Explore every episode of the podcast Disturbing History

Long before the skyscrapers and shipping lanes, the Delaware River carried something else—a ghost story whispered across centuries.For generations, sailors, fishermen, and riverfront families have spoken of a phantom vessel drifting silently through the mists—its sails tattered, its deck empty, and its arrival a grim omen. Wherever it was seen, sickness followed. Death lingered. And no one who tried to reach it ever returned with answers.


In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian sails into the chilling legend of the Death Ship of the Delaware, a story that straddles folklore, maritime mystery, and historical plague. Was it a cursed colonial vessel? A mass grave adrift? Or simply a story built by fear and fog?

What we do know: the sightings were real.

The consequences were deadly. And the river still runs deep with secrets.

Because not every ship sails toward the future.

Some drift endlessly in the wake of the dead.

A man in a suit.
A briefcase bomb.
A ransom demand for $200,000.
And then—he vanished into the storm.

On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. Calm, composed, and oddly polite, he would soon become the center of the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history.

In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian walks through every twist and contradiction in the D.B. Cooper mystery—from the dramatic mid-air jump into darkness, to the strange discoveries in the wilderness, to the endless stream of suspects and theories that still haunt investigators to this day.

 Was Cooper a rogue intelligence agent?

A Vietnam veteran with nothing to lose?

Or did he disappear with the money and live the rest of his life in quiet victory? One man walked onto a plane.
No one ever saw him again.
But the myth he left behind has never stopped flying.Some legends fade with time.
Others jump into the unknown—and never land.

They appeared without warning in the quiet hills of Elbert County, Georgia—towering granite slabs carved with ten cryptic commandments for a “new age of reason.” Written in eight languages and aligned to the stars, the Georgia Guidestones have baffled, enraged, and haunted the curious for decades.Who was the mysterious man known only as “R.C. Christian”?
Why did he demand secrecy?

And what exactly were these rules meant to prepare us for? In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian  unearths the strange origins, esoteric design, and swirling conspiracies behind one of America’s most unsettling modern monuments. From whispers of global depopulation to celestial alignments and coded warnings, the Guidestones were never just stone—they were a statement.

And maybe… a prophecy.

Some monuments mark the past.
Others are warnings carved for the future.
And that’s what makes history worth disturbing.

Beneath the chaos of Manhattan’s streets lies another city—silent, forgotten, and carved in brick and stone. A labyrinth of hidden tunnels snakes beneath old New York, built for subways, smugglers, secret societies, and stories no one was supposed to find.

In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian takes us deep under the surface to explore the eerie and often overlooked world beneath the Big Apple. From Prohibition-era escape routes and underground speakeasies to sealed-off subway stations and Masonic passageways, these tunnels have carried more than just trains—they’ve carried whispers, rumors, and secrets.Who built them?
Why were so many erased from maps?

And what still lingers down there, untouched by time and light? Some cities grow upward.

Others grow outward.

But New York?

It’s always been growing downward—into mystery. Because sometimes, what we pave over…
was never meant to be uncovered.

In 1826, a man named William Morgan vanished from upstate New York. Days earlier, he had announced plans to publish a book revealing the secret rituals of the Freemasons—a move that would ignite national outrage, spark riots, and give birth to America’s first third political party: the Anti-Masonic Party.

But Morgan never lived to see the book hit the shelves.In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian explores the chilling disappearance of William Morgan and the shadowy world of early 19th-century Freemasonry, where power, loyalty, and secrecy were everything.

Was Morgan silenced for betraying the brotherhood? Or was his fate twisted into legend by a frightened public hungry for a villain?What began as a local scandal turned into a nationwide reckoning—a paranoid, polarized moment in American history when secret societies were feared as much as foreign armies. One man spoke out.

Then he was gone.
And all that remained was a movement. When secrets are sacred…
Telling the truth can be a death sentence.

Decades before the infamous hysteria gripped Salem, Massachusetts, another colony was already burning witches. In the quiet Puritan towns of Connecticut, from 1647 to 1663, women—and even men—were accused, imprisoned, and executed for crimes that existed only in the minds of their accusers. 

No spectral evidence. No headlines. Just a dark chapter buried beneath centuries of silence.In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian unearths the overlooked and unsettling story of America’s first witch trials, where fear took root not in folklore, but in law. With community paranoia, religious extremism, and the collapse of rational justice, Connecticut laid the groundwork for the madness that would come years later in Salem. Who were the accused?
What sparked this early wave of executions?

And why has history tried so hard to forget them?

Sometimes the darkest chapters aren’t the ones we remember…
They’re the ones we never learned to begin with.Justice forgets.
History buries.
But the fire always leaves a trace.

Every July, in the deep redwood forests of Northern California, some of the most powerful men in the world gather in secret. Politicians, CEOs, generals, media moguls—all drawn to a place shrouded in myth and ritual: Bohemian Grove. But what happens beyond the gates?

What’s the meaning behind the robed ceremonies, the 40-foot stone owl, and the burning effigies beneath the trees?In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian peels back the layers of one of America’s most elite and mysterious gatherings—and follows a surprising thread straight to Richard Nixon, who once called the Grove “the most faggy goddamn thing you could ever imagine,” but attended anyway. Was it just a boys' club with campfires and togas?

Or a place where ancient rites, political power, and occult symbolism collided? From leaked footage to whispered agendas, the Bohemian Grove has long existed in the space between conspiracy and fact—and as you’ll hear, it may be one of the few places where both are true.

ome rituals are harmless.
Some are sacred.
And some… are protected by power.

She was First Lady of the United States during its most fractured hour—graceful in public, defiant in politics, and privately… unraveling. But behind the veils, the funerals, and the shadow of a war-torn White House, Mary Todd Lincoln was spiraling into something far stranger than grief. 

She wasn’t just mourning her children. She was chasing them—into the afterlife.In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian steps into the quiet madness that gripped Mary Todd Lincoln following a lifetime of unimaginable loss. From secret séances in the Red Room to whispered messages from beyond the veil, her world became one ruled by mediums, mysticism, and a desperate hope that death wasn’t the end.Was it spiritual healing… or something darker?


A woman ahead of her time—or lost to it?This is the story of a First Lady who didn’t just endure grief—she invited it in, gave it a seat at the table, and refused to let it leave.

Some ghosts haunt places.
Others haunt people.
And sometimes, we invite them in… with open arms.

Christmas Eve, 1945. The Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia goes up in flames. Within minutes, the house is reduced to smoldering rubble—and five of the Sodder children are never seen again.But what begins as a tragic fire quickly spirals into something far stranger.No remains.
No smoke inhalation.
No bodies in the ashes.
Just... questions.

In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian revisits one of the most haunting disappearances in American history. This isn’t just a missing persons case—it’s a tale of war, conspiracy, obsession, and a family that refused to stop asking the questions no one else would.What really happened to the Sodder children?

Why did the phone lines go dead just before the fire?
And why were strangers suddenly so interested in this quiet, immigrant family?

From suspicious sightings to billboard pleas and decades of unanswered grief, this is a story that scorches the edge of logic and burns its way into the shadows of the past.

Sometimes the past leaves ashes.
Sometimes, it leaves silence.
And sometimes, it leaves a hole so deep… it disturbs history forever.

Everyone remembers Jamestown.
But what if America’s first English colony wasn’t in Virginia… but in the cold, remote woods of Maine?

In 1607, the Popham Colony was founded with bold ambitions: to rival Spain, to build ships, to establish a permanent English foothold in the New World. It had backing, blueprints, and a fort. Then, just like that—it vanished.

n this episode of Disturbing History, Brian digs into the icy winds and political shadows surrounding the lost colony of Popham—a story buried under centuries of silence. Why did it fail? Why was it forgotten? And what traces still linger in the piney wilderness of Maine?This isn’t just a missing settlement—it’s a mystery of memory, power, and the fragile line between history and erasure.


Some colonies leave behind legends.
Others leave behind questions.
And some were never meant to be remembered at all.

A secret U.S. Navy project. A warship shrouded in green mist.
And then… nothing.

Witnesses claimed the USS Eldridge vanished from a naval yard in Philadelphia—only to reappear miles away. Some say it teleported. Others say it traveled through time. But those who were on board? Some never came back the same. Some never came back at all.

In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian dives deep into one of America’s most enduring military legends: The Philadelphia Experiment. Was it a cloaking device gone wrong? A breakthrough in quantum physics? Or something darker—an experiment that cracked reality open and left its crew behind?

The fog may have lifted…
But the questions haven’t.

When the truth bends time and space,
It’s not just science fiction—
It’s history we were never meant to remember.

You know him as the 35th President of the United States—a war hero, a charismatic leader, a symbol of youthful hope during a turbulent time. But what if there was another side to John F. Kennedy?
A quieter side. A seeker.

A man who, beneath the tailored suits and carefully crafted speeches, was chasing something far older than politics: truth hidden in the margins of history.In this episode of Disturbing History, host Brian takes you down a rarely explored path—into the mystic mind of JFK. This isn’t about war rooms or campaign trails. This is about what was on his nightstand: ancient texts, esoteric writings, and the prophecies of seers like Edgar Cayce. We’ll explore how Kennedy’s deep curiosity led him to investigate psychic phenomena, secret teachings, and spiritual philosophies. And how that hunger for deeper understanding—perhaps even destiny—shaped the way he viewed the world, power, and the human experience. Because sometimes, the most powerful truths aren’t whispered in halls of government…

but found in the spaces where science, spirit, and secrecy collide.

✨ In This Episode, We Explore:

• JFK’s fascination with mysticism, prophecy, and spiritual knowledge
• The writings and influence of Edgar Cayce and Manly P. Hall
• His rumored interest in Atlantis, ancient civilizations, and lost knowledge
• The spiritual undercurrent running beneath a very public life
• Why Kennedy may have been more philosopher than politician—and why few ever talk about it

🙌 Support the Show: If this episode stirred your curiosity or uncovered a side of JFK you never knew existed, help us grow by:

• Leaving a rating and review
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Because sometimes, we disturb history...
and sometimes, it whispers back.