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Urban Legends

Urban Legends

De : Luke Mordue
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Luke Mordue examines the historical impact of the stories that haunt our society, tales that have gripped towns and cities worldwide for centuries as actual events - Urban Legends. First, hear the tales retold as short stories before delving into the history of the legend, dissecting its cultural significance, factuality, and origins.

Released Fortnightly.

© 2026 Urban Legends
Science Sciences sociales
Épisodes
  • The Kraken
    May 1 2026

    The Kraken belongs to a 600-year tradition of Scandinavian sea monsters; creatures so vast that medieval sailors mistook their backs for islands and landed on them.

    The word itself is said to have first appeared in a Norwegian glossary in 1646, but by the 1750s, Erik Pontoppidan was cataloguing fishermen's accounts in his ‘Natural History of Norway’, treating the creature not as folklore but as a species awaiting classification.

    But what were these sailors actually seeing? Was it mass hysteria? Mistranslated whale sightings? Or genuine encounters with something the world hadn't named yet?

    In this chapter, I trace the Kraken from 13th-century Norwegian texts to the harpoon scars left on dying sperm whales and to 2004, when researchers finally photographed a living giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time in human history.

    This is Urban Legends.


    Support the show

    Contact me at: luke@lukemordue.com

    Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/lukemordue

    Everything else: lukemordue.com/podcast

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    45 min
  • Jersey Devil
    May 1 2026

    In this chapter, we delves deep into the urban legend of the 'Jersey Devil'. From its roots in the Pine Barrens and the Leeds family story into the 1909 wave of sightings, when strange tracks, alleged attacks, and public fear spread across South Jersey and beyond.

    Join us as we examine what was actually reported, how the story travelled, and what the panic reveals about rumour, media, and the human need to give a name and a shape to the unknown.

    Support the show

    Contact me at: luke@lukemordue.com

    Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/lukemordue

    Everything else: lukemordue.com/podcast

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    52 min
  • Skinwalkers
    May 1 2026

    Some stories are kept secret for a reason, and among the Diné, the figures outsiders call 'skinwalkers' is one of them.

    In this chapter, we examine how this subject sits within Diné teachings about witchcraft rather than monsters, why many details are not shared publicly, and how 19th-century accusations, modern reporting, and internet mythmaking reshaped the idea for the rest of the world.

    We separate community perspectives and documented history from hearsay and pop-culture distortion. To many, the Skinwalker is another Urban Legend, but to those who know its secrets, it is far more than that.

    Support the show

    Contact me at: luke@lukemordue.com

    Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/lukemordue

    Everything else: lukemordue.com/podcast

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    55 min
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