Looking to get into the scary spirit? Look no further than these 8 spooky podcasts that are just thrilling and chilling enough to get you ready for Halloween. Check out the episodes below or download them on your phone, tablet or computer.
Anything Ghost
Host Lex Wahl shares personal paranormal experiences submitted by listeners and tells local ghost legends from around the world. Each episode features at least a dozen stories, so you’ll get a wide range of tales in just one listen.
The podcast has been around since 2006 so it has a lot of episodes. Episodes range from 1 to 2 hours and some are longer, but the multiple stories make it easy to find several stopping points if you can’t listen to the whole episode at once. Download any of the 10 most recent episodes for free or get access to the full archives for $20.
Listen to an episode at Anything Ghost’s website.
Limetown
This fictional tale centers around the sudden disappearance of more than 300 people from Limetown, Tenn. The story is told from the perspective of Lia Haddock, an American Public Radio reporter whose uncle was among the people living in Limetown.
If you like creepy sci-fi mysteries and/or NPR-style news reporting, you’ll love this podcast. The entire story is told in 11 already-published episodes and 5 are less than 3 minutes long. Dig in.
Pseudopod
This 10-year-old podcast features short horror stories written and narrated by a wide array of people. This podcast is absolutely not for children — these are true-to-the-genre horror stories that can be very disturbing and deal with adult topics like murder and violence. You know, horror story stuff. Not for kids.
Most episodes are about 30-35 minutes long, but some are longer. Since it’s not a series, you can start listening at any time. The podcast producers suggest these 13 classic episodes to get you hooked.
Listen at Pseudopod’s website.
We’re Alive
If you need your zombie fix in between episodes of The Walking Dead, this classic radio-style drama is for you. The finished series has 145 20-minute episodes spread over 4 seasons, so there’s plenty to binge-listen. The story begins with Michael Cross, an Army sergeant who was in college when the undead began walking the Earth. The cast features several characters all trying to survive and figure out exactly how this happened.
The story is narrated by Cross and other characters. The details and storytelling are so robust that you can easily imagine the scenes as they play out in your ears. The story is enthralling and thrilling, but not horrifying, so don’t expect to get any nightmares from it.
The NoSleep Podcast
What started as just a subReddit for creepypasta has become a podcast of short horror stories narrated by David Cummings and told with a large cast of voice actors. Like Anything Ghost, most of the episodes are more than an hour long and feature several stories that can get pretty graphic and terrifying.
Every episode is free, so you can go back and download any or all of them to get started, or just go with the most recent one or one that sounds interesting.
Welcome to Night Vale
This podcast is less scary and more subversive, but its oddities make it perfect for Halloween. Tune in for twice-a-month updates from the desert town of Night Vale as told through your friendly neighborhood radio news guy Cecil Gershwin Palmer. Sure, City Council may happen to take vacations whenever something bad happens, the dog park leads to an alternate dimension and there’s a five-headed dragon named Hiram McDaniels hanging around, but all of that is totally normal to Cecil and other Night Vale residents. If you dig weird stuff, WTNV is for you.
There are 96 episodes that are each less than 30 minutes. While you could just jump in and listen to the newest season (episode 91 and on), you’ll miss out on the back stories for a lot of running jokes. Prepare to binge listen!
Here Be Monsters
Venture into the world of the unknown and face your fears with this very spooky podcast. Each episode deals with a different “unknown” or personal fear. Topics range from terrifying to bizarre to just plain interesting, but each one deals with some sort of “monster.” Sometimes the stories are directly related to host Jeff Emtman, while others he just narrates.
Each of the 60+ episodes are between 20 and 35 minutes long, and new episodes come out every two weeks. Pick out a few episodes that pique your interest and enjoy!
True Murder
No scary story can beat out something that actually happened.
In True Murder, host Dan Zupansky interviews authors who have written about murderers. You’ll find the famous killers here — Ted Bundy, Jim Jones, Steven Avery from Netflix’s Making a Murderer — as well as those who are lesser known yet no less terrifying.
Adding to the scare-factor is the overall production quality of the podcast. The introduction is similar to The Twilight Zone intro and the entire podcast sounds like it’s being broadcast through a 1950s radio. It sounds a little off at first, but you get used to it.
There are more than 280 episodes that are each at least an hour long, so you probably don’t want to listen to them all, but definitely look through the descriptions for the ones that interest you.
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