Monsters Among Us

I used to quite enjoy this podcast. Sure, the host spoke in a heavily affected growl, clearly straining to sound like a grizzled veteran of the paranormal rather than, say, a bloke recording in his spare room. But it was all part of the charm. The stories, while often absurd, occasionally hit that perfect eerie note, making the listen worthwhile. Amusingly, the host once lamented the sheer volume of complaints about his voice, before solemnly assuring listeners that this was simply how he naturally sounded. A bold claim—one he himself unwittingly debunked the moment he invited guests onto the show or appeared elsewhere, where he miraculously spoke in a perfectly normal, much more listenable voice. Rather than take the criticism on board like a reasonable human being, he has, for reasons known only to himself, chosen to double down. The original gruffness—once merely a theatrical flourish—has now escalated to a full-blown auditory ordeal. He no longer sounds like a slightly overenthusiastic campfire storyteller; he now resembles a man leaving a deeply unsettling voicemail from the back of a cupboard, possibly while struggling for his last breath on a ventilator. Worse still, there’s now an unmistakable undertone to his delivery, a sort of breathy, lingering intensity that gives the distinct impression he is either in the throes of passion or about to start charging by the minute. If the goal is to make listeners uncomfortable, he is succeeding—but not in the way he intends. Meanwhile, the content has taken a nosedive. There are still occasional eerie gems, but they are buried under a heap of stories so ridiculous that even the most willing listener struggles to suspend disbelief. It’s difficult to be unsettled by tales that sound as though they were submitted by particularly imaginative children or, worse, compulsive liars with no sense of narrative tension. If only he would abandon the tortured voice and put some real effort into curating decent stories, he could have a genuinely compelling show. As it stands, the sheer agony of listening to him rasp and moan through each episode makes the whole thing, for me, unlistenable.

Everyone seems to be Christian and discriminate against Satanism. Lucifer Morningstar punishes evil he doesn't encourage it. People use that as a scapegoat. Also there host needs a cough drop.