This episode was recorded in May - sorry, listeners, we are doing lots of catch-up! Hope you enjoy; we have about 10 more backup episodes we'll be releasing over the next week or so, then we'll be back to a normal publishing schedule - hang in there and BINGE-Listen!

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Show Notes:

Stonehenge Part 2: Ancient Mysteries, Legends & Unanswered Questions

The mystery of Stonehenge continues! In Part 2, Sara takes us back to the ancient stone circle on England's Salisbury Plain to explore more of the history, theories, and unanswered questions surrounding one of the world's most recognizable prehistoric monuments.

From its remarkable construction and astronomical alignments to the folklore, spiritual significance, and theories surrounding its original purpose, Stonehenge continues to fascinate historians, archaeologists, and curious minds alike.

Who built it? How were these massive stones transported and positioned thousands of years ago? And what role did Stonehenge play in the lives of the people who gathered there?

Join Sara for another look at the enduring mystery of Stonehenge, where ancient engineering, mythology, and the unknown continue to inspire questions.

The Verbal Echo. No guardrails.

Keep the conversation going! Subscribe to our Substack for more mysteries, additional stories, and behind-the-scenes content.

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Follow the echoes. No guardrails.

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Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," episode 62, by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode 63, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

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The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, has spent decades building a reputation as one of America's most haunted hotels. Its history, ghostly legends, and connection to Stephen King's The Shining have made it a destination for paranormal enthusiasts from around the world.

In Part 2, Monica and Sara explore the paranormal investigations, reported encounters, and enduring legends surrounding this historic Rocky Mountain landmark. From unexplained voices and mysterious footsteps to stories of spirits lingering in the hotel's rooms and hallways, we examine the experiences that continue to attract ghost hunters and curious visitors.

We also explore the Estes Method, a paranormal investigation technique involving sensory deprivation, spirit boxes, and attempts at real-time communication with the unknown. How does it work? Where did it originate? And what can these experiments actually tell us about alleged paranormal activity?

Join us for another round of haunted history, paranormal research, and unanswered questions from the Stanley Hotel.

The Verbal Echo. No guardrails.

Follow the echoes. No guardrails.

Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

Try Sara's Bloody Seasoning and follow along on her adventures - Shop Now!

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Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

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The Slide-Rock Bolter: Colorado's Mountain Monster

Imagine hiking through the rugged Colorado Rockies, surrounded by towering peaks, when suddenly something enormous comes crashing down the mountainside—mouth wide open and ready to swallow everything in its path.

Welcome to the bizarre legend of the Slide-Rock Bolter, one of Colorado's strangest cryptids.

In this episode of The Verbal Echo, we explore the folklore surrounding a massive, whale-like creature said to lurk along the steepest mountain ridges. According to legend, this beast anchors itself to mountaintops with its hooked tail, waiting patiently for unsuspecting travelers before launching a terrifying avalanche of rocks, trees, and destruction.

We'll trace the creature's origins to the colorful storytelling traditions of early American lumberjacks, explore the outrageous accounts that helped make it a legendary Colorado monster, and examine how these tales became part of the American West's folklore.

Could this enormous mountain predator have been inspired by the very real dangers of Colorado's rugged wilderness? Or was it simply one of the greatest tall tales ever told around a campfire?

From cryptozoology and mountain legends to the strange creatures of American folklore, this is one monster story you won't soon forget.

Question everything. Follow the echoes. There are no guardrails.

Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

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Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," episode 62, by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode 63, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

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Show Notes:

Italy's Capuchin Catacombs: Mummies, Monks, and the Mysteries of the Dead

Beneath the streets of Palermo, Sicily, lies one of the world's most extraordinary burial sites—a labyrinth of underground corridors filled with thousands of preserved human bodies.

In this episode of The Verbal Echo, we explore the eerie history of the Capuchin Catacombs, where centuries-old mummies stand upright, hang from walls, and rest in their burial clothes. From the Capuchin monks who began the tradition to the elaborate preservation techniques and social customs surrounding death, these catacombs offer a fascinating glimpse into Sicily's past.

We'll also explore the remarkable story of Rosalia Lombardo, the young girl known as Palermo's Sleeping Beauty, whose astonishingly preserved body has fascinated visitors for generations.

How did this unusual burial tradition begin? What can these preserved remains tell us about life, death, and the beliefs of those who came before us? And why do these underground corridors continue to inspire so much mystery and fascination?

Join us as we venture beneath Palermo into a world where history, mortality, and the mysteries of preservation meet.

Follow the echoes. No guardrails.

Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

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Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," episode 62, by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode 63, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

NEW! We have a SUBSTACK now, and we think it'll be a better fit for getting you extra content and serving as a landing pad for all our podcast notes, community, and extra bonus things we talk about in our episodes. We can't wait for you to check it out, and here's the link:

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Who built Stonehenge, how did they move those massive stones, and what were they trying to tell us?

In this episode of The Verbal Echo, Sara takes us thousands of years into the past to explore one of the world's most fascinating ancient monuments. From its mysterious origins and extraordinary construction to the myths, legends, and celestial alignments surrounding it, Stonehenge continues to raise questions about the people who created it.

How did prehistoric communities transport and raise stones weighing several tons? What role did the sun, moon, and changing seasons play in its design? Was Stonehenge a sacred gathering place, a burial ground, an astronomical observatory, or something we have yet to fully understand?

We'll explore the archaeological discoveries, ancient engineering techniques, folklore, and astrological interpretations that have kept Stonehenge at the center of historical curiosity for centuries.

And, of course, we'll consider some of the more unconventional theories surrounding its purpose and construction.

Join us for another episode of The Verbal Echo. No Guardrails.

Connect with The Verbal Echo

Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

Try Sara's Bloody Seasoning and follow along on her adventures - Shop Now!

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Follow us on Patreon for even more content about our episodes and see video episodes before they are uploaded to our audio podcast. We share even more content on Patreon. Join today; it's FREE to join - be a founding member on our Patreon Channel, where you get even more content.

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Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," episode 62, by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode 63, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

Subscribe and follow for more conversations about ancient mysteries, unexplained phenomena, paranormal encounters, and the strange corners of our history.

#Stonehenge #AncientMysteries #Megaliths #Archaeology #TheVerbalEcho

NEW! We have a SUBSTACK now, and we think it'll be a better fit for getting you extra content and serving as a landing pad for all our podcast notes, community, and extra bonus things we talk about in our episodes. We can't wait for you to check it out, and here's the link:

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Next episode is part 1: Stonehenge!

Black Eyed Kids: The Knock You Shouldn’t Answer

It started in a strip mall parking lot in Abilene, Texas, in 1996. A journalist, Brian Bethel, was sitting alone in his car. Two children at the window. A request for a ride and a pair of eyes that were completely blacked out. The legend has morphed and continued over thirty years. What's really going on?

On this episode, Monica and Sara examine one of modern folklore’s most precisely traceable legends — the Black Eyed Kids. Unlike most paranormal phenomena, this one has a name, a date, a location, and an origin witness who has never recanted. Brian Bethel, a career reporter for the Abilene Reporter-News, posted his account to an early internet mailing list in 1998 and quietly ignited a global phenomenon.

We trace how the legend spread from small-town Texas to the UK countryside, look at the cases that followed — including reports from Colorado, a U.S. military installation, and rural England — and talk through what researchers, folklorists, and behavioral scientists make of encounters described with near-identical detail by strangers across continents.

The BEKs don’t force into your space; they just politely and weirdly ask. And that — more than the eyes — may be the strangest part of all.

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Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

Try Sara's Bloody Seasoning and follow along on her adventures - Shop Now!

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Follow us on Patreon for even more content about our episodes and see video episodes before they are uploaded to our audio podcast. We share even more content on Patreon. Join today; it's FREE to join - be a founding member on our Patreon Channel, where you get even more content.

Join us! Verbal Echo Podcast on Patreon

Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async-sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You," episode 62, by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable," episode 63, by Aeris Moon.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

Before the boomtowns, before the railroads, before the silver rush that built Gunnison and buried it again — there were the Tabeguache Ute. The largest of the ten Ute bands, they called themselves Núu-ci — The People — and the Gunnison Valley was their indigenous homeland. According to their own creation tradition, it was the place they came from. Then came 1880, the Removal Act, and an army escort out of the Shining Mountains. The land that was taken is the same land every ghost, every tragedy, and every unanswered question in this region is part of.

We look at a gated religious compound that operated in a Gunnison mountain valley for nearly fifty years — members only, no exceptions, until January 2025. We look at what moves through the high country that experienced outdoors people cannot explain. And we look at the cases of people who walked into the Black Canyon, or the remote eastern forests of Gunnison County, and did not walk out. We look at cryptid encounters, bigfoot sightings and missing people who have disappeared in modern day. This is a strange place full of mysteries.

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Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, Send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

Try Sara's Bloody Seasoning and Follow along on her adventures - Shop Now!

---------------------------------------------------------

Follow us on Patreon for even more content about our episodes and see video episodes before they are uploaded to our audio podcast. We share even more content on Patreon. Join today, it's FREE to join - be a founding member on our Patreon Channel where you get even more content.

Join us! Verbal Echo Podcast on Patreon

Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You" episode 62 by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable" by Aeris Moon, episode 63.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.

For centuries, the word “Voodoo” has been surrounded by fear, mystery, and Hollywood stereotypes. But beneath the sensationalized stories of curses, dolls, and dark magic is a complex spiritual tradition rooted in African heritage, Catholic influence, ancestral connection, and a deep relationship with nature.

In this episode of The Verbal Echo, Sara explores the authentic origins of Haitian Vodou and separates the real history from the myths created through colonialism, fear, and popular culture. We look at the West African traditions that shaped Vodou, the role of Catholic symbolism, the spirits known as the lwa, the importance of ancestors, healing, music, and sacred connection to the natural world.

From the struggles of enslaved Africans in Haiti to the Haitian Revolution and the survival of a spiritual tradition despite centuries of misunderstanding, this episode reveals a story of resilience, identity, and cultural preservation.

What if one of the world's most misunderstood religions has been hidden behind a story that was never truly its own? Join us as we uncover the real history of Haitian Vodou and explore the faith beyond the Hollywood shadows.

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Thank you for listening to this podcast and helping us grow by sharing it with a friend!

Thank YOU!!! Do you want to tell your story on this show? Reach out, Send an email to verbalecho@gmail.com

Read Monica's stories on the Medium Publication

Try Sara's Bloody Seasoning and Follow along on her adventures - Shop Now!

---------------------------------------------------------

Follow us on Patreon for even more content about our episodes and see video episodes before they are uploaded to our audio podcast. We share even more content on Patreon. Join today, it's FREE to join - be a founding member on our Patreon Channel where you get even more content.

Join us! Verbal Echo Podcast on Patreon

Music Artist credits for this podcast:

Season 1: Ikoliks

Season 2: Amoeba Crew, Dagored, and Salinski Music, and Licensed music through ASYNC

Season 3: Async sponsored Artists - Song "I Have You" episode 62 by Marigolde; Song "Unbreakable" by Aeris Moon, episode 63.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, this podcast is for entertainment only, and the views and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own. Always consult with medical professionals or your physician.