Unexplained

Unexplained

SEASON 07 WILL BEGIN FRIDAY JULY 28TH Unexplained is a haunting and unsettling bi-weekly podcast about strange and mysterious real life events that continue to evade explanation. A story-based show mixing spoken-word narrative, history and ideas - often to terrifying effect - that explores the space between what we think of as real and what is not; where sometimes belief can be as concrete as ‘reality,’ whatever that is… More info at www.unexplainedpodcast.com and on twitter @unexplainedpod and facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast

Episodes

August 29, 2025 33 mins

The small American town of Van Meter in Iowa is the kind of town that some might derisively describe as one that epitomises the fly-over states - a place of little importance or standing. 

They imagine nothing of interest ever happens. But not only would that do an immense disservice to its people - they would be very wrong.

In 1903 something paid a visit to Van Meter, and its brief presence would mark the town forever...

Writ...

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Something a little different this week...

In a first for Unexplained, we hear a first hand account of strange and terrifying events said by one family to have taken place in their home in Christchurch, England, back in 1997... 

Thank you to Theresa and Shaun for sharing their story and to Diane Hope for finding it and recording Theresa's interview. 

Written and produced Richard MacLean Smith.

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In the summer of 1963, three miners were trapped by a cave-in for days on end with no food or light. Some say it was a miracle that any of them survived at all. Others, that the true miracle was what they apparently experienced while they were down there...

Written by James Connor Patterson and Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexpl...

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They called it the most inescapable prison in the United States — a cold, isolated fortress surrounded by frigid waters and razor currents. Alcatraz.

But in 1962, that reputation was obliterated in one of the most audacious prison breaks of all time. Or was it...

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, faceboo...

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August 1, 2025 30 mins

In 1972, a group of schoolboys in Kera, Japan, claimed to have encountered a tiny silver UFO—and even captured it, twice. What followed was a bizarre tale of vanishing evidence, strange lights, and one of the most overlooked close encounters in UFO history.

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/u...

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In 1855, strange hoof-like prints appeared overnight in the snow across Devon in southwest England—stretching for over 100 miles, crossing rooftops, rivers, and walls as if no obstacle mattered.

Locals said only one being could leave such a trail.

It was the Devil himself...

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedp...

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In 1953, two U.S. Air Force personnel vanished without a trace while intercepting a mysterious radar target over Lake Superior.

Decades later, the skies remain silent, and the truth behind First Lieutenant Felix Moncla Jnr and Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson's final flight is as cloudy as ever.

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

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July 11, 2025 30 mins

Early on the morning of July 28th, 1987, a rescue helicopter was dispatched to the passenger ferry MS Viking Sally, out on the Baltic Sea. 

When the medic stepped onto deck, he realized immediately that this emergency was very much out of the ordinary...

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexp...

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Second and final part of Season 08 Episode 33: After the Sun Comes Rain 

Left alone, the only surviving member of Lyudmila's hiking team, Valentina begins the long arduous trek to safety - while the spectre of death haunts her every move....

But what an earth could possibly have wreaked such havoc?

Written by Emma Dibdin, Neil McRobert and Richard MacLean Smith.

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In 1993, a group of rafters paddling through the Siberian wilderness of the Khamar Daban mountains came across a teenage girl, caked in mud and blood. Seemingly too traumatised to even speak, when she finally found her voice she uttered only five words. 

"They're dead. They're all dead..."

Written by Emma Dibdin, Neil McRobert and Richard MacLean Smith.

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In the shadows of Greater Manchester’s canals and waterways, some believe something ancient and malevolent might be lurking. This week on Unexplained, we plunge into eerie folklore, mysterious drownings, and chilling whispers of a phantom predator said to haunt the waters - claiming victims no one can explain.

Written by James Connor Patterson and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.

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Three women vanished without a trace from a quiet suburban home in the early hours of a summer morning in 1992.

What began as a hopeful graduation weekend in Springfield, Missouri, spiraled into one of the most chilling and perplexing missing persons cases in American history.

Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod...

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Due to the recent arrival of another mini MacLean Smith, the next new episode will be with you next Friday on June 13th… 

In the meantime, we’re heading back into the vault for this week’s episode, going all the way back to the beginning of Season 02. 

England’s Black Country, a region just west of Birmingham is considered one of the birth places of the British industrial revolution. It’s ce...

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Due to the recent arrival of another mini MacLean Smith, there’ll be a slight pause on new episodes. For the next two weeks we’ll be dipping back into the vaults until we continue, rather aptly with the next episode of Season 08 on Friday 13th of June… 

This week, we’re heading back to Season 01 Episode 10.  

The world of horror is littered with unnerving locations, places that both draw from...

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In the race to develop cutting edge technology for the Second World War, many nations focused on how to evade radar detection. 

Down in the Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, if the rumours are to be believed, the US Navy took it to a whole other dimension...

Written by Neil McRobert and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/...

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Part two of Season 08 Episode 29: Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

It's 11 years since the so-called Frog Boys were last seen alive. 

Two men out in the forest, hunting for acorns close to where the boys were last seen, make a grisly discovery.

Will the devastated parents finally get answers about what happened to their sons?

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

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In March 2001, as the nation of South Korea enjoyed a national holiday, five boys from Dalseo in the city of Daegu, headed off into the forest in search of adventure. 

They were never seen alive 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. ...

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When emergency services arrived at the home of Kathleen and Michael Peterson in the early hours of December 9th 2001, they found a horrifying scene: Kathleen, dead, at the bottom of a staircase and blood everywhere. 

But quite what exactly had happened to her, would turn out to be one of the most confounding, and potentially bizarre mysteries of recent times.

Written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

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April 25, 2025 30 mins

One hot day in the summer of 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman left her home in a strange trance and headed straight for the town square. There she began to dance, and dance, and dance. Something was terribly wrong and then, it began to spread...

Written by Emma Dibdin and Richard MacLean Smith

Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or ...

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April 18, 2025 30 mins

Over the decades, stories have trickled in from all across the globe. Places both far, and unnervingly near… of truly horrifying things, with far too many legs for comfort.

The simple question is, are you afraid of spiders?

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.unex...

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Richard MacLean Smith

Richard MacLean Smith

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