STORIES AND PODCASTS TO MAKE YOU GO EEK! |
The best way to get over a fear of spiders and other creepy-crawlies? Put them on your face, say entomologists — yes, really.
The total number of people killed by witches, werewolves, goblins, ghosts and vampires is ... zero. The most frightening creature on Earth is barely visible: the lowly, annoying mosquito. Also, take NPR’s global disease costume quiz.
Pinyo Pukpinyo picks up a 4-foot cobra and brings it within a foot of his face — because that’s his job and he loves it. When pythons, cobras and pit vipers show up, Pukpinyo, a sergeant in Bangkok's fire department, is the expert who catches them. He has been bitten 20 times.
Ghost fleet: One of the largest collections of shipwrecks in the world lies just 30 miles from Washington, D.C. Now, these WWI-era vessels are attracting tourists and federal investment.
Every Halloween, someone metaphorically steps in it with an insensitive or straight-up racist costume — the "Arab Sheikh" outfit with a sinister mustache or the "Mexican" costume with a wide sombrero. Unsure if your decorations have racial overtones or what costumes are fair game? Check out Code Switch’s Guide to Halloween. |
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| Crows: Are they scary or just scary-smart? |
Dragan Todorovic/Getty Images |
| Crows have gotten a bad rap throughout history. Think about it. A group of them is called a "murder" of crows. But there is more to them than lore suggests. To learn more about these amazingly clever birds — like why they hold funerals and how they can memorize human faces — NPR’s Shortwave talked to crow expert Kaeli Swift. (Listening time, 9:00) |
Tracing the origins of the zombie. |
| Zombies have become a global phenomenon. They appear in countless books, TV shows and films. Some people dress up like zombies and roam the streets … and not just on Halloween. Other “preppers” plan for a zombie apocalypse. In this episode of Throughline, we trace the origin of the zombie to Haiti and discover that this iconic horror figure is rooted in slavery. (Listening time, 43:46) |
Animal zombies — they're real. |
| The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in the animal kingdom. Ed Yong of The Atlantic creeps us out with a couple of examples. (Listening time, 9:41) |
5 Tiny Desk guests who took their costume seriously. |
| When it comes to bands performing at the Tiny Desk, there's dressing up, and then there's dressing up. Just in time for Halloween, we've pulled together a handy playlist starring artists whose stage wear crosses over from "outfits" to "costumes." |
Scary Movies And Goosebumps |
Eight reasons horror movies are scary good business. |
Seven of the 10 most profitable films of all time are horror movies. Planet Money looks at the main reasons why: Horror movies are cheap to make and they're popular.
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In life, presidents are limited to two terms, but the Constitution says nothing about occupying the White House in the afterlife. In this Halloween edition of Ron's Office Hours, NPR senior political editor and correspondent Ron Elving tells some famous White House ghost stories.
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Goose bumps actually serve a purpose. |
| Watch a scary movie and your skin crawls. Goose bumps have become so associated with fear that the word is synonymous with thrills and chills. But what on earth does scary have to do with chicken-skin bumps? For a long time, it wasn't well understood. |
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