Strange Epochs • Weird History
Strange History • Sleep Podcast
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About This Podcast
Strange Epochs: History's Most Extraordinary True Stories
History is full of events so remarkable, so inexplicable, that they seem like they couldn't possibly be real. And yet they are.
Every week, host Shawn Spainhour takes you deep inside one of history's most extraordinary true stories. Not the events you studied in school — the ones that got left out. The ones historians still argue about. The ones that make you question everything you thought you knew about the past.
From medieval mass hysteria to unsolved disappearances, from forgotten wars to events that defied every reasonable explanation — Strange Epochs brings history to life the way it actually felt to the people who lived it. Immersive. Atmospheric. Completely true.
This isn't a history lecture. It's an experience.
Episodes explore stories like:
The Dancing Plague of 1518 — when hundreds of people danced uncontrollably for days and couldn't stop
The Cadaver Synod — when a Pope put a dead man on trial
The Great Emu War — when the Australian military lost a war against birds
The Tunguska Event — the largest unexplained explosion in recorded history
The Lost Colony of Roanoke — America's oldest unsolved mystery
Hinterkaifeck — the farmstead murder that was never solved
The Voynich Manuscript — a book no one has ever been able to read
The Ghost Army of WWII — the secret unit that won battles with illusions
New episodes every Tuesday.
If you love history podcasts like Fall of Civilizations, Hardcore History, or Cautionary Tales — Strange Epochs is your next listen.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode.
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Recent Episodes
Hinterkaifeck Murders: Six Dead, One Killer Who Stayed — Bavaria, 1922
In late March of 1922, six people were murdered on a remote Bavarian farmstead north of Munich. The killer was never caught. But what makes Hinterkaifeck unlike any other unsolved case in German…
The Tunguska Event: The Largest Impact in Recorded History — Siberia, 1908
On the morning of June 30th, 1908, something traveling at sixty thousand miles per hour entered the atmosphere above central Siberia and exploded with the force of a thousand Hiroshima bombs. Eighty…
The Phantom Time Hypothesis: Did Someone Steal 297 Years of History? — Europe, 996
In 1996, a German author named Heribert Illig published a theory that became a bestseller: that 297 years of human history were simply invented. The entire Carolingian period. The life and reign of…
The Pig That Was Executed: Justice, Animals, and the Medieval Mind — France, 1457
In medieval France, a pig was formally arrested, given a defense lawyer, brought before a judge, found guilty, dressed in human clothing, and publicly hanged. This was not an isolated incident.…
The Year Without a Summer: When a Volcano Froze the World — Global, 1816
In 1816, summer never came. Crops failed in June. It snowed in July. Families across the Northern Hemisphere watched their harvests die in the ground and had no idea why. A volcano on the other side…
The Defenestration of Prague: Three Men, One Window, Thirty Years of War — Prague, 1618
On the morning of May 23rd, 1618, a group of Protestant noblemen marched into the royal council chamber of Prague Castle and threw three men out of a window. The drop was seventy feet. All three…
The Great Emu War: Twenty Thousand Emus vs. the Australian Army — 1932
In 1932, the Australian government deployed soldiers and machine guns to the Western Australian outback to deal with a crisis threatening the livelihoods of desperate farmers. The enemy: twenty…
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: An Invisible Terror Stalks Mattoon, Illinois — 1944
In September of 1944, residents of Mattoon, Illinois began reporting a prowler outside their windows — one who left no footprints, no face, and no trace. Only a smell. A sweet, sickening gas that…
The Cadaver Synod: A Dead Pope on Trial
In the year 897, the body of Pope Formosus was dug up, dressed in papal robes, propped on a throne, and put on trial before a room full of bishops in Rome. A deacon was appointed to speak on the…
The Dancing Plague of 1518: Strasbourg’s Mass Hysteria
In the summer of 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and began to dance. She didn't stop for days. Within weeks, dozens of others had joined her — and the city of…
Frequently Asked Questions
Strange Epochs • Weird History has published 10 episodes since April 2026, covering topics in Documentary, History.
Strange Epochs • Weird History is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 41m.
