The Morbid History Podcast

Episode 11: Institutional Cruelty

For centuries, mental illness wasn’t treated… it was controlled.
In this episode, we step inside the brutal history of insane asylums and early psychiatric “care,” beginning with Bethlem Royal Hospital, where madness became public spectacle.
From there, we trace the rise of lobotomies in the United States and examine the therapies that promised healing while delivering silence: insulin comas, ice baths, rotational chairs, hysteria diagnoses, and institutional abuse at places like Willowbrook State School.
 
These weren’t cures.
They were compliance—disguised as medicine.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

MM#10 Selling The Supernatural

Ghost stories used to be whispered around campfires.
Now they’re printed on mugs.
 
In this episode, we explore how ghost lore in America went from local legends to full-fledged tourism industry... complete with haunted hotels, cemetery tours, and “spirit weekend packages.” From Victorian mourning rituals to Stephen King’s night at the Stanley Hotel, from Salem to Savannah, we follow the ghostly transformation of fear into profit.
 
Because when it comes to American hauntings, the spirits aren’t the only ones trying to make contact.
 
So check in, if you dare.
And don’t mind the knocking.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Episode 10: Fatal Frames

Hollywood loves a good curse.
But what if the real horror isn’t supernatural at all?
 
In this episode of Morbid History, we step behind the camera to examine the films said to be “cursed”—from The Twilight Zone: The Movie, where a fatal on-set disaster changed Hollywood forever, to The Omen, a production haunted by a trail of eerie coincidences and tragedy.
 
Along the way, we explore the chaos surrounding The Exorcist, the deaths linked to Poltergeist, the fatal negligence that killed Brandon Lee during The Crow, and the obsession-driven productions of Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo.
 
These aren’t stories about haunted sets or angry spirits.
They’re stories about pressure, ambition, and what happens when no one says stop.
 
Because sometimes the most dangerous thing in Hollywood isn’t a curse... it’s the belief that the shot is worth the cost.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

MM#9 How Not To Train A Dolphin

It started with a flooded house and a dolphin named Peter. It ended in LSD, obsession, and death.
 
In the 1960s, a young woman named Margaret Howe Lovatt moved into a house filled with water to teach a dolphin how to speak. Backed by NASA and fueled by fringe science, the experiment soon spiraled into something far more disturbing.
 
LSD got involved, and what followed was a bizarre and tragic chapter in the history of animal research…This tale is a haunting reminder that intelligence doesn’t equal consent.
 
This isn’t just weird science.
It’s the moment science stopped asking if it even should.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Episode 9: Maritime Nightmares

The sea is beautiful... until it isn’t.
 
In this episode, we plunge into the darkest waters of maritime history: the doomed Franklin Expedition, frozen in the Arctic and driven to madness and cannibalism, and the Batavia, where a shipwreck unraveled into a brutal cult of murder and terror on a barren island.
 
Along the way, we examine ghost ships drifting without crews, lighthouse keepers who vanished into thin air, sailors devoured by hunger after a whale attack, and an entire vessel found with its crew dead, faces twisted in fear.
 
These aren’t just shipwrecks.
They’re reminders that the ocean keeps secrets... and it rarely gives anything back.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

MM#8 Ice Cold Negligence

She didn’t die because of the cold.
She died because no one fixed the door.
 
In 2023, 63-year-old Nguyet Le was found dead inside the walk-in freezer of an Arby’s restaurant in Louisiana.
 
In this episode, we examine a horrifying case of corporate neglect, corner-cutting, and quiet cruelty... and how it led to one of the most preventable workplace deaths in recent memory.
 
Horror doesn’t always wear a mask.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Episode 8: The Thinning Veil

Every October, the air grows colder, the nights stretch longer, and the boundary between the living and the dead begins to fade.
 
In this Halloween special, we'll trace the haunting origins of the holiday. From the fires of ancient Samhain and the prayers of All Hallows’ Eve, to poisoned candy panics, witch trials, and the worldwide traditions that still honor the dead today.
 
It’s a story of masks and memory, fear and fire, life and death... and the one night a year when both worlds meet.
 
Because Halloween isn’t about celebrating death.
It’s about remembering it.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

MM#7 Mountain Meadows Massacre

In 1857, over 120 emigrants were slaughtered in the Utah desert under a white flag of peace. The killers? Mormon militia. The blame? Pinned on Native tribes.
 
In this episode, we uncover the dark and deliberate horror of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was an ambush cloaked in religious fear and racial scapegoating.
We explore how a brutal execution of men, women, and children was carefully staged to look like a Native attack… and how the truth was buried for decades under silence, scripture, and lies.
 
It wasn’t just a massacre of people.
It was a massacre of truth.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Episode 7: Bloody Betrayals

Samurai dramas paint feudal Japan in gleaming armor and noble duels.
But the truth was far darker.
 
In this episode, we descend into the Sengoku era, which was a century of civil war, betrayal, and blood. From Oda Nobunaga, the self-styled “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven” who burned monks alive on a mountain, to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the peasant who rose to power only to fall to ambition, to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the patient schemer who built an empire on the ashes of his rivals.
 
Along the way, we'll uncover massacres, betrayals, ninja shadows, and curses that linger to this day.
 
This is the true story of how Japan was unified... through fire, treachery, and rivers of blood.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

MM#6 Last Woman Hanged

In 1955, Ruth Ellis shot her lover in broad daylight. Three months later, she became the last woman in Britain to be executed.
 
But behind the headlines was a woman already broken.
 
In this episode, we uncover the tragic life of Ruth Ellis (a nightclub hostess turned convicted murderer) whose story was shaped as much by violence and betrayal as by the bullet she fired.
From glamour to scandal, from abuse to execution, Ruth wasn’t just a criminal. She was a victim of love, class, and a justice system with no room for mercy.
 
This isn’t just about a murder.
It’s about how a country turned its back…
and a woman paid the ultimate price.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR