Twas the night before Christmas —

not all stories were merry.

Tonight, we tell a Christmas ghost story.

Enjoy this rendition of Charles Dickens' ghost story "The Signalman", and happy holidays!

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

Spooky Winter Book Recs:

• The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
• Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
• The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
• Near The Bone by Christina Henry
• Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams
• Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer
• Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

Christmas has another history...

Before Santa, the season was shaped by pagan winter traditions and folklore filled with punishment and fear.

From belly-slitting witches said to roam during the winter solstice to a demonic beast who dragged sinners to hell, the season was once ruled by things far less holy.

So get cozy and settle in because because we're going back.. To the Darker version of Christmas past.

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

Spooky Winter Book Recs:

• The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
• Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
• The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
• Near The Bone by Christina Henry
• Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams
• Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer
• Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

Five days before Christmas in 1984, 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews returned to her home in Greely Colorado after a school concert and vanished without a trace.

No forced entry. No struggle. Just footprints in the snow behind the Matthews home.

Her disappearance quickly gained national attention, becoming one of the first cases featured in the milk carton campaign. And for nearly four decades, the investigation remained frozen, shaped by shifting stories and stalled leads. That is, until nearly 35 years later, when Jonelle’s remains were discovered more than 20 miles from her home.

And all signs pointed to a man whose involvement only grew stranger as he continued placing himself in the center of the investigation long before anyone suspected him.

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

In February 2018, 20-year-old Ryan Shtuka left a house party in Sun Peaks and began the short walk toward home. A route that should have taken just a few minutes. Ryan never made it home. Instead, his final movements remain frozen in time.

Search crews pushed through deep snow and subzero temperatures. Volunteers returned week after week. Helicopters and ground teams covered every direction the terrain allowed. No footprints. No belongings. No confirmed trace. The trail turned cold almost immediately.

Seven years later, the case sits at a standstill — suspended between what is known and what has never surfaced.

Does someone know something… or does nobody know anything at all?

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

Weeks after the Dyatlov group’s final journal entries, search teams reached the site. The scene didn’t line up with a simple hiking accident: a tent sliced from the inside, barefoot tracks in the snow, and bodies found under injuries and circumstances no single theory could fully explain.

In Part 2 of THE UNKNOWN: The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy, we break down the search, the recoveries, the injuries, and the theories — from avalanche to military involvement — and examine why none of them fully explain what happened on that mountain.

TW: This episode contains discussion of death, hypothermia, trauma, and graphic forensic details. Listener discretion is advised.

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

January 1959 — nine hikers set out into the frozen Ural Mountains. Experienced, prepared, and full of life. Days later, their tent was found ripped open from the inside. Their gear abandoned. Their bodies scattered across the snow.

What happened on that mountainside has haunted investigators and historians for more than sixty years.

In Part 1 of THE UNKNOWN: The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy, we retrace the group’s final days through their recovered journals, photographs, and official reports—following their footsteps into one of the most chilling mysteries of the 20th century.

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

In the summer of 2003, 19-year-old Sonya Ivanoff vanished from Nome, Alaska. When her body was discovered days later, the truth that surfaced would devastate the small town and force a reckoning with its own police force.

As investigators closed in, they uncovered a betrayal that went far deeper than anyone imagined — one that exposed years of neglect and mistrust between Nome’s authorities and Alaska Native women, a crisis that still haunts Alaska today.

TW: This episode contains references to violence, sexual assault, and systemic abuse against Alaska Native women. It also includes discussion of police misconduct, murder, and the mishandling of criminal investigations. Listener discretion is advised.

Hosted by 🎙️: Alex Kern

⸻

🖤 ABOUT DARKLY SPEAKING 🖤

Welcome to Darkly Speaking — where true crime, the paranormal and the crazy strange and unexplained converge.

Every Monday, host Alex Kern unpacks stories that challenge our understanding of what’s real — from unsolved disappearances and psychological unravellings to encounters with the unexplained.

Think: true crime, the paranormal, and everything in between. If you’re drawn to the strange, the hidden, or the stories that won’t sit quietly — you’re in the right place.

Expect immersive storytelling, a dose of dark curiosity, and the occasional rabbit hole you didn’t plan to fall into.

Because in the darkest corners of our reality… truth gets weird.

⸻

🎧 LISTEN ON: Available wherever you get your podcasts!

YouTube

⁠Spotify

Apple Podcasts ⁠

⸻

📲 CONNECT WITH US:

⁠YouTube ⁠

⁠Instagram ⁠

⁠TikTok ⁠

⁠Website ⁠(Sources, Show Notes & More!)

Email us your stories! → Darklyspeakingpodcast@gmail.com

⸻

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This podcast explores real cases and sensitive subject matter.

Listener discretion is advised.

All research is grounded in publicly available sources and cited to the best of our ability. Opinions are those of the host unless otherwise stated.

Copyright Disclaimer:

Some audio/visual materials used may be protected under copyright law and are included under “fair use” for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.