The story of the life of Jesus Christ is one of the most quintessential in all of humanity, and is celebrated across many cultures. And yet, many argue that parts of his life are still shrouded in mystery. His complicated relationship with the enigmatic Mary Magdalene, for instance, is one such mystery. Some scholars argue that Mary Magdalene was more than just a follower of Jesus, but a spiritually realized partner who would continue to teach after his death and resurrection. What are the...

In January of 2002 the Spotlight investigative team for the Boston Globe dropped a bombshell when they revealed a story about sexual abuse within the local archdiocese of the Catholic Church. Boston, a heavily Catholic city, was left reeling as it learned of a total of 87 priests who had been accused of child sexual assault but were never brought to justice. Instead, the church leadership at the time opted to treat the offenders within the church or to simply move them to a different parish....

After his death, Vincent van Gogh’s work became some of the most instantly recognizable paintings ever laid to canvas. While he was alive he was relatively unknown, broke, in poor health, and suffering from what was most likely a severe mental illness. Van Gogh would help create the story of the “tortured artist,” or one whose mental illness blessed his art but destroyed his life. This concept has become so common place in western culture that many have referred to it as a cliché, with...

1980 would change the lives of Robert Shafran, Edward Galland, and David Kellman forever. Each had been living separate lives as young men growing up in New York during the 1970s. When a case of mistaken identity led Shafran to Galland, a beautiful story started to emerge of long-lost twins, each adopted to different parents in their infancy. As news of the remarkable story spread, the mother of David Kellman also noticed. Could it be that the story of long-lost twins was actually one of...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode describes extreme acts of sexual violence and murder. Listener discretion is advised. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka met on a balmy summer night in Toronto, Canada, in 1987. They had an instant attraction, as each seemed to indulge the dark psychological longings of the other. Paul, who had already begun building a career as a prolific serial rapist, seemed to find his perfect mate: a dependent, sexually extreme and emotionally unaffected woman who catered and...

From a humble beginning in Littlefield, Texas, to Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Dr. Richard Nisbett has lived an extraordinary life as a widely influential social psychologist, the key points of which he explores in his new book, Thinking: A Memoir. In this interview, Dr. Nisbett talks about his contributions to psychological research including common thinking errors people make as it pertains to thinking rationally, and teaching people how to correct them; how...

According to legend, President Abraham Lincoln once had a dream that foreshadowed his death at the hands of an assassin. In the dream, he even saw the exact location his body would be laid to rest. Legend also had it that Lincoln was a known follower of the spiritualist movement, and that there were many instances where he seemed to predict the future. Is time a linear construct or something more fluid? Why do we sometimes feel as if we can foretell events that have yet to pass? How does the...

On June 20, 2001, a woman named Andrea Yates called her local police dispatch and requested the presence of officers to her home, refusing to give any specific reason for the request. When officers arrived, they found that Andrea had killed all five of her young children by drowning them in the family bathtub. In the spectacular trial that followed, America became fixated on Andrea’s religious motivations, her comprehension of the wrongfulness of her actions, and the issue of postpartum...

In the 1970s, the CIA, motivated by intelligence about Soviet espionage experiments, developed a program to create so-called “psychic spies.” Using first-person accounts of astral projection popularized by the New Age movement of the 1960s, the military began experimenting with protocols meant to create conditions in the brain that would, theoretically, allow a person’s consciousness to leave the physical body. It was hoped that this “remote viewing” practice would allow spies to then obtain...

Molly Maeve Eagan met Lizzy Hershberger when Lizzy was working on a book about her experiences growing up as a daughter in a devout Amish family. Molly, working as a memoir coach and ghost writer, eagerly agreed to help. Something interesting happened as Lizzy and Molly talked more about the project, however, and a larger and darker narrative started to emerge. Eventually, Molly convinced Lizzy to tell a much more personal and powerful story; one of abuse, trauma, escape, and vindication....

On February 1, 2012, barista Samantha Koenig was abducted from her job in a small coffee kiosk in Anchorage, Alaska. Samantha’s disappearance kicked off a frantic manhunt for her kidnapper who used her debit card to withdraw money across the southwest. When a keen-eyed Texas State Trooper pulled over a suspicious white Ford Focus, it was then that law enforcement got their first look at Israel Keyes. With items belonging to Samantha in his car, Alaskan police and the FBI would soon learn the...

Approximately 3,500 babies die unexpectedly each year. This often kicks off a spiral of grief that parents will carry with them for the rest of their lives. In this special bonus episode, Drs. Micono and Morelos interview Jen Iacino-Taylor, founder of Little Man’s Legacy Foundation, about her experience losing her three-month old son and how it inspired her work to raise awareness and help grieving parents. Join us as we talk about a topic that’s near and dear to our hearts and hear about how...

Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a horror film creator? Mix yourself a libation, get cozy, and find out how some of our dark psychological corners can inspire some amazing art. On this dark and stormy night, Drs. Micono and Morelos have an intimate conversation with indie film director Jess Costa.

In July of 1984, a man broke into the apartment of Jennifer Thompson in Burlington, North Carolina, and raped her at knifepoint. During the attack, the perpetrator uttered a threat that became forever imprinted in the mind of Thompson. This threat would eventually lead to the arrest and conviction of one Ronald Cotton who was picked out from a line-up, in part, by the sound of his voice. Ronald Cotton would go on to serve 11 years for the crime until a chance meeting with another prisoner...

In 1972 Dr. George Owen, a university lecturer, geneticist, mathematician and member of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research, recruited eight other members of the TSPR for an experiment. The experiment, designed to determine if ghosts were real or mental projections of the living, tasked the participants with creating a character with a vaguely historical persona, but not based on any single known person from the past. The eight participants would then attempt to summon one fictional...

On October 29, 1901, police inspectors arrested Jane Toppan on suspicion of the murder of four members of the prominent Davis family to whom Toppan was employed as a private nurse. Generally well-regarded by her peers, “Jolly” Jane, so-called for her sunny disposition, was born Honora Kelly, the daughter of Irish immigrants. With a mother who passed away from tuberculosis when Jane was only one year old, and a father who was committed to an asylum for the insane soon after, Jane used her...

On the morning of April 27th, 2017, flights carrying roughly 500 people from Miami began landing on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas for what was promised to be the most luxurious and exclusive musical festival ever produced. The event, named Fyre Festival by entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper/celebrity Ja Rule, was a marketing promotion for the Fyre App, an application created to hire talent for social events. While initially an exciting idea promoted by numerous supermodels and...

In October of 2013, a crypto-anarchist named Ross Ulbricht was arrested and charged with being the primary administrator of a website called The Silk Road, a place hidden in the so-called dark web where illegal drugs could be bought and sold with complete anonymity. While the United States government was aware of the illegal sale of these controlled substances on the dark web, it took them a full two years to identify the website’s primary administrator due to the use of Tor software and...

In 1983 a mother named Judy Johnson accused teachers at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, of physically and sexually abusing her young son. A number of other employees, many of whom were related to the owner and founder of the school, were also named as perpetrators. As police began an investigation into the matter, Judy Johnson’s stories became more and more extreme, involving numerous other children, and suggesting what would later become known as “Satanic Ritual Abuse.” Problems...

In April of 2000, 10 year old Candace Newmaker was treated with a controversial therapy meant to help her deal with her mental health diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder. Referred to a well-regarded clinic in Evergreen, Colorado, Candace and her adoptive mother would undergo a technique known as “rebirthing,” whereby Candace was wrapped in pillows and blankets and forced to fight her way out while the therapists resisted her efforts. It was hoped Candace would be reborn, figuratively,...

Has anyone ever told you, “You are your own worst enemy?” Even the smartest people can make incredibly bad decisions, often sabotaging their own goals and even bringing harm to others. Drs. Rob Barrett and Louis Francescutti have taken this basic idea and applied their respective expertise to look at why we often make decisions that are bad for our overall health, despite having volumes of information at our finger tips. In this interview you will discover how the most primitive part of our...

In November of 2012 Chris Watts married Shanann Rzucek, two years after a chance meeting on Facebook. For the next six years, it seemed that Shanann and Chris had everything they dreamed of, including a large house in Colorado, blossoming careers, and two lovely daughters. In June of 2018, Shanann surprised Chris with news that they would be having a third child. In August of the same year, Chris would brutally murder the pregnant Shanann and his young daughters, Celeste and Bella, after...

On November 13, 1974, Ronald Defeo Jr. burst into a local bar pleading for help. When bar patrons arrived at his house they found six of his relatives dead, each shot at point-blank range. The grisly murders then led to a theatrical trial where Defeo claimed he was mentally insane due to numerous voices in his head that commanded him to kill his family. After Defeo’s conviction for the murders, the Lutz family, believing that they were getting a bargain, quickly bought the house the Defeo’s...

In the anti-communist furor of the 1950s, the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency or CIA began a clandestine program dedicated to the interrogation of foreign agents. It was believed that if techniques could be perfected to control someone’s mind, spies could be caught and turned, thereby giving up useful intelligence information in what would soon become known as “The Cold War.” In the pursuit of this objective, countless experiments were conducted, many without the participant’s...