A podcast about the paranormal, the credibility of the creepy, and the science of the spooky: Superduperstitious is a comedy podcast that looks at the mysterious and scary world of the weird and says, "Wait. What?" Hosts Wyatt Shell and Jake Withee use their science backgrounds to tease apart possible explanations for unexplained, supernatural, and otherwise strange phenomena.
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Episode 185 – The 10th Annual Superduperstitous Halloween Spookstravaganza
Wyatt and Jake explore compelling Bigfoot cases and a spooky phone call, offering listeners chilling Halloween tales.
8 Jan 2026
Episode 184 – I Know That You Twisted Again Like We Did Last Summer
Winter AND a new year? That can only mean one thing: it’s time for some creepy frozen lakes! Fulla dead people, these lakes.
First up is a viral ghost story about Minnesota’s Lake Weller, and the ghostly radio signals that seem to be coming from its depths every winter. Ope! Jake and Wyatt then fumble the best chance anyone will ever get at a “76 Trombones” joke as they head to the Indian Himalayas to Roopkund! Also known as Skeleton Lake, you’ll NEVER GUESS what’s inside. And you’ll certainly never guess what happened there…
EPISODE LINKS
All-purpose show links (https://superduperstitious.com/links)
Wyatt’s native plant biznass (https://www.myhomepark.com/)
The show Jake writes (https://www.youtube.com/@BizarreBeasts)
Lake Weller
Nature article about lakes vs. ponds (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14569-0)
Ice-penetrating radio waves (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsta/article-abstract/377/2146/20180161/40934/Optical-properties-of-ice-and-snowOptical?redirectedFrom=fulltext)
Minnesota’s lake definition (https://seagrant.umn.edu/news-info/directors-column/minnesota-land-how-many-lakes)
Database of every MN lake (https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/water-dnr-hydrography)
Roopkund
Atlas Obscura article (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/skeleton-lake-of-roopkund-india)
New York Times article (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/science/skeleton-lake-archaeology-roopkund.html)
NYT article without the paywall (https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597895425/WHIC?u=hennepin&sid=bookmark-WHIC&xid=28a63996)
Haunted India blog post (for photos of Roopkund) (https://hauntedindia.blogspot.com/2014/05/riddles-of-dead-skeleton-lake-roopkund.html)
BBC article (which includes even more photos) (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56116533)
History Channel clip with William Shatner (https://youtu.be/eH7jMNJJS8w?si=LRTnAgx__j82o_Xl)
Riddles of the Dead episode from National Geographic (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlticq)
Nature Communications article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11357-9)
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4 Dec 2025
Episode 183 – Weird Circles, or “We Are Not Using the Title Wyatt Suggested Under Any Circumstances”
You ever see a perfect circle in nature and think, “Whoaaaa”? If so, this episode is for you! And if not, we’ll let you have this episode on a probationary basis!
Talkin’ ’bout fairy circles – large, evenly spaced and perfectly round bare patches found in the grasses of the Namib Desert – and fairy rings, the eerie patterns of dead grass, extra luscious grass, or mushrooms, all three of which are almost certainly not caused by elf ejaculate. Almost.
Brought to you by Japan: it’s less than half as far away as maps think!
EPISODE LINKS
Gaza GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/14f8d3d01)
All-purpose show links (https://superduperstitious.com/links)
Fairy Circles
Aerial view (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Aerial_view_of_Fairy_circles%2C_Namibia_%282017%29.jpg)
Closer view 1 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Fairy_circles_namibia.jpg)
Closer view 2 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Feenkreise_Namibia.jpg)
Right next to one (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Feenkreis_Marienflusstal_Namibia.jpg)
Live Science article (https://www.livescience.com/21228-mysterious-african-fairy-circles-mystery.html)
Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics review article (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S143383192500006X?via%3Dihub)
Australian fairy circles (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4822591/)
Photos of Aussie fairy circles (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/lw/2.0/html/tileshop_pmc/tileshop_pmc_inline.html?title=Click%20on%20image%20to%20zoom&p=PMC3&id=4822591_pnas.1522130113fig01.jpg)
Fairy Rings
Fairy ring examples 1 and 2 (https://artsci.usu.edu/herbarium/activities_fun-stuff/fun-facts-about-fungi/fairy-rings)
Example 3 (forest fairy ring) (https://cdn.britannica.com/69/11969-050-AC586CFE/colony-Amanita-alba-mushroom-species-fairy-ring.jpg)
Example 4 (spookier forest fairy ring) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Hexenring_Nebelgrauer_Trichterling.JPG)
UWM Extension article (https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/fairy-rings/)
Toads and Toadstools, by Adrian Morgan (https://archive.org/details/toadstoadstoolsn00morg)
IMA Fungus article (https://imafungus.pensoft.net/article/138320/)
Danish Undersea Rings
The solution (and the photo) (https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/578709)
Up-close photo (https://hakaimagazine.com/news/decoding-the-mystery-of-seagrass-fairy-circles/)
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Inside a recent episode
Episode 185 – The 10th Annual Superduperstitous Halloween Spookstravaganza
Published 31 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] I have told this story many times since then, and it has often raised an incredulous smile. But I have met one person who has seen the mysterious creatures and a dozen who have come across their tracks at various places between here and Pacheco Pass. So we got some kind of apes playing with sticks on fire. […]
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