What The Folklore?

We've got something of a rarity for Spooklore this year: an honest-to-goodness, albeit short, unnerving story! This week, we read The Ghost Village

Suggested talking points: Solemnly Observing a Rock, Hungrystaking, Cowboy-Watch Update, This Time The Cloud Yells Back, A Literal Trap for Tourists, A Cackle-Worthy Revelation, An Ominous Ellipsis

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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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, Mythomorphosis
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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: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to help spread the word! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Support us on Patreon to help the show grow at www.patreon.com/wtfolklore. You can find merchandise and information about the show at...

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, Corn Jacuzzi, Double-Negative Taxes, Welcome to Dog-Corpse Island

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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Episode 500

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, Passed the Point of Poignant, Anti-Dipping Propaganda, VIP Ticket to Hell, Report In For Your Scheduled Beating

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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If you like our show...

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, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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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 Hotdog the Tiger

Suggested talking points: Thor 2: Better Thor, Jorts Vampire, A Quick Sundiata Refresher, Saint Al of Yankovic, Like if a Sesame Street Episode had a Horrible Car Crash, Living Nunchucks, In the Eyes of Hotdog

Check o...

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 endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to help spread the word! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Support us on Patreon to help the show grow at www.patreon.com/wtfolklore. You can find merchandise and information about...

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 to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to help spread the word! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Support us on Patreon to help the show grow at www.patreon.com/wtfolklore. You can find merchandise...

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

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to help spread the word! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Support us on Patreon to help the show grow...

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 Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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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 Parasite, A Professional at Eating Scenery, Immersion-Therapy for Pun Appreciation, A "Just-In-Case" Tax, This Tree is Congress, Egg Alert

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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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 Information, Whoville's Siren Santa Song, Returning a Bandaged Cow, Basically Kidnapping an Egg, A Grandpa-Shaped Rock, All Shapes are Gone, What is An iPhone but a Cool Rock?

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings<...

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, A Licensed Devil Franchise, Can't Talk While You're Pipin'

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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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 Boy, Living Six Lives at Once, Accidentally Forged a Pottery Sword, Meat into the Alphabet-Grinder

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us...

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 in Bellibolt Technology, Excommunicated from the Pinocchio Community, Folktale Chop Shop, Magic Ennui Ball, Nega-Bilbo, Kafka Kourt

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find u...

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 of Two Easy Payments of $99.99, This Horse's MSRP Was Wildly Exaggerated, The Whiny Squadron of Various Boys, Roy G. Bear, Honorary Bug

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our s...

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 talking points: Putting the "Monster" in Pocket Monster, King of the "One Guy Plays Every Guy" Genre, The Sheer Power of Upies, In This Place There are ONLY Bald Men, You Can Trust a Dad Who is Dressed as a Bear, A Beary Scary Sleeping Bag

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, Somewhere Cold and Full of Bears, A Castle Full of Ho-hos and Bagel Bites, Water-Spitting Mole-Horse

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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If you like our show...

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 Minions Pit, We're Putting for Bogey on this Folktale, The Ol' "Panini Hands" of Sadness, A Room Dedicated to Corn and Corn-Enjoyment, Longing to Return to the Lava Dimension

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If...

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, Armpits of Steel, Caring is at a Minimum, Dropped Bundles From Weak-Armpited Men Running from Bug Children, The Problem of the Hot Lady, Strengthen Your Thoughts with Manliness, We're So Sick of These Horny Men, I'd Put a Bug in a Headlock

Check out G...

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 Tom Clancy Bought a Farm, Sad-squatch, Optimus Dad-Bot, Screaming in Two Languages, Spare Not the Armpits, Yelling "BLOOD!" in a Crowded Theater

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

...

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 Being the Youngest, Clothing-based Vision

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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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 points: Just Get to the Vows Before the Frog Shows Up, We are Proven Fools, SHE HAD KICKING STRENGTH THIS WHOLE TIME?!, Sucking in Complimentary Ways, One Man's Prince is Another Man's Lake Monster, A Sword the Length of a First Down

Check...

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 Croissant, D'Aulnoy Walked so AO3 Could Run, Counting is Not a Frog Power, Juggling With Punches, All Signs Point to Eaten, A Concentrated Frog-Punch

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

...

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, Technofecalism, The Fortnite of Cookies, Goo That Is Alive, The Unrelenting Postman, The Delivery Olympics, Meat in an Envelope

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If...

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 Into Things, Good But Worse LLC, Hauntings Are Just Your Soulmate Missing You

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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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 Return of Ichabod, I Can Has Mammothburger?, Our Annual Cat-Meme Reunion, The Ever-Present Custard Pie, Secondhand Grievances

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
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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 Left His Yard to Climb a Rock and Didn't Even Punch a Robber

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to he...

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 Draggins, When the Apple Trees Nap, A Garage of Many-Winged Horses, More Porker Than Man

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find u...

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 Andersen, Any Tree; Giving or Otherwise, Hans Christian Andersen's PCP Shower Thoughts, The Cult of Corn

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to h...

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!

Music used was "Auld Lang Syne Instrumental Jazz", provided royalty free by E's Jammy Jams

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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 Tangent, The First Grilled Cheese, Have Yourself a Merry Little Radical Day

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to help spread the...

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 Private Collection of Spheres, KrampusCon, Bart Simpson's God-Fearing Face, Maintaining the Crime Ecosystem, A Cactus Does Not Grow on Gossip Alone, Cornborne

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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 Corn, Patrick Bateman Visits Grandma, A Turkey in the Background for Legal Reasons, Tom Bombadil Disease

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

If you like our show, find us online to...

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 Stethoscope, It Sounds Like Overkill Because It Is, Mountain Dribbling

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings

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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: A Farquaad Wandering Amongst the Furries, Schrödinger's Wizard, Everything is Shaped like Jack Black, Unmade by Apples, The Line Between "Wonder" and "Nightmare", Prison in the Shape of a Prize

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic e...

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 most terrifying location in North America...New Jersey...

Suggested talking points: Bricked My Toothbrush, Bobo or Bust, Paranormal Beach Vacation, Cryptid Support Group, "Please! Our Pigs are Brainless!", A Surprising Amount of Kangaroo

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd...

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 spooky story!

Suggested talking points: Spooktralizer Prime, Facebook Marketplace: Post-Apocalypse Edition, Vitamin Weird, Dr. Eepy, Megastitious, Cauldron Cooties, Ghosts Vs. Machines That Beep

Check out Gordie's TTRPG, Mythomorphosis
If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings