Before the human race harnessed the power of fire, there was only darkness, an inky black foreboding abyss that concealed danger, mystery, and fear.

Into that darkness brave men would not venture, for as the map says, here there be monsters There'd be monsters I'm sorry The The Good evening and welcome to the Here There Be Monsters podcast. I'm your captain, Derek Hayes.

Tonight, I'm going to play a few calls regarding mysterious people or strangers, if you will.

But before we do this, let's do a little house cleaning.

I need to hear from you.

I know some of you out there have experienced something creepy.

Witness something odd in the woods or strange in the sky.

I know you have a story to tell, so why not tell it here?

Give my monster hotline a call at 888-608 night.

That's 888-608-6444.

It's very easy to call in.

The call is toll-free, it will only take a few minutes, and you don't have to talk to anyone. Simply leave your story when prompted and you're done. So please consider sharing your story with us. Now, on with the show.

The human race is programmed to recognize familiarity. The brain searches its surroundings for patterns, a mother's face, a familiar scent, or a loved one's voice.

As comforting as these experiences can be, there's a dark side of recognition.

Have you ever made eye contact with a person only to get shivers down your spine?

Or felt a chill when a stranger

walks by? Worse yet, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you can only catch a glimpse

of someone or something that you swear shouldn't even be there? Strangers are part of our everyday life.

They prepare our food, drive our buses, police our streets, and even deliver packages to

our front door. We are dependent upon these mysterious people to march civilization forward.

But how do we know these people can be trusted? How do we know that these are even people at all?

Tonight, we explore three stories that raise that very question. If these strangers are people,

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