PODCAST · comedy
What The Folklore?
by What the Folklore
A comedy podcast that exposes the absurd side of folklore. Each week we read a story, fix plotholes and create new ones, and invent unintended connections between tales.
Episodes
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Episode 502: Somewhere, an Apple Smiles
Spooklore 2026 continues with a Romani story simply titled The Vampire. You'd be forgiven if you forget that halfway through it. Suggested talking points: Jump Scare Intro, The Game-Ending Turtle, The Return of Old News, Vaguely Related to Feet, Road Exasperation Check out Gordie's TTRPG,...
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Pathogen Brink
Spooklore 2026 begins with an important question: "What if Final Fantasy was Spooky?". 1998's Parasite Eve dared to answer that question, with a dubious grasp on the concept of mitochondrial DNA Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit:...
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Episode 501: READY THE WOMAN CATAPULT!
Welcome to Season 2! Our inaugural story is Cherry the Frog Bride, a Grimm tale that starts silly and becomes increasingly...well...Grimm. Suggested talking points: Time for Numbers to Go on Vacation, Mandatory Internet Buddy-System, Specializing in Guilt and Shame, Eavesdropping on a Pig Race,...
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Episode 499: I AM THE HORSE
This week, on the eve of episode 500, we read The Baker's Apprentice, a story that serves as a tortured metaphor for the kingdom of Heaven, but works great as a metaphor for the worst cake you've ever heard of. Suggested talking points: Season 2 Eve, Linkin Park Shaped Gummies, Audio SkyMall,...
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Episode 498: The Kindly Wizard, Updog
This week, after a brief look at the stupid, stupid future of Golf, we journey to Scandinavia for the tale of Wet George. Suggested talking points: Golf With Sidequests, Bath Taxi, Breaking New Dum-Dum Ground, Bad at Existing but Really Good at Knots, A Rich Minefiled Check out Gordie's TTRPG,...
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Episode 497: The Moon is Full of Meat
What's the best way to chill out and relax after the 5-Part Epic of Sundiata? Well, I can think of several, but the one Carman CHOSE is to read a Rootabaga Tales double feature...so please enjoy How The Potato-Faced Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine Spring Morning and Pokerface the Baboon and...
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Episode 496: At Last, I Have Told You About Sundiata (The Epic of Sundiata, Part 5)
Are we...are we free??? Suggested talking points: Milk Nightcrawlers, Psycho-Sexual Lamps for Sale, The Tree that Oscars Grow On, Them Cheeks Check Out, Sorcerer-War Etiquette, Hundreds of Animals Dying Constantly Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis If you'd like to support Carman's artistic...
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Episode 495: A Breadcrumb Trail of Venerable Old Men (The Epic of Sundiata, Part 4)
Oh, hey, look at that...still talking about Sundiata this week! Suggested talking points: Rooting for Captain Dirk, Adopted by Foxes, Missed Thirst-Trap Opportunity, Oral Tradition Ad-Break, Throbbing for War, Acute Benjamin Button Syndrome Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis If you'd like…
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Episode 494: Might as Well be Spectacularly Wrong (The Epic of Sundiata, Part 3)
Think you've heard enough about Sundiata yet? Because I have terrible news... Suggested talking points: Futuristic Flavor-Drink, A Threatening Quantity of Cowboy Hats, I Guess These are Proverbs, Getting Fed to Hang Out, Unmanned (AKA, "Re-Boyed"), A Storage-Room of Power, The Tube-of-Meat King...
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Episode 493: Responsible for 1/9th of a Baby (The Epic of Sundiata, Part 2)
This week, we FINALLY hear about Sundiata! Or Do We??? (We do). Suggested talking points: Groundhog Godzilla Year, A One-Scheme Limit, It's Birthin' Time, One-String "Wonderwall", Invalidated King Warranty, Baby Brings the Thunder, Checking all the Boy Boxes, Free Tickets for Gawking Check out...
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Episode 492: Some of Them are Djinn, All of Them are Bros (The Epic of Sundiata, Part 1)
TW: Brief description of marital SA between 51:38 and 52:00 After probably-months of teasing, it is time to begin another epic, this time The Epic of Sundiata. And by "begin", I of course mean "we'll get around to talking about him eventually, maybe". Suggested talking points: Septennial…
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Episode 491: Everything Leads Back to Rock
Have you seen the movie "Her"? No? Go check out the trailer...okay, got it? Now you basically understand this week's story, The Wonderful Stone. Except instead of Scarlet Johansson's disembodied voice, just picture a cool rock. Suggested talking points: A Human Repository of Important Municipal...
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Episode 490: A Miserable Soundscape of Love
This week we read The Tale of Katcha and the Devil: The Story of a Clinging Vine, which is a story we can all agree we've never read before. 100% sure about that, as are you. Right?? Suggested talking points: A Husk of Loose Thoughts, TIME SISTER, Scolding Dogs from a Mile Away, The Bagpipe Boyz…
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Episode 489: The Fish are Extremely Armed
Enticed by Carman's cryptic clue of "Grandpa, Man-eating, Egg", we dive headfirst this week into The Legend of Aji Saka. It for sure has each of those things in it. Suggested talking points: Big Water vs. Big Queso, Thick Gloopy Vocal Cords, The Channing Tatum Chin Experience, Quietly Undo the…
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Episode 488: Detective Tardigrade is on the Case!
After reading a much-too-long epic (that really could've been boiled down to a single episode), we decided we needed a palette cleanser. For some reason, we also decided that palette cleanser would be Hans Christian Andersen. This week, we read The Rose Elf. Suggested talking points: Advancements...
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Episode 487: Suplex the Moon (The Story of Harap Alb, Part 3)
This week on WTFolklore, we finally conclude the epic known as The Story of Harap Alb, with perhaps the most pitiful, confusing "Animal A-Team" we've yet encountered on the podcast. Suggested talking points: Emoji Hieroglyphics, The Proposal-Disposal House, Now Available For Three Easy Payments…
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Episode 486: The Wrong Eyes Blinking (The Story of Harap Alb, Part 2)
This week on WTFolklore, cooler heads prevail, and instead of alternating back and forth between epics, we pick up where we left off last time and read Chapters 2 and 3 of The Story of Harap Alb, titled Under the Power of Bald-Man and The Bear's Lettuce and The Stag's Precious Stones Suggested...
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Episode 485: Playing Bridge with the Boys in a Bear Suit (The Story of Harap Alb, Part 1)
This week on WTFolklore, we do what we've always done best: complain about commercials. Then we read Chapter 1 of The Story of Harap Alb, which is itself titled The Ember-Eating Flying Horse Suggested talking points: Punched in the Mouth by a Sandwich, Bros En Masse, A Good Way to Annex Sons,...
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Episode 484: The Wizard of Teeth (The Trial of Lovers: The Maiden of Mátsaki and the Red Feather Part 3)
Even though it says "Part 3" in the title, we close out Part 2 of The Trial of Lovers: The Maiden of Mátsaki and the Red Feather this week, thus bringing an end to our tale of a guy so dumb and annoying he caused the very concept of death to exist. Suggested talking points: One Cat One Taco, The...
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Episode 483: Unanimous Vote from the Bug Council (The Trial of Lovers: The Maiden of Mátsaki and the Red Feather Part 2)
This week, we conclude at least Part 1 of The Trial of Lovers: The Maiden of Mátsaki and the Red Feather, having learned nothing about said Red Feather, but a surprising amount about bugs, their legs, and the lexicon of demons and wizards. Suggested talking points: My Breaths Aren't Finite…
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Episode 482: Part 1 of Part 1 of ? (Part 1)
This week on WTFolklore, we begin an unexpectedly long journey into The Trial of Lovers: The Maiden of Mátsaki and the Red Feather, a Zuñi Folktale that we've barely scratched the surface on, if the episode title serves as any indication Suggested talking points: Dream Tyler Redemption, What If…
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Episode 481: A Cow Could be a Bird
We're back to regularly scheduled antics after surviving d'Aulnoy again, this time to read The Dun Cow, a story that would've fazed us a decade ago, but to which we now find ourselves unfortunately inured. Suggested talking points: Side-Witch, I Don't Need Your Stink Bread, Grandfathered Into…
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Episode 48O: The Benevolent Lack of Frog (The Benevolent Frog, Part 3)
We conclude our Journey through The Benevolent Frog, and come to the unanimous consensus: to improve the story, the frog must go. Thank you once more to Dani for joining us on this particular ride! And if you're interested in Gordie's new kickstarter, check it out HERE!!! Suggested talking…
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Episode 479: Intorducing "Nary Frog" (The Benevolent Frog, Part 2)
We continue our Journey through The Benevolent Frog, and, unfortunately, this section DOES include a frog. Its benevolence, however, is up for debate. Thank you to Dani for joining us on this particular ride! Suggested talking points: Slowly Returning to Baby, We're Doin' Shrek, The Raddest...
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Episode 478: Prepare for War, Jeff (The Benevolent Frog, Part 1)
The time has come, once more. The clock has rolled over again, another year has passed, and to usher us into Year 11 of WTFolklore is none other than our dear, dear friend, Madame d'Aulnoy. Thank you to Dani for joining us on this particular ride! Suggested talking points: Fae Notary,...
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Episode 477: The Terrible Burden of Human Consciousness
This week, after celebrating our own brand of "Big Game", we dive into one of the Four Great Folktales of China, The Butterfly Lovers Suggested talking points: The Super Toilet Bowl, Secret Treaty (to Defeat Gordie), All of the Beach Happening To You at Once, The Franz Kafka University of Turning...
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Episode 476: Chekhov's Armory
A slightly-less-but-still-bite-sized episode of WTFolklore as the Whimbus continues to throw its tantrums on us. This time we crack open a tome that threatens to remain with us for some time to come, The Cats' Arabian Nights, or, King Grimalkum Suggested talking points: A Folklore Receptacle, The...
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Episode 475: Yet Another Win for Big Big Rock
It's a bite-sized episode this week on WTFolklore as we race against the sky to complete a recording. Not all of us made it... we read Shippeitaro, a tale from Japan. Suggested talking points: Nary a Goof, Boat% Speedrun, The Adventure Famine, Yowllicle Cats™, Stinky-Girl Pageant, The Boy Who…
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Episode 474: A Very Divorceable Man
This week on WTFolklore we read The Bad Mother, a Romani tale so chock-a-block full of chaotic magic, it may well be our Primordial Fairy Tale. Suggested talking points: The Price is Wrong, Speaking of Brain Diseases, Going Backwards on the Simba Log, My Other Horse is a Bus, Dentures and…
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Episode 473: Extremely, Rigorously Peer-Reviewed Hypnotist
We return in 2026, kicking things off with two short tales, one from Hans Christian Andersen, the other a Grimm, with the sliveriest of slivers for connective tissue to one another: traveling occurs in both. Suggested talking points: BYOB(omb), Self Actualized Pokémon Card, Doxxing Hans Christian...
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Episode 472: Ancient Chinese Old Spice Commercial
We cut it VERY CLOSE this year, but it wouldn't be a year of What The Folklore without us dipping in to another chapter of The Journey West. Thanks to Dave, Jayson, Matt and Melissa for all joining in on this one, and Thank YOU for listening to another year of this show. See you all in 2026!…
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Episode 471: The Purge, but for Plumbers
After a quiet December of very little posting, we've returned with a gift for the holidays as we read The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff. Suggested talking points: Gordiesmas, Golfception, Pulp Fiction: The Grandma Cut, The Krampus is Now Literate, The Year Without a Monkey King, A Record-Breaking...
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Episode 470: Wine, Horse, and Husband Insurance
Content Warning: The story this week revolves around the central plot point of a dog's death. This week on WTFolklore, we read The Dog and the Sparrow, another Grimm tale that has somehow yet alluded our eyeballs...but no longer! Suggested talking points: The Tortoise and the Highlander, A…
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Episode 469: The Corn is a Metaphor for Corn
This week on WTFolklore, we read The Lambikin, originally an Indian story, retold as an Irish story, that we then wrestle into the shape of a Thanksgiving story. Suggested talking points: Gordie's House of Pain, Garfield Shrugged, Bored Halfway Through a Burger, Sillybles, Spending Corn to Make...
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Episode 468: The Five-Second-Rule for Poison
This week on WTFolklore, we read Vukub-Cakix, a Mayan tale that purports to be about "Twin Hero-Wizards". We purport they are neither. Suggested talking points: Make N' Shake, Forgive Me For the Blow Dart (and the Strangling...), Nobody Eats Plums, We Are Famous Doctors Trust Us, Licensed to...
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Episode 467: Two Birds, One Stone, and Also One is a Cat
It's back to business-as-usual this week on WTFolklore as we re-calibrate our fairy tale senses with some good ol' fashion eastern european fare, The Glass Mountain, which stars a guy dressed as Hugh Jackman, who is dressed as Jack Black, who is dressed as a school boy. Suggested talking points…
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Episode 466: Thanks for the Sandwiches, My Whole Family Died
DISCLAIMER: Gordie lost about half of his audio recording this week, so we had to improvise. See if you can guess the parts that got re-recorded! Spooklore 2025 draws to a close this week, and we have another WTFolklore-exclusive, custom made Cryptid tale for you! Join us as we venture to the…
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Episode 465: Bed Bath & Unnamed Dread
Spooklore 2025 continues this week, with a bit of a twist. Rather than continually avoiding every instance of a "This is a THING, and here are it's SCARY FEATURES" type stories, Carman has elected to assemble her own folktale about one such THING, The Santa Compaña. So enjoy this custom-made…
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Episode 464: The Joann Fabrics Power Vacuum
Spooklore begins in earnest this week, as we read what may well be the earliest-recorded Found Footage ghost story, The Haunting of Athenodorus, or as we elected to call it, "Ghost Hunters: Ancient Athens Edition". Suggested talking points: A Barbershop Quartet of Air Horns, A Gas Station for...
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Episode 463: The Legend of Pork City
On what is TECHNICALLY the first Spooklore installment of the year...we got a little distracted. Thankfully, our spooky instincts kicked in and we accidentally turn The Vision of Mac Conglinne into a ghost story anyway. Suggested talking points: Sorry About the Belly Ghost, Whetstone Dentistry,...
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Episode 462: Give us Uppies, or Give us Death!
This week we return to our good friend Carl Sandburg for a Rootabega-adjacent story, The Haystack Cricket, and How Things Are Different Up in the Moon Towns. If you like random sounds strung together with no evident rhyme or reason, buddy look no further than a Carl Sandburg story... Suggested...
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Episode 461: So Now You're a 12-Headed Dragon: A User's Guide (with T. Kingfisher)
We are joined this week by very special guest T. Kingfisher! We had to call in back-up to wade our way through Princess Miranda and Prince Hero, a Polish tale featuring everyone's favorite creep, Koschei the Deathless. It also features a hero (named Hero) who makes some staggeringly questionable...
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Episode 460: David Blaine Eats 40 Cows
After talking about some crucial current events (read: Stuart Little Lore), we dive into The Little Purse with Two Half-Pennies, a Romanian tale with some stunning revelations about Project Birdfall's humble beginnings. Suggested talking points: An Awkward Starbucks Date with Spiderman,...
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Episode 459: Freaky Friday'd with a Corpse
This week on What the Folklore, we read FOUR different explanations for where the heck all these god-dang mosquitos came from. As is our want, we take a more...buffet approach to the answer. Suggested talking points: Label Maker x Spooktralizer Slash Fic, Panera Bread Crime Aura, Wandering Around...
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Episode 458: All Cherry Men are Weird Guys, But Not Every Weird Guy is a Cherry Man
This week on What the Folklore, we read two different stories, The Eye Juggler and Gobbleknoll, which inadvertently creates our most Body Horror-oreinted episode yet! It's Spooklore Summer, baby! Suggested talking points: An Artificial World of Body Parts and Holes, Flirting for Free Cream, An...
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Episode 457: I’m Not Constipated, I’m WISHING
This week on What the Folklore, we read The Nodding Tiger, a Chinese story that introduces us to the humble beginnings of a beloved friend. Suggested talking points: Modular Lego Road, Trained on Gas Station Roller Food, A Robust Evening Wood-Market, These are Man-Catchin' Nets, The Only Son…
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Episode 456: Skateboarded Too Close to the Sun
This week on What the Folklore, we read the Spanish tale The Bird of Truth, which has some serious texture pop-in issues. Either that, or the protagonist is legally blind and shy about it. Suggested talking points: Grizelda's Bar and Grill, Back to the Chaos Mines, Like Moses, but Way More Gucci,...
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Who Says Solutions Can't Cause More Problems?
This week on What the Folklore, we're reading Ligur the Water Giant, an obscure German-language tale with a wizard that rivals even the mighty Gaznak! Suggested talking points: A Bowl of Loose Toppings, We've Done a LOT to Vampires, Queen Oprah, Briefly At War with Whales (and Wales), A True...
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454: Unstoppable Business Glacier of Success
This week on WTFolklore, we head back to our old stomping ground of France for Blanche and Vermeille. You can tell it's a riveting tale, because we spend a good chunk of the episode discussing things you could wear instead of pants. Suggested talking points: Sneaking Agenda Into the Prose,...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does What The Folklore? have?
What The Folklore? currently has 600 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is What The Folklore? about?
A comedy podcast that exposes the absurd side of folklore. Each week we read a story, fix plotholes and create new ones, and invent unintended connections between tales.
How often does What The Folklore? release new episodes?
What The Folklore? releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 600 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to What The Folklore??
You can listen to What The Folklore? on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts What The Folklore??
What The Folklore? is created and hosted by What the Folklore.
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