Unexplained: Based on the 'world's spookiest podcast'

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Each chapter focuses on one tale of the supernatural, a supposedly true tale of the unexplained, i.e ghosts, UFOs, alien visitations, possession etc. Within the chapter the author tells the supposed tale of the incident and gives a brief mention to cases that may be alike. Alongside the tale is a commentary that is sometimes philosophical, and sometimes trying to be scientific. But the weird thing is (yes, weirder than the stories) that the author isn't using science to look sceptically at each tale, but is sometimes trying to justify the tale scientifically. He bring up a lot of different science, and I could understand his connections, but it was just too much of a stretch to even consider what he was saying. I can say that he didn't do too bad explaining some scientific concepts, but I could tell that he was making great leaps and didn't really have a deep understanding.

I tried. But verbosity to this extent would never have grabbed me, even if the proofs and voices were better, more authentic. Stringy and roundabout writing, filled with circling redundancies and asides. I have no idea what he means by "uncertain times" either. Regardless, that's a quirky slant to describe these episodes. Nor is it accurate, IMHO.Into the Badlands: Skinwalker Ranch! I've been fascinated by this case for years, ever since I went down the rabbit hole to write a semi-popular blog post on the subject. I was excited to see it included here, and it did not disappoint. There were so many new details I'd never read about before, and it was more terrifying than I initially expected. This is probably one of my favourite paranormal accounts of all time, and I loved reading about it in all this detail. If you get this book only for this chapter and the previous one, you wouldn't be disappointed. The stories of Annalise Michel and Elisa Lam, both now hugely famous because of their downright eeriness and video/tape recordings, deserve their places in the book, and are for sure chill inducing, But the story of the attempted murder of a girl committed by 2 of her young friends who purportedly did it for Slenderman, doesn’t belong in this book. TVOM:It seems like the “unexplained mystery” podcast is becoming incredibly popular these days. Why do you think that’s the case?

I’ve really enjoyed doing the show how I‘ve done it so far, but I feel like it needs to evolve somewhat to keep me and the listeners interested; so, you may see something a bit more ambitious in the next season. I won’t say too much, but the basic premise will be [that] instead of doing tenshort individual stories, I’m going to take one and make that the whole season. I’m not quite sure if it will work, but that’s the plan for now[.] The writing was in parts a little dry for my tastes, but Smith's retellings are apparently all true and set in different years and different places throughout the UK. What particularly makes this book stand out against the rest in the genre is that the author doesn't just tell the stories, he actually uses scientific and philosophical principles to try and explain why these events may have taken place and how. This adds a different facet to them and was right up my street! Highly recommended for chills, thrills and spills! Unexplained, based on a successful podcast of the same name, is a feast of the supernatural, paranormal and just plain weird that is known to have happened at various periods throughout the UK and is practically perfect for those drawn-in Autumn nights as we head towards Halloween. I am a fan of these often creepy stories from all corners of the globe and read them no matter the dale they're published, but I must admit that these had a bigger impact on me being both from this country and released at an inspired time of the year! I don’t know why I feel unable to award this more than 3 stars, because essentially it is a very informative and well written book - but I think that’s where the problem lies, it’s a little too well written.I having trouble trying to decide what this book was meant to be. I know it is inspired from the author's podcast which the blurb tells me is very successful. If this book was just meant to be a podcast in book form, I guess it succeeded. But I don't think it was what I was looking for. This book has some really good thought provoking information, but sadly quite equally as much boring suppositions.

Ha, funnily enough, they have never been less interesting (without fail they always end up being more interesting in one way or another), but, and it has only happened once, I did start a story that half way through I realized didn’t quite fit my three criteria. In the end, I had to work quite hard to smooth it out as it felt too late to start a different one. It actually ended up being one of my favorites — it was the story of the Russian submarine K-219, which I think having looked into, we can well assume was rammed by a US submarine. But I was really heartbroken by the story of the young Russian sailor — Sergei Preminin – who lost his life saving the other men so it was important to find a way to get the story to work to include that. I think I just about managed to get away with it, and it gave me an excuse to read some Lovecraft at the end, so it was all fine. I skipped almost the whole chapter about UFO’s because I found it quite boring.... even though the Welsh village named in the book as being home to more than 14 UFO sightings is only 8 miles from my house. Slender Man siedzi w lesie, dzieci spotykają kosmitów, matki wyrzucają noworodki przez okna, staruszki wkurzone wojną przywołują demony, a ja jestem zirytowana. But more than just a show about unnerving and spooky stories, Unexplained is a series that takes Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle to heart, always asking the unsettling question: you might well think you know what is or isn’t true, but can you ever be entirely certain? But I sped read after that section. Because it's full of tangents about the author himself, and also strange "eyes" to almost a negation of any true questioning for the events at the same time. Yes, some suppositions but not disciplined inquiry in most of these cases.I really should read more ‘local’ books about my area. You often forget what a plethora of history and mythology can exist in an area you live in, and it was truely delightful to read some stories based solely around the region I have lived and grown up in for over 30 years (minus a year I spent living in Manchester). It’s made me fall in love with Teesside all over again. I stopped reading at chapter nine, which was about slenderman. A creature made up by the internet. Slenderman is a really interesting case study about the way the human brain works and how unreliable things like witness testimony are (people will swear down they saw slenderman, a fictional creature from the internet, which calls into question basically everything else in this book which relies on eyewitness testimony). It's also a great look at how a folklore gets constructed. I didn't trust Smith to handle any of that with any kind of delicacy so I stopped reading.

Because of how much I enjoyed the first season of Unexplained, I reached out to the podcast’s creator, Richard MacLean Smith, to talk about the series and its future. The other element I think that people have responded to is trying to give the events a scientific context, and again, I’m not an academic nor a scientist, and I am weary of veering into Quantum mysticism — because despite some of the more wild theories, I am a believer and lover of the principles of science and value that as our only true chance of getting to the bottom of just what the hell is going on (in life and the universe generally!). BUT, that said, I do like to humormyself that there may be some crossover between what we traditionally thought as supernatural and what may in fact be a strange quirk of physics, but I try to bring the ideas in more as a way to provoke people’s imaginations and introduce them to some really incredible theories — as opposed to offering any genuine answer to the phenomena. Smith:I really only have 3 criteria that a story must satisfy: one, that it has a human element at the heart of it; two, that it is actually a story and not just an event (for example, like just saying, “this person was abducted on this day, and that’s all they can remember”); and [third], that the unexplained mystery has never been sufficiently debunked. There are so many stories of this ilk flying around on the internet (where I spend a lot of time generally and researching for the show), but, surprisingly very few that are still genuinely still mystifying.Occasionally I’ll come across a story that sounds amazing (like the Fox sisters, for example,who claimed to have been psychically communicating with spirits), and you think “wow that is such a rich story, it has everything: fascinating historical context, atmospheric location, they’re sisters, etc,” but then before long, you find actually they confessed to making it up; so for me, that’s the end of the story in terms of including it in the show. I’ll still include it, but not in the context that it is one of the unexplained mysteries[.] Out of the Trees and on into Dark: The story of the UFO sighting at an RAF base in Suffolk, England. I had some vague knowledge of this, but because UFOs aren't my main thing, I didn't really know that much about it and nor did I think I would be that interested. I was totally wrong. The detail in this account is phenomenal, and the atmosphere is beyond eerie. The fact that there seems to be no rational explanation for the sightings (that lasted several days) and the fact that most of the witnesses were reasonable military men who are unlikely to mistake aircraft for UFOs... it really is a strange case. All That We See: The Ariel School mystery, where a large group of schoolchildren witnessed the landing of a UFO and the alien beings piloting it. I had never heard of this incident before, and it was fascinating and incredibly unnerving. It's one of those accounts where I really cannot think of a rational explanation for what those children saw -- especially as their accounts have remained consistent throughout, and some of the children still show genuine trauma from the incident even as grown adults. Very unnerving.Every Story is a Ghost Story: An account of the poltergeist haunting of Hannath Hall, which was a case I had no idea about! This is a rare thing for me now, so I read it with much fascination. It's a good, creepy, solid poltergeist story, and a good choice for the final chapter. There's a lot of discussion on the nature of hauntings, what it means to be haunted, the different expectations and experiences of such things, how everything could be said to be haunted... nice and eerie. TVOM: It’s clear from the beginning that a ton of research goes into the topics that you discuss in the podcast. How do you go about choosing a topic, and what’s that research process like?