Podcast Review: Lore

Down the Rabbit Hole with ​Lore

By Danielle Arze

History and folklore is an intersection that has always interested me, while I love folklore I also want to know why these old stories have come about throughout the years. The podcast, aptly titled Lore, stands firmly in this junction and has held its place even with gaining popularity.
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Each episode of this biweekly podcast deals with one point in history, a significant location, or an interesting piece of lore. It then dives into it giving a well researched, satisfying snippet of history. Each episode is around 30 minutes, which makes it the perfect commute podcast. I love oddities and facts I can later share with friends, and this podcast sprinkles in enough quick facts to make it full of fun conversational pieces. Now, years into the podcast it has expanded into both a show (on Amazon) and my personal favorite, books. Each book surrounds one broad topic either locations, historical people, or, mystical beings. Both the show and the books center around the same quick telling short story format as the podcast (I will also add the art in both the books and the show are breathtaking). Small pieces of history that, if you’re truly interested, you can delve deeper into on your own time.

However, if you don’t have the time for that, Lore still has you covered. In a spin-off podcast, Unobscured, each season is devoted to a deep dive into one specific topic. The first season is devoted to the Salem witch trials, the people involved, the trials themselves, and what really happened. The second season deals with Spiritualism, a worldwide phenomenon that spun out of control. Each one of these episodes lasts around 40 minutes to an hour. With interviews and readings of historical documents, it gives a satisfying examination of these topics.

The entire world that surrounds what started out as a small podcast run by one guy has turned into a one-stop-shop for the intersection of oddities and horror. In my opinion, the best stories, the ones that follow you throughout the day, tugging at the back of your mind, are those that are based in fact and history. Ones that you can trace, the people were real, and so were their stories. Lore clearly agrees with me in this, and even when it branches out of strict folklore and instead, a profile of a particularly interesting historical person, it keeps that slightly creepy feeling we all sometimes crave.