Forbidden Island
True Weird Stuff
Now! Media
4.9 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's True Weird Stuff - Forbidden Island
In the early 1900s, a woman known as Typhoid Mary was identified as patient zero for a series of typhoid outbreaks in New York. As a result, she was forced into quarantine on North Brother Island and lived the rest of her life in exile. Not only was the island a quarantine zone, it was the location of the General Slocum steamboat disaster, the deadliest event to happen in New York before 9/11. Today, North Brother Island has been abandoned for over 60 years, and travel to the island is strictly forbidden.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, true weirdos. We just wanted to take a minute and thank you so much for your support. |
| 0:04.6 | True Weird Stuff has won the best history podcast in the Women in Podcasting Awards, |
| 0:09.8 | and we've also won a Signal Award in the paranormal category. |
| 0:13.7 | And that's only happened because of you, our fellow strange people. Thanks. |
| 0:19.2 | Stick around if you want after the episode for a little bonus content and conversation. |
| 0:25.2 | No people call it home. It's difficult to visit, illegal even. You'll need a permit and good |
| 0:33.6 | luck getting one. There are buildings still, but they're falling down, dilapidated, and dangerous to enter. |
| 0:41.8 | Dense stands of trees grow up and around and through, but was once a hospital. |
| 0:47.9 | There's a theater still standing, but its seats are rotting and disintegrating. |
| 0:53.1 | Broken glass, rusted metal, chunks of brick and cement are strewn everywhere. |
| 0:59.6 | There are roads, but they're overgrown with thick mats of weeds and vines and poison ivy. |
| 1:06.9 | So watch your step. |
| 1:08.6 | Most of those manholes were left uncovered, |
| 1:14.5 | and now nature has slyly concealed them. |
| 1:16.3 | That'd be a bad fall. |
| 1:19.1 | God only knows how far down to the bottom. |
| 1:23.7 | This desolate outpost, this lost world, |
| 1:26.9 | feels like the set of a movie or a TV show, an end of the world thriller, or a season |
| 1:30.8 | of the Walking Dead. How could a place this shrouded and mystery, this forbidden, be less than a |
| 1:39.7 | mile from Manhattan? How is it that in a city with some of the world's most valuable real estate, |
| 1:46.8 | these 22 acres are home only to wading birds, |
| 1:51.2 | like herons and goals and egress. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Now! Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Now! Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.