Poisoned Appalachia: the Dark Side of Appalachia

Epizode

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  Episode 81: Fairies of Appalachia 14.09.2026 24min

  Fairies in Appalachia?Absolutely—but forget the tiny wings, glitter, and happily-ever-afters.Long before the modern fairy tale, the Fair Folk of European folklore were mysterious, unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous beings that demanded respect. And when Scots-Irish, German, and other European settlers crossed the Atlantic, they brought those old beliefs with them into the Appalachian Mountains.In this episode of Poisoned Appalachia, we trace those stories from the forests and mountains of the Old World into the hollers of Appalachia. We’ll explore the Fae of Scottish and Irish tradition, supernatural beings found in German folklore, and how generations of immigration helped transform these ancient beliefs into something distinctly Appalachian.Because our ancestors didn’t cross the ocean empty-handed.Their stories came with them.And some of those stories found a very comfortable home in the mountains.
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  Episode 80: the Death Fog 07.09.2026 21min

  Sometimes, the darkest stories in Appalachia aren’t legends. They’re history.Five days before Halloween in 1948, a strange yellow fog settled over the Pennsylvania mill town of Donora and nearby Webster. At first, life continued beneath the haze. There was a Halloween parade. A Friday night football game. The mills kept running.Then people started struggling to breathe.As the fog thickened, doctors and firefighters fought through streets where visibility had nearly disappeared. And soon, people began to die.In this episode of Poisoned Appalachia, we travel to Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley to uncover the story of the Donora Death Fog—what caused it, what the people trapped beneath it endured, and how one deadly October weekend helped change America’s understanding of industrial pollution.Because in Appalachia, industry has always come with a price.And in Donora, the price was the very air people breathed.
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  Episode 79: the land between the lakes 31.08.2026 28min

  Land Between the LakesDeep between the rivers of Kentucky and Tennessee lies a place where history, tragedy, and legend have become tangled together. In this episode, we explore the communities lost beneath the waters of Land Between the Lakes, the unsolved murders of Carla Atkins and Vickie Stout, and the chilling legend of the Beast of LBL. From haunted cemeteries and strange encounters to stories of something lurking in the woods, we explore the history and darker folklore of a place where the line between truth and legend can be difficult to see.
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  Episode 78 Eugenics in Appalachia. 17.08.2026 20min

  What happens when a government decides who is “fit” to have a family—and who isn’t? This is one of the darkest chapters in Virginia and Appalachian history, and the connection to Shenandoah National Park is complicated, disturbing, and often overlooked.
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  Episode 77 Black Eyed Children 10.08.2026 26min

  Have you ever heard the knock?The one that comes late at night…When a child stands on your porch asking to be let inside.Their voice sounds normal.Their face looks innocent.Until you notice their eyes.Completely black.No whites.No pupils.Just darkness.Are they demons?Aliens pretending to be human?Or could they be something far older…Forgotten ghost children whose stories have survived for centuries under different names?In this week’s episode of Poisoned Appalachia, we’re digging into the terrifying legend of the Black-Eyed Children, the folklore that may have inspired them, and why one simple rule appears again and again across cultures:Never invite them inside.Because sometimes…The scariest monsters don’t break down your door.They wait for you to open it.
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  Episode 76: Pat Postiglione qnd the murder squad 03.08.2026 26min

  Nashville is known for bright lights, country music, and Southern charm.But beneath the neon signs and crowded streets, another story was unfolding.A story of murder.Missing people.Cold cases.And victims whose names were slowly fading from the headlines.Then there was Detective Sergeant Patrick Postiglione.Some called it a photographic memory.Others believed he simply had an extraordinary ability to remember what everyone else had forgotten.The clues.The details.The victims.And the families still waiting for answers.Alongside Nashville’s legendary Murder Squad, Pat reopened cases that had been cold for years—sometimes decades. Using new forensic technology, old evidence, and relentless determination, they followed killers across state lines and uncovered connections hidden deep inside Nashville’s darkest history.Between 2005 and his retirement in 2013, Pat and the Murder Squad helped solve 55 open and unsolved murders.Fifty-five cases.Fifty-five victims.Fifty-five families who were finally given answers.This is the story of the detectives who traveled back through time…The investigators who refused to let the dead be forgotten…And the man who never stopped remembering.Coming soon on Poisoned Appalachia…“Pat Postiglione and Nashville’s Murder Squad: The Detectives Who Refused to Forget.”Because a case may grow cold…But the truth is still waiting.
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  Episode 75 Corpsewood Manor 27.07.2026 25min

  What happens when two men leave everything behind to build their dream in the Appalachian Mountains… only for that dream to end in bloodshed?This week on Poisoned Appalachia, we’re climbing the lonely ridges of northwest Georgia to uncover the haunting story of Corpsewood Manor.It was a hand-built castle hidden deep in the woods. A place without electricity… without neighbors… and surrounded by rumors of Satanism, occult symbols, and secret gatherings.To some, Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom were kind, welcoming men who simply wanted to live life on their own terms.To others…They were “the devil worshippers on the mountain.”In December 1982, greed, fear, and prejudice climbed Dead Horse Road… and what happened next would become one of Appalachia’s most infamous murder cases.But were the rumors ever true?Or did they help write the ending before the first shot was ever fired?Join me as we separate fact from folklore and uncover the real story behind the legend of Corpsewood Manor.Because sometimes…The most terrifying thing in Appalachia……isn’t the monster people imagine.It’s the one that’s all too human.
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  episode 74 buffalo creek disaster 20.07.2026 24min

  Appalachia has always lived with the mountains.The mountains gave people coal.They gave them work.They gave them a place to call home.But sometimes… the mountains gave something back.On the morning of February 26, 1972, after days of relentless rain, a coal waste dam high above Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, collapsed.What followed wasn’t a flood.It was a wall of black water, coal sludge, and debris racing through seventeen communities at nearly impossible speed.In just minutes…Entire towns disappeared.More than one hundred people were killed.Thousands lost everything they owned.But perhaps the most haunting part of this story…Many people knew the dam was in danger.Warnings had been written.Inspections had uncovered serious problems.Residents had begged for someone to listen.No one evacuated the valley.This isn’t just the story of a natural disaster.It’s a story of ignored warnings…Corporate negligence…Political controversy…And the survivors who spent decades demanding that the world never forget what happened at Buffalo Creek.Join me on Poisoned Appalachia as we travel back to one of the darkest days in Appalachian history—a tragedy that forever changed West Virginia and became one of the deadliest industrial disasters in American history.
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  Poisoned Appalachia is finally back. 19.07.2026 1min

  I’ll be going back to our regular schedule starting tomorrow new episodes every Monday at four.
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  Episode 73: the battle of Blair Mountain 12.01.2026 34min

  In 1921, the mountains of West Virginia became a battlefield.Tens of thousands of coal miners took up arms against coal companies, private detectives, and state power in what became the largest labor uprising—and the largest armed conflict on U.S. soil since the Civil War.This episode of Poisoned Appalachia explores the forces that led to the Battle of Blair Mountain: company towns, union busting, private armies, aerial bombs, and the silencing of working-class resistance. We follow the miners’ march, the violence on the mountain, and the aftermath that reshaped Appalachia—and American labor history.This is not just a story about coal.It’s a story about power, survival, and a mountain that still carries the echoes of war.
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  Episode 72: Haunted Virginia 05.01.2026 27min

  In this episode, we step inside St. Albans Sanatorium, one of Virginia’s most haunted locations. Once a psychiatric hospital, its walls witnessed electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and brutal treatments that left countless patients broken—or dead. From extreme overcrowding to the infamous Suicide Bathroom, we explore how suffering, neglect, and despair may have left something behind. This is not just history—it’s a place where the past is said to still linger.
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  Episode 71 : centenniql Olympic park bombing 29.12.2025 30min

  The centennial Olympic park bobbing occurred on July 27, 1996 in Atlanta Georgia during the summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one person and injured 111 others. This is that story.
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  Episode 70: the Lawson Fanily murders 22.12.2025 24min

  A Christmas photograph. A hollow full of silence. A mystery that never left the mountains.
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  Episode 68: the silver bridge collapse 15.12.2025 30min

  December 15, 1967.On this day, we remember the Silver Bridge Disaster, when the bridge spanning the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed during the evening rush hour. Forty-six lives were lost, and countless families and communities were forever changed.
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  Episode 68: haunted Kentucky 01.12.2025 28min

  Find out about some of the most haunted places in Kentucky in this weeks episode.
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  Episode 67: the colonial parkway murders 24.11.2025 25min

  A quiet Virginia road.Four double homicides.No suspects. No answers.The Colonial Parkway Murders remain one of America’s most chilling unsolved cases…and my next podcast episode dives into the darkness.
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  Wholesome Appalachia episode 10: Daniel Boone 21.11.2025 23min

  Daniel Boone is an Appalachian folk hero. A larger than life character. Find out his story on this episode.
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  Episode 66: Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the Manhattan Project 17.11.2025 29min

  During World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee was a vital part of the war effort in of the Manhattan Project. No one in the town knew what they were working on until after Japan was bombed.
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  Episode 65: southern airways flight 932 (the Marshall university football team plane crash) 10.11.2025 32min

  On November 14, 1970, southern airways flight 932 crashed at the Huntington airport, killing all on board. Most of the Marshall university football team was on board as well as several prominent boosters.
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  Episode 64: Haunted Tennessee 03.11.2025 27min

  Discover some of the most haunted places in Tennessee in this episode.