Last Podcast On The Left
Last Podcast On The Left
"I am spooked. What's going down? The gremlins in my house are being very active." — Ben Kissel
"The song that I played was both very familiar and matched no song that I had heard before. My best description of the song was haunting." — [Listener Submission]
"I woke up abruptly to the sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs and immediately my heart rate quickened and my senses heightened." — [Listener Submission]
This episode of "The Last Podcast on the Left" presents "Side Stories," a collection of listener-submitted tales focusing on the unsettling and the unexplained. Hosts Ben Kissel and Henry Zebrowski open with personal anecdotes of strange occurrences, including misplaced items and a feeling of a haunting presence, setting a tone of personal unease amplified by the Halloween season. The narrative then shifts to listener submissions, which span a wide array of uncanny experiences.
The featured stories range from a haunting music box with a familiar yet unknown melody that compels listeners to share it, to a disturbing online dating encounter that escalates to violence. Other narratives include a chilling account of a mysterious old woman on a train whose appearance shifts, a soldier's encounter with cold, human-like figures on infrared surveillance, and a harrowing experience in a nursing home involving a patient attempting to scratch through a wall. The episode also touches upon more psychological horrors, such as a young couple's terrifying encounter at a remote gas station involving a voice from within and an inescapable toilet paper stall.
The hosts weave in their characteristic dark humor and commentary throughout the episode, often relating the stories to personal fears or cultural tropes. They explore themes of the supernatural, psychological distress, and the darker aspects of human experience, while also acknowledging the potential for these stories to contain underlying social commentary. The episode concludes with further listener submissions, including a story about an escaped asylum patient and a chilling architectural design for a desert home with disturbing undertones, reinforcing the episode's exploration of fear and the bizarre.