So Random & Weird Podcast

Sheena Olszewski Sarah Leitham
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Your weekly rabbit hole just got weirder. So Random and Weird serves up paranormal mysteries, true crime, history's dark corners, pop culture, current events, and the kind of curiosities that make you test your fireds at midnight--all through the lens of a couple of Xennials who remembers when the internet and life was feral and anything was possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Sep 21

    Don't Go in the Bayou: Pere Malfait

    EPISODE DESCRIPTION - Ready to publishA Louisiana boogeyman with a moss-covered body, glowing amber eyes, and one bizarre weakness might not be as ancient as everyone thinks. This episode peels back the legend of Pierre Malfey to ask the question that changes everything: is he a real folk warning that grew into a monster, or a monster invented by television that the internet later turned into folklore? Sarah and Sheena take you from the swamps of South Louisiana to a 1974 episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker that may have done more to shape the legend than any oral tradition ever did. Along the way, they unpack the eerie details that made Pierre Malfey stick—the crushing hug, the Spanish moss, the swamp gum stake, the amber lights in the dark—and why those details feel so convincing.You'll discover: How Acadian history, Cajun culture, and French boogeyman traditions feed the storyWhy the name “Pierre Malfait” raises more questions than answersThe strange overlap between folklore, pop culture, and “legend laundering”How a TV monster can get absorbed into the very myth it may have inventedWhy swamp safety, parental warnings, and horror folklore are closer than you thinkSarah brings the deep-dive research and a sharp eye for the contradictions, while Sheena keeps the conversation grounded, funny, and skeptical in all the right ways. Together they trace the line between real regional fear and a story that may have been born in a writer’s room, then lived long enough to become a legend.Perfect for spooky-season listeners, folklore fans, cryptid obsessives, and anyone who loves a good “what came first, the warning or the monster?” mystery. If you’ve ever heard a strange name whispered as a child and wondered where it came from, this one will stay with you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. Sep 14

    The Walls Have Ears (And Apparently Tape Decks)

    EPISODE DESCRIPTION - Ready to publishOld buildings might be doing more than standing there. If you have ever walked into a room and felt the air change, this episode gives you the eerie vocabulary for that feeling—and the case for why some places may be replaying trauma instead of simply being haunted.Sheena and Sarah take on the stone tape theory, the idea that stone, brick, quartz-rich materials, and even water can hold onto emotional events like a recording and play them back later as a residual haunting. They trace the concept from a 1972 BBC horror play to Cambridge academic T. C. Lethbridge, then break down why paranormal investigators keep coming back to it.You’ll discover: Why residual hauntings behave like loops instead of intelligent spiritsHow quartz, piezoelectricity, and the idea of “recorded” energy get woven into ghost loreThe skeptic’s case, including pareidolia, confirmation bias, and infrasoundThe real-world lab case that made a “haunting” disappear after a fan was fixedFamous stone tape-style stories from Battle of Edge Hill, Chillam Castle, The Tower of London, and Willard LibrarySarah brings a lived, intuitive take rooted in witchcraft, psychometry, and the belief that homes and objects can hold residue from the past. Sheena threads in the history, the science, and the pop-culture origins of the theory, making the conversation both eerie and surprisingly grounded.If you love haunted history, paranormal theories, or the feeling that old places remember what happened inside them, this one is for you. It’s a conversation that sits right on the edge of folklore and physics—and leaves you wondering whether the walls around you are really as silent as they seem.Perfect for spooky season, ghost-story skeptics, believers, and anyone who has ever stepped into a place and felt something they couldn’t explain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. Sep 7

    Solitary, But Make It Haunted

    Eastern State Penitentiary was built to heal broken people through silence and isolation - instead, it became one of the most notorious soul-breaking machines in American history. If you think this is just another haunted prison story, Sarah and Sheena trace the real horror first: the Quaker reformers, Benjamin Rush's radical theory, the wagon-wheel design, the black hoods, the punishment cells, and the decades of torture that turned a "humane" experiment into a nightmare. Then the ghosts start to make sense. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. Aug 24

    Ham-handed Justice

    Medieval Europe did not just punish people for crimes - it put animals on trial. A pig in men’s clothing. Rats served with a legal summons. Cats executed as agents of Satan. If you think history is boring, this episode will change your mind fast. Sheena and Sarah unpack the bizarre, surprisingly structured world of animal trials across France, Switzerland, Italy, and beyond - where courts treated pigs, rats, roosters, and even insects as if they could be legally responsible for murder, crop destruction, witchcraft, and plague. Along the way, they reveal the strange logic behind these cases and why a defense attorney for rats was not as absurd to medieval minds as it sounds today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. Aug 17

    Talbot's Curse

    This episode is a fog-drenched ride through werewolf history—part folklore, part true crime, part Hollywood myth-making. It starts with ancient wolf legends, dives into horrifying witch-trial-era scapegoats, and ends with the 1941 Wolf Man movie that basically invented the werewolf rules everyone thinks are ancient. It’s spooky, smart, and weirdly heartfelt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. Aug 10

    Too Close to Home

    A quiet small town, a trusted babysitting favor, and two classmates with a plan so cold it still chills Pocatello nearly two decades later. This case is a devastating reminder that the people who seem most ordinary can be hiding something horrific. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Aug 3

    AITA 2

    Join us for another AITA episode. Remeber to rate and review and tell us if we were wrong or right! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. Jul 27

    The Enema, The Hysteria, and the Whale

    Before modern medicine kind of got their act together, doctors tried...a lot. This week we cover the wildest, most cringe-inducing treatments history has to offer-where the remedy was often worse than the disease, and nobdy stopped to ask if it should be done. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About

Your weekly rabbit hole just got weirder. So Random and Weird serves up paranormal mysteries, true crime, history's dark corners, pop culture, current events, and the kind of curiosities that make you test your fireds at midnight--all through the lens of a couple of Xennials who remembers when the internet and life was feral and anything was possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Sheena Olszewski Sarah Leitham
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Sheena Olszewski Sarah Leitham
  • Show Website
    So Random & Weird Podcast