AmeriWeird
By Nate
Categories: Society & Culture
Strange but true stories from across America. Hosted by Nate.
13 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- The Bat Bomb
In January 1942, a Pennsylvania dental surgeon named Lytle S. Adams wrote to the White House with a wild idea: strap tiny timed napalm bombs to hibernating Mexican free-tailed bats, drop them over Japan, and let the bats carry fire into the eaves and attics of wooden cities. President Roosevelt…
- The Wow! Signal
On August 15, 1977, Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope recorded a strong, narrowband signal from the direction of Sagittarius — 72 seconds long, about 30 times stronger than background noise, right next to the 1420 MHz hydrogen line. Days later, astronomer Jerry Ehman found it on a…
- The War of the Worlds Panic
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre turned H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds into fake breaking news — dance music interrupted by bulletins of a Martian landing at Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Some listeners were genuinely frightened and called police and newspapers. The next…
- The Cardiff Giant Hoax
On October 16, 1869, two men digging a well in Cardiff, New York uncovered a 10-foot-4-inch, nearly 3,000-pound "petrified man" — and thousands paid 50 cents a look. It was a plant: tobacconist George Hull had the giant carved from Iowa gypsum in secret, aged it with acid, and buried it for nearly…
- The Pig War
On June 15, 1859, American farmer Lyman Cutlar shot a British Hudson's Bay Company pig that kept eating his potatoes on disputed San Juan Island — offered $10, was charged $100, and refused. Within weeks, U.S. troops and British warships faced off over the island, and the standoff settled into a…
- The D.B. Cooper Hijacking
On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 out of Portland, traded 36 passengers in Seattle for $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes, then jumped out the back of the jet at 10,000 feet on a rainy night — and was never found. In 1980, an…
- The Dog Mayors
In 2014, Cormorant, Minnesota elected a 7-year-old Great Pyrenees named Duke as its honorary mayor — he served four terms and once won every vote except one, which went to his girlfriend. Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has elected dog mayors since 1998, and a golden retriever dynasty has run Idyllwild…
- Centralia: The Town That Caught Fire
In May 1962 a fire got into the coal mines under Centralia, Pennsylvania — and it never went out. It poisoned the air, opened a 150-foot sinkhole under a 12-year-old boy, cracked the highway, and erased a town of a thousand people down to five. It's still burning, and could burn for another 250…
- The Max Headroom Hijacking
On November 22, 1987, someone hijacked the broadcast signals of WGN-TV and WTTW in Chicago — interrupting a sports segment and an episode of Doctor Who with a person in a Max Headroom mask, spanking himself with a flyswatter on live TV. The intruder overpowered the stations' studio-to-transmitter…
- The Kentucky Meat Shower
On March 3, 1876, chunks of meat fell from a clear sky over Bath County, Kentucky — covering a 100-by-50-yard area. Two men tasted it. Scientists found real lung, muscle, and cartilage. The leading theory? Vulture vomit. I'm Nate, and this is AmeriWeird: strange but true stories from across America.
- The Great Molasses Flood
On January 15, 1919, a steel tank holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst in Boston's North End — a 25-foot wave at 35 miles an hour killed 21 people and injured 150. The company blamed anarchists; investigators blamed shoddy construction. I'm Nate, and this is AmeriWeird: strange but true…
- The Great Wisconsin Cheese Heist
In January 2016, 41,000 pounds of cheese worth about $90,000 vanished from a Marshfield, Wisconsin warehouse — and the thieves were never caught. I'm Nate, and this is AmeriWeird: strange but true stories from across America.
- The Bosak Encounter
In December 1974, dairy farmer William Bosak reported a close encounter outside Frederic, Wisconsin — a dark craft with a transparent front, and a hairy humanoid figure staring back at him. The report was investigated by APRO and classified a close encounter of the third kind. I'm Nate, and this…
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