He didn’t get bitten—he bred them. In 1932 Queens, a thin, pale seventeen-year-old named Peter Harrow lived in a crumbling tenement. Webbed fingers. Long limbs. Kids called him Spider-Boy. He never fought back—until the ones who hurt him began to die. Stories mention a basement with dusty jars, rumors of bred spiders, and a ceiling that seemed to move. A boy found in bed, bloated with bites. A girl who screamed about the ceiling and vanished.
Police searched Harrow’s home and found no spiders, no proof—just jars and dust. Peter didn’t run; he stared. They let him go. The deaths stopped. Peter disappeared.
This episode critiques the legend versus the record: how an outsider becomes a monster in neighborhood lore, how empty rooms feel like evidence, and why people still watch their windows for a thread of silk. No how-to, no gore—just the unsettling question a tenement left behind: if there was nothing in those jars, what kept moving in the dark?
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.