Ripley Radio Ripley's Believe It or Not!®

Following five years and 200 original shows, the Ripley Radio Oddcast is ceasing production, with this star-studded episode. The archive of all 200 shows will remain available on www.ripleyoddcast.com. Executive producer and co-host Tim O’Brien says the show is going out on top, with listenership and downloads topping 900,000 annually.

In this week’s grand finale, hosts Ralf with an F, Tim, Ripley archivists Edward Meyer and Angela Johnson are joined by long-time correspondents Chad Lewis, Jodi Pliszka, Florida TV reporter Scott Fais, Ripley’s cartoonist John Graziano, and the executive editor of Huffington Post’s Crime and Weird News coverage Buck Wolf. It’s a truly raucous close to five years of weirdness.

A few of the weird things this illustrious weird news dream team chats about on the August 11 episode of Ripley Radio include: Ralf finds Aladdin, an entire town, for sale in Wyoming for only $1.5 million; we hear of a swarm of Mayflies that was so dense that it showed up on weather radar as a thunder storm; Scott takes us Skunk Ape hunting in Florida; John previews upcoming Ripley Believe It or Not! cartoons; and Chad takes us to vintage and funky gas stations on his last road trippin’ segment.

The Rolling Stones provide the musical egress for Ripley Radio with the seemingly appropriate This Could Be the Last Time.

The Museum of Morbid Anatomy in Brooklyn, N.Y., was the sight of a book launch party for Ward Hall – King of the Sideshow!, a biography written by Ripley’s Tim O’Brien. The party was thrown by Huffington Post’s executive editor, Buck Wolf, who joins us this week on Ripley Radio and tells us why he and his staff wanted to host this big sideshow party.

Additional Weird and Wonderful stories on the August 4 edition of Ripley Radio: A man known as the Big Tomato talks with Ralf about his efforts to save a 185-foot tall ketchup bottle; Chad Lewis acquaints us with some funky roadside motels, including one in the shape of a huge dog; Jodi Pliszka reports that leaving contact lenses in for too long can cause bacteria that will eat your cornea and cause blindness; Ripley’s official illustrator, John Graziano gives us a glimpse of some of the cartoons that will appear in September newspapers across the world; and “Florida on a Tankful” TV reporter Scott Fais takes us to a small community where hundreds of freaks, geeks and carnies have called home for decades – Gibsonton, Florida.

The largest boulder in the world is seven stories tall and lies within the Mojave Desert. Over the years, people from all over, including a few from Venus have visited what is now called Giant Rock. Barbara Harris is a local historian who knows more about that hunk of granite than anyone. She talks with Tim this week on Ripley Radio, the official radio program of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and explains why aliens love this place. Over in Arizona, there’s a bookstore owner who works in the nude, except for a well-placed sock. Chad Lewis takes us road trippin’ to the store and then to a 27-foot statue that celebrates hoboes.

Additional weird and wacky stories on the July 28 episode of Ripley Radio include: Author Jacopa della Quercia visits and explains the weird, strange and steam punk plot of his new historical novel, The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy; Ralf tells us about a 90 year old man in England who was fined $8.000 for an overdue library book, which he checked out 61 years ago; Chicago artist Jim Bachor has created a new medium for his art – potholes in the road! Dressed in an orange vest in an attempt to keep from getting run over, he fills them with his own mosaic artwork. He tells Ralf how and why he does it; Angela explains why actor George Clooney cleaned the kitty litter box of one of his friends, just for fun; and we hear of Ripley’s newest acquisitions – the recreation of famous paintings in toothpaste.

Rocker John Fogerty provides us with our musical egress this week, with Summer of Love.

Where do UFO aficionados go for vacation? This year, a record number of them will be heading to Joshua Tree, Calif., to attend the second Contact in the Desert conference which is promoting a stellar lineup of speakers and events. Barbara Harris, one of the featured speakers, visits with Tim this week and tells us all about the much-anticipated confab. Tim also talks with author Denise Alvarado about her new book, The Voodoo Doll Spellbook, and learns a little about the Voodoo culture and that all Voodoo spells are not necessarily bad.
Additional wonderfully weird, wacky and unbelievable stories you’ll hear on the July 21 episode of Ripley Radio include: Angela provides an update and some very strange facts about Google’s quest to develop a driverless car; Ralf explains how a man was able to drive half-way across the country before realizing that the elderly lady sitting in the passenger’s seat was dead; Chad Lewis takes us roadtrippin’ to Wisconsin where we meet Chatty Belle, a dairy cow behemoth; and high school principal Dennis Best tells us how his school graduated 14 sets of twins in June and how much fun it was trying to figure out one from another prior to their matriculation.
British songster Ed Sheeran provides us with this week’s musical egress, his chart topper, Sing.

It’s hard to imagine a high-ranking dart thrower with no fingers. Add to that the fact that he has only one good eye and it becomes totally unbelievable! Canadian dart master Wayne Chapman joins us this week and talks about his incredible skills. We go road trippin’ with Chad Lewis to Oregon this week on Ripley Radio, the official program of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, and we learn of a unique trap created to capture bigfoot, and then we stop off at Bigfoot Tavern for a sandwich and a beer.

Additional incredible, strange and weird stories on the July 14 episode of Ripley Radio include: Toad Detour, a program near Philadelphia in which the city and the neighbors cooperate to close down the highway for certain hours during the year, to allow toads to cross from a forest to a reservoir for mating purposes, and then six weeks later when all the little toads come hoping back across the road to get to the forest. The lady in charge explains the hows and whys of this intriguing story; Angela reports that a new style Breathalyzer is being developed that can predict and identify various illnesses; and Ralf describes a drug bust in Florida that featured the discovery of drugs hidden in an unusual part of the body, and it’s not where you think!

Karolina Dahlman provides a different twist on a love song in Stupid, this week’s musical egress.

Ripley Radio, the official radio program of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has gone to the dogs, because dogs, in their own cute way can be quite strange at time. This week, we’ll hear of an accident in which a Chihuahua was driving one of the cars. We’ll also hear about Sally, a small dog from Fort Lauderdale who fell 15 stories down a shaft and walked away with only minor cuts and bruises. But boy, was she upset reports Dr. Spencer Ratnoff, the vet who treated her.

Additional weird and wacky stories on the July 7 episode of Ripley Radio include: There’s an ultimate Elvis Presley fan that has turned his home into a private museum in honor of the rock and roll king. Graceland Too, with no official affiliation with the real Graceland in Memphis, is open to the public. Chad Lewis says all you need to do is knock on the door anytime and the owner will be glad to give you a tour; do you use Instagram? If you do and you are in London, you can post a food photo and get a free meal. Angela tells us all about it and adds that Believe It or Not!, 52% of the population regularly takes photos of their food before eating; we hear of the discovery of a mastodon skull on the banks of a man-made lake in New Mexico. You’ll never guess who discovered it and what condition they were in when they found it. Hint- it was during a bachelor’s party; and speaking of Elvis, Angela says one of the newest additions to the Ripley archives is a chunk of his hair, acquired from and authenticated by an Elvis museum.

In honor of the bright days of summer, ZZ Top provides this week’s musical egress with Cheap Sunglasses.