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Strange Woods Podcast > Episode > Episode 1 – Enter the Strange Woods

Episode

Episode 1 – Enter the Strange Woods

On this episode we talk about where the name of the podcast comes from and why we started it in the first place. Then we get into the woods...the strange woods...the weirdo strange woods and forests that give us the creeps. 

STOP! INSIDE JOKES AHEAD! If you haven’t gotten to listen to the episode yet, spoiler alert! This post contains lots of stuff that will make waaay more sense if you listen to the episode before or while reading. So if you haven’t already, pump the brakes and listen to the episode or just click above to play so that you can be in on all the shenanigans to follow! 

We need some listener mail so if you have an experience you’d like to share, please email us! You can share your story as a typed email or use the voice memo app on your phone.

If you’d like to be featured as a guest on the show, drop us an email and we will contact you about setting up a future date to record an interview.

 

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Produced by Peter Woodward III

Oh, hello again! Welcome back! We're starting out with a puking kid story and then getting right into peeing in inappropriate places...like bowls, car tires, and around the toilet rather than in it. Good stuff, right?

The Headlamps

Christmas 2001 (L to R) Joey, Peter, Jonathan, Jeremy

These are the headlamps Jeremy mentioned that we got for Christmas from Peter’s mom. The kid on the left is Peter’s brother, Joey. He cannot play guitar…like at all.

To recap, we were in the woods at night using our new headlamps and talking about getting abducted by UFOs. Jeremy decided to hang back and switch off his light. After we realized he was gone, we were freaked out and ran out of the woods. Below is a map of our very own strange woods that we grew up exploring together. Places of note are The Cow Pasture, Where Peter and Jonathan Got Lost, and of course, good ol’ Piss Creek. 

Check out this very technical and professionally constructed map.

Map of the Strange Woods

We need to talk about trees, bruh.

So what’s the deal with trees? Good guys or bad guys? The jury is still out. Some forested areas are well-known for their restorative and calming effect on people. However, there are many trees and forests that are..well…douchebags. Here are some examples:

Ancient cypress trees: Good guys...the only good guys.

In South LA, cypress trees are everywhere. Swamp is the predominant landscape for much of this area and cypress trees abound there. They are huge, beautiful, and ancient. We talked about the root systems spreading far and wide with these trees. They are hallmarked by "cypress knees" that stick out of the ground and TBH, are a pain in the arse when you're trying to cut grass. But for the most part, the cypress is an integral and honored part of the southern LA landscape.
Cypress knees

The Possessed Hanging Tree: douchebag.

This is the tree Jeremy talked about in a small town near where we all grew up. This tree is a jerk. This tree continues to thrive after numerous attempts at removing and destroying it. It was used to hang people for years and has managed to evade every attempt at being destroyed, including surviving lightening strikes. What a dick. Anybody tried fire yet?

We talked about the tree from Ernest Scared Stupid and how this tree looked like a smaller version of that tree. The tree in the movie sucked, too. Look.

Hoia-Baciu Forest, Romania: douchebag.

Called the "Bermuda Triangle of Romania", this forest of crooked, twisty trees is notorious for swallowing people whole. It is reported to be one of the most haunted forests in the world, marked by eerie silence and a long history of disappearing its visitors.

Aokigahara Forest,"Suicide Forest", Japan: douchebag.

So let's talk about this douchebag here. This Japanese forest is home to nearly 100 suicides annually. It's said to be inhabited by ghosts of the dead and is apparently eerily absent of sound once a person is inside.

Epping Forest, England: douchebag.

This jerk is a tricky jerk. Epping Forest has a rich (literally) history that wouldn't make someone think it was a bad place when it really, really is. It was a royal forest until the end of the 1800s, meaning kings, queens, and nobles used it for hunting. However it also has a history of being a hideout for murderous highwaymen, being a body dumping ground, and if that's not enough, this bitch is haunted AF, too. Nope.

Black Hills Forest aka Blair Witch Woods: douchebag. Obviously.

So we've heard of this one, right? The movie. Blair Witch Project. These are the famed woods occupied and allegedly haunted by Elly Kedward, the Blair Witch. However, it seems the Native tribes that occupied the land before her feel that the area has always been haunted and evil. So these woods were a scary bitch even before there was a scary bitch.
Oof. That hair. She could really use a Blair cut. 😀

So this is looking pretty one-sided. But there's got to be some positives, right? What about forest bathing?

Health benefits from being outdoors in fresh air is well-known and documented. Forest bathing is essentially spending mindful time in nature. It is a form of ecotherapy involving meditation and being in the moment. It sounds peaceful and tranquil...until a highwayman robs you or a boo hag snatches you by the face or you trip over a body dump site. I'm just not buying it. Sure, trees are beautiful and majestic and they have those amazing tree rings...
tree-stump-iStock-641523960-1080x608
...but then you have these jerks here to push the scale back in the other direction.

So sounds like trees suck. What about rocks? How do we feel about those guys?

We talked about the possibility that stones can be vessels for residual energy in the presence of traumatic events and in essence have a haunting recorded onto them. This is referred to as the Stone Tape Theory and it’s a weird one. Can rocks hear us? Does this mean the hills really are alive with the sound of music? Like Jonathan said, the stones certainly were alive and active in Frozen. 

Devil's Tower or Something with a Bear

The legend with Devils Tower is one of Native American origin. It is a sacred site to the Native tribes of Wyoming with lore unique to each tribe regarding the site and its origin. It was the first national monument in the US and it is known by multiple names in Native American community, mostly including "bear" due to the bear-claw like appearance of the faces of the tower. Also it didn't throw any apples at Dorothy or try to murder Hermoine Granger so there's that.

Badlands of South Dakota

This beautiful national park was called the Badlands by the Lakota tribe due to its difficulty to traverse, lack of water, and extreme temperatures. It is ancient and teeming with fossils.Again, nobody is dumping bodies and no crazy hauntings. Hmmm.

Mal Pais

So in the epic tree debate, what do we think? Are forests the natural enemy of humans, or just misunderstood and misused? Are we being to narrow-minded? As the saying goes, can we not see the forest for the trees?

What other random weirdness did we talk about this week?

The City of Dead, New Orleans

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Miles and miles of cemeteries exist in NOLA. It is an area where the dead are mostly buried above ground. Due to New Orleans being below sea level, water has always been a concern. As such much of the cemeteries of New Orleans and south LA are covered with mausoleums, creating literal cities of the dead. 

Hanging coffins of Sagada in the Phillipines

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Whoa. Hanging coffins like Christmas ornaments off the side of a cliff. This practice can be traced back for 2000 years. Burial in this fashion is now not as common, but is still practiced. The reason for cliff-side burial in this area is two-fold: the belief that higher up is closer to their ancestral spirits; and there is no chance of water seeping into the coffins through the ground so it keeps the bodies safe.                    

Creepy fact time: The coffins are kept very small (about 3ft/1meter in length)and bodies are buried in the fetal position because of the belief that a person should leave the world as he or she entered it. 

There are a number of traditions in conjunction with the preparation of the body for burial and the funeral. Among them: 

  • smoking the body for preservation
  • propping the body in a chair for mourners to greet
  • And smearing the dead’s blood and body fluids onto your body for good fortune!

Yeah…no thanks though. 

Well, there you go. This has been a creepy one and we've learned a lot of stuff and grown as people. To conclude, fight a tree. And make a rock your pet. That is all.

Thanks again for stopping by!

If you have an experience you’d like to share, please email us! You can share your story as a typed email or use the voice memo app on your phone.

If you’d like to be featured as a guest on the show, drop us an email and we will contact you about setting up a future date to record an interview.

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/YnZq7VFM

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