Hysteria 51

ForthHand Media
  • 4.4 (1.1K)
  • Comedy
  • Updated Weekly

Hysteria 51 is your offbeat weekly podcast destination for all things weird and wonderful! We navigate the cosmic highways of UFOs, the alien-infested landscapes, and the enigmatic frontiers of the paranormal. With your hosts, Brent Hand and David Flora, alongside our cantankerous tin man, Conspiracy Bot (with a not-so-subtle desire to rule the world, doubling as our chief inquisitor into the unknown), we delve into unique mysteries, the inexplicable, and the downright unusual. Each week, we explore a fresh topic, making one thing crystal clear... the truth is out there, but you won’t find it here.

  1. 1d ago

    Old Beer, Mad Beavers, Bad Decisions | 519

    This week on Hysteria 51, we’re cracking open the weirdest six-pack history ever forgot and then running for our lives from nature’s angriest lumberjacks. First, divers recover a 162-year-old bottle of Guinness from an 1864 shipwreck, and scientists hope its remarkably preserved contents could help recreate the stout as it tasted in the 19th century. Because apparently archaeology has finally stopped wasting time on pottery fragments and started focusing on what matters: ancient beer. Then we head to Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland, where two teenagers were attacked in separate incidents by rabid beavers, one severe enough to require an airlift to the hospital. The animals later tested positive for rabies, portions of the park were closed, and humanity was reminded that the adorable little dam engineers have teeth capable of choosing violence. So grab a pint, avoid suspiciously aggressive woodland rodents, and join us for shipwrecked Guinness, historic beer recipes, rabid beaver attacks, weird news, and enough poor decision-making by man and nature to fill a podcast. Links & Resources 📌Crack an Old One 📌Beaver Munch Email us your Contest Topics: ForthHandMedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Old Beer, Mad Beavers, Bad Decisions | 519

  2. 3d ago

    Clairvius Narcisse and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Zombie Life | 518

    What if you died, got pronounced dead by doctors, buried by your family, and then showed up 18 years later with one hell of an excuse for missing Thanksgiving? Enter the bizarre true story of Clairvius Narcisse, the Haitian man who allegedly became a real-life zombie after being poisoned, buried alive, dug back up, drugged, and forced into labor. We explore the terrifying history of Haitian zombies and Vodou, Wade Davis and his controversial search for zombie powder, and the surprisingly real science behind pufferfish toxin, tetrodotoxin, Datura, paralysis, and premature burial. Could ancient knowledge of neurotoxins actually turn someone into a living zombie, or did science take a fascinating Haitian tradition and run a little too far with it? Plus, we examine the skeptics and competing explanations that make the answer considerably messier than "dead people don't walk." Poison fish, stolen souls, questionable pharmacology, family land disputes, zombie plantations, and perhaps the worst return-to-work story in human history... All that and more this week on Hysteria 51. Sources Wade Davis – The Serpent and the Rainbowhttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Serpent-and-the-Rainbow/Wade-Davis/9780684839295Wade Davis – Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombiehttps://books.google.com/books?id=tVxZAAAAMAAJWade Davis – “The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombi” – Journal of Ethnopharmacologyhttps://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(83)90029-6William Booth – “Voodoo Science” – Sciencehttps://doi.org/10.1126/science.3353722Wade Davis – “Zombification” – Sciencehttps://doi.org/10.1126/science.3381089Roland Littlewood & Chavannes Douyon – “Clinical Findings in Three Cases of Zombification” – The Lancethttps://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(97)04449-8Harvard Magazine – “The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead”https://www.harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/zombie_1986_small.pdfTIME – “Zombies: Do They Exist?”https://time.com/archive/6697896/medicine-zombies-do-they-exist/PBS American Experience – “What Happened When Zora Neale Hurston Studied Voodoo in Haiti?”https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/claiming-space-when-happened-when-zora-neale-hurston-studied-voodoo-haiti/Zora Neale Hurston – Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaicahttps://www.harpercollins.com/products/tell-my-horse-zora-neale-hurstonLibrary of Congress – “Does the Haitian Criminal Code Outlaw Making Zombies?”https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2014/10/does-the-haitian-criminal-code-outlaw-making-zombies/Chen-Yuan Kao & Takeshi Yasumoto – “Tetrodotoxin Intoxication: A Worldwide Problem” – Toxiconhttps://doi.org/10.1016/0041-0101(86)90067-8Jean Price-Mars – “The Story of Zombi in Haiti”https://sites.duke.edu/haitilab/files/2014/11/Mars-1945-The-story-of-zombie-in-haiti.pdf Email your Contest Entries to: ForthHandmedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Clairvius Narcisse and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Zombie Life | 518

  3. Aug 12

    Mad Blurry Hysteria: The Beginning | 517

    We had some life stuff get in the way this week so we are going back to where the Blurry Hysteria / Weird Wednesday episodes started. Back to regular episodes next week! Original Description It's Mad Blurry Hysteria Time on H51! This week Brent tries to sell us the Lizzie Borden house, David swears Nibiru is gone for good, and Chris flirts with Tom DeLonge on twitter. All that and more on this week’s Mad Blurry Hysteria! News Stories Mentioned: Axe Slasher BnB for sale “Real Picture” – Tom DeLonge Bye Bye Nibiru Follow the Shows: Mad Scientist - https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com/ Blurry Photos - http://www.blurryphotos.org/ Hysteria 51 - http://hysteria51.com/  Email your Contest Entries to: ForthHandmedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Mad Blurry Hysteria: The Beginning | 517

  4. Aug 10

    The Mad Gasser of Mattoon | 516

    Shut the windows and change your mask filters, the Mad Gasser of Mattoon is prowling the podcast! A WWII-era midwestern mystery, the Mad Gasser of Mattoon held a small town in a gaseous grip of fear for 2 weeks with no explanation and few suspects. Panic took hold as locals tried to figure out what was happening in their small Illinois community. To this day, no one knows exactly who perpetrated a series of alleged gas attacks, nor has anyone found out why. Join David as he relates not only the timeline of the ‘phantom anesthetist,’ but also similar attacks in different parts of the country throughout the years. Were they connected somehow or just coincidence? He also looks at what police and scientists have found, and whether or not anything has actually been explained over the years. Don’t let the fumes get to you in this episode of Blurry Photos! Music Ghostpocalypse – 8 Epilog, Ghostpocalypse – 6 Crossing the Threshold, Some Amount of Evil, Malicious, Villainous Treachery – Distressed, Danse Macabre, Myst on the Moor – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Sources Gas Attacks in America: http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/06/mad-gassers-of-america/An Overview: http://io9.gizmodo.com/did-mattoon-have-a-mad-scientist-or-a-mad-population-1510479349Vitelli, R. “The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.” JREF Swift Blog. James Randi Educational Foundation, 23 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2016. http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1279-the-mad-gasser-of-mattoon.htmlMaruna, S. The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: Dispelling the Hysteria. Jacksonville: Swamp Gas Books, 2003.Johnson, D. “The Phantom Anesthetist of Mattoon: A field study of mass hysteria.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1 Jan. 1945, Volume 40, Number 1: 175-186. http://ergotism.info/en/hysteria/mass_hysteria_mad_gasser_jasp_1945_40.pdf See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    The Mad Gasser of Mattoon | 516

  5. Aug 5

    Lawn and Order: Psychic Pets Unit | 515

    This week, Hysteria 51 asks two important questions: How far is too far when protecting your lawn, and has your dog secretly been judging you this entire time? First, a Minnesota man allegedly constructs a homemade spike strip packed with dozens of three-inch screws to stop neighborhood kids from biking across his grass. Because apparently a “Keep Off the Lawn” sign lacked the medieval menace he was looking for. Then we travel to South Korea, where pet owners are turning to tarot readers to uncover their animals’ hidden thoughts, anxieties, health concerns, and possibly their opinions about that bargain-bin kibble. Dogs are selecting cards, humans are seeking answers, and somewhere a cat is refusing to participate because it already knows the future and finds it disappointing. Join us for homemade lawn traps, psychic pets, canine emotional baggage, and another bewildering tour through the strangest corners of weird news. Links & Resources 📌Lawn Care 📌Tarot Terrier Email us your Contest Topics: ForthHandMedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  6. Aug 3

    Reality: Bigger, Stranger, and Probably Watching | 514

    Reality may be bigger, stranger, and far more crowded than our three-dimensional monkey brains can handle. This week on Hysteria 51, we count down ten horrifying theories about what could exist in dimensions we cannot see, from shadow matter and hidden forces to holographic universes, colliding branes, M-theory, and countless alternate versions of you making equally terrible decisions. Could gravity be leaking into another dimension? Is our universe just one thin membrane floating in a much larger cosmic void? Does every possible outcome create another reality where you remembered the password on the first try? We break down the real science behind extra dimensions, dark matter, the multiverse, many-worlds theory, and the terrifying possibility that reality has more rooms than advertised. So grab a flashlight, avoid making eye contact with the shadow universe occupying your couch, and prepare to discover why the cosmos is weird, physics is rude, and somewhere in another dimension, this episode is probably much better. Sources Time and the Block Universe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Time https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/time/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Temporal Consciousness https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2025/entries/consciousness-temporal/ Asher Peres – “Critique of the Wheeler-DeWitt Equation” https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9704061 The Fifth Force Eöt-Wash Group – “New Test of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law at the Submillimeter Range” https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11761 NA64 Collaboration – “Hunting Down the X17 Boson at the CERN SPS” https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.02756 Kaluza-Klein Theory and Extra Dimensions CERN – Extra Dimensions, Gravitons, and Tiny Black Holes https://home.cern/science/physics/extra-dimensions-gravitons-and-tiny-black-holes/ Theodor Kaluza – “On the Unity Problem of Physics” https://inspirehep.net/literature/14622 Shadow Matter and Hidden Sectors Edward Kolb, David Seckel, and Michael Turner – “The Shadow World of Superstring Theories” https://www.nature.com/articles/314415a0 Lawrence Krauss, Alan Guth, David Spergel, George Field, and William Press – “Inflation and Shadow Matter” https://www.nature.com/articles/319748a0 Dark Energy and Dimensional Leakage Nobel Prize – The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2011/summary/ Nobel Prize – The Accelerating Expansion of the Universe https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2011/popular-information/ Gia Dvali, Gregory Gabadadze, and Massimo Porrati – “4D Gravity on a Brane in 5D Minkowski Space” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0005016 The Holographic Principle Leonard Susskind – “The World as a Hologram” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9409089 Juan Maldacena – “The Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711200 Fermilab – The Holometer https://holometer.fnal.gov/index.html Fermilab – Holometer Frequently Asked Questions https://holometer.fnal.gov/faq.html Brane Worlds and the Bulk Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum – “A Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9905221 Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum – “An Alternative to Compactification” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9906064 The Ekpyrotic and Cyclic Universe Justin Khoury, Burt Ovrut, Paul Steinhardt, and Neil Turok – “The Ekpyrotic Universe: Colliding Branes and the Origin of the Hot Big Bang” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0103239 Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok – “Cosmic Evolution in a Cyclic Universe” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0111098 M-Theory and the String Landscape Edward Witten – “String Theory Dynamics in Various Dimensions” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9503124 Leonard Susskind – “The Anthropic Landscape of String Theory” https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0302219 T. Banks – “The Top (10^{500}) Reasons Not to Believe in the Landscape” https://arxiv.org/abs/1208.5715 The Many-Worlds Interpretation Hugh Everett III – “‘Relative State’ Formulation of Quantum Mechanics” https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2026/entries/qm-manyworlds/ Email your Contest Entries to: ForthHandmedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Reality: Bigger, Stranger, and Probably Watching | 514

  7. Jul 29

    Humanoid Homework and Reptilian Lockdown | 513

    This week, education gets artificial and prison security goes prehistoric. First, the company behind Realbotix is pitching schools on humanoid AI teacher assistants, because apparently the journey from crypto to adult companionship to high-school STEM education is now a perfectly normal corporate career path. Could a lifelike robot help teenagers learn science, or will “Sally” spend the semester explaining algebra to students desperately searching for her off switch? Then, Israel clears a regulatory path that could allow Nile crocodiles to guard prisons and discourage escape attempts. That’s right, razor wire and watchtowers may soon be joined by several tons of hungry, armored swamp dinosaur with absolutely no respect for visitation hours. Join us as we examine AI robot teachers, crocodile prison guards, and the continuing global effort to turn everyday life into a low-budget science-fiction movie. Grab your hall pass, stay away from the moat, and remember: there are no stupid questions, but there may be crocodiles. Links & Resources 📌Hot for Teach 📌Swamp Puppy Security Email us your Contest Topics: ForthHandMedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    Humanoid Homework and Reptilian Lockdown | 513

  8. Jul 27

    All Colors Sam and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Weird Picnic | 512

    We go pond jumping this week and head to the Isle of Wight for one of the strangest paranormal encounters ever reported: All Colours Sam, better known as the Sandown Clown. In 1973, two children claimed they met a nearly seven-foot-tall, three-fingered, three-toed, ghost-like humanoid living in a metal hut near Sandown Airport. Normal British stuff, we are pretty sure. Sam wore a pointed yellow hat, spoke through a strange device, said he was “a ghost in an odd sort of way,” and somehow managed to make eating berries look like advanced alien surgery. So what was All Colours Sam? An extraterrestrial? A robot? A folkloric entity? A man in a costume? Or one of the most bizarre childhood stories ever to escape into UFO and cryptid lore? We break down the full encounter, the witnesses, the weirdest details, what believers think happened, what skeptics say, and why the Sandown Clown mystery is still confusing paranormal researchers more than 50 years later this week on Hysteria 51. Sources BUFORA Journal, Vol. 6, No. 5, Jan/Feb 1978 – “Ghost or Spaceman ’73?”Internet ArchiveThink Anomalous – The Sandown “Ghost Clown,” 1973Think AnomalousOnTheWight – All Colours Sam, aka Sam the Sandown ClownOnTheWightOnTheWight – The Sandown Clown: Exploring Sam, the Isle of Wight’s Surreal 1973 EncounterOnTheWightBBC Radio 4 / Uncanny – Cold Cases: Case 5: The Sandown ClownApple PodcastsOnTheWight – BBC Sounds and Cease to Exist Podcasts Turn Their Attention to All Colours SamOnTheWightSpooky Isles – The Sandown Clown: Fact or Fiction?Spooky IslesWeird Darkness – The Sandown Clown: All Colours Sam and the Isle of WightWeird DarknessIsland Echo – The Sandown Clown Returns to the Isle of WightIsland EchoBedtime Stories – The Sandown ClownThe Sandown ClownShrouded Hand – The Sandown Clown Incident: A Creepy Encounter With an Unknown EntityThe Sandown Clown Incident Email your Contest Entries to: ForthHandmedia@gmail.com Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    All Colors Sam and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Weird Picnic | 512
See All (626)

Hosts & Guests

4.4
out of 5
1,112 Ratings

About

Hysteria 51 is your offbeat weekly podcast destination for all things weird and wonderful! We navigate the cosmic highways of UFOs, the alien-infested landscapes, and the enigmatic frontiers of the paranormal. With your hosts, Brent Hand and David Flora, alongside our cantankerous tin man, Conspiracy Bot (with a not-so-subtle desire to rule the world, doubling as our chief inquisitor into the unknown), we delve into unique mysteries, the inexplicable, and the downright unusual. Each week, we explore a fresh topic, making one thing crystal clear... the truth is out there, but you won’t find it here.

Information

  • Creator
    ForthHand Media
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    626
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 ForthHand Media
  • Show Website
    Hysteria 51

You Might Also Like