Hobsession

Selkie and the Anchoress

Welcome to Hobsession - where we get horribly obsessed, highly obsessed, hilariously obsessed with things that other people might find odd. Nothing is too obscure too creepy or too weird for us to research obsessively. We are Heidi and Rebecca, join us in our Hobsessions!

  1. 05/07/2023

    LIGHTS! KIM DYNASTY! ACTION!

    The late North Korean despot Kim Jong Il was a massive cinema buff. When he took control of the local film industry, he planned to produce propaganda that had all the glitz and action of Hollywood. Jealous of the attention South Korea was getting for their film industry, Kim came up with a cunning plan that involved kidnap, imprisonment and attempted brainwashing. This story is utterly bizarre, totally outlandish and 100% true.

    52 min

  2. 31/05/2023

    Hyping the Mona Lisa

    Was the Mona Lisa always seen as an iconic masterpiece? Who decides which images become iconic and why do they become part of the collective consciousness? In this episode we take a look at the Mona Lisa and try to separate the art from the hype. On the way we get caught up in the most chilled-out art heist ever and meet the man who accidentally made the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the Western world.

    40 min

  3. 08/05/2023

    Mary Toft and the Sinister Rabbits

    If anyone remembers Mary Toft at all, it’s as the woman who hoaxed some of the most powerful men of 18th century England into believing she could give birth to rabbits. This is not a cute story about a genius prankster, however. This is a sinister tale of familial abuse, brutal medical malpractice and a powerless, poverty-stricken young mother. Mary Toft might be a funny piece of trivia in hoax history, but she is much more than that in every way.

    37 min

  4. 30/04/2023

    Moe the Chimp and the Tragic Birthday

    St James and LaDonna Davis of West Covina, California, had what they considered to be the perfect family. Unable to have children, the couple doted on their pet chimpanzee, Moe. To the Davises, Moe was their son and the light of their lives. However, when natural boundaries are crossed, disasters occur. Both a true horror story and a true love story, the tale of the Davis family will linger with you forever.

    51 min

  5. 13/09/2021

    A Light Supper With The Breatharians

    Is it possible to live without food or water? A group of New Age extremists called the Breatharians claim that the human body can survive for years on nothing but air and sunlight. Heidi and Becki shed some (tasty) light on these claims and explore whether or not the Breatharians are full of hot air. There’s also an Australian cult leader, 60 Minutes and 90’s nostalgia for good measure! Tuck in!

    48 min

  6. 28/07/2021

    The Basement Music of The Shaggs

    Helen, Betty and Dot Wiggin had no interest in being pop stars. Their dad, however, shaped his life around his mother’s psychic predictions, and she had said that the girls would grow up to be rich and famous musicians. So he pulled them out of school and insisted that they form a band - The Shaggs. Isolated from the world outside their family and forced to compose on instruments they could barely play, the Wiggin girls lived a life that was as strange as their music. Named the ‘Godmothers of Outsider Music’, The Shaggs found their true audience decades later in the most unexpected places.

    42 min

  7. 16/05/2021

    Are You Bridget Cleary?

    Bridget Cleary wasn’t like the other girls in her rural town in Tipperary, Ireland. It was the late 19th century, and Bridget was in many ways a modern woman - ambitious, independent and secure in her own identity. When she fell ill, her husband Michael declared that his wife had been stolen by the fairies and a changeling imposter had been left in her place. The superstitions, resentments and jealousies of Bridget’s community enabled Michael to murder his wife in a way that is still talked about over a century later. Warning: This episode contains details of domestic violence and coercive control.

    45 min

  8. 22/03/2021

    The Obsessions of Hans Christian Andersen

    It was 1857 and the last thing Charles Dickens and his family (who were in a state of upheaval) needed was a houseguest. They especially didn’t need a neurotic, self-absorbed and tactless houseguest like the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, who decided to stay for an excruciating five weeks. Andersen was suffocatingly obsessive about the people in his life, a trait that he’d had since his troubled childhood and bleak adolescence. Heidi and Becki look at the loves and friendships that caused both inspiration and heartbreak for the eccentric storyteller and the twisted fairytale that was his life.

    42 min
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5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Welcome to Hobsession - where we get horribly obsessed, highly obsessed, hilariously obsessed with things that other people might find odd. Nothing is too obscure too creepy or too weird for us to research obsessively. We are Heidi and Rebecca, join us in our Hobsessions!

Information

  • Creator
    Selkie and the Anchoress
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2023
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Selkie and the Anchoress
  • Show Website
    Hobsession