When the nights get longer, the days get colder and the pumpkin spice lattes start brewing, you might be in the market for a spooky story or two—or three, or four, or five.
If you're a true crime junkie, a conspiracy theorist, or just a thrill seeker who loves a good narrative, these scary story podcasts are sure to raise your hair and chill your bones from now through October and beyond.
See also: Festive Fall Cocktails To Celebrate the Season
Podcasts are modern-day ghost stories told around a digital fire, and if you’re ready to get in the Halloween spirit, we’ve unearthed some truly spooktacular podcasts that'll give you creepy crawlies, thrills and chills. Remember to leave a light on!
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Of course, we have to include a podcast with “scary story” in its name! This podcast features original fiction from Edwin Covarrubias, each running about 20 minutes in length, give or take five minutes. Exploring themes of unexplained phenomena, ghosts, the paranormal and general horror that creeps into your real life, this is one set of short stories that will keep you up and have you double-checking the locks!
Since 2011, this award-winning podcast has ruined the sleep of tens of thousands of listeners, but they’ve loved every second of it. These works of fiction come from a variety of writers, of which you can be a part, and they're brought to life with sound effects, spooky soundtracks and layered audio to give each bone-chilling detail extra dimension. Each episode runs anywhere from an hour to two-and-a-half hours, so be ready to tuck yourself in for a wild ride.
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Hosted by Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks and Henry Zebrowski, The Last Podcast on the Left discusses all things horror. Weekly episodes tackle all manner of scary and spooky topics such as the violent history of Alcatraz prison, the alien conspiracies of New Mexico’s Roswell, serial killer Jack Unterweger, the psycho-psychedelia of the Ayahuasca Murders, occult icon Aleister Crowly and so much more.
Every week, professional makeup artist Bailey Sarian takes her interest in true crime to the airwaves as host of Dark History. Her YouTube series Murder, Mystery and Makeup helped inspire this audio-only endeavor where Sarian discusses often-buried but true social history topics such as gay conversion therapy, former First Lady Edith Wilson, the C.I.A.'s MKUltra human experiments, and The Doctor’s Riots of 1788.
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Produced by actor Aaron Mahnke and Grim & Mild, Lore is a podcast, a television show and a book series. The podcast talks about a dark side of history not often told, “because sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction.” Join the cast and explore folklore, curses, the town of Hadley and its "witch" Mary Webster, the absurd and spooky murder of Bridget Cleary, the Jersey Devil and more.
A Spotify original podcast, Supernatural stopped uploading in 2022, but there are tons of 30-minute episodes to explore. Ashley Flowers, who listeners may know from Parcast and Crime Junkie, discusses the world’s most left-field true crime stories. She's taken on The Rendlesham Forest Incident with aliens, blues icon Robert Johnson and his so-called deal with the Devil, the supposed reincarnation of Bridey Murphy, conspiracy theories about engineer Bob Lazar and his alien technology, and the haunting at the Winchester Mystery House.
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Since its debut in 2017, Crime Junkie has become of the most popular crime podcasts. Ashley Flowers and Brit discuss true crime stories on episodes uploaded every Monday. Dive into the murder of Billy Stafford and the Hendricks family, get to know the real Denver Hammer Killer, shriek at the death of Joyce Chiang, follow the clues in the case of Gabby Petito's disappearance, and find out what happened to Ryan Shtuka.
Want more spooky season fun? Check out our favorite Halloween nail designs and give yourself a craft to enjoy while listening to your scary story podcasts.
Photography by: David Menidrey / Unsplash
