Premium Preview: The Bureau
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Release Date: 03/26/2024
The Haunted Doll
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Australia is home to one of the oldest and creepiest “possessed” toys out there: Letta the Doll (Letta-Me-Out), a doll that was found under a purportedly haunted home and, according to its new owners, has been engaging in hijinks ever since. Visit and use code strangefree to get started with FREE Salads for two months plus 50% off your first box! Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website: Join us on for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: You can also subscribe to premium episodes on Find us on : : and We...
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The Stones
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
In the early 1980s, a formerly quiet suburban street in Birmingham, England—Thornton Road—was struck by a series of bizarre rock attacks credited to unseen forces that some believed were paranormal in nature. . . even, perhaps, the work of a poltergeist. Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Researched by Laurah Norton and Melissa Gold Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Get started at and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping! Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website:...
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The Vanishing Room
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
It’s a horrifying tale that’s been passed around, in many versions, for well over a hundred years: women traveling check into a hotel, leave an ailing companion behind, and return to discover that she—and her room—have disappeared. Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Researched by Laurah Norton and Melissa Gold Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Take the next step to improving your health: go to to get 20% off your Lumen. Thank you, Lumen, for sponsoring this episode! Get up to 10 FREE meals and a free...
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The Gate to Hell
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Stull, Kansas is a tiny town that nevertheless has garnered a big reputation: as home to one of seven Gates to Hell. Its cemetery and church have long attracted tourists, thrill seekers, and a lot of unwanted attention. Hosted, Written and Researched by Laurah Norton Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Get started at and use code ost50off to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping ! Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning at Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website: Join us on for...
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The Sewers
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
One of the United States’ most enduring urban legends swims just below the surface of our major urban centers—and most especially New York City: the belief that giant alligators live, and grow, in the sewers. Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Researched by Melissa Gold and Laurah Norton Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website: Join us on for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: You can also subscribe to premium episodes on Find us on : :...
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The Cemetery
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia is a historic site, home to the resting places of some of the United States’ most notable citizens—and plenty of haunting stories, too, from the rumors of a black iron dog that comes to life to protect the grave of a little girl to the rumors of the Richmond Vampire, said to skulk around the mausoleum of an account, W.W. Pool, who died back in 1922. Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Researched by Melissa Gold and Laurah Norton Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Subscribe to our Substack: ...
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The Lady
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall—a vast estate that has belonged to the Viscount and Marquess Townshends for hundreds of years—might be one of Britain’s most famous ghosts. She’s rumored to be Dorothy Walpole Townshend, wife to the second Viscount and sister to Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. And an image of her ghost, descending the staircase that appeared in Country Life Magazine in December of 1936? That photo is certainly one of most of the most notable examples of spirit photography in existence. Really, this episode has a lot of pedigree. Hosted...
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The Mud Monster
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Back in 1973, at the beginning of the Bigfoot craze, Murphysboro, Illinois threw their cryptid hat in the ring: in the June of that year, a slimy, stinky, white-haired monster appeared on the banks of the Big Muddy River, and set off a commotion that remains a mystery today. Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Research: Anna Luria and Laurah Norton Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website: Join us on for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: You can also...
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The Time Traveler
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
At the dawn of the 21st century, an alleged time traveler going by the name of John Titor burst onto the early message-board scene, filling up forums with dire predictions of the future, grainy photos of “high tech” equipment, and details of his mission to save the world. Hosted, Written, and Researched by Laurah Norton Additional Research: Bryan Worters Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Note: PSMag was incorrectly referred to as PCMag; it is correct in our source attributions. Subscribe to our Substack: Sources...
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Special Bonus: The Panics
One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries
Teenagers have been accused of latching on to each others’ behaviors forever. But how do we separate fads, social contagions, and honest-to-goodness crises? This episode, we dig into two instances of apparent mass hysteria at American high schools. Hosted, Written, and Researched by Laurah Norton Additional Research by Anna Luria Produced and Engineered by Maura Currie Subscribe to our Substack: Sources on our website: Join us on for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: You can also subscribe to premium episodes on ...
info_outlineIn the 1960s, one hopeful British psychiatrist hoped he could prevent disaster—not with science, but with the supernatural. For a number of years. Dr. John Barker’s “Premonition Bureaus” collected psychic visions with a single goal: stopping tragedy before it could strike.
Hosted by Laurah Norton
Researched by Anna Luria
Edited by Laurah Norton and Maura Currie
Produced and Engineered by Maura Currie
Works Cited:
Bastian, Jonathan. “Predicting the future: The true story of the Premonitions Bureau.” KCRW [Santa Monica, California], 16 Jul. 2022, Accessed May 2023.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Nicosia.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Jan. 2023, Accessed May 2023.
Cope, Michael. “Premonition: Royal Family to Face Scandal?” The Des Moines Register, 21 Nov. 1972. Accessed May 2023.
Cummins, Anthony. “The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight review - the press, psychiatry and the paranormal.” The Guardian, 03 May 2022. Accessed May 2023.
Freeman, Sue. “A woman’s intuition…” Liverpool Echo, 05 Feb. 1973. Accessed May 2023.
Gladstone, Bill. “Future Watch.” The Gazette [Montreal, Canada], 12 Jan. 1980. Accessed May 2023.
Harrison, Dave. “Does Mr. Spock figure in your dreams?” Leicester Chronicle, 01 Jun. 1979. Accessed May 2023.
Irwin, Theodore. “Can Some People See into the FUTURE?” The Pantagraph, 04 May 1969. Accessed May 2023.
Knight, Sam. “The Psychiatrist Who Believed People Could Tell The Future.” The New Yorker, 25 Feb. 2019. Accessed May 2023.
Mail Reporter, Evening. “The ‘early-warning premonition bureau.’” Birmingham Evening Mail, 06 Feb. 1968. Accessed May 2023.
Post Reporter, Birmingham. “A Bureau to avert disasters?” The Birmingham Post, 28 Feb. 1968. Accessed May 2023.
Spraggett, Allen. “Was the premonition a dream or truth?” The Victorian, 06 May 1974. Accessed May 2023.
“4 Britons among 124 dead in plane crash.” Birmingham Evening Mail and Despatch, 20 Apr. 1967, p. 18. Accessed May 2023.
“Hitching Hopes To the Stars.” Muncie Evening Press, 10 Jun. 1969. Accessed May 2023.
“Miss Future…” Evening Post, 06 Feb. 1973. Accessed May 2023.
“Peering into the future - some just have the knack.” Calgary Herald, 13 Dec. 1972. Accessed May 2023.
“Royal Puppies.” Evening Standard [London, Greater London, England], 23 Sep. 1971. Accessed May 2023.
“Soyuz 1.” NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, NASA Official, 28 Oct. 2022. Accessed May 2023.
“The future is theirs to see.” Evening Post, 07 Jan. 1975. Accessed May 2023.