It’s the spooky season, when thoughts turn to falling leaves, socially-distanced corn mazes, pumpkin spice everything, and the frightfest that is All Hallows’ Eve! Get ready for Halloween this year by listening to some spooky podcasts — featuring haunted places, creepy phenomenon and ghostly legends and lore…

Lore — One of my favorite podcast series of all time, Aaron Mahnke’s Lore is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed podcast about true life scary stories. Lore exposes the darker side of history, exploring the creatures, people, and places of our wildest nightmares.

Haunted Places — You’ve heard of haunted houses, haunted cemeteries, haunted islands…but do you know how a normal place can become paranormal minefield? Every haunted place on earth has a frightening, real backstory. Greg Polcyn takes you on an audio tour of a new haunted place, and it’s haunted history, every episode.

Family Ghosts — A documentary-style storytelling podcast. Each episode features the true story behind a mysterious figure whose legend has followed a family for generations. Grandmothers who were secretly jewel smugglers, uncles who led double lives, siblings who vanished without a trace, and other specters who cast shadows over our lives in ways that might not be immediately obvious.

Snap Judgement Presents: Spooked — Now in it’s 5th season, Spooked features true-life supernatural stories, told first-hand by people who can barely believe it happened themselves. Spooked isn’t your run-of-the-mill “I saw a ghost once” tales. Spooked challenges skeptics of the supernatural, daring listeners to confront the unknown. These true-life stories demand listeners question their own map of reality.

Stuff You Missed In History Class: “The History of Halloween Candy” — Stuff You Missed In History Class is another of my favorite podcasts, covering a wide range of historical topics from all time periods and geographical locations. This episode from 2014 explores the relationship between candy and Halloween, answering questions such as when did candy become the standard for trick-or-treating, and who invented the holiday’s most famous sweet treats like candy corn?

Strange Phenomenon –A paranormal documentary podcast, featuring expert and eyewitness interviews, delving into events and anomalies that appear to be beyond the realm of conventional scientific understanding. New episodes and full interviews released every other week.

Unexplained — Unexplained is a haunting story-based podcast in which host and creator Richard MacLean Smith explores a different unexplained mystery each week – often to terrifying effect.