30 Morbid Minutes

30 Morbid Minutes

Journey into the morbid, macabre, gruesome and unexplained, with comedians and friends Elyse Willems and Jessica Vasami. Covering topics like: untimely deaths on cruise ships, sleep paralysis demons, celebrity death hoaxes, obituary bandits, pesky cursed objects, spontaneous human combustion, zombie apocalypses, the Victorian obsession with death, screaming mummies, the Dark Forest alien paradox, medical malpractice, good old-fashioned cannibalism, and so much more. Episodes on Mondays. ***Featured in Apple Podcast's New & Noteworthy 2022.***

Episodes

October 6, 2025 31 mins
Examining the real life mad doctors and their galvanic experiments that inspired one of literature's most famous monsters. (This episode was originally released October 10, 2023.) Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessica Vasami⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by ⁠Casey Edwards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Reddit user Generic Box was 20-years-old when they had their first out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest -- meaning, their heart just suddenly stopped beating. After being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, eight more sudden cardiac arrests and "deaths" happened to them. In this episode, we dive into their Reddit AMA and get to the heart of what it's like to cheat death and their various near death experiences. Leave ...
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Who are the Whittakers, and why has the world become so fascinated with them and their isolated West Virginia way of life? We take a look at their insular family tree, and the genetic fallout that can occur with inbreeding. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessica Vasami⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by Casey Edwards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
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August 25, 2025 27 mins
Is the rich history of Appalachian folklore meant to be taken literally? Do cryptids, spirits and supernatural dangers exist in those rugged hills? If you hear a voice say your name in the woods, should you respond? (Spoiler: no.) In this new episode, we examine the unspoken rules of Appalachia and give a brief history of the mountain range. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠...
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In this episode, we pull the most interesting questions and responses from Reddit user odd_fisch's cemetery groundskeeper AMA! They live at and maintain a historic and still active cemetery. https://www.reddit.com/r/CemeteryPorn/comments/1l79n8e/im_a_cemetery_grounds_keeper_ama/ Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessica Vasami⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by Case...
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Cemeteries and graveyards aren’t actually the same thing. An important distinction that probably doesn’t matter much… if you’re dead. In this episode, we examine the historical and practical differences that set these two bone yards apart. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessica Vasami⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn more about you...
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Ever wonder what happens after a crime scene gets cleared? When the cops leave, the body’s been removed, and the yellow tape comes down? What happens to all the... mess? The blood, the broken glass, the smell? Well, someone has to clean it up. And that job falls on a very specific group of people, known as trauma cleaners or biohazard cleanup crews. Learn what goes on behind-the-scenes in this morbid and messy profession. Leave...
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This is a rerelease of an episode that originally aired July 19, 2022 with a new intro from Elyse & Jessica. Exploring the origins of the modern tombstone and what the future of memorial monuments might hold. Plus, we break down the anatomy of epitaphs, and share some of history’s most bizarre and funny ones. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessica...
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This is a rerelease of an episode that originally aired September 13, 2022 with a new intro from Elyse & Jessica. The modern funeral industry capitalizes on stigmas about death, creating a deliberate air of mystery and secrecy around how funeral homes operate. We go inside the unspoken practices of morticians, and debunk some of the myths and tall tales surrounding the post-mortem process. Leave us a review -- it helps the s...
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Check out this episode of the podcast Petty Crimes! The rental listing said “please don’t unsnap.” Spoiler alert…she snapped. Follow Ego Nwodim on Instagram and listen to her podcast, Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim. ... And look for new episodes of 30 Morbid Minutes, every other Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Both George V and George VI succumbed to declining health and respiratory ailments. The latter, was the first royal to have his funeral televised, whereas the former's death was seemingly expedited to meet the morning headlines -- a secret unearthed fifty years after his passing. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Elyse Willems⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Jessica Vasami⁠⁠ Music by Casey Edwards - @Compo...
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May 12, 2025 48 mins
It's an apples to oranges of morbidity as Jessica and Elyse take ten random yet gruesome facts and, using their macabre expertise, rank them from least to most disturbing. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us ⁠30MorbidMinutes⁠ ⁠Elyse Willems⁠ ⁠Jessica Vasami⁠ Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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April 21, 2025 39 mins
Buried in an instant. Preserved for eternity. What really happened in the final moments of Pompeii? Plus, Jessica reminisces about her phallic-filled tour. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us 30MorbidMinutes Elyse Willems Jessica Vasami Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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If you’re considering cremation as an alternative to traditional burial, we might be able to help you take things up a notch with fireworks displays containing actual human cremated remains. Did you know that there are pyrotechnic companies around the world that will memorialize your deceased loved one by firing their remains up into the sky in tiny rockets? We look into the rules and logistics behind this new post-mortem trend, an...
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In-flight medical emergencies occur about once every 604 flights, with a mortality rate of 0.3% of those incidents. While extremely rare, if someone dies, specification actions must be taken. So what happens when a plane passenger dies during a flight? Or even the pilot? We investigate. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us 30MorbidMinutes Elyse Willems Jessica Vasami Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn...
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Revisiting one of our fan favorite classic episodes with a newly recorded introduction! An estimated 200 people die every year while taking a cruise. As a result, ships and their crews have developed intricate systems, code words, and protocol in the event a passenger dies on board. Still, dire complications can arise out on the open water, and not all deaths are by natural causes… Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Fol...
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Karl Tanzler, also known as Count Carl von Cosel, was a radiologist in Key West, Florida who developed an unhealthy obsession for his young patients, Elena Milagro Hoyos. His obsession continued, even after Elena died from tuberculosis in 1931... Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us 30MorbidMinutes Elyse Willems Jessica Vasami Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
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Did a deadly disease spark the legend of vampires? Or were bloodthirsty creatures really lurking in the shadows? We learn how the rampant spread of the "wasting disease" (tuberculosis) contributed to mass panic and vampire hysteria in the nineteenth century. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us 30MorbidMinutes Elyse Willems Jessica Vasami Music by Casey Edwards - @ComposerCasey Learn more about your ad choices....
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Slaycation brings a darkly comic, unique vantage point to chilling, thrilling and WTF? stories of vacations gone horribly wrong. Listen to this excerpt from "Ep 40 How NOT to Scuba in Aruba" and checkout the full episode available on all major podcast platforms. Just search for “Slaycation” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 30 Morbid Minutes will return with a new episode next week! Until then, bad bye... Learn ...
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Necrogamy, or posthumous marriage, involves a living person marrying someone who is dead, or two dead people being married to each other, and is legally recognized in certain parts of the world. We look into what it takes to marry a deceased person in France, and how this unusually morbid custom was codified into French law. Leave us a review -- it helps the show! :) Follow Us - @30MorbidMinutes Elyse Willems - @ElyseWillems Jes...
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