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The Box of Oddities — Comedy
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

Copyright: © 2023 Eleven Eleven llc

Latest Episodes:

Voices From Tomorrow & A Table Of Flesh Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

Halloween week gets weirder than ever on The Box of Oddities as Kat and Jethro dive into the chilling mystery of electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) — and why some recordings might not come from the past… but from the future. 😱📼 From eerie predictions like “April 10th… fire” to spectral warnings whispered before tragedy strikes, this episode explores whether time-slipping ghosts are trying to send us messages across the timeline. Could hauntings be echoes from events that haven’t happened yet?

Then, Kat reveals the deeply bizarre legacy of Italian scientist Elfizio Marini, whose life’s work involved petrifying human body parts into polished décor — including a stone-fleshed table he gifted to Napoleon III. Because nothing says power and prestige like enjoying a sandwich over someone’s literal brains and lungs. 🍽️🧠

Plus:
• The EVP anomaly caught in a recent crossover episode
• The haunting physics behind retrocausality
• Halloween traditions that make zero sense (looking at you, horse-skull caroling)
• A peek behind the curtain of the final stretch of the fall tour 👻🎤

Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or a beautiful freak somewhere in between — buckle up. The future might already be haunting you.

🎧 Listen now and keep flying that freak flag at TheBoxOfOddities.com

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Inbox Of Oddities 062 Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

INBOX OF ODDITIES 062: Meat Popsicles & Zombie Squirrels

In this edition of the Inbox, the Freak Fam checks in with existential snack food, sasquatch fashion dilemmas, and a parrot who might be possessed by a 1960s sketch comedian.

A Tampa household has now fully adopted the worldview that we are all just anxious meat popsicles waiting for a mysterious demise. Christine experiences a full-blown BOO Effect and urgently requires a ruling on whether her new sweatshirt is for Sasquatches or designed by them. (Either way, Bigfoot has impeccable taste.) Brett sends photographic proof that Atlanta is teeming with new Freak Fam friends—some of them stuffed.

We hear from someone who met a foul-mouthed African Gray who may or may not be Artie Johnson reincarnated (very interesting…). A listener in Iceland regrets missing the infamous Penis Museum (the ultimate tourist trap), while another fears Northern California’s new menace: an aggressive alpha squirrel that might be the patient zero of the rodent zombie apocalypse.

Meanwhile, early-episode pug snortles lead to film history, someone swears off chicken for 36 whole hours after Mike the Headless Chicken, and a beloved friend is found again—this time as a museum skeleton exhibit. There’s Exploding Head Syndrome, cursed libraries, punk-band names that are too spicy for polite company, emotional support sandwiches, and sincerely enthusiastic reports of Kat physically picking up audience members.

All this oddness and more—proof that the Freak Fam is thriving, terrified of birds, and proudly flying their freak flags wherever they go.

Never change.
Stay curious. Stay weird. Stay away from angry squirrels.

Tickets And Live Show Information Here!

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Zombie Deer & The Coconut Messiah Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

The undead are real. They just have antlers.

This episode uncovers the terrifying rise of Zombie Deer Disease—a real-life, prion-fueled plague turning deer into vacant-eyed, drooling husks. It's spreading fast. It's nearly indestructible. And experts say it might jump to humans.

Then: a nudist cult leader who worshipped coconuts, lived naked on a tropical island, and tried to save humanity with fruit. Spoiler: it didn’t work.

🧟‍♂️ Brains. Coconuts. Horror. Fiber.

🎃 Get it? It’s Halloween.
🎟️ Final fall tour dates + tickets: theboxofoddities.com

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Mummified Mid-Flight Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

Last Chance to The Box of Oddities Live! Click Here!

In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro return from the road with fresh tales that will absolutely ruin your lake plans. First, we dive into the haunted beauty of Lake Natron, Tanzania’s blood-red, bird-mummifying wonder. Is it a cursed portal to the afterlife? A hellish mirror that turns animals to stone? Or just a volcano’s extremely weird science experiment gone rogue?

Then, things get… floppy. Meet the Atlantic Sea Hare—a gentle, squishy marine slug with the defensive capabilities of a goth ink-jet printer. It has no shell, 80 million babies, and it might be smarter than your ex.

Along the way, Kat and Jethro ponder reflective death traps, romantic slug chains, and the perils of communal candy bowls. Plus: a live tour recap, hot glue burns, and a moment of deep appreciation for dappling.

Whether you’re a long-time listener or just sea slug curious, this episode will glue your brain to your skull (not literally). Click play, embrace the bizarre, and let’s get weird.

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Bloodlust And The Vallecas Haunting Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

This time on The Box of Oddities, JG takes a bite out of the dark world of clinical vampirism, exploring the psychology and strange obsessions of those who crave more than just metaphorical blood. Then, Kat ventures into the chilling shadows of Spain to unravel the mysterious Vallecas Case, where the unexplained death of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro left more questions than answers—and a trail of terrifying phenomena that still haunts investigators today. From real-life bloodlust to ghostly disturbances, this episode delivers the kind of macabre intrigue only the Box of Oddities can serve.

LIVE SHOW TICKETS HERE!

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Corpses And Conspiracies Oct 15, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s eerie episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat dives into the scandalous life of 17th-century Parisian fortune teller to the elite, La Voisin—witch, poisoner, and all-around dark delight. From secret rituals to deadly intrigues, La Voisin’s tale is as twisted as the streets of old Paris themselves. Then, brace yourself as the story takes a chilling turn to Cheeseman Park, where secrets lurk beneath the earth… and corpses aren’t just a metaphor. Jethro and Kat navigate the macabre mysteries, bizarre coincidences, and shocking revelations that make history stranger than fiction.

Tune in if you dare—and maybe don’t wander alone through the park tonight.

LIVE SHOW TICKETS AND INFORMATION HERE!

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Bioluminescent Squirrel Theory Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

EPISODE 742: (with Christine Schiefer of "And That's Why We Drink)

This Halloween, something spooky this way swaps.

In this very special Paraween Host Snatchers edition of The Box of Oddities, Kat is joined by the delightfully haunted Christine Schiefer of And That’s Why We Drink—because JG has mysteriously vanished (probably abducted by science or a mothman, TBD). Together, Kat and Christine unpack the glowing enigma of the Brown Mountain Lights—the unexplained orbs that have haunted Appalachia for over a century.

Are they ghosts? Aliens? Passive-aggressive lovers stuck in a centuries-long spat? Or just bioluminescent squirrels playing god? We explore all the theories—ball lightning, swamp gas, folklore, fungal rave dust—and somehow make room for 1913 dental ads and an impromptu John Denver roast.

Whether you're a fan of high strangeness, ghost lore, or just want to hear Christine and Kat lose it over the phrase “globular form,” this crossover episode is a Halloween-season must-listen.

🔦 Featuring lore, laughs, and a whole lot of Appalachian weirdness.
🎧 Press play and get your globular on.

Perfect for fans of:

And That's Why We Drink
Paranormal mysteries
Appalachian folklore
Bioluminescent squirrel theories
Spooky season shenanigans

LIVE SHOW INFO AND TICKETS HERE!

#ParanormalPodcast #BrownMountainLights #AndThatsWhyWeDrink #BoxOfOddities #Paraween #PodcastCrossover #WeirdHistory #GhostLore #TrueWeird #AppalachianMysteries

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Inbox Of Oddities #61 Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

Live Show Tickets And Information Here!

Inbox of Oddities: Episode 61 – “Ghost Rides and Haunted Reflections”

In this spine-tingling edition of The Inbox of Oddities, the Freak Family delivers another batch of strange, heartfelt, and hilariously unsettling tales straight from the beyond (and beyond belief).

A listener from Austin swears his late uncle moonlights as an Uber driver—and somehow still knows all the family secrets. Connie from Philadelphia writes to thank Kat and JG for keeping the weird wonderfully normal while sharing stories from her psychic, braille‑tarot‑reading mother (and her dining‑room coffin). Lola from Chicago’s apartment keeps playing one lonely piano note at 11 p.m. sharp—every night. Meanwhile, a haunted library book in Rochester seems desperate for attention, and one unlucky thrift shopper finds a mirror that insists on celebrating “Alex’s” birthday.

There’s also a touching tribute to Cheese the pug, who lived his best, most fashion‑forward life—and might still be gobbling from the other side. And Madam Kitty of the Lakes (Christy, if you’re nasty) sends cloud photos, cemetery encounters, and lake‑town weirdness from Minnesota.

It’s a wild, heartwarming ride through spectral Ubers, stylish ghost dogs, and paranormal home décor—all lovingly wrapped in gratitude, laughter, and the peculiar magic that only the Freak Family can bring.

🎧 Pull up a haunted mirror, grab your pug‑sized cardigan, and join Kat and JG as they read from your weird, wonderful, and occasionally cursed inbox.

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Interstellar Nonsense & Exploding Plastic Oct 08, 2025

Show notes

Or: How to Dismantle a UFO Cult and Melt Your Hairbrush at the Same Time

Before Kat and Jethro usher in a spooky new host-swap adventure for Paraween, they’re here to crack open a box full of unhinged history and semi-combustible materials.

🛸 First up, Jethro introduces us to Dorothy Martin, a mild-mannered 1950s suburbanite who claimed to be receiving alien transmissions from the planet Clarion. According to her, the world was going to end—on Christmas, no less—but a group of spiritually-chosen humans (her Facebook group before Facebook) would be rescued by aliens. The spaceship never showed, the apocalypse got postponed, and psychologists lurking in the background coined the term “cognitive dissonance” to explain why nobody changed their minds.

🔥 Then Kat takes us on a wild ride through the volatile origins of early plastics—from celluloid billiard balls that exploded on impact, to asbestos-infused radios, and styrofoam that probably still exists in a landfill near you. It’s the horrifying, chemically unstable backstory of the objects we once thought were glamorous, but were really just slow-burning environmental crimes.

Also featured:
🎃 A sneak peek at next week’s Paraween: Invasion of the Host Snatchers episode with Christine Schieffer from And That’s Why We Drink
🎸 Band names so questionable they might qualify as minor felonies
🏓 Ping pong balls that (thankfully) don’t explode anymore

Because when belief systems collapse and plastics ignite, you know you’ve found your people.

Vote Box of Oddities For People's Choice Award Here!

Live Show Info And Tickets Here!

#TheBoxOfOddities #PlasticHistory #UFOCult #CognitiveDissonance #PodcastRecommendations #WeirdHistory #ClarionAliens #ExplodingBilliards #Parapods #Paraween #AndThatsWhyWeDrink #CultPsychology #OddlyHuman

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Spectral Snacks & Rogue Orgasms Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Vote Box of Oddities For People's Choice Award Here!

Live Show Info And Tickets Here!

What do ancient Egyptians, Romanian grandmas, and angry Pac-Man ghosts have in common? They all want a bite to eat—from beyond the grave. This episode of The Box of Oddities serves up a global smorgasbord of traditions where feeding the dead isn’t just a metaphor—it’s a full-course afterlife buffet. From wine funnels into Roman tombs to a perfectly seasoned rotisserie chicken in New Orleans, we explore the bizarre and touching ways humanity has kept its ghostly loved ones well-fed.

Then things get... heated. We dive deep into the strange world of arousal non-concordance—when your body throws a party your brain didn’t RSVP to. You’ll meet people who climax during ab workouts, from brushing their teeth, or from reading a particularly spicy footnote. It’s not consent. It’s just neurology being weird again.

Two tales. One episode. Ancient snacks, ghost etiquette, and involuntary fireworks. You’ll laugh, cringe, and maybe never look at funeral biscuits or fitness routines the same way again.

🕯️👻🥖💀🧠💦
The Box of Oddities: Curiously bizarre. Weirdly informative. Always hungry.

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