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My Dark Path

My Dark Path

MF Thomas, Creator & Host

My Dark Path explores the fringes of history, science, and the paranormal. In every episode, creator and host MF Thomas illuminates a topic taken from the dark corners of our world. Combining his personal, on-location research with insights from experts, researchers and historians, every episode will intrigue, excite, and perhaps, send a shiver down your spine. Visit www.mydarkpath.com for more information.
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Top 10 My Dark Path Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best My Dark Path episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to My Dark Path for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite My Dark Path episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

My Dark Path - The North Korean Abduction Project
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01/13/24 • 46 min

In late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese citizens are vanishing without a trace. These are ordinary folks - a high school girl walking home from badminton practice, a couple on a romantic beach stroll, just regular people living their lives.
For years, these disappearances are shrouded in mystery. Families are left wondering, the public is baffled, and there are all sorts of theories floating around but without substantiation.
Fast forward to 2002. In a stunning revelation, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il admits, yes, North Korean agents had abducted these Japanese citizens. Why? This is where it gets chilling. North Korea was using these abductees to train their spies in Japanese language and culture. You're taken from your homeland to become a living textbook for foreign spies.
The number of abductees is a bit murky. North Korea initially admits to 13, but Japan says it could be much higher. Five of these abductees were eventually allowed to return to Japan, but the fate of the others remains a matter of dispute and heartache. North Korea insists some have died or never entered the country, but Japan has long doubted these claims.
This whole saga creates a massive diplomatic storm. It strains North Korea's relations with Japan big time, not to mention the pain and uncertainty for the families involved. Even today, it's a sensitive and unresolved issue, with Japan still seeking answers and North Korea often brushing it off.
Listen to learn about the entire history of the North Korean Abduction Project.

Pumpkin Hill Radio: Paranormal Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Unexplained Phenomena
Exploring mysteries, myths & the paranormal every Tuesday. Tinfoil hat optional.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

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So where did the idea of using an artificial electrical impulse to control the heartbeat begin? Well, as with most scientific progress, there’s a long chain of contributors, but I want to talk today about a transformational role played by an inquisitive man from Minneapolis, Minnesota named Earl Bakken; and the inspiration he got from a movie he saw when he was just a little boy.
Listen To find out more about:

  • How Mary Shelly's Frankenstein influenced the invention of the pacemaker.
  • The Life of Mary Shelly, and the circumstances that lead to her writing Frankenstein
  • How Earl Bakken and other scientists invented the pacemaker
  • Earl Bakken (credited inventor of the pacemaker) and his life
  • The first battery and how it was invented

For Full show notes visit: mydarkpath.com
Sources

REFERENCES/ADDITIONAL READING:

Tufts Now: Think you know your Frankenstein?

Thought Co: Frankenstein Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices

Sparknots: Frankenstein

New York Times: Earl E Bakken Obituary

Eetimes: Pacemaker was born of a blackout

Csoonline: What are the security implications of Elon Musk’s neuralink?

NBC News: Elon Musk’s Neuralink puts Chips in Pigs Brains

Encyclopeida: Luigi Galvani

Health Grades: Pacemakers

Heart: Pacemaker

Edu News: Remembering Earl Bakken

WSJ- Earl Bakken Pacemaker

Medtronic Newsroom

The Bakken

Earl Bakken

Sickness In Time by MF Thomas

Sickness in Time by MF Thomas Podcast

Killafornia Dreaming Podcast by Roseanne Sinclair

MUSIC:

Spiral by Thorr

Pumpkin Hill Radio: Paranormal Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Unexplained Phenomena
Exploring mysteries, myths & the paranormal every Tuesday. Tinfoil hat optional.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - Lost in the Philippine Sea
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01/28/23 • 48 min

There’s a sign, mounted on a locked door, four decks down from the flight deck on the USS Ticonderoga, a giant aircraft carrier, a sign reads “RESTRICTED SECURITY AREA / KEEP OUT / AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY / IT IS UNLAWFUL TO ENTER THIS AREA WITHOUT WRITTEN PEMISSION OF THE COMMANDING OFFICER” No one, except the men assigned to work in that room, was allowed to go through that door. Because behind that door are stored the nuclear bombs the Ticonderoga carries. And on the floor of that room the bombs are assembled by the sailors in the weapons division. They trained to do so efficiently, rapidly, in case they were called upon to arm the bombs for use. The location is the Philippine Sea during the Vietnam War. The date is December 5, 1965, and before this day is over, one of those nuclear weapons will be in the ocean, armed to go off with no way of recovering it or disarming it. Today, in our second part of our two part series on broken arrows – lost nuclear weapons – we will explore the only armed nuclear bomb the United States lost and did not recover. All other weapons lost had fissile material, but had not been primed to explode. The bomb lost by the Ticonderoga those fifty-seven years ago still sits at the bottom of the sea of Japan, still capable of detonating a full nuclear explosion.

Pumpkin Hill Radio: Paranormal Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Unexplained Phenomena
Exploring mysteries, myths & the paranormal every Tuesday. Tinfoil hat optional.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - Elmer McCurdy's Second Life
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02/02/21 • 38 min

How does someone’s corpse get so exploited and degraded that, decades later, everyone mistakes him for a prop? After Elmer McCurdy’s death, his embalmed body was exploited as a sideshow attraction, a movie prop, and ultimately a decoration in an amusement park’s haunted house. Listen to learn more about

  • Elmer McCurdy—a train robber who was killed in 1911 after attempting to steal $400,000 from a train in Oklahoma.
  • When a TV crew preparing to shoot an episode discovered that the mannequin they thought was just a prop was actually a human corpse.
  • The history of Hollywood and the events of Elmer McCurdy’s life that led to his death.
  • The implications of how easy it can be to dehumanize others.

The full show notes can be found at https://www.mydarkpath.com/season1episode4

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - The Haunted Taipei Hyatt
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01/19/21 • 36 min

How did a luxury international hotel brand in Taipei earn the reputation as one of the most haunted hotels in the world? Listen to learn more about

  • Key moments in the history of Taiwan, including its founding by Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-Kuo.
  • How the Hyatt hotel brand was founded.
  • The history of ghost stories.
  • MF Thomas’ personal experience at the Taipei Hyatt.

The full show notes can be found at https://www.mydarkpath.com/season1episode3

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - Von Zeppelin & the Airship
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11/25/20 • 54 min

Airships became one of the most visible and popular methods of travel in the early 20th Century before the Hindenburg accident and competition from airplanes made airships almost an afterthought. Listen to learn more about

  • The early inventors who created the first hot air balloons and those who applied balloon technology to create airship.
  • Count Von Zeppelin, the father of the modern airship. Learn what inspired his work, including where he took his first balloon ride and his perseverance that led to the modern airships.
  • How the future of airships was changed by world wars, Zeppelin’s successor Hugo Eckener and the Hindenburg accident.

The full show notes can be found at https://www.mydarkpath.com/season1episode1

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - UFOs, the USA, & the Val Johnson Incident
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02/16/21 • 41 min

The desire to know if Unidentified Flying Objects are real continues to grow in the USA and world-wide, especially with recent releases of previously classified video from the Department of Defense.

One encounter yet to be explained was that of Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson, whose UFO sighting left his patrol car damaged and his memory blank. The Fort LTD still sits in a museum today in northern Minnesota, a tangible reminder that UFOs remain an unknown and unidentified source of mystery to this day. Listen to learn more about

  • The complex history of UFOs in the US, with the majority of sightings being traceable to weather events, military aircraft and birds.
  • US Air Force’s Project Blue Book, containing 701 UFO sighting events that cannot be explained.
  • The beginnings of UFO sightings in the US beginning as early as 1639 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including its Governor documented a series of strange encounters with unidentified phenomena.
  • The pilot Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 encounter with a set of flying objects, which amid a period of cold-war anxiety, led to the press misquoting Arnold to coin the term flying saucers.
  • One of the strangest UFO encounters—that of Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson—which left his patrol car damaged and his memory blank.

The full show notes can be found at https://www.mydarkpath.com/season1episode5

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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My Dark Path - The Russian Chessboard Killer
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03/11/23 • 71 min

I visited Moscow a few years ago for a My Dark Path research trip so I could finish the mini-series about the Secrets of the Soviets. Those episodes, like Stalin’s Bunker 42 and Soviet Psychic Spies, are available for My Dark Path Plus subscribers on Patreon. In addition to these stories, I also found other stories that were more contemporary, not only from the dark Soviet era. Those stories include that of the Chessboard Killer, a serial murderer who killed scores of people around the Bitsevsky Park between 1992 and 2006.
www.mydarkpath.com/the-russian-chessboard-killer

Pumpkin Hill Radio: Paranormal Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Unexplained Phenomena
Exploring mysteries, myths & the paranormal every Tuesday. Tinfoil hat optional.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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share episode

North Korean sci-fi literature and cinema carry unique themes and messages that could only have originated in the Hermit Kingdom. This episode delves into how North Korea imagines a future of scientific and technological supremacy, often portraying the United States as the antagonist. It examines the historical context of North Korean science fiction, its role in promoting the state's ideology, and its imaginative narratives that range from space exploration to advanced robotics, all while emphasizing loyalty to the party and envisioning a utopian socialist future. Through stories and films, we discover a genre that serves both as propaganda and a lens into the hopes and dreams of a nation isolated from the world.

Pumpkin Hill Radio: Paranormal Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Unexplained Phenomena
Exploring mysteries, myths & the paranormal every Tuesday. Tinfoil hat optional.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
My Dark Path - Haunted Dolls

Haunted Dolls

My Dark Path

play

04/27/21 • 47 min

In Singapore, there’s a park known as the Haw Par Villa, an expansive theme park filled with over 1,000 statues, and hundreds of detailed three-dimensional dioramas. Of course, lots of parks have statues and memorials of people from history. But these dioramas set Haw Par Villa apart; and make it a much wilder, much stranger place. At the epicenter of the park is the Ten Courts of Hell. It’s a self-guided tour through the experiences one would expect from hell. Or at least, the Hell imagined by the multicultural mythology that makes Singapore so unique. While the purpose of the park was to show children the consequences of their bad behavior, the implementation created something rather dark and foreboding. And now, the park has gained a reputation as haunted.

So, perhaps it’s not a surprise that some of these spooky statues and dioramas are thought to be haunted. But what about haunted dolls? How does something created for a sweet and innocent purpose, something that provides comfort and safety to so many, come to get such an evil reputation? In a world with so many dolls, how does one single doll become infamous?

Learn more about the history of three famous haunted dolls; Peggy (who inspired the story of Annebelle), Robert & the girl-doll of the Yesterdays’ Museum.

For images and full show notes visit: http://mydarkpath.com/season1episode9-1
References

Peggy & Annabelle:

Robert:

Pediophobia & the Yesterdays’ Museum:

  • Antoinette May, Haunted Houses of California
  • Eva Marie Simms, “Uncanny Dolls” New Literary History 27.4 (1996): 663-677.

Music:

My Dark Path explores the hidden conspiracies and unexplained stories that shaped our world.
Visit us at
www.mydarkpath.com
www.youtube.com/@mydarkpath
www.patreon.com/mydarkpath

bookmark
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FAQ

How many episodes does My Dark Path have?

My Dark Path currently has 69 episodes available.

What topics does My Dark Path cover?

The podcast is about Hauntings, Society & Culture, Biography, True Crime, Paranormal, Documentary, Podcasts, Ghosts, Science, Espionage, Military History and Ufo.

What is the most popular episode on My Dark Path?

The episode title 'The North Korean Abduction Project' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on My Dark Path?

The average episode length on My Dark Path is 44 minutes.

How often are episodes of My Dark Path released?

Episodes of My Dark Path are typically released every 15 days, 2 hours.

When was the first episode of My Dark Path?

The first episode of My Dark Path was released on Nov 25, 2020.

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