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Right now I am listening to the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and I just cannot get enough of it.
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You guys, I tried my mochi ice cream the other day, and I was lifted off of this planet into just another galaxy entirely.
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It's literally like a little sweet ice cream dumpling.
It's pillowy soft, soft d to the e to the l -i -c -i -o -u -s and it just feels very indulgent I loved it I tried the cookies and cream flavor and I still have the mango flavor to try I'm so excited to try the mango because if it's half as good as the cookies and cream I'll probably just like fall on the floor and start crying tears of joy my mochi is only around 70 calories per piece my mochi is gluten -free and each box has six perfectly portioned mochi snacks and guess what my mochi is the original mochi ice cream.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.
listener tales that's the new listener tale song that's it it's like the mini morbid song but it's it's not better but it's not better oh you just brought that back up I saw somebody um you can download that as I don't know who I don't know from who but somebody tagged me in an insta pic that um like it's like a cell phone ringtone honestly that I remember that that was that's a different time in my life that's a different time in all of our people ask me to sing that sometimes I'm like I love you so much that was from a different era yeah she was disturbed yeah like Taylor Swift has eras we also have errors
yeah and that's she likes to be in her But we leave ours behind.
And you know what? We grow.
That's a good one to leave in the dust in my personal opinion.
I think I'm hurting a lot of people's feelings right now.
Because people got really emotionally attached to that song.
It's true. And you know, that's the thing.
It's fine. Like, that's a great nostalgia bomb of like, yes, that was a wonderful moment in time.
We just don't. We grew from that.
I don't know her. We grew out of that.
Yeah. That was a seed.
We are some kind of flowering plant now.
Yeah. We're like a snap dragon.
Yeah. A Venus flytrap.
It just came – that's what came to me.
Yeah. But I don't – I said – that's what my first thought was actually, Venus flytrap.
But then I was like, I'm not eating flies.
No, I don't want to do that either to be quite honest. I think snap dragons – Oh, smart on your part.
I think they're pretty, aren't they?
Absolutely. They sound pretty.
Oh, they're fucking beautiful.
I can't have them because I have cats.
Oh, hell yeah. Yeah.
That's what we are.
Yes. Look at us. I was going to say I was the corpse flower, and I only bloom once every like 10 years, and you better get here, because then I go to sleep.
Let me see a corpse flower.
But I don't, and also it smells like a rotting corpse.
So that's what I was – I was like, don't those smell bad?
No, they literally – they get their name because they smell like decomposition.
Oh, mama, they're all so heinous looking.
And they're huge. Damn.
What the fuck kind of flower is this?
Yeah, it's gnarly. Where do these grow?
Yeah, there's only a few around – like there's a few around here.
like at places For real?
At I shouldn't say few there's like really you have to travel to see one like they have them at a place There is I don't know where though but I wanted to see it the last time and I didn't get to and I would like to see it this time I want to see one I don't want to smell it Yeah I want to smell it I want to see if it's Good for you if it's the same How far away can you can smell one half a mile away It's gnarly I'm wearing a mask I'm excited about it That's going to be VR next.
I don't know when the next one is blooming.
Wow. And they bloom only for 24 to 36 hours.
Oh yeah. You have to get like, it's a big deal.
That's why it's so amazing to see because it's just this thing.
Corpse flower near me.
I just suddenly were like, corpse flower near me.
Let me find one. They're usually at like, you know, botanical gardens, you know, like very fancy places.
There's one at the Franklin Zoo.
That's a drive, but.
It's a drive. But you know know what worth it yeah you know take a take a whole last day trip oh this was three four years ago just kidding it might still be there though well no it probably died right but i think they like re -bloom they'd be doing that you're right now okay well we'll we'll look into this later sorry that was a live look into our place that's a live look into how we have a conversation it just trails into like where can we find this thing and go for the whole day i'm about to do some steady research after this hell yeah so wait one more thing this one is four feet tall they're
huge that's what I mean they're like big yeah it looks like it almost looks like a oversized aloe plant before it grows yeah it kind of does you're right yeah okay I gotta get out of here so sorry it's listener tales which are brought to you by you for you from you and all about you exactly and I had to make that happen yeah of course we can't go into it without that Nay, nay, I said.
And the first one that we found just looks iconic.
Oh, yeah, because Deb Deb, as we all know, helps us, like, organize the listener tales.
I said, Deb Deb really put a folder together.
Yeah. And she found the perfect listener tale.
She sure did. It is entitled, A Priest Stole My Great Grandmother's Godmother's Grimoire?
Grimoire? Like, what?
A priest is in this?
A grimoire? I looked really briefly.
There's witches. Witches.
of course if there's a grimoire there's witches like what the what are we doing here and it's from sarah which is a very witch name immediately i was like of course it's from sarah like like come on uh sarah said it's okay to use sarah's name so hi sarah hey um and this says attached is a you wrote a long email as well that was very kind and i appreciated it it's just very it's there seemed like there might have been some personal moments that i just didn't want to like Yeah, we didn't know if we were in.
We didn't want to assume that you wanted it all on the pod.
Yes. So I'll just read attached.
It's a double -spaced putt -a -foot typed up on my phone, so I hope it comes through okay.
It did. It's perfect.
With some of the weird tales that string through the generations of women on my maternal side.
Approximately a ten -minute read.
Enjoy. So let's get into this.
Growing up, I always heard the stories of premonitions, ghosts, and curses, and they all started with my great -grandmother's godmother.
I'm already in. I'm so in.
In 1906, my great -grandmother, Alma, was born into a farming family on the outskirts of the city.
For Wisconsin, this is the typical story, nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary.
Well, aside from the fact that Alma's mother, Annie, named a very peculiar friend as godmother.
That friend, let's call her Jenny, was known to be a witch. Can I just say, you should always name a very peculiar friend as your child's godmother.
You should! And that's how you know you're doing it right.
Right. Yeah. Don't ever go out of those guidelines.
A very peculiar friend.
A very peculiar friend.
Who you can't actually name.
That's what you should do.
Now, I'm choosing the name Jenny because I cannot remember what my Nana Dolores, daughter of Alma, told me her name was.
Dolore. Curse little me for not writing that shit down.
Jenny had been labeled as a witch her whole life since being a small girl when she put a curse on a nasty little brat who was a terror and bully to everyone in school iconic behavior jenny's the baddest bitch jenny told the girl that she would experience the pain that she inflicted on others and that it would quote unquote bind her oh my god jenny jenny is sarah from the craft she's everything allegedly that girl was unable to go to the bathroom for three weeks and when she did find some relief it was accidental like she had simultaneously become constipated and incontinent at the same time time
whoa wow damn and that and this is with jenny just going not saying like i'm gonna inflict this pain on you you're gonna receive what you are putting up yeah that's all she said was you are gonna get it back and she got it back she done did it now this was probably the late 1800s whoa my favorite time so medicine obviously wasn't what it was now but doctors could find nothing wrong with the girl she just couldn't poop the girl's mom finally went to jenny and jenny's mother, begging them to do something about it, pleading for her daughter's health to return, as she had started throwing up too.
Yeah, it's got to come out somehow.
It's coming out. Apparently, Jenny's mom just kind of gave Jenny a look like, come on, really?
Jenny sighed, got up, placed a hand on the afflicted girl and said, I forgive you.
Wow. I got chills. I was just gonna say, I did too.
The way my nana said it, that little girl had to run to the bathroom so fast, she almost created a gust through the room.
She dropped Wow. There were other youthful Jenny stories, but that one is the most clear in my head.
I understand why. Jenny never went on to have kids of her own, so when her best friend had a daughter, oh, Jenny was smitten.
Alma was supposed to learn from Jenny, be taught the ways in order to pass down the tradition.
Now, I don't have much that stands out in my memory for stories directly involving Alma, other than the final story of Jenny, which Alma was present for.
As magical as Jenny may have been, she was not immune to the effects of time.
Jenny was on her deathbed in a hospital, all but gone, not conscious or communicating anymore.
When her breathing became a death rattle, they called for the hospital's resident holy man, a priest, to pray over her.
The priest was caught off guard, shocked that he had been called into the room when he saw her like he knew she didn't subscribe to his beliefs, at least not in the way he deemed, quote -unquote, right.
He prayed in Latin quickly as he wanted to get out of there.
He finished the prayer and then before he left noticed the book on her bedside table quote no one can have this book he said before tossing his jacket over the book as to not touch it and picked it up ready to leave with it i can only assume that this book was a book of shadows of sorts her grimoire and he took it from her and those who loved her i would have fought that man i would fuck that guy up so the moment he turned to leave jenny's final breath escaped her body a sheer black shawl was Oh my gosh, she's so cool.
Right? In that moment of Jenny's final breath, the shell rippled down from Jenny's body, down across her legs and towards the doorway where the priest was, before cascading down the floor where it remained motionless.
The movement was described as that of a light wind blowing through, but there was no wind, there was no draft, and there was no more Jenny.
my body is simply whalming all the way through imagine your family telling you these tales do you see my goosebumps this is a tale this is insane i'm covered head to toe such a story oh my god i like can't get rid of these goosebumps we all believe this was the spirit of jenny making a final attempt to get her book back oh yeah i like to think she haunted him till the day he died for taking what didn't belong to him i think we were all a little mad at that still yeah of of course.
I don't blame you. Now onto my nana, Dolores.
I absolutely idolize this woman, and even now thinking of her, I have tears forming in my eyes.
I still feel her warmth and love like she's still here.
Dolores was a very strong woman, driven, independent, beautiful, and full of love.
She was also incredibly gifted in gardening and animal care, always making some sort of salve or medicinal herb blends, bringing animals back from the brink of death, and rescuing the injured creatures that no one else would consider.
I fucking love Dolores.
I love Dolores I love Jenny I love Alma I remember times of helping her in the garden when we would just stop what we were doing because there was a toad in the way and we would talk to them until they moved you guys are the most magical fucking beings this is like I'm obsessed this is practical magic this is or when we would be drinking tea at the kitchen table and a bird would crash into the window Nana would race outside and hold the little bird whispering to them and stroking their feathers until they would slowly come out of the stunned state they would linger after just looking at her as
she spoke She would say, okay, it's time, and off they would fly.
I'm going to start sobbing right now.
I'm screaming inside.
Oh, my gosh. A favorite story of mine is when Dolores was driving the family's old crappy car into town.
I think at this time she had her first three babies, no older than toddlers, in the back seat.
The car broke down, and it was the middle of a downpour, very heavy rain.
She got out to see if she could tell what was wrong, but she wasn't exactly a mechanic, and cell phones obviously didn't exist. There were no houses nearby, and she couldn't leave her babies alone in the car.
As she was looking under the hood, a man approached, asking what the trouble was.
Nana said the man was odd, not scary, but strange.
Yet she trusted him fully.
He didn't even look at the car, but asked, Do you have a Coke bottle in your car?
She thought that was a weird question, because why would she be driving around with an empty glass bottle?
He encouraged her to check.
She popped the trunk, and by some miracle, there was a glass Sprite bottle.
He instructed her to tap a certain spot on the engine using the bottle, and to try starting the car.
What? It worked. The weird random stranger was right.
Dolores, not having much herself, was always the giver and insisted on giving the man money for his help.
He smiled softly and said, that won't be necessary, but thank you.
Aww. She turned to reach into her car for some cash, ready to shove it into the kind man's hands.
When she turned back, he was gone, and there was no way he could have just vanished into the house, because the nearest one was football field's distance away.
What the fuck? Something else you need to know about the man is that he did not touch the car once.
He did not touch her.
He did not touch the bottle.
And even though it was a heavy downpour, the man wasn't wet, not even a little.
It's almost like he wasn't there at all.
I, my, I can't. Chills.
Like the chills will not escape.
I don't, these are tales that just need to exist in the world.
Yes. Like these are just, wow.
This is, these are like beautiful, beautiful tales.
These are so magical.
Like I'm loving this.
I love this tale. Other notable moments surrounding my Nana are the times she predicted what would come to be.
Like when she told everyone a plane was going to land and the field next to the house, and it happened because the plane ran out of gas.
Little hobby plane.
Or when she declared, Mary is in trouble, right before the phone rang and it was indeed her daughter Mary crying on the other end in Texas.
Or when she always used to tell me, don't fall in love, which I now take as a warning of my previous abusive relationship.
Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry you were in an abusive relationship.
I know. I'm sorry too.
My Nana passed away in January 2019.
I'm sorry. As happens with time and passing, she isn't part of a daily conversation or even our thoughts even.
It happens. Time moves on.
And yet there have been occasions when I'll have a random dream of her.
I'll see my mom and say, hey, I had a dream about Nana on Tuesday.
And mom will look at me with a serious expression and say, you're kidding.
I had a dream of her on Tuesday.
This is always out of the blue.
It's not like we were just talking about her or something.
Maybe she's visiting us in her dreams. I suddenly just got this like overwhelming feeling of like, I'm going to cry right now.
You have tears in your eyes.
Ash literally has Ash has tears in her eyes.
I'm telling you, breaking news.
Ash has tears in her eyes.
Yet again, Ash is crying.
But I don't know. I'm just like.
It's beautiful. I'm like, I miss your Nana.
I miss Dolores. Like, damn.
So I'm not sure what it is we have. I don't know if I even fully buy into it.
I do. But I don't have an explanation for these things either.
Maybe it's all because of my great -grandmother's godmother.
Or maybe that just made us all more open to the possibilities.
The regular feelings of deja vu and the lost or injured animals that always seem to find me remind me that this might just be the fate of women in my family and I think I'm okay with that.
I hope you enjoyed some of these weird little tales.
I'm taking a trip to Boston with my boyfriend next month and he's taking me on a day trip to Salem.
Yes! Because he knows how fascinated I am by the witchy stuff in history.
Half of me is hoping I feel something spooky and the other half of me is hoping a ghostie doesn't follow me home.
Anyway keep it weird but not so weird that you steal a book of shadows from a dying woman's bedside table because bro that's just fucked up but do keep it so weird that when you die you become a friendly roadside assistant who helps weary travelers absolutely keep it that way wow those were beautiful in a way i can't describe i can't even explain and you told them beautifully i could picture all of that you have a beautiful way with words write something i was gonna say i sit down and write you need to write an already yeah you need to write like a book about like dolores and jenny and all like
all of of them a beautiful children's book about the witchy women in your family please because i would read my kids that book yeah sarah please do it i encourage you that whole story just gave me like such a feel like a feeling i genuinely can't describe but in a weird way i feel like nostalgic for your nana dolores and for jenny yes like i'm like i feel like i knew them me too like that like like filled me up yeah you filled my cup sarah i appreciate that wow damn damn sarah honestly that story is just that story about jenny just blew my fucking mind and i'm obsessed with the traveler because i
don't know if like we'll have to have mikey on to do to tell his story he needs somebody who 100 like saved saved his life i feel like and it's a guardian after a road incident as as well.
And it's definitely some type of spirit guide or some kind of guardian or some kind of something.
Some kind of someone.
That we can explain.
And he will tell you this story and it's beautiful and amazing.
And it reminded me of that.
That's another tale that like made me want to cry when Mikey told us that.
Yes. So we'll have to have Mikey on for a listener tale and he can, because you guys, I know you want to probably hear Mikey.
Oh, yeah. And you should.
He's wonderful. It'd be great.
So thank you, Sarah, for that.
Wow. That was great.
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okay I'm gonna read the one about cats next because I don't know if you know this about me but I do love cats well you like cats and if you've recently listened to the old episodes I used to not like cats so it's confusing yeah I guess I proclaimed once that I like hated cats which I used to but then we really wanted an animal and I was Drew was like let's get a cat and I was like I've never met a nice cat and then and then you I met three you met three nice cats and I'm now obsessed and I'm not a big cat person like I've always been not really a cat person same but me and franklin oh you have a vibe
we have a bond so franklin they've turned me around franklin will like kiss me like if i like make like a yeah he literally like kisses me like he doesn't like lick me but like he bops his mouth onto my mouth and it's beautiful it's beautiful and it's beautiful and don't make it weird he did that to elena the other day and i'm not kidding i'm the only person he does that too i was so excited he tries to like if anybody even so so much as touches him he's a little cranky and he tries to bite them that's why i love him yeah i think that's why we get along because i think we're both like cranky little
cranky cats just cranky cats together i love my cats but when he tried to kiss you i was like that is not your mother i know and i was like franklin no we're bros but i think it's also the witch in us i think so but so yeah this is about a cat it's called listener tail haunted by mr mayor the cat mr Mr. Meyer the cat.
I can say your name.
This is from Carson.
It says, hello, weirdos, from the dark lagoon known as the Bridgewater Triangle.
Oh, shit. For your reading pleasure, I have provided this excellent double space size 14 font puttapha.
Look at you. This story takes about XX minutes to read.
I don't. What's XX?
I think maybe you meant to put in a story amount, but you didn't.
Oh, that's okay. Like a time, and that's okay.
XX is not a Roman numeral.
I mean, it is a Roman numeral, but I don't know if that's what they would be.
meaning that would be big i think yeah i think it's 10 isn't it no that's v nope hold on no v is five sorry i'm not up on roman numerals it's 20 so i was gonna say because x i think it's 10 but we'll find out um yeah it's okay anyways hold on to your butts before we get into this here are my accolades for you oh my god i love you are you ready okay good i've listened to your show since you covered katherine knight and i was instantly like holy fucking balls these humans are hilarious and this show is so fucking gross.
I'm in. Hurrah. On an honest note that I won't even try asking you to skip, your show has helped me through some very hard times and I'm so grateful for you both.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
You're beautiful. Now, on to my ghostly tale.
I am a fellow Bridgewater Triangle dweller.
Hell yeah. But before I lived in the middle of nowhere, no cell service, dial up internet, internet ass mountains of Ohio.
Oh, that's where I lived before.
Yes, exactly. Between creepy mountain hitchhikers that I used to pick up and my ill -guided youth, to strange UFO sightings that I noped the fuck away from, to spooky ghosties in my haunted -ass Bridgewater Triangle apartments, I have a metric fuckton of tales I could tell you.
But alas, let's not focus on those tales and instead focus on these T -A -I -L -S tales.
I'm obsessed. As I tell you the sweet story of being haunted by my beloved cat.
Oh, I'm going to cry.
I know I'm going to cry on this.
I'm very weirdly emotional today.
My nephew was just born and that set us off.
so when my then partner now spouse now spouse happened to be that you're my spouse that was a soul it was like a villainous transatlantic accent my spouse you're my spouse my then partner now spouse quick sidebar my spouse refers prefers to be called my cowboy because as they say I I upgraded from partner, and now I'm your cowboy.
Howdy hey. Stop. I'm a - Stop.
I upgraded from partner.
Now I'm your cowboy.
Howdy hey. I'm - I love you.
Love. I love both of you.
I love love. This is beautiful.
But anyways, when my then partner, now cowboy, and I moved into our first apartment, we did what any young queer couple would do, and highlighted - Hightailed it to the animal shelter to adopt a fucking cow.
That's what you did.
That's exactly - We didn't even have a fucking couch yet, and we were like, cat.
Cat. Cat. I need a cat.
We had a chair for the first three months we lived in our apartment and also a cat.
We were determined to find our perfect fur baby who would happily give us cuddles, purrs, and love forevermore.
Well, fuck us, because when we laid our eyes upon this scrumpliest, squishiest, angriest cat in the whole fucking place, we were instantly smitten and he was coming home with us.
Now, this cat had been through it in his two years of life.
He was rescued from a feral cat cat colony where the shelter workers said other cats were grooming him bringing him food and taking care of his every need therefore he was deemed by shelter staff mr mayor there he was like clean me bring me food go get me this every could you cut my fingernails i love him well the rest of mr mayor's colony was sent away to be part of the shelter's barn cat program where feral cats who cannot be domesticated are adopted to farmers who need to keep down the vermin population, our beautiful sack of fur was deemed unable to survive on his own and was not eligible.
By this, I mean he was missing two ribs.
Oh my god! He was born with legs that were too short and a tail that was too short and therefore had difficulty with balance and also had asthma.
Oh my god! But just like that feral colony of cats, our feral selves said, I'm gonna take care of this hunk of junk.
I'm gonna take care of you.
I love this. So began the next three years of our life which we fully and entirely dedicated to this cat it took six months to let us pet him a full year for him to sit with us on the couch a year and a half before he would sleep on us at night and two years before he would ever let another human besides my cowboy and me pet him but with each of his milestones we slowly learned that we were correct we had adopted literally the best cat ever yeah he slowly showed us how silly and sweet he was and we when we we adopted two other cats.
Are we the same human?
I was going to say, are we the same human?
He was instantly in love with them and followed them everywhere.
Franklin does not feel the same about himself.
I was going to say, that was not Franklin.
Although he was cuddling with Lux yesterday and I was like, somebody call the local media.
Call the authorities.
Anyway, our three cats...
Oh my God, I love this so much. Our three cats and we became a fucking tight knit family.
Every person who owns more than one cat was always shocked at how much our cats loved each other.
I am. And we would always say, mr mayor refused to be anything but loved oh mr mayor by the time he was five his favorite activities included playing with his siblings by flopping on the ground and bunny kicking in the air as they casually walked by snuggling with me while making snorting pig sounds and dragging his open mouth across our arms as we slept making us wake up with an arm full of nasty slobber it didn't matter to us that this cat couldn't clean his own butt or that he couldn't climb climb up a cat tower he was happy as could be with us when he suddenly got very sick and within one
day's time had passed away at the nearby emergency vet i'm so sudden sorry they said his immune system hadn't been able to fend off whatever kind of kitty illness he had gotten that's awful because that's not a long time with a cat at all we were devastated and brought his body home so that the other cats could sniff him and know what happened so that they wouldn't have to wonder where their brother when i'm gonna fucking cry right now oh my god you guys are doing it oh my god and when i hear people say that animals don't have emotions i always talk about how hard my other two cats took the passing
of mr mayor i'm gonna start sobbing one of them didn't sleep for three days and we ended up having to take her to the vet where they said she had depression the other began to pee outside the litter box and would spend weeks screaming at the door like he was waiting for his brother to come home and as somebody who has had a good amount of loss in in my life nothing has ever caused grief like the grief i felt losing that cat okay that is so valid it is and i want you to know that because i have also had loss in my life and i can tell you right now i have never felt what i felt holding bailey while
she died it's a different kind i will never be able to describe or handle that feeling again like i know we got two other dogs so it's like Like we opened ourselves up for that eventually in life.
But it's like, I can't even think about it.
I'm telling you and John said the same.
We were shocked at how that grief was like nothing I've ever felt.
Because I think in a lot of ways, like having an animal is so similar to having a child.
Because they're with you all the time.
People. And they rely on you.
Yeah. It's like losing a child.
Yeah. It's like similar.
Because that was our first thing.
That's your first baby.
this first baby that me and john took care of together and dogs are so similar to babies like you get up with them in the night you gotta take care of them for weeks we couldn't take a shower without her crying because she wants to be with us and like sleep training them yeah and it's like it's wild and even my kids like one of my kids the other night started to cry because she misses she all of a sudden just missed bubba yeah it was just upset about it and it's like so it like hit It does.
So that is a very valid thing.
Absolutely. And everything you went through with this cat, like, you took so long to, like, bond with Mr. Mayor.
Yeah, you did so much. And you did so much. And you put in the time, you put in the effort.
Yeah. That's a very valid thing to say.
I just had to tell you that.
No, it's true. And it's a different bond entirely, so I get it.
Yeah, some people aren't going to get it.
And that's whatever.
And it's not for them to get.
Just know. I get it.
We get you. I get it, dude.
So suffice to say, we were all devastated.
dated and so were all of the friends and family who had come to love and watch this little guy's journey of learning he was safe and loved there were so many people who wanted to say their goodbyes to this cat that we had a zoom funeral it was covet times and 42 people came to tell their favorite mr mayor stories some people don't have that many people are real as we stood with the ipad by where we had buried him under a flowering tree in the yard that's beautiful there he rested for four more years and the wheels of life kept on going until it came time for us to Holy shit.
All of a sudden, a cup on the nearby table flung itself off the table and across the room.
Wow, that's a cat. And if that's not a cat...
I was going to say, and we have cats.
And that's a cat. So we were both shitting our britches, of course, and called up our witchy friend with a quick SOS ghost invasion.
They came over the next day and we were like, the house is mad at us for leaving.
And they smiled at us and said, it's not the house, it's the land.
Like something in the land doesn't want you to leave. I'm going to sob right now.
I hope you were able to remedy this.
I know. I really hope.
Immediately and without warning, my spouse and I both began to cry, like a sobbing crying.
Now, I'm a literal sprinkler, so this was no surprise for me.
Relatable. A soft breeze on a gentle day can make me cry over the fucking beauty of nature.
Oh, my God. I am your spouse.
And I am you. My spouse?
Nah. This fucker is from Boston and therefore is repressed as fuck.
fuck i've only seen them cry maybe four times in our decade -long relationship and here out of nowhere was number five this was literally john with me like he was like oh my god you're sobbing it's so true we both looked at each other sobbing and though a great deal of sad boy sobs said excuse me through a great deal of sad boy sobs said in perfect unison it's mr mayor this cat had never moved in his life and was probably so scared seeing us pack up all his familiar and favorite things into boxes and in typical cat fashion was letting us know his worry by knocking shit off the table that makes
so much sense our goddess witch of a divine friend replied i think he wants to know he can come with you and he wants you to bring something to from his grave side note don't worry weirdos we did not unbury the cat corpse we follow ash's advice in this house of don't be so weird but honestly i i wouldn't have said a damn thing i was gonna be like you know what go get him yeah go get mr mayor don't worry immediately after this we went out to the grave and what do we find but a little metal bird that must have flown off something nearby hanging from the tree directly over his grave it had never
been there before but there it was wow we took the bird and told our baby boy he's always welcome to come with us and we would never leave without him oh my god and oh wow this is really getting me this is so sad oh and i'm so sweet i know i'm just picturing my cats now and all oh oh god jesus i was like don't picture and all of a sudden poof no more heavy feeling no more shit getting knocked over and no more shadowy figures we moved into our new place with ease and set up a small table with a framed picture of mr mayor's paw prints we have that for bubba yeah and now the little metal bird now
we light an incense for him every day and let him know how much we still love him you're such good like animal you are since then the only haunting that happens from our mr mayor is every now and then we'll walk into our bedroom and see our cats cuddling and for jet oh my god and for just oh it's like so personal because i'm like i have three cats too i know and for just a moment out of the corner of my eyes i'll see a third mr mayor shaped lump there snuggled in next to them like he always was in life i love that i'm sobbing i love you and your cats i love you and your god unfortunately this did
not end our scary haunting experiences because the building that we moved into is next door to a graveyard across the street from a mortuary at the building i live in has creepy children's laughter on the staircase in the middle of the night that's not i'm not crying out shadow figures in the hallways and a ghost girl in the elevator who will scream at you and trap you inside according to the old man who lives next door that's the greatest sentence i've ever heard uttered right there according to the old man who lives next and then the follow -up is so fuck us i guess i guess i need to call my
badass witch friend again with the sos i can't go downstairs without choosing between the ghostly gigglers or a demon woman help but these are stories for another time send them in i hope you enjoyed hearing about my beautiful Mr. Mayor and our happy haunting.
If you read this on the podcast, I will probably shit my whole butt shit my whole butt off.
And then I'll have nothing left to hold when you tell these scary stories.
So, whoops. Keep it weird, Carson.
Carson, you fucking ruined me with that story.
You ruined us. And also, again, another great storyteller.
Another beautifully told tale.
And what a, what beautiful animal people you two are.
Seriously. I'm like sobbing out in these streets.
You need to animals are lucky.
Please read something horrific next.
I was gonna say I'm gonna find something gnarly.
Please. Oh my god there's a harboring fugitive story.
I literally just clicked that.
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All right, let's see.
That whole time, all I could picture was Frankie, Remy, and Luxie.
Oh. Sobs. All right, let's see.
This one's called The Time My Family Was Harboring a Fugitive.
And there's pictures of a dog.
Yeah, there's dogs.
Named Mo. Named Mo.
I'm obsessed. Hey, beautiful ladies.
I've attached a double -spaced putt -a -fuzz, my weird -ass tail.
I hope you guys read it, because it was fun to write.
You two are the spoopiest, creepiest, most beautiful people around.
I'm so happy that you two have each other in this life.
Oh, wow. That was lovely.
I found myself listening to the podcast every day.
It's comforting, relaxing, and overall just downright awesome.
I recommend it to everyone I can.
Thank you. keep it weird. P .S.
I've also attached some pics, some picky pics of my sweet rescue pup.
One from the day I brought him home, and the other to show how he's thriving.
He is thriving. Oh, wow.
And the difference.
I know. He looks so nervous.
He looked so nervous before.
Oh, and then he's, he's this very like, he's beautiful.
I love his coloring.
And he's just like, you can tell he's so unsure and like, very nervous and scared.
And then the The picture now is him fully decked out for his birthday, happy as can be, with a giant birthday cake bone in front of him with his name on it.
I'm obsessed. So you know what?
You're killing it. You're absolutely killing it.
Another wonderful animal owner.
I love all the happy animal owners.
Right? Oh, okay. Is that my lovely, spoopy ladies?
My name is Ellie. I love that name.
It's so pretty. And yes, you can use it.
Thank you. This will be a long story, although try to shorten it as much as I can.
Lots of backstory though.
I'd love to spill my guts and tell you how incredible you two are, but you already know that we have shenanigans to get to.
Off we go. Love you.
Let's hop in our Wayback Machine and travel to a time of Farmville, Jersey Shore and Kate Gosselin being fed up with John's breathing.
Oh my God. The fact that that's a literal thing.
Do you remember the one where she was like, you're literally, what is your breathing going on?
And what, didn't she like yell at one of the kids for breathing too loud or like something like I liked that too, and I was like, wow.
Yeah, it's a whole thing.
Calm down. That show was wild.
The fact that that, I can't even go back there because I could not ever watch that show.
And then wait really quickly, John's Ed Hardy era.
Oh, the Ed Hardy era that everyone went through.
The Jersey Shore of it all too.
So it says, I was 17 and a senior in high school, going to school with the same kids since fourth grade.
It was a time of AIM, chat rooms, and Facebook was a new up and coming site.
i can't remember exactly how i met the antagonist of our story but i do know it was online let's call this guy tyler tyler was from illinois and i lived in small upper class upper middle class pennsylvania town my family didn't exactly fit the mold of this town with my single mother working diligently as an rn to raise three kids what a badass my mother is an angel but she's quite naive and i being her daughter am the same duh let's fast Fast forward to when Tyler showed up to my door.
My dumbass 17 -year -old self obviously must have given him my address at some point.
So stupid. Let me add here that this could be used as a cautionary tale for kids today.
Okay, so at least he was who he said he was.
Neve's help won't be needed at this point.
He did it all, man.
The original Catfish movie, I watched that recently.
That's a horror film.
It's such a trip to watch now.
It is. It is a trip to watch now.
And it's scary. It is horrifying.
It's scary. When you watch it, it is horrifying.
Well, he didn't have anywhere to stay, and yes, he was planning on staying, so I begged my mom to let him stay with us in our house.
She eventually said yes, although I don't think it took too much convincing.
I knew that he and his dad had been having problems, so I assumed that's why he wanted to get away from home.
I also knew that he had stolen a car before, face palmed to the fucking forehead emoji.
Did I mention I was dumb?
I thought I loved this prick so I fell for the whole I'll never do it again.
I've learned my lesson spiel.
I was fucking starry eyed.
I have fixed the bad boy.
I have fixed the bad boy.
Fucking score. Am I right?
You know what? You were 17.
And we've all been there.
Yeah. We've all been there.
I'm going to fix him phase.
Oh, God. The amount and also the amount of people you think you love before you realize like what love truly is and you're like, oh, I didn't love that fucker.
And that just that fix him phase that we all went through or like some of us went through.
I won't blanket you all.
I think most of us at least. I definitely went through a giant fix him phase and can confirm did not fix him.
Don't know. Not fucking score.
Did not fix him. Because you know what?
It's not up to anybody else to fix someone.
You got to fix yourself.
You got to fix yourself.
You can't love yourself.
RuPaul says, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else?
Speaking of RuPaul, quick little side note just for the parents out there.
Have you watched The Tiny Chef Show?
love rupal is in it i love and also please watch the tiny chef show tiny chef you will be laughing your ass off it's amazing my kids thought it was hilarious i love it so go watch that let's go tiny chef is so cute so cute a couple days of him moping around my poor innocent mom's house and what's that a new myspace message i'm hunched over our family desktop computer in the corner of our dining room reading this message it says something like good afternoon ellie my name is Officer so -and -so.
I'm writing this to let you know that we are looking for Tyler, liar, liar, pants on fire.
We have reason to believe he's with you and want you to know if he is.
That is considered harboring a fugitive and your mother could be in serious legal trouble.
She and or you could be arrested.
Please call me at blah, blah, blah number.
Oh my God. Imagine getting that message.
At 17 years old. What was my first thought after reading this?
Obviously I ignored the part that said fucking fugitive and instead yelled over my shoulder hey Tyler come look at this.
If I could smack the crap out of my younger self I would.
He was reading the message over my shoulder on our monstrosity of a computer looking nervous as H -E double hockey sticks.
He played it off though saying he probably was probably his dad trying to get him to come home because the message came from a blank profile okay shrug on with life without another thought ignorance is bliss i guess but not for long the next day was friday this is where our story gets juicy oh no he said he wanted to trade his jeep in for a new truck this struck me as odd but i'm 17 okay i'm dumb and live in a bubble after school yes this stranger um fugitive was in our home alone while we were at all we were at work in school jump scare oh my god i happily rode with him in this car lot about 20 minutes
away. He, I mean we, test drove a 90 -something Chevy Silverado.
You know the one, the one that your grandpa probably drove?
We pulled back into the lot and he went inside.
When he came out, he said they told him he couldn't trade his vehicle with an out -of -state license.
Did this make sense to me?
Nope, sure didn't. But again, I'm dumb.
I'm just a little 17 -year -old baby who knows nothing about how the world works and believes everything that anyone one tells me.
Yep. We drove back to my house in his hunk of a junk Jeep.
That night, he told me he was going back to the car lot tomorrow to, quote, sign papers for the trade.
Wait, wait, what happened to the out -of -state license debacle?
Tyler said the salesperson called, and it was all hunky -dory now.
Okay, okay, I believe that.
As the loving, caring, and most perfect girlfriend that I was, I asked if he wanted me to go with him.
You would have thought that Pennywise jumped out of the closet to scare him when he yelled, no. He said, you probably got got stuff to do here.
I'll just go. Weird, but okay.
What happened the next morning?
He pulled into my mom's driveway in grandpa's truck in all its glory.
I went to greet him, and what did I see?
Uh, do they always leave the dealer plates on?
Trug. I don't know.
I'm just a baby. Just a baby.
I'm just a baby. I do remember asking him about it, and he explained that he would have to go back again to, quote unquote, finish the paperwork and get the new plates.
Dude, I thought that's what you were doing today whatever have i mentioned yet that my sister was in the hospital today ready to deliver my first nephew i didn't well she was and we're on our way now in this weird ass truck the hospital was in another town about an hour away and we had to take almost all back roads to get there we were driving up a hill because duh this is western pennsylvania when the truck runs out of gas another indication that i should have known what was going on I don't think car lots fill the tanks for a test drive here, for any test drives here and there.
I call my dad and he leaves the hospital to bring us some go -go juice.
The bad feeling I had about stupid old Tyler and this whole situation was getting worse.
We get on the road again and finally join my family at the hospital.
After hours in the waiting room, we hear a wretched scream from the delivery room and boom, the first grandbaby in our family was born.
My incredible nephew, Nikolai.
Nikolai. Welcome, Nikolai.
also the fact that the fugitive Tyler was just there for that he was just there what a great story what a story you're like hey my first nephew yeah a fugitive is there for that it was around 10 p .m before we all left did I mention that it's my older brother's birthday I didn't well it is what's happening in the excitement of the day and the new baby we didn't get to celebrate my brother my mom asked Tyler and I to stop and pick up a cake on our way home I quickly ran into the grocery store, and the only cake I could find was a Valentine's themed heart cake.
Wow, that's weird. I know.
Today's Valentine's Day, and my nephew was just born.
Heart cake it is. We are all at the tail end of our drive.
When I get a call from my mom, I answer, yellow.
My mom, in the most serious tone I've ever heard come out of her mouth, where are you?
Me, jokingly, oh, you know, we're in Ohio somewhere.
My mom, Ellie, where are you?
Me, I'm kidding. We're on on the highway, geez, we're one exit away, mom, come home right now.
Okay. So that was weird, right?
I told Tyler about the weird call and he was strangely silent.
We got them to the main intersection in town where you had two options to get to my house, either go straight and take the first right or take a right at the intersection and go around the block that way.
We were sitting at the red light for a few long moments in silence, no traffic around, but a set of headlights lights in the post office parking lot.
The post office was ahead of us where we would turn onto my road.
All of a sudden, Tyler turned on his right turn signal and turned.
That's odd. Why did you go this way, I asked, because I wanted to go this way.
What a weirdo, I thought.
As we pulled into the driveway, heart -shaped cake resting innocently on the floor, two sets of headlights pulling behind us.
I said aloud, wow, it's pretty late for Tom's friends to be coming over.
My brother was one of the popular kids, and his friends were always coming to pick him up to go to a party here or there that's what it had to be right wrong very wrong oh no the moment the truck was shifted into park about a hundred police came out of everywhere i mean everywhere i looked through the windshield and saw the barrels of two shotguns pointing at us oh my god on the driver's side of the truck was three officers with their handguns pointed at the truck along with more officers on the passenger side you poor thing cops came out from behind my beloved blue spruce pine tree in the yard
off our patio where they'd been hiding and from all sides of the garage two men also came from both cop cars behind us i froze i was more terrified than i'd ever been in my short little 17 years when people say their lives flash before their eyes i now know what you mean my only thought was i'm going to jail because of this car stealing little twat in an instant the cops ripped open the driver's side door and yanked him to the ground hitting his head on the corner corner of the door.
Good, I thought. Fuck them up.
Whoop whoop. This bastard has ruined my life.
I was too afraid to move during this whole ordeal, so I didn't move a single muscle other than my super strong tear ducts.
I was bawling in the middle seat of this stupid truck with the driver's door wide open, staring at the red and white frosted cake.
Finally, a young cop, probably the newbie, unlucky enough to have to deal with the hysterical girl, opened the passenger door and sheepishly said, you can get out now.
Through tears that I can only compare to Niagara Falls sourcing from my eyeballs i asked can i bring the cake because evidence man i don't know with an unimpressed look and a slight roll of his eyes he said uh sure so there i was standing in my driveway with a morally tainted valentine's day birthday cake and 30 police standing around feeling more embarrassed and confused than I'd ever been in my life.
Why aren't I in handcuffs?
Shouldn't they be calling me Bonnie and him Clyde?
Is this a dream? Am I going to get tackled by an NFL linebacker -sized police officer if I head towards the side door of the house?
So again, I didn't move until I was told to do so.
Tyler was in the back of the police car, but definitely wasn't one of my brother's friends coming to pick him up for a birthday celebration in the woods somewhere.
And I was finally told I could go inside.
Inside to my safe, quiet home.
My mom and brothers were in the kitchen where I set the precious cake on the counter.
And without a word, I went to my room.
I need to be alone now.
We didn't speak a word about what happened for years.
Years! How? From what I understand, Tyler's dad told the police I didn't know anything.
Looking back, I should have listened to the uneasy feeling I had about the whole situation.
And I definitely shouldn't have ever let him stay at my house or, duh, given him my address in the first place.
Teenagers are so stupid.
I'm sure there's lots of police work that went into this as well, because before police hauled off the turd stain named Tyler, they told me that the U .S. Marshals were looking for him.
What? The fucking U .S. Marshals.
What slash who did I get involved with?
The world may never know.
I need to know. He did write me several times from jail or maybe prison.
He was saying how sorry he was and that he loved me, blah, blah, blah.
Eventually, I received a letter addressing another girl.
The envelope was addressed to me, but the letter inside said, dear someone else's name.
The letter was asking about their daughter and saying he loved his other girl and would marry her.
Wicca, wicca, wicca, what?
Oh, my God. I was told by a friend in law enforcement that the people monitoring prisoners' mail will sometimes accidentally switch letters when they see inmates writing to multiple women like that.
And that's why they're real ones.
That's a real one right there.
That is a real one.
Let me let you know what's going on.
I was never considering continuing anything with this horrid man child.
He was 19, so technically a man, but not really at all.
But I wrote fuck you across that letter and mailed it back to him in jail slash prison.
Icon trip. I only hope is that the same people were monitoring the mail that day and saw it.
I didn't think to look him up online until quite recently, actually.
He had many charges, including multiple burglary and burglary attempts.
I forget what the others were, but they were all stupid, and it's very scary to think that this guy was in our home, and it was my fault.
Wow. On the bright side, my younger brother has been a police officer for about eight years and said that the moment he was watching through our patio door and saw 30 officers ambush us, mostly Tyler, he knew what he wanted to do when he grew up, crying laughing emoji.
I hope you read this and your younger listeners remember not to let strangers into your home and don't be as despicably ignorant as I was.
Things could have turned out much, much worse.
And that is true. It could have turned out a lot worse.
Thank you ladies so much for all your hard work.
I love you tons. Your BFF Ellie.
Ellie. It's for me that you and your family didn't talk about this for years.
I love that you just walked in.
you placed that tainted valentine's day cake on the counter and then just wordlessly walked into the room and you said i i'm gonna head out you said i don't i don't think we need to revisit this and they said okay you guys just woke up the next morning and went about your lives that's a family right there that will be like we know you're ashamed so we're not gonna talk about it we're not gonna talk about it just moving on i was like damn those are real ones right there Yeah.
Like, damn. Wow. Ellie, what a tale.
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All right, we have our next listener tale.
And I just have to say that I really love the ending of this one the ending of this one i got to read it ahead of time it is phenomenon it's great all right so here goes okay this one is from ben by the way so it says okay here it goes of all my paranormal experiences i've only had two that were undeniable thankfully both were with another person to verify my friend kenny and i had met up for a hangout and sleepover whenever we got together we would usually smoke a pack of cigarettes drink some beers and stay up late talking about cryptids paranormal things girls and music this night was no different
me kenny and our friend adam were in a rap group called channel 3 a .m amazing i love that amazing i'm not sure if we had formed the group at this point in our lives though we may have just been rapping together we were just hanging out maybe we were just rapping together earlier in the night we had wrapped over some live music my brother nate and other roommates britain and ryan were playing they were on fire it was an amazingly fun and creative time it sounded like explosions in the the sky mixed with weird dissonant chanting that came in and out of focus depending on what part of the sonic wave
they were riding. I love that.
The music room was in our basement.
Everyone was feeling really inspired that night.
The run -on sentence of a song we were making lasted a couple hours and was so dynamic and full.
I remember Adam saying some things that were so profound, it felt like he was literally possessed by a dead philosopher.
After blessing us with his spooky wisdom adam walked home and everyone other than kenny and i went to bed i slept on a twin bed in a small bedroom sandwiched between ryan's room and a large living room i had set up kenny on the ground with a blanket and pillow just because my bed was too small to fit us both my laptop was sitting open on a coffee table next to my feet by my closet as i sat on my bed contemplating if another beer would help me sleep kenny turns and asks me if i want to channel an an interdimensional being.
What an amazing question to ask.
Right before bed too.
Like you're just about to go to bed and you're like, on second thought, do you like want to channel an interdimensional being?
And you're like, dude, I was going to say that.
Yeah. Weird. Jinx. I stared at him blankly where he sat on the floor in the glow of my laptop screen.
He said that he'd done it before once using a YouTube video.
I laughed, but agreed to watch the video with him.
You're like, sure. Sure.
Why not? There's YouTubes for everything.
Outside my room was a long hallway and a bathroom directly in front of the door.
My brother's room was directly across from Ryan's at the end of the hall.
Britain lived under the living room next to a set of stairs that led to the music room, our porch, and the backyard. Although I had responded to Kenny like I was ready to make fun of him for the whole thing, the truth was, I was also scared.
As soon as I said yes to allowing my consciousness to channel this being, I gulped like a cartoon mouse about to sneak past a sleeping cat.
he navigated to the video that somehow wasn't buried in a dark corner of the web or in a corner of the dark web it loaded up and started to play what i can only describe as a comfortingly corny brainwash tape i love that strange images started to play on the screen i remember there were depictions of scared geometry sacred oh scared geometry terrified geometry the geometry was like oh i'm a terrified rhombus depictions of sacred geometry although the terrified robbers would be so much temples maybe the all -seeing eye that sort of thing a digitally disguised voice started to speak the voice explained
that the images and sounds would be used to help channel an interdimensional being called a neph into our living space i no don't do that don't don't channel shit into your living space.
Yeah, I don't know about that.
There's already enough people in your living space.
Yeah, don't do that.
Unless they're going to pay rent, don't do that.
Yeah, help out with the bill.
Yeah. The voice also explained that the being would dissipate or leave after about an hour.
Oh, that's nice. Okay.
All right. All right.
So it's just like a quick little visit.
Just going to hang out.
An hour could be a long time depending on the interdimensional being though.
That's true. Depending on their disposition.
Yeah, like what's Neth about?
Yeah. But the whirring electronic noises behind the video made me feel a bit entranced but i still looked away and scoffed to show kenny i still wasn't buying you're like i don't give a shit i don't know about that i don't know about that i don't know about that the voice on the video started to get mushier and less pronounced and repeated seemingly random words from earlier on it seemed like the person who made the video wanted it to appear hokey like a science fiction movie from the 80s love that the video voice repeated enter enter enter now now now now and began to peter off as the electronic
humming noises got louder this is so intense it really is suddenly the high -pitched humming noise was the only thing i could still hear other than a faint echo in my head of the voice enter enter enter silence filled the room as the video went dark i turned the light on and was about to say something to crack a joke about the video to lighten the mood when i was abruptly cut off by the doorknob thrashing back and forth doorknob being twisted left and right as fast as possible noises yeah there you go this went on for a good 10 seconds i would have reacted quicker but i was was just so shocked.
When I finally recovered, I ran to the door and flung it open.
There was no one outside in the hallway.
Neth was outside in that hallway.
Yeah, 100%. You just couldn't perceive Neth.
It's not no one, it's Neth.
See, you don't know about Neth.
Yeah, you don't know about Neth.
There were no lights on, no sounds, no people.
I quietly checked on my roommates, but they were all still asleep in their rooms. There was no possible human way anyone could have twisted the doorknob and then hid that fast, even if they had ducked into the bathroom across across the hall needless to say i had a very very hard time sleeping that night i still feel shaken when i think about it even though it happened well over a decade ago that's because you met ness that's exactly why you know you met now you absolutely know you did ben you have met ben you perceived us even for just an hour but with all of that being said hey ruby Ben has something
to ask you I'm Screaming We're giving A pause This is a pause Hopefully some things are being Put into place right now Okay and then Do do do do do do do Do do do do do do Ruby and Ben just got engaged Woo Happy engagement Engagement.
Happy engagement to Ben and Ruby Hart.
The most beautiful couple I've ever seen.
I love you guys. Your art.
That is my favorite ending of a listener tale ever.
This is so cool to be able to do this and know that you what is happening right now.
Like my heart in the future.
My heart just started racing like I was getting like a proposal.
I'm so excited for you guys.
I can't wait to see pictures and please send us pictures.
Video and I just love your love and you guys are the cutest couple ever.
And everybody, if you're listening to this right now, just like raise your glass or raise whatever you got to Ruby and Ben.
To Ruby and Ben. To Ruby and Ben.
I have a very funky looking coffee right now.
Mine is literally iced coffee water.
But cheers to Ruby and Ben.
And you gotta drink or else it's bad luck.
Oh, I gotta drink. Hold on.
Sorry. I don't wanna drink.
I really committed to taking a sip of that coffee ice for you guys.
That's from sis. But that's okay.
Because Ruby and Ben for life.
Love you guys so much. It was so cool of you to involve us in that.
And I hope you're like sobbing right now, Ruby and Ben.
And I hope you have the loveliest, happiest lives together.
Chin chin. Hell yeah.
And you know what? Maybe Neth can come to the engagement party.
Please invite Neth to the wedding.
Please play that interdimensional demon video at one of the wedding celebrations.
You can just stay for an hour.
It'll be fun. Yeah.
You know? Exactly. Just play single ladies for him and it'll be great.
Neth loves that dance.
He does. I just know it.
He knows the whole thing.
I know it. Well, guys, with all of that excitement we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you don't get engaged while listening to Listener Tales because you should keep it so weird that you always get engaged while listening to Listener Tales Ben and Ruby for life This is so precious I love love If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad -free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery .com slash survey.
Hear that? That's the sound of Cinnamon Toast Crunch telling us it's crunch time.
as we gear up for another year of Serial training camp.
Last year, a dynamic brother duo competed and won the right to make their very own cereal.
They named it the Kelsey Mix.
This summer, the energy is being brought straight from the end zone to the breakfast aisle with three cereal -loving wide receivers.
Justin Jefferson, Amon Ross St. Brown, and Jamar Chase.
You can find these football stars on limited edition cereal boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Reese's Puffs cereal starting in August. And don't miss out on Justin Jefferson's Jetta's Mix, a fruity fusion of Frosted Lemon Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Strawberry for a limited time only.
Be sure to score them all, where every bite tastes like a touchdown.