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A Kentucky podcast for spooky season, 'Penny Royal' investigates eerie events

The team behind the podcast "Penny Royal."
Wandering Elm Photography
The team behind the podcast "Penny Royal."

If it’s bizarre, unusual and happened in Kentucky, Kyle Kadel and Nathan Isaac are into it.

Together they create a paranormal podcast called “Penny Royal” that Isaac hosts and Kadel is one of several producers on. They explore a number of eerie Kentucky events, from a 1876 “meat shower” in Olympia Springs to the “Hopkinsville Goblins” and other unexplained occurrences.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I have always been very into imagination, and ‘What if?’ and ‘What else is out there?’... What the world's made of, and what is reality,” said Kadel, who also co-owns and curates the International Paranormal Museum and Research Center in Somerset in south central Kentucky.

For eastern Kentucky native Isaac, collecting stories and folklore have always been an integral part of his life.

“And when we moved to Somerset, and I began to collect stories [there], there were so many strange ones,” he said.

Listen to the interview:


89.3 WFPL News Louisville · From raining meat to ‘little green men,’ here are some spooky Kentucky stories

The podcast’s second season is due out early next year. 

As to whether the two believe all the spooky Kentucky stories they’ve come across over the last few years, Kadel thinks “the overall picture that we have of reality is formed by the things that don't fit into it.” 

Isaac said some of the events they investigated are “well-documented,” and “absolutely happened.”

“And then there are other things that, did it happen or was it misinterpreted?” he continued. “It still becomes part of the folklore. Right? There's still a reason for why people believe it or want to believe it.”

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