Hobsession

The late North Korean despot Kim Jong Il was a massive cinema buff. When he took control of the local film industry, he planned to produce propaganda that had all the glitz and action of Hollywood. Jealous of the attention South Korea was getting for their film industry, Kim came up with a cunning plan that involved kidnap, imprisonment and attempted brainwashing. This story is utt

Was the Mona Lisa always seen as an iconic masterpiece? Who decides which images become iconic and why do they become part of the collective consciousness? In this episode we take a look at the Mona Lisa and try to separate the art from the hype. On the way we get caught up in the most chilled-out art heist ever and meet the man who accidentally made the Mona Lisa the most famous p

If anyone remembers Mary Toft at all, it’s as the woman who hoaxed some of the most powerful men of 18th century England into believing she could give birth to rabbits. This is not a cute story about a genius prankster, however. This is a sinister tale of familial abuse, brutal medical malpractice and a powerless, poverty-stricken young mother. Mary Toft might be a funny piece of

St James and LaDonna Davis of West Covina, California, had what they considered to be the perfect family. Unable to have children, the couple doted on their pet chimpanzee, Moe. To the Davises, Moe was their son and the light of their lives. However, when natural boundaries are crossed, disasters occur. Both a true horror story and a true love story, the tale of the Davis family wi

Is it possible to live without food or water? A group of New Age extremists called the Breatharians claim that the human body can survive for years on nothing but air and sunlight. Heidi and Becki shed some (tasty) light on these claims and explore whether or not the Breatharians are full of hot air. There’s also an Australian cult leader, 60 Minutes and 90’s nostalgia for good

Helen, Betty and Dot Wiggin had no interest in being pop stars. Their dad, however, shaped his life around his mother’s psychic predictions, and she had said that the girls would grow up to be rich and famous musicians. So he pulled them out of school and insisted that they form a band - The Shaggs. Isolated from the world outside their family and forced to compose on instruments

Bridget Cleary wasn’t like the other girls in her rural town in Tipperary, Ireland. It was the late 19th century, and Bridget was in many ways a modern woman - ambitious, independent and secure in her own identity. When she fell ill, her husband Michael declared that his wife had been stolen by the fairies and a changeling imposter had been left in her place. The superstitions, r

It was 1857 and the last thing Charles Dickens and his family (who were in a state of upheaval) needed was a houseguest. They especially didn’t need a neurotic, self-absorbed and tactless houseguest like the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, who decided to stay for an excruciating five weeks. Andersen was suffocatingly obsessive about the people in his life, a trait that he�

It was the late 90’s in the small Northern Territory town of Humpty Doo, a place of sweltering heat, humid storms, crocodiles and hardworking people. The house at 90 McMinns Road and it’s inhabitants were dealing with something unexpected and terrifying - an energy so destructive that it could be nothing other than a poltergeist. Flying knives and cascading rocks, however, were

Lizzie Siddal was a young working class woman in Victorian London who longed for more. Desperate to be accepted as a poet and a painter, Lizzie found her way into the art scene by becoming the main muse of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. She may be most recognisable face of the art movement, but her own talents were submerged (much like Ophelia) by the demands of the famous men aro