked,” another finds community through the story of activist Brownie Mary, and someone offers a critical PSA about the flavor of gummy anatomy. We get a dream-driven BoO Effect involving an unsolicited testicle donation, a listener who ...
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November 12, 2025 48 mins
In this chilling and hilarious episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro unwraps the eerie legend of Albuquerque’s haunted KiMo Theatre and its resident ghost—a little boy named Bobby whose tragic death in a 1951 boiler explosion left more than scorch marks behind. From phantom footsteps to mysteriously vanishing donuts, discover why local performers never dare take the stage without leaving sweets for Bobby. Then, Kat dives headfirst...
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November 10, 2025 41 mins
In this mind-bending episode of The Box of Oddities, Jethro dives into Robert Temple’s electrifying theory that the universe might actually be alive—and trying to talk to us. Could plasma—the same substance that fills stars, powers lightning, and glows in neon lights—be a living intelligence? Temple suggests that the mysterious orbs, pillars of fire, and UFO-like lights seen throughout history might all be manifestations of the sam...
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November 7, 2025 29 mins
Poltergeist burritos, haunted pants, divine toast, and a skeleton named Orge — it’s another delightfully deranged Inbox of Oddities! From Tucson to Milwaukee, the Freak Family shares spine-tingling tales and wonderfully weird coincidences. One listener’s burrito unrolls itself in a supernatural act of culinary shame, and another’s Alexa picks fights with vintage corduroys. There’s also a toast that channels either Jesus or Kenny L...
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November 5, 2025 28 mins
Want to listen to The Box of Oddities ad-free and early? ⁠Become a patron ⁠by joining The Order of Freaks! Episode 750: The Man Who’s Older Than Time & The Babies Born Without Bits In this mind-bending episode of The Box of Oddities, JG delves into the incredible genetic history of one man whose lineage stretches back further than anyone else alive—revealing what ancient proteins can tell us about humanity’s earliest roots. Meanw...
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November 3, 2025 37 mins
In this darkly fascinating episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro explore the bizarre world of Victorian starvation contests and the tragic tales of the Starving Brides of Blackpool—young women who became public spectacles in a disturbing blend of endurance, showmanship, and societal obsession with purity. Then, Jethro takes us back to 17th-century England for the unsettling trials of Thomas Hogg and George Spencer, where s...
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🎃 A chilling Box of Oddities Halloween celebration!Kat and Jethro rewind time to revisit the very first Halloween Special, recorded on a dark and stormy Halloween night years ago. In this fright-packed collection of true listener encounters, we dive into some of the most unsettling paranormal moments ever shared by the Freak Family — including ghostly apparitions, haunted highways, Civil War spirits, and the terrifying Grey Lady o...
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October 29, 2025 46 mins
The Box of Oddities: 8th Annual Halloween Special Step into the shadows for our 8th Annual Halloween Special—where the veil thins, the lights flicker, and the stories come straight from you, the Freak Family. This year, listeners share their most chilling real-life encounters: a music box that plays from beyond the grave, a midnight sprint through a haunted cemetery, a towering white figure that defies explanation, a windowless ro...
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October 27, 2025 39 mins
Halloween week gets weirder than ever on The Box of Oddities as Kat and Jethro dive into the chilling mystery of electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) — and why some recordings might not come from the past… but from the future. 😱📼 From eerie predictions like “April 10th… fire” to spectral warnings whispered before tragedy strikes, this episode explores whether time-slipping ghosts are trying to send us messages across the timeline. C...
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October 24, 2025 26 mins
INBOX OF ODDITIES 062: Meat Popsicles & Zombie Squirrels In this edition of the Inbox, the Freak Fam checks in with existential snack food, sasquatch fashion dilemmas, and a parrot who might be possessed by a 1960s sketch comedian. A Tampa household has now fully adopted the worldview that we are all just anxious meat popsicles waiting for a mysterious demise. Christine experiences a full-blown BOO Effect and urgently requires a ...
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October 22, 2025 38 mins
The undead are real. They just have antlers. This episode uncovers the terrifying rise of Zombie Deer Disease—a real-life, prion-fueled plague turning deer into vacant-eyed, drooling husks. It's spreading fast. It's nearly indestructible. And experts say it might jump to humans. Then: a nudist cult leader who worshipped coconuts, lived naked on a tropical island, and tried to save humanity with fruit. Spoiler: it didn’t work. 🧟...
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October 20, 2025 30 mins
Last Chance to The Box of Oddities Live! Click Here! In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro return from the road with fresh tales that will absolutely ruin your lake plans. First, we dive into the haunted beauty of Lake Natron, Tanzania’s blood-red, bird-mummifying wonder. Is it a cursed portal to the afterlife? A hellish mirror that turns animals to stone? Or just a volcano’s extremely weird science experiment go...
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October 17, 2025 36 mins
This time on The Box of Oddities, JG takes a bite out of the dark world of clinical vampirism, exploring the psychology and strange obsessions of those who crave more than just metaphorical blood. Then, Kat ventures into the chilling shadows of Spain to unravel the mysterious Vallecas Case, where the unexplained death of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro left more questions than answers—and a trail of terrifying phenomena that still haunt...
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