10 Best Paranormal Podcasts

October may be drawing to a close, but the spooky season isn’t over yet! This is a great time of year to get introduced to skin-crawling paranormal podcasts, and we’ve assembled a few of the best ones. While many of these are ideal listening for a creepy Halloween evening, they’ll also keep you entertained, intrigued, and—best of all—believing all year round.

There are ghosts aplenty to be found in these episodes, not to mention UFOs, cryptids, unexplained mysteries, unsolved murders, haunted places, and more than a few occult goings-on. There are storytelling podcasts, comedic podcasts, and interviews with practicing witches. There are stories told by the people who were directly involved, and podcasts by paranormal investigators keen to dig into the mystery and find the truth. And everything in-between.

Whatever your predilections when it comes to the paranormal, you’re bound to find something in these podcasts that will help keep you listening— and keep you up at night—all year long.

This story-driven nonfiction podcast explores the idea that truth can be stranger than fiction and—what’s more—we may not be as sure of the difference between the two as we like to think. Sampling tales from throughout history and around the world, host Richard Maclean conjures an atmospheric and eerie storyscape to take listeners on a journey to the edge of the known—and the borders of the unknown.

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Speaking of blurring the lines between fiction and reality, Radio Rental does just that. Office star Rainn Wilson hosts in-character as a video store clerk named Terry Carnation who has a collection of creepy videos that he keeps behind the counter. Here’s the catch, though. The stories on the tapes are real stories, as told by the real people they happened to. The show’s producers sourced them from Reddit and other online venues, and then traveled all over the country to get the real people to tell their own stories on mic!

While most of the podcasts on this list are ultimately storytelling podcasts, tackling true (or nearly-true) stories of the paranormal, The Real Witches of the End Times is something else. Hosted by Mana Aelin, a self-identified “Otherworldian Traveler, Intuitive Reader, and Spirit Portraitist,” each episode features a loose interview-style format with other “magick and paranormal folk” sharing their views, their experiences, and their coping strategies in a world that often feels filled with a lot of doom and gloom—and not enough magic.

Ashley Flowers is one-half of the true crime podcast Crime Junkie, so what’s she doing on a list of paranormal podcasts? Well, not every crime story has the kind of neat-and-tidy ending that makes for a good police report. Sometimes, the best explanation isn’t the most logical one. When it comes to those cases, Ashley turns to her Supernatural podcast, which digs into some of the most bizarre true crime stories throughout history, not to mention other unexplained events like the Flatwoods Monster, Gef the Talking Mongoose, or the Winchester Mystery House.

With more than 85 million downloads, hosts Scott Philbrook and Forrest Burgess have built a passion for the mysterious and the unexplained into a thriving podcasting enterprise, complete with a team of Astonishing Research Corps members who turn up details about cases that many other podcasters could only dream of. With an eye toward making the world a little more wondrous and exciting—if also, yeah, sometimes a little creepier—the two have been covering all sorts of unexplained phenomena across more than two hundred episodes. So once you’re hooked, you’ll have plenty more to keep you listening!

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Two practicing witches host this practical podcast about witchcraft, which features a mixture of informative episodes and interviews wherein they talk with members of the magickal and paranormal community about a variety of subjects. Topics covered include everything from hexes and magical baths to social media use and scammers within the spiritual community.

Join co-hosts Rory Powers and Kit Grears as they take a frank, freaky, and often funny look at some of the weirdest stories around. From psychic animals to rumors of hauntings at Disneyland, from cryptids to creatures from outer space, and from Hawaii to the Garden of Eden, every episode tackles a new and unusual story—and all of them are true. Or, at least, true-ish.

Many of the podcasts on this list cover a wide range of paranormal and esoteric topics, from cryptids and UFOs to unsolved murders and ghost stories. While the stories in Ghost Town, the comedic paranormal podcast hosted by Jason Orton and Rebecca Leib, may range across a similar variety of topics, the focus is always on unusual places. From haunted hotels to abandoned towns, from the sites of grisly crimes to places where unexplainable events have occurred, this jaunty podcast will take you to places you’ve never been before—let’s just hope you can make it back.

Similarly, in Monsters Among Us, the focus is placed on one thing: cryptids. Those creatures, which believers will earnestly tell you, live among us in secret, hidden from view to all save a select few who happen to catch a glimpse. Host Derek Hayes tells their stories—both the tales of the creatures themselves, and those who claim to have seen them. From skinwalkers to sasquatches and from unlikely ghosts to alien abductions, if it goes bump in the night, you can find it here.

Four ladies, three of them from Kansas City, make up this “ghoul, er, girl-powered” podcast about the paranormal, the creepy, and the downright strange. Episodes include “black-eyed kids,” cannibals, deals with the devil, haunted forests, and much more, but it’s really the camaraderie between the members of this “coven” that sets this one apart from the crowd!

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