Cemeteries, Stilts And Pigeon Poop

The Box of Oddities

John Elliott and Kat Walls

True Crime, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are cemeteries really the end of the story… or just the beginning? In this unsettling episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro wander into places where the boundary between the living and the dead feels dangerously thin. From Kansas’ infamous Stull Cemetery—rumored to conceal a sealed staircase to somewhere no one should go—to Massachusetts’ eerie Spider Gate, where paths seem to pull you inward, this episode explores real locations tied to chilling legends of portals, watchers, and something waiting just beyond the veil. Along the way, you’ll hear accounts of ghostly figures, missing time, red eyes in the dark, and the unsettling idea that some gates don’t just keep things out… they may be holding something in. Is it folklore? Psychology? Or something far stranger? Then, things take a sharp turn into the bizarre history of hair restoration—from cow licks and pigeon poop to ancient Egyptian remedies that will make you question everything you thought you knew about baldness. Plus, Kat shares a fascinating (and slightly terrifying) look at Caribbean Moko Jumbies—towering stilt walkers rooted in West African spiritual traditions, believed to protect communities from unseen forces… whether your nervous system agrees or not. Dark, strange, funny, and just a little unsettling—this episode reminds us that some places aren’t just remembered… they remember back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Grownups, if there's a child in your life who is interested in, curious about, or fascinated by people in places from history,
0:07.5	then my podcast, The Past and the Curious, might just be a hit in your home.
0:12.4	From the invention of microscopes to world-traveling dogs, to fashions of the 1890s, gold rush ghost towns,
0:18.8	and audiences going wild for walking competitions, we've got a little bit of it all.
0:24.9	Hosted by Children's Author and Museum educator Mick Sullivan, that's me, the show is fun, funny, engaging, honest, and beloved by kids and parents alike.
0:34.8	Find the past and the curious at all the usual podcast places.
0:41.4	The Box of Oddities. I've picked up dog sitting gigs in an effort to raise money for
0:47.5	Straying North, and it's going really well. I love it, but these dogs have no respect for me.
0:56.2	They do not respect my sleep schedule.
1:03.1	You actually stayed at the house. You're kind of house sitting as well. And you were, you messaged me on your way home. You were really concerned about some of your behavior. Yeah. Well, okay. So I realized on my ride home that I had failed to tidy up some of the things that I had must when I was staying there.
1:20.4	And it's one of those things like, I always make sure that I, you know, I do the laundry and I make sure that I clean all my dishes, that kind of thing.
1:27.9	But so these dogs will occasionally have an accident in a house.
1:34.4	And it's not my favorite thing in the world.
1:37.4	So I wrote notes for them.
1:40.5	You know, I made like little tent notes.
1:42.7	And I was like, this isn't where we pee, you know,
1:45.9	and I put it next to the coffee table and I was like, hey guys, this is not a whiz station,
1:51.1	this is a kitchen table. And I put it next to the table. And I realized on my way home that I
1:55.8	forgot to pick them up. So Linda's going to come home to notes that I wrote to the dogs about not whizzing on
2:05.1	that table.
2:06.4	Maybe she'll just assume you threw a kegger.
2:08.9	The notes weren't to the dogs, but to the revelers.
	...

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