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Before Dresden became a symbol of wartime destruction, it was known as the “Florence of the Elbe”, a city of music, art, architecture, industry and life along the River Elbe.

Then came February 1945.

In Part One of this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we travel back to Dresden during the final months of the Second World War and explore the events surrounding the bombing of the city on 13–15 February 1945.

In Part Two, we move from the historical record into literature and memory, speaking with Vic Echegoyen, author of Blitz: La destrucción de Dresde, about the people and personal stories behind the ruins.

Chapters

00:00 — Dresden Before the Bombs
02:45 — The Florence of the Elbe
06:10 — A City of Art and Industry
09:15 — Dresden Inside Nazi Germany
12:20 — Refugees Arrive From the East
15:20 — The Age of Area Bombing
18:10 — 13 February 1945
21:00 — The Firestorm
24:20 — The Morning After
27:05 — How Many People Died?
30:00 — Dresden and the Power of Propaganda
32:15 — Kurt Vonnegut and Dresden
34:15 — Remembering the People
36:05 — Part Two: The Story Continues

Sources

• Dresden Historical Commission: Victims of the Air Attacks on 13–15 February 1945
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Bombing of Dresden
• History.com: Firebombing of Dresden
• BBC: Dresden bombing research supplied for the episode
• Truman Library Institute, WWII 80: The Bombing of Dresden
• U.S. Air Force Historical Analysis, research on the bombing of Dresden
• Peace Palace Library: Dresden 1945: An Allied War Crime?
• Kurt Vonnegut's experience of Dresden, discussed through his literary work Slaughterhouse-Five
• Vic Echegoyen book: Blitz: La destrucción de Dresde

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This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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Deep in Alfama, where narrow streets wind between old houses and the sound of fado drifts through open windows, there is a legend about a small fado house and a woman whose voice could still be heard long after she disappeared.

In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, I tell the legend of a Fado House in the Alfama neighbourhood of Lisbon, Portugal, as we follow Inês, a young singer who begins to hear another woman's voice whenever she sings a particular song after midnight.

Chapters

00:00 — The Old Fado House
03:45 — Chapter One: The Voice Upstairs
11:01 — Chapter Two: The Letters That Never Arrived
18:00 — Chapter Three: The Man in the House
23:40 — Chapter Four: When the Singing Stopped
28:35 — The Song That Remained

Music: Song "Vem dançar comigo" by Alexis, COPYRIGHT SPOTLIGHT CREATIVE AGENCY: https://pixabay.com/music/vem-dan%C3%A7ar-comigo-fado-alexis-601210/
Images and videos: AI created.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/F3tkkoVYoic

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#Alfama #Fado #HistoricalLegends

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This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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What happens when a vampire story leaves the pages of folklore and begins to spread through real communities?

In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we travel through three strange British vampire cases separated by decades but connected by the same unsettling force: rumour.

Subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast for more forgotten people, mysteries, remarkable lives and strange moments from history.

Chapters
00:00 The British Vampire Files
02:05 The Children Who Went Looking for a Vampire
04:53 The Highgate Vampire
07:02 The Birmingham Vampire
09:34 When the Vampire Was Never Found

Sources
Sandy Hobbs & David Cornwell, Hunting the Monster with Iron Teeth Hunting the Monster with Iron Teeth
Bill Ellis, The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt: The Anglo-American Connection in Satanic Cult Lore Bill Ellis's Highgate Vampire study
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian, “Reality bites” The Guardian — Reality bites

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/lVnxpoF_-TA

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#Vampires #UrbanLegends #Folklore

Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we travel back to Paris in the 1920s to uncover one of history’s most audacious confidence tricks: Selling the Eiffel Tower.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and step into Paris in 1925.

If you enjoy forgotten people, true stories, mysteries, historical adventures and remarkable lives, subscribe to The Storytelling Podcast and discover more stories waiting to be told.

Chapters
00:00 The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
02:28 Paris After Gustave Eiffel
06:07 The Man Who Called Himself Count
09:18 The Meeting at the Hôtel de Crillon
12:06 The Bribe
14:23 Why Didn’t André Poisson Go to the Police?
16:06 The Second Time
19:07 The Eiffel Tower Was Not the End
21:28 The Counterfeit Money
23:18 The Escape
24:22 Alcatraz
25:40 The End of the Story

Sources
Official Eiffel Tower: Victor Lustig and the Eiffel Tower scam
Smithsonian Magazine: Jeff Maysh, “The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice.”
FBI historical records: Victor Lustig and his criminal history

Music by: Song and Sound effects by freesound_community from Pixabay
Images: Eiffel Tower Archives / AI-generated


🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/eppAesc_hSI

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#VictorLustig #EiffelTower #TrueHistory

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This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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People disappear in the wilderness every year. Most cases have explanations. Some do not.

In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we enter the world of Missing 411, the name given by researcher David Paulides to a collection of strange and unexplained missing-person cases, many involving national parks, forests, and remote wilderness areas across North America.

Sources
National Park Service records and missing-person case information referenced in the episode.
David Paulides’ Missing 411 research and publications.
Skeptical Inquirer discussion of the Missing 411 claims and proposed pattern.
Note: Historical uncertainty and disputed details are identified within the episode rather than presented as established fact.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/OW2LxXS8eaE

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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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What happens when you let an app decide where you are going?

Randonautica became an unlikely internet phenomenon by generating random geographical coordinates and encouraging users to explore whatever happened to be waiting there. During the pandemic, the app became particularly popular as people searched for unusual experiences close to home, often filming their journeys for TikTok and YouTube.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/N36D5ZzSYEc

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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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In this episode of The Storytelling Podcast, we step inside five homes connected to strange experiences shared by listeners from around the world.

The stories are presented as listener accounts, with minor details changed for privacy. The podcast does not claim that the events were definitively supernatural.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/xjGQZXIQYAw

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📩 Story submissions:
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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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In Episode 76 of The Storytelling Podcast, we open three extraordinary historical books connected with magic, witchcraft, spirits, astrology and forbidden knowledge.

What makes these books so compelling today is that they are not fictional cursed volumes from a horror film. They are historical objects, preserved in manuscripts and early printed editions, connected to real people and real intellectual traditions.

🎥 YouTube Visual Episode: https://youtu.be/jTqyFx1zeSw

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Support the show

This was today’s episode. Thank you for listening, and remember that if you would like to send your stories or special topics to be shared in the next episodes, please send them to thestorytellingpodcast80@gmail.com.

Before you go, if you haven’t done that already, I would love for you to click the follow or the subscribe button, and see you in the next episode!

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