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
April 25, 2025 • 28 mins
TIX TO BOX OF ODDITES LIVE SHOWS ARE NOW ON SALE HERE!
Welcome to Inbox of Oddities, where reality takes a smoke break and the inbox bursts open with haunted urns, chalk-eating tulpas, Cold War wristbands, and at least one New Jersey-based armadillo that defies all natural law.
In this listener-fueled fever dream:
One listener's imaginary friend—Bimble, the caped, spoon-draped chalk connoisseur—appears in someone else’s childhood,...
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April 23, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, your curiosity is about to be abducted—possibly by a 19th-century mermaid in a UFO-shaped boat. First, we plunge into the Utsuro-bune Incident—a baffling tale from 1803 Japan involving a mysterious woman, a sealed vessel, and just enough alien energy to make your eyebrows levitate. Then, we trek into the frosty footprint of Peter Freuchen, the towering Dutch explorer who survived the Arctic b...
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April 21, 2025 • 36 mins
The Psychology of Heaven's Gate and Nan Songer, The Spider Lady
What makes a person trade all earthly belongings for a pair of Nikes and a one-way ticket on a UFO behind a comet? In this episode, Jethro dives into the unnerving psychology behind the Heaven’s Gate cult: belief, identity, and how a group of intelligent, seemingly rational people boarded the strangest spaceship never built.
Then Kat introduces us to Nan Songer—Calif...
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April 18, 2025 • 32 mins
The Portal Opens at 2:13 PM (And Smells Like Popcorn)
In this curiously chaotic installment of Inbox of Oddities, the freaks are flying high, the lawn gnomes are marching with purpose, and at least one Alexa may be orchestrating an ancient sand-based summoning ritual. A possessed kitchen appliance taps out Morse code mid-spaghetti. A haunted mirror whispers the name Trevor. And somewhere in France, a brave listener dry-heaves her w...
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April 16, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode, Jethro explores Tulip Mania, the 17th-century Dutch financial disaster that saw people selling their homes for tulip bulbs. Yes, actual tulips. Because nothing screams economic stability like mortgaging the farm for a flower. Meanwhile, Kat saddles up for the story of the Pack Horse Libraries—badass Depression-era librarians who braved mountains, rivers, and wild animals just to make sure rural America had somethin...
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April 14, 2025 • 40 mins
The question is, what do a three-legged man and a biblical seafood storm have in common? Absolutely nothing—except they’re both real and demand answers.
In this episode, Kat and Jethro dive leg-first into the astonishing life of Frank Lentini, the sideshow legend born with three legs and two sets of male genitalia. Then, hold onto your galoshes—because we’re heading to Honduras, where the skies have been raining fish with unnerving...
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April 11, 2025 • 50 mins
This week on The Box of Oddities, it's Freak Family Friday—our sacred ritual of opening the email portal and unleashing your most unsettling, hilarious, and "wait, is this even legal?" listener stories. Plus, we’re digging into the archive crypt to resurrect some of your most requested weirdest-of-the-weird episodes.
Listener love, spine-tingling flashbacks and enough oddities to make a taxidermist weep with joy—this episode is sti...
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April 9, 2025 • 39 mins
Why does a six-story elephant loom over the Jersey Shore like a Victorian kaiju? And what kind of dystopian mollusk surveillance program is Poland running these days? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro investigate the bizarre legacy of Lucy the Elephant. This 138-year-old wooden behemoth once moonlighted as a real estate lure, a tavern, and possibly the most haunted elephant architecture in history.
Then it’s o...
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April 7, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, we begin with the extraordinary life—and tragic death—of Khaled al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist who courageously protected the ancient city of Palmyra from destruction. Refusing to reveal the location of hidden treasures, he faced unspeakable brutality to ensure the survival of irreplaceable history. His legacy is carved not in stone but in sacrifice.
Then, from solemnity to sheer absurdit...
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April 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Inbox of Oddities #043: The Duck, the Frog, and the Glitch in the Gas Station Matrix
In this electrifying edition of the Inbox of Oddities, the Freakverse flexes hard. A lonely duck returns with backup, a frog named Jeffrey maybe poisons a listener via tongue-torch, and the plumbing gods get petty when mocked. Also in this episode: mail-predicting cats and a bathroom mirror that knocks back.
Listener tales of the absurd, uncanny, ...
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April 2, 2025 • 40 mins
What do a mysterious metal orb and a sadistic ultramarathon have in common? They’re both ready to ruin your weekend—and they’re both in this episode of The Box of Oddities.
First, Kat and Jethro roll into the strange saga of the Betz Sphere—a shiny, sentient-looking ball discovered in Florida that might be haunted, alien... or just really into Foghat. Then, lace up for the Barkley Marathons, the grueling backwoods race that has che...
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March 31, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, things get weird—fast. First, JG explores the chilling legend and even chillier reality of Wendigo psychosis—a rare (and horrifyingly real) condition where individuals become obsessed with consuming human flesh. Spoiler: It’s not a new fad diet. Then, Kat balances the darkness with heartwarming stories of random acts of kindness that didn’t just make someone’s day—they triggered astonishing r...
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March 28, 2025 • 44 mins
What do a duck with refined musical taste, a prophetic child, a phantom couch with mom-guilt, and a mysterious man named “Lars” (who pays in silver and fears airborne horsefish) all have in common? In this latest Inbox of Oddities episode, they’re all real tales from you, the wonderfully weird freak family.
Join Kat and JG as they dive headfirst into listener-submitted stories featuring:
Sleep paralysis demons who look suspiciousl...
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March 26, 2025 • 36 mins
Operation Highjump and Tycho Brahe
Was Antarctica the site of a secret Nazi UFO battle? And did a 16th-century astronomer really keep a pet elk... that kept falling down the stairs? In this delightfully peculiar episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive deep into the chilling conspiracy theories behind Operation Highjump, a U.S. Navy mission shrouded in mystery, paranoia—and possibly interdimensional penguins. Then, it’s...
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March 24, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat, and Jethro unbox a double dose of historical weirdness and cultural curiosity. First, meet Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher—Prussian war hero, chaos gremlin, and the kind of guy who believed he was pregnant with an elephant. (Spoiler: He wasn’t.) His wild behavior helped defeat Napoleon but also raised a few powdered eyebrows.
Then, we head to the island of Pere in Papua New Guinea, where d...
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March 21, 2025 • 43 mins
The Inbox of Oddities is a delightful bonus episode where Kat and Jethro dive into the treasure trove of listener emails, comments, and messages sent by you—the ever-curious Freak Family. From spine-tingling personal encounters with the paranormal to bizarre trivia, mysterious coincidences, and even a touch of the hilariously strange, this episode is a wild ride of oddities shared by the ones who make this community so unique. Tune...
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March 19, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of The Box of Oddities, we unravel two wildly bizarre tales that will leave you questioning reality itself. First, Jethro dives into the terrifying legend of the Red Ghost of Arizona—a monstrous, bloodthirsty creature that terrorized the Old West, leaving a trail of destruction and something even more horrifying in its wake.
Then, Kat sets sail with the SS Sapona, a ship with a strange past that feels like a fever d...
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March 17, 2025 • 46 mins
Elmer McCurdy Won’t Stay Dead & Sapphire Sandalo on the Spirit World
What happens when an Old West outlaw refuses to stay buried—literally? The saga of Elmer McCurdy, the train-robbing bandit-turned-traveling-corpse, takes another bizarre twist. We’ve got the latest on his posthumous misadventures because, apparently, being dead is just a minor inconvenience.
Then, we delve into the supernatural with Sapphire Sandalo, paranormal i...
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March 14, 2025 • 33 mins
The Inbox of Oddities is a delightful bonus episode where Kat and Jethro dive into the treasure trove of listener emails, comments, and messages sent by you—the ever-curious Freak Family. From spine-tingling personal encounters with the paranormal to bizarre trivia, mysterious coincidences, and even a touch of the hilariously strange, this episode is a wild ride of oddities shared by the ones who make this community so unique. Tune...
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March 12, 2025 • 48 mins
What do interdimensional beings and the freakiest game of evolutionary Jenga have in common? Absolutely nothing—except they’re both on today’s episode of The Box of Oddities!
First, we plunge headfirst into the psychedelic rabbit hole of DMT and the Machine Elves—the eerie, hyper-intelligent entities that thousands claim to encounter during their otherworldly trips. Are they hallucinations, cosmic tricksters, or proof we live in a ...
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