State of the Unknown | Documentary Stories of Real Unexplained Encounters
Strange things happen. Sometimes they leave records.
State of the Unknown is a documentary paranormal podcast about real people who encountered something they couldn't explain.
From ghosts and documented hauntings to UFO encounters, cryptid sightings, strange creatures, and other unexplained events, each episode follows the people at the center of the story—what happened, what evidence remains, and what explanations came later.
These aren't campfire stories. They're incidents with names, dates, locations, witnesses, and consequences.
Some have clear explanations. Others don't.
But all of them left a mark.
If you love paranormal stories, ghost stories, UFO cases, cryptid encounters, and unexplained mysteries but still want to know what really happened, this is your show.
You're allowed to be curious without being required to believe.
New episodes every week.
🔗 www.stateoftheunknown.com
📸 @stateoftheunknownpodcast
Episodes
80 episodes
Fragments | The Leadville Ghost: The Tenants Who Refused to Go Back — Ep. 04
In April 1907, two miners in Leadville, Colorado, rented a small house and paid three weeks in advance.Four nights later, they were done.Join host Robert Barber as he follows a strange newspaper account of a paranormal encounter t...
Creature Encounter: The Lake Worth Monster | The 1969 Sighting That Sparked a Monster Hunt — Ep. 64
In July 1969, six people were parked near Greer Island on Lake Worth, just outside Fort Worth, Texas, when something came down from a tree and landed on their car.John Reichert would later describe a strange creature covered in fur and s...
Paranormal Encounter: Bobby Mackey's Music World | The Caretaker Who Started the Legend — Ep. 63
When 20-year-old Carl Lawson took a job helping renovate Bobby Mackey’s Music World, a country nightclub in Wilder, Kentucky, he had no idea he was stepping into what would become one of America’s most infamous paranormal haunting cases. What b...
Fragments | Franklin Castle: The Ghost Who Confessed to Murder — Ep. 03
Two listeners pointed me toward Franklin Castle, one of Ohio’s most famous haunted houses and the center of decades of ghost stories and paranormal claims.I expected to find another ghost story.Instead, I found something far stran...
Fragments | Blackbeard’s Ghost: The Light That Never Left Ocracoke — Ep. 02
In November 1718, the pirate known as Blackbeard was killed in the waters near Ocracoke Island. His head was carried away as proof of his death, while his body disappeared beneath the surface.But around the Outer Banks, people believed t...
Creature Encounter: The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp | The Night Browntown Road Changed Forever — Ep. 62
Join host Robert Barber as he examines one of America’s most enduring cryptid and unexplained creature encounters.In the summer of 1988, seventeen-year-old Christopher Davis stopped along a quiet road outside Bishopville, South Ca...
Fragments | The Devil’s Footprints: The Tracks That Crossed Rooftops — Ep. 01
Welcome to State of the Unknown: Fragments.Every other Tuesday, alongside our full documentary episodes, I’ll be sharing a shorter story—forgotten newspaper accounts, enduring folklore, strange witness reports, and historical myst...
Introducing State of the Unknown: Fragments
Something new is coming to State of the Unknown.Every story doesn’t need thirty minutes.Some are too strange to ignore…too fascinating to forget…and too small to become full documentaries.Beginning next week,...
Creature Encounter: The 1909 Jersey Devil Panic | The Week Police Opened Fire — Ep. 61
For one remarkable week in January 1909, communities across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were gripped by reports of the Jersey Devil, one of America’s most famous cryptid and paranormal legends.Police officers claimed to...
Men in Black: Albert Bender | The Visit That Silenced America's First UFO Bureau — Ep. 60
Join host Robert Barber as he explores the paranormal UFO case that gave rise to one of the most enduring legends in UFO history—the Men in Black.In the early 1950s, Albert K. Bender founded the International Flying Saucer Bureau, one of...
Alien Abduction: Travis Walton | Inside the Abduction Experience Behind Fire in the Sky — Ep. 59
Join host Robert Barber as he explores the second half of the Travis Walton alien abduction case, one of the most famous UFO and paranormal encounters in American history.Five days after disappearing in the Arizona wilderness, Travis Wal...
Alien Abduction: Travis Walton | The Disappearance That Inspired Fire in the Sky — Ep. 58
Join host Robert Barber as he explores the disappearance of Travis Walton, the 1975 Arizona UFO encounter that became one of the most famous alien abduction cases in American paranormal history.On November 5, 1975, Travis Walton and six ...
Creature Encounter: The Flatwoods Monster | The West Virginia Encounter That Created an American Monster — Ep. 57
In September of 1952, a group of boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia looked up from a football game and saw something bright cross the sky—beginning a UFO and unexplained creature encounter that would become one of the most famous cases in America...
Paranormal Encounter: Black-Eyed Children | The Witnesses Who Refused To Open The Door — Ep. 56
Join host Robert Barber as he examines one of the most unsettling modern paranormal phenomena: reports of Black Eyed Children, mysterious children whose alleged encounters have become a lasting part of modern ghost stories, supernatural folklor...
UFO Encounter: The Levelland Incident | The Texas Sightings That Stopped Cars in Their Tracks — Ep. 55
In November of 1957, drivers on the rural roads around Levelland, Texas began reporting a series of UFO sightings and unexplained encounters that would become one of the most compelling vehicle-interference cases in American paranormal history....
Poltergeist Case: The Seaford Incident | The Long Island Disturbance That Drew National Attention — Ep. 54
In 1958, an ordinary family home in Seaford, Long Island became the center of one of America’s most famous paranormal haunting and poltergeist cases.Join host Robert Barber as he investigates the Seaford Poltergeist, the famous Long Isla...
Creature Encounter: The Enfield Horror | The Case That Turned a Small Illinois Town Upside Down — Ep. 53
Join host Robert Barber as he examines the Enfield Horror, also known as the Enfield Monster or Enfield Creature, one of Illinois’ strangest reported cryptid encounters.In April 1973, Henry McDaniel reported hearing scratching at the fro...
Haunted Object: Robert the Doll | Why Visitors Apologize After Taking His Photo — Ep. 52
Robert the Doll is one of the most famous haunted objects in the United States.For decades, the doll has been connected to stories of movement, strange sounds, changing expressions, camera malfunctions, visitor misfortune, and apology l...
Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery | The Place Where the Dead Don’t Stay Buried — Ep. 51
Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery has a reputation, and it didn’t come from stories alone. Visitors have reported seeing figures moving between the headstones, unexplained lights in the trees, and one photograph that captured something no one could exp...
Bonus Episode | Beyond the St. Louis Exorcism: What Do Real Exorcisms Actually Look Like?
The St. Louis exorcism shaped what many people think possession is supposed to look like, but what do real cases actually report?In this bonus episode of State of the Unknown, Robert Barber steps back from a single case to look ...
The St. Louis Exorcism: The Case That Inspired The Exorcist—and Shaped What People Think Possession Looks Like (Episode 50)
In 1949, a teenage boy in St. Louis became the center of one of the most documented exorcism cases in American history.What followed involved multiple priests, medical observation, and handwritten records describing events that have neve...
The Snedeker Haunting | The Case Inside a Funeral Home That Investigators Couldn’t Explain — Ep. 49
In the 1980s, the Snedeker family moved into a house in Southington, Connecticut, looking for space and stability while their son Philip underwent cancer treatment. What they didn’t fully understand at the time was what the house had been befor...
The Lindley Street Poltergeist | The Girl Said It Was a Hoax… So What Did Police Witness? — Ep. 48
A young girl said the haunting was a hoax. But police were inside the house when objects reportedly moved….In 1974, police were called to a small home on Lindley Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut.Inside, they reported objects movi...
The Cash–Landrum Incident | The Night the Sky Burned Over Texas — And What It Did to Them — Ep. 47
On December 29, 1980, three witnesses driving along a rural road outside Dayton, Texas reported one of the most unusual UFO encounters ever documented in the United States.Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson ...
Bonus Episode: The Black Forest Haunting | The Colorado Poltergeist Case That Was Never Explained
In the late 1960s, a quiet home in the Black Forest area near Colorado Springs became the center of a disturbing series of events. The family living there claimed objects moved on their own, household items were thrown across rooms, and unexpla...
