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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:

When Your Side Dish Starts Pumping Blood Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

Details for the Live Box of Oddities Fall Tour Here!

What separates a stroke of brilliance from a spectacularly bad idea? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive headfirst into history’s most baffling tightrope walk between genius and ridiculousness—where “visionary” and “what were they thinking?” become disturbingly interchangeable. Then, things get even weirder: scientists are turning spinach leaves into functioning human hearts through tissue engineering. Yes, the same greens in your salad could one day pump blood through your veins. From questionable intentions to leafy life support, this episode blends the bizarre with the groundbreaking in ways only The Box of Oddities can.

Tune in for strange science, hilarious commentary, and stories that prove reality is stranger than fiction.

#WeirdScience #TissueEngineering #OdditiesPodcast #GeniusOrMadness #TheBoxOfOddities

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Inbox Of Oddities #055 Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

Live Fall Tour Information!

Inbox of Oddities: Hands, Spirits, and Shoes Full of Baileys

This week, your favorite weird mailbag is overflowing. From mysterious body parts masquerading as “1920s décor” to ghosts who fold your jeans into swans, our listeners bring the oddities straight to our inbox—and we read them all. Hear the heartwarming tales of pets, plants, and fellow freaks connecting across the globe, like a listener in Berlin who calls JG her safety voice and a Texan discovering that Baileys and flip-flops are not a perfect mix.

We dive into dreams of tropical disappearances, 4H champions with freaky talents, and the strange yet delicious snacks of yesteryear. Plus, we get a peek at haunted laundry habits, haunted hearts, and the obsessive kindness of four-legged friends saved from terrible odds. By the end, you’ll laugh, gasp, and maybe even wonder if your own house—or shoes—are hiding secrets you’ve yet to discover.

Tune in for another wild, heartwarming, and totally unpredictable trip through the weirdness our listeners live—and dream—through every day.

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Consensual Face-Punching Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

TICKETS FOR THE LIVE FALL TOUR HERE!

Somewhere in the shadows of the 1990s UK, an unsettling rumor spread: men and women posing as social workers, knocking on doors, asking questions they had no right to ask… and then vanishing. Were they government agents, criminals, or ghosts with clipboards? JG investigates the eerie phenomenon of the Phantom Social Workers — a case file that manages to be equal parts unnerving and confusingly bureaucratic.

Meanwhile, Kat takes us to the dizzying streets of Bolivia, where the Tinku Festival blends dance, ritual, and a fair bit of consensual face-punching. In a centuries-old tradition meant to honor the Earth Mother, participants exchange blows not out of malice, but in hopes of a good harvest. Think of it as a county fair where the pie-eating contest could give you a black eye.

From mysterious door knockers to cultural haymakers, this episode packs enough intrigue and oddity to make your curiosity tap out.

#PhantomSocialWorkers #TinkuFestival #WeirdHistory #StrangeButTrue #TheBoxOfOddities #Podcast

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The Party After Death Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

The Box Of Oddities Live Fall Tour Starts Sept. 10 In Seattle and Ends Halloween Night In Chicago! Learn More Here!

In this delightfully morbid Box of Oddities episode, we literally put the “fun” back in funerals. From coffin-themed dance-offs to wakes that feel more like weddings, discover real-life funerals where joy took center stage over sorrow—because nothing says “rest in peace” quite like a conga line. Then, we plunge into the darkly fascinating tale of King Charles II of Spain, a man so cursed by royal inbreeding they called him El Hechizado—“The Bewitched.” From his bizarre ailments to the superstitions that shaped his doomed reign, it’s history with a side of “what on earth just happened?” Packed with bizarre history, morbid curiosity, and irreverent humor, this episode proves that the afterlife—and life itself—are far stranger than fiction.

#WeirdHistory #TrueStories #FuneralTraditions #BoxOfOddities #Podcast

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Caution: May Contain Human Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

Freak Family Favorite: “Would You Like Guac With That Foot?”

In this Box of Oddities classic, we revisit one of the most disturbingly delicious tales ever told: a man, a severed foot, and a taco night that will haunt you forever. (Yes, this really happened.) Then, Kat unpacks the incredible life of Johnny Eck — sideshow legend, half-man, and full-on badass. Finally, why has humanity laughed for over a century at people slipping on banana peels? The answer is slipperier than you'd expect.

Prepare your ears for an all-you-can-eat buffet of the bizarre: cannibalistic curiosity, sideshow superstars, and fruit-based pratfall propaganda.

📦 It’s everything you never asked for and somehow still needed.

#BoxOfOddities #TrueWeird #WeirdHistory #JohnnyEck #BananaPeelMyth #CannibalCurious #FootTaco #FreakFamilyFavorite #OddCast #BizarreButTrue #HistoryIsWeird #PodcastRecommendations

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You Can’t Argue With a Beaked Mammal Aug 06, 2025

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Learn More About Our Upcoming Live Shows!

In this episode, Jethro dives face-first into one of the most perplexing murder investigations in modern history—complete with bizarre circumstances, inexplicable evidence, and a twist so jaw-dropping it left seasoned detectives cross-eyed. It’s a true crime story that starts strange and somehow gets stranger.

Meanwhile, Kat digs up the mystery of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna—a creature that sounds like it was designed by a committee of science fiction writers and hallucinating zoologists. It has a beak. It lays eggs. It’s covered in spines. And it hasn’t been officially spotted since 1961. Is it extinct, mythical… or just extremely introverted?

It’s true crime meets cryptid chic in a brand new episode of The Box of Oddities—where the inexplicable isn’t a bug, it’s the main feature.

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A Salad That Eats You Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

Tickets for the Live Tour Here!

What do you get when a carnivorous plant develops a taste for rodents and a whole country uploads itself to the cloud? Just another day inside The Box of Oddities.

In this episode, Kat and Jethro peer into the leafy maw of Nepenthes rajah—the world’s largest meat-eating plant, known to snack on mice, lizards, and anything foolish enough to slip into its botanical death trap. It’s basically a salad that eats you.

Then, we voyage to the disappearing island nation of Tuvalu, where rising sea levels have inspired an unprecedented plan: become the world’s first digital nation. Yep, they’re scanning their culture into cyberspace like a high-stakes sci-fi Dropbox folder.

It's a tale of natural horror and geopolitical innovation—served up with the usual twisted humor and curiosity. Step into the weird.

#NepenthesRajah #CarnivorousPlants #Tuvalu #DigitalNation #ClimateChange #WeirdNature #BizarreNews #BoxOfOdditiesPodcast

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The Inbox Of Oddities #054 Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

Live Show Tickets Here!

In this special Inbox of Oddities episode, Kat and JG open the floodgates of freaky listener tales—and what flows out includes bisexual ghost grandmas, haunted Roombas, bloody Marys topped with entire chickens, and one particularly vengeful jar of pickles.

Jesse shares a deeply moving dream visitation from her long-passed grandma. Meanwhile, emails pour in featuring cursed karaoke nights in Alaskan dive bars, “Cockfinder Generals,” and a proposed reality show called Extreme Embalming. Yes, it’s a competition. No, there are no tools.

Also: A haunted underground tour, the horrors of organic chemistry correction, a taxidermied squirrel causing electromagnetic chaos, and a jar of pickles that clearly had an axe to grind.

Whether it’s grief, giggles, or ghostly grandmas—we're unsealing every oddity in this jam-packed episode of listener gold.

#BoxOfOddities #QueerGhosts #DreamVisitation #InboxOfOddities #HauntedRoomba #CockfinderGeneral #ExtremeEmbalming #BisexualGrandma #BloodyMaryMadness #PickleRevenge #TrueWeird #ComedyPodcast #FreakNation

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Mystery in Motown, Chaos in the Clouds Jul 30, 2025

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Learn More About The Box of Oddities Live Tour!

In this spine-tingling episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive headfirst into two tales that are equal parts baffling and bone-chilling. First: the strange disappearance of the Clark family from Detroit. One minute they’re living their quiet, suburban life—next minute, poof—gone without a trace. Is it an unsolved mystery, urban legend, or the world’s most elaborate game of hide-and-seek?

Then, brace yourself for the harrowing true story of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, the mid-air disaster that turned a routine trip over Hawaii into a surreal nightmare. Imagine a convertible plane… 24,000 feet in the air.

Packed with dark humor, weird history, and wildly inappropriate jokes, this episode will make you question what’s real, what’s myth, and whether you ever want to fly again.

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Misguided Medical Enthusiasm Jul 28, 2025

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Live Show Tickets! Learn More Here!

How do you survive a 47-story fall? Ask Alcides Moreno—a window washer who defied gravity, logic, and most of the bones in his body. In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro unravel the mind-bending tale of Moreno’s miraculous survival that left doctors speechless and physicists slightly twitchy.

Then, ever heard of laudable pus? No, it’s not a new indie band—it’s the horrifyingly real medical theory that once celebrated... gooey infection. (Warning: the 18th century was not okay.)

Join us as we plunge into a world where falling from skyscrapers isn’t fatal, and medieval doctors high-fived each other over suppurating wounds. Because weird is wonderful—and occasionally pus-filled.
#BoxOfOddities #StrangeButTrue #WeirdHistory #MedicalMysteries #SurvivalMiracle

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