A bonfire can warm you up, light your face, and make you feel brave. It can also listen. We’re leaning into Beltane folklore with coffee in hand, starting with the real-world roots of the Celtic fire festival and sliding, on purpose, into the unsettling parts: cattle between twin fires, protection rites, burnt bannock, and the way old communities tried to keep the fair folk from getting too close.

From there, we step into the fae courts and talk about Nicknevin as more than a cartoon villain. We explore what she represents as a winter queen of the Unseelie Court, why the “hag” label misses the point, and how the seasonal handoff to Titania changes the whole emotional temperature of the myth. Beauty arrives, but it isn’t safe. Light shows up, but it can blind. Beltane becomes a doorway, not a party theme.

Then we give the spotlight to the Púca, the legendary Irish shape-shifting prankster who rides through stories as a black horse, a goat, a hound, and whatever else suits the night. And just when you think we’re done, we land in Oregon’s Coast Range for a modern campfire tale that answers one question clearly: what happens when you mock the woods and your fire turns purple?

If you like Celtic mythology, fae stories, supernatural horror, and folklore you can practically smell in the smoke, hit play, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Contact us online:
Official Website: www.uncannycoffeepodcast.com
Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/uncannycoffeehour.bsky.social

Support the Show:
Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannycoffee
(Dr. K already has tea)
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UncannyCoffeeHour

Zombies are everywhere, and we don’t just mean shambling corpses on TV. We mean the person crossing the street while hypnotized by a phone screen, the couple doomscrolling at dinner, and the eerie feeling of driving home on autopilot then realizing you can’t remember the last ten minutes. We start there because the zombie is more than a monster. It’s a fear that we can lose control of our minds while our bodies keep going.

Then we go hunting for the “real” zombie stories that hide inside history and folklore. Mitch shares a chilling account from his Osage family history: a man poisoned, buried beneath red rocks, and later seen walking town like a ghost, eating from spirit plates because everyone assumes only the dead would dare. From there we step into Icelandic legend with the draugr Glamour, a soulless revenant fought by the hero Gretir, and the curse that lingers after the body is burned to ash.

We also talk about zombie-like persistence in conflict zones, where drugs, adrenaline, and belief can keep people moving long past normal limits, and we weigh that against Haitian zombification lore where control, captivity, and stolen identity are the real horror. Barnaby Laughing Moon drops a nightmare-fuel “nature zombie” too: cordyceps-style fungi that hijack insects, march them upward, and turn them into spore factories. By the end, we’re left with one big question that ties it all together: if something can steer your body, what happens to your self?

Subscribe for more legends, lore, and strange history, then share this episode with a friend and leave a review so other curious listeners can find us. What’s your definition of a zombie?

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Contact us online:
Official Website: www.uncannycoffeepodcast.com
Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/uncannycoffeehour.bsky.social

Support the Show:
Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannycoffee
(Dr. K already has tea)
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UncannyCoffeeHour

A two-year-old sits up in bed at midnight and cries “Help me” in a voice that doesn’t belong to her. That’s where our night begins... inside a Nevada family’s haunting, where a restless house and a neglected ritual collide, and a grandfather’s quiet arrival resets the room. We follow the thread from a shaken father’s dash across town to a grandmother’s Buddhist protection and a corner shrine that once fed three tiny guardians a single grain of rice a day. When the offerings stopped, something else started. When the caretaker stepped back into the doorway, it ended as if a switch had been flipped.

From there, we step into folklore to see how other cultures name the same tremor. Our creature profile explores the Bakeneko, Japan’s “changed cat,” a house pet that crosses a boundary with age, appetite, and a too-long tail. Through a moody tale of Okesa—a beauty with a secret, a boastful captain, and an ocean that turns to glass—we trace the old law of pacts: honor what protects you, or pay for what you break. It’s atmospheric, briny, and just sharp enough to draw blood.

We close with “Twins,” a 500-word jolt from Weird Fiction Quarterly that tucks possession into the most intimate hiding place: the body itself. An extra eye, a dream-dog with a familiar face, and a whispered, terrible welcome home. Together, these stories sketch a map of the uncanny where maintenance matters—ritual as attention, offerings as relationship, folklore as instruction manual. Whether you lean skeptic or believer, there’s a common ground here: care is a practice, and neglect has consequences.

Pull up a chair, pour something strong, and sit with us in that space between laughter and goosebumps. If the stories stayed with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend who loves the strange. What pact in your life needs renewing?

Send a text

Support the show

Contact us online:
Official Website: www.uncannycoffeepodcast.com
Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/uncannycoffeehour.bsky.social

Support the Show:
Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannycoffee
(Dr. K already has tea)
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UncannyCoffeeHour