The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

The Chef calls in with a fascinating theory on the Kaikōura lights. Nemesis shares an inside look at Big Tobacco, answering Ben's earlier question about smoking inside (and much more). In the wake of the infamous Snuff episode, multiple Conspiracy Realists reach out with jokes, p ... Show More

Humans! Seems like they're everywhere these days. They've also been great for our show, so thanks! Anyhow, the Age of the Anthropocene has fundamentally altered the natural world -- and, no matter what happens, the legacy of the human will remain long after the actual species is ... Show More

HIV and AIDS, the syndrome the infection causes, have become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. Over the decades people have proposed the infection was purposely designed to kill certain segments of the public, or that it was a lab experiment gone wrong, or that it didn ... Show More

Renowned horror and mystery author Edgar Allan Poe achieved critical acclaim with his bone-chilling literary works, like “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven.” But behind his writing’s success was a life filled with heartbreak, tragedy and death. Learn more about your ad choices. ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Poe (1809-1849), the American author who is famous for his Gothic tales of horror, madness and the dark interiors of the mind, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. As well as tapping at our deepest fears in poems such as ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Poe (1809-1849), the American author who is famous for his Gothic tales of horror, madness and the dark interiors of the mind, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. As well as tapping at our deepest fears in poems such as ... Show More

Most historians believe literary icon Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849 of alcohol poisoning. But the circumstances of his death are baffling: Four days before he died, Poe turned up incoherent, wearing someone else’s clothes. What really happened during his delirious final days? Lear ... Show More

It’s important to know where things come from. Whether it’s an old locket that beckons for you to open it, an entity that whispers to you in your dreams, or the inspirational origins of your favorite scary stories. If we’re to know how to proceed forward, we must know the shaky s ... Show More

This 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina covers the unusual circumstances surrounding Edgar Allan Poe's disappearance, reappearance, and death. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Episode 72: Edgar Allan Poe is about as famous as an author can be, but that might be owed largely to Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Rufus didn't really like Poe and wrote a scathing obituary and biography on the man, creating the dark figure many of us think Poe to be. In addition the s ... Show More

In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, desperate for money and terrified that his wife was about to die, "became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." Fueled by alcohol and despair, he fell into "fits of absolute unconsciousness"--and yet managed to write some of his greatest maste ... Show More

Our latest compilation features The Pale Woman, Ask a Dead Man, The Boarded Window, Was it a Dream?, The Black Cat, The Haunted Inn, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Told by Shannon Leigh Webber, N.R. Collard, Terri Lynne Hudson, James K. White, Bob Morgan, and Mike Vendetti. ... Show More

In this story, an unknown narrator tells us stories of people who had been buried prematurely and were rescued, then shares his own story of he had lived for years fearing he would be buried in the same manner due to a physical condition which seemed to render himself dead. A ver ... Show More