The 15 Best Halloween Podcasts (2026)

Aaron Mahnke launched Lore in 2015, and it quickly became one of the defining podcasts of the mystery and dark history genre. The show now has over 700 episodes and has been adapted into a TV series, a book series, and a touring live show. Each episode explores a real historical event or belief that reveals something unsettling about human nature -- think the origins of vampire folklore, the real history behind infamous haunted houses, or the strange medical practices that terrified entire communities. Mahnke narrates solo with a calm, deliberate cadence that feels like someone telling you a story by firelight. The production features original music by composer Chad Lawson, which adds genuine atmosphere without becoming distracting. Episodes typically run 20 to 35 minutes, and new installments release weekly through Grim and Mild Studios. The show has earned a 4.6-star rating from over 44,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts, making it one of the most widely reviewed podcasts in any genre. Mahnke excels at finding the human stories inside historical mysteries -- the fear, the superstition, the desperation that drove people to extraordinary actions. More recently, the show has expanded its lens to include more diverse historical perspectives, particularly around colonialism and Indigenous history.

The NoSleep Podcast started in 2011 as an audio companion to the famous Reddit community r/nosleep, and it has since become the benchmark for horror fiction podcasts. Host David Cummings curates and produces each episode, which typically features three to five original horror stories performed by a rotating cast of voice actors with full atmospheric sound design and original music scores. It feels more like an audio horror movie than a typical podcast reading.

The show is currently in its 24th season with nearly 700 episodes, and it releases new content weekly. Free episodes run about an hour and include a few stories, while the paid "Season Pass" version extends each episode to two or three hours with additional tales. The production values are genuinely impressive. Each story gets its own soundtrack, sound effects, and carefully cast performers. Writers submit original fiction specifically for the show, and many NoSleep authors have gone on to publish novels or sell film rights based on stories that first aired here.

Cummings has a warm, slightly ominous narration style that bridges the stories together without overpowering them. The tone ranges from psychological horror and supernatural dread to body horror and cosmic terror, so the variety keeps things unpredictable even for longtime listeners. Fan favorites include multi-part series that build tension across episodes.

With a 4.7 rating from nearly 13,000 Apple Podcasts reviews, The NoSleep Podcast has earned its reputation as the gold standard for horror audio fiction. If you have ever read a creepy story online and wished someone would bring it to life with professional voice acting and a haunting soundtrack, this is exactly that.

Spooked is a spinoff of Snap Judgment, and it has carved out its own massive following by focusing exclusively on true supernatural stories told by the people who experienced them. Hosted by Glynn Washington and produced by KQED and Snap Studios, the show has 221 episodes and an impressive 4.6-star rating from over 16,000 reviewers.

Every episode features real people describing encounters they can barely explain. A woman hears her dead grandmother's voice on the phone. A night security guard watches a figure walk through a locked door. A family moves into a house where the previous residents left without their belongings. The storytellers are not professional performers. They're regular people recounting experiences that clearly still shake them.

The production values are superb. Like its parent show, Spooked uses original music and sound design to build atmosphere without overwhelming the narration. Washington's introductions set the tone perfectly, though some listeners note he can be a bit theatrical. Episodes run 25 to 40 minutes and drop every Friday.

What makes Spooked work is the sincerity of the storytellers. These aren't ghost hunters or paranormal investigators with an agenda. They're teachers, nurses, truck drivers, and retired military personnel who experienced something they cannot explain and finally decided to talk about it. The show treats their accounts with respect rather than skepticism, which makes for genuinely unsettling listening. It's the kind of podcast you probably shouldn't listen to alone at night, but you will anyway.

The Magnus Archives is one of those rare fiction podcasts that starts as a monster-of-the-week anthology and slowly reveals itself to be something far more ambitious. Created by Jonathan Sims and produced by Rusty Quill, the show follows Jonathan Sims (yes, same name as the creator) as the new Head Archivist at the Magnus Institute, a London-based organization that investigates paranormal claims. Each episode starts as a standalone "statement" describing a supernatural encounter, but the connections between cases build into an intricate mythology that rewards obsessive listening.

The show ran for 200 main episodes across five seasons, wrapping its core story arc in 2021, though bonus content and related material has continued. With 383 total episodes in the feed and a staggering 4.9 rating from over 10,000 reviews, it has one of the most devoted fanbases in podcasting. The fandom produces art, analysis threads, and lengthy discussions dissecting the show's cosmic horror taxonomy, which categorizes supernatural entities into 14 distinct "Fears" like The Spiral, The Buried, and The Eye.

Sims performs the lead role himself, and his delivery of the archival statements is genuinely compelling. The early episodes feel like classic British ghost stories told in a dry, academic tone. As the series progresses, the format starts breaking apart in ways that mirror the character's deteriorating grip on reality. Supporting characters voiced by other cast members become increasingly important, and the interpersonal drama hits just as hard as the horror.

If you are the kind of listener who loves piecing together clues across dozens of episodes, The Magnus Archives is built for you. It rewards close attention in a way that most serialized fiction podcasts simply do not attempt.

The Halloween Podcast is exactly what the name promises: a show completely dedicated to the holiday, running year-round since 2017. Host Lyle Perez treats Halloween not as a single night but as an entire cultural phenomenon worth exploring from every angle. Episodes cover ghost stories, haunted locations, Halloween history and traditions, paranormal investigations, and interviews with people who live the Halloween lifestyle 365 days a year. In 2025, co-host Meghan Cunningham joined the show, adding a second perspective to the conversations.

With 294 episodes and counting, the show releases weekly and typically runs between 45 minutes to over an hour. The format varies. Some episodes are deep dives into a single haunted location or historical event. Others feature interviews with horror filmmakers, haunted attraction designers, paranormal investigators, and Halloween enthusiasts. Lyle has a genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter that comes through clearly. He is not performing spookiness for effect. He is someone who clearly thinks about this stuff constantly.

The show has a 4.6 rating from 185 reviews on Apple Podcasts, with listeners particularly praising the research quality and the variety of topics. Recent episodes have included Christmas horror stories, explorations of specific folklore traditions, and examinations of how different cultures celebrate the holiday. The production is clean and straightforward, letting the content do the heavy lifting rather than relying on jump scares or dramatic sound effects.

For anyone who starts decorating in September and never really wants the season to end, The Halloween Podcast is the audio equivalent of keeping your skeleton decorations up year-round. It takes the holiday seriously without taking itself too seriously.

Alaina Urquhart is an autopsy technician. Ash Kelley is a hairstylist. Together they host one of the most popular true crime podcasts in existence, and their two-part JonBenet Ramsey series (Episodes 33 and 34) is a fan favorite for good reason. Alaina's professional experience with forensic pathology means she can walk through the autopsy findings and physical evidence with an authority that most true crime hosts simply do not have.

The two-part format gives them room to cover the full story. Part one focuses on the Ramsey family background, the events of December 25-26, and the initial police response. Part two gets into the investigation, the suspects, and the various theories that have emerged over the years. Throughout both episodes, the hosts mix serious analysis with their natural rapport, cracking jokes and going off on tangents in a way that somehow makes the heavy material more manageable.

Morbid has grown into a massive show with over 830 episodes and a 4.4-star rating from nearly 97,000 reviews. The tone is not for everyone. If you want a strictly serious, documentary-style treatment, this is not it. But if you enjoy true crime presented by two people who clearly enjoy each other's company and bring genuine expertise to the forensic details, the JonBenet episodes are well worth the listen. The show updates twice a week and covers everything from historical crimes to paranormal tales.

13 Days of Halloween is an audio horror event that drops daily episodes from October 19th through Halloween night, building a single terrifying narrative across 13 installments. Produced by iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild (the production company behind Lore), each season tells a completely new story with professional voice actors, cinematic sound design, and writing that feels more like a prestige horror film than a podcast.

The show has run four seasons so far, with the most recent airing in 2023. Season One followed a trick-or-treater visiting increasingly disturbing houses on a single Halloween night. Later seasons have featured Keegan-Michael Key and Natalie Morales in starring roles, bringing serious acting talent to what could have been a novelty concept. Season Four placed its protagonist in the mysterious Pendleton Rehabilitation Center, blurring the line between psychological thriller and supernatural horror.

With 57 episodes across all seasons and a 4.6 rating from nearly 2,500 reviews, the show punches well above its weight for a seasonal release. The daily format creates a genuine countdown-to-Halloween energy that works perfectly for October listening. Each episode runs 15 to 30 minutes, short enough to consume in a single commute but dense enough to leave you thinking about it afterward.

The production quality is what sets this apart from the hundreds of Halloween fiction podcasts out there. Grim & Mild knows how to create atmosphere through audio, and the team clearly invests significant resources into making each season feel like a complete, polished horror experience. Fans have been vocal about wanting a Season Five, so this one may not be finished yet.

Halloweenies takes the concept of a movie review podcast and narrows the focus to horror franchises, covering them one film at a time in chronological order. Co-hosts Justin Gerber, Dan Caffrey, McKenzie Gerber, Rachel Reeves, and Michael Roffman bring a genuine film criticism lens to movies that often get dismissed as disposable slashers. The podcast started with the Halloween franchise (hence the name) and has since worked through A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, and Alien. The current season covers the Universal Monsters.

New episodes drop weekly and tend to run long, often pushing past two hours. That length is not padding. The hosts dig into production histories, box office performance, cultural context, and thematic analysis with the enthusiasm of people who clearly grew up loving these movies. The conversation style is relaxed and occasionally funny, but the analysis is substantive enough that you will notice things in familiar films you had never considered before.

With 314 episodes and a 4.4 rating from over 1,000 reviews, Halloweenies has built a dedicated following among horror fans who want more than surface-level takes. The chronological franchise approach creates natural arcs as the hosts track how series evolve (and often decline) over decades. Watching a beloved franchise gradually lose its way is a specific kind of horror that this show captures well.

The most recent episode covered The House of the Devil (2009), showing the hosts are willing to branch beyond strict franchise coverage when a film fits thematically. If you have ever wanted to understand why horror sequels exist and what they tell us about the audiences that keep watching them, Halloweenies is your show.

Jim Harold's Campfire has been running since 2009, making it one of the longest-running paranormal podcasts still in active production. The format is simple and effective: everyday people call in to share their real supernatural experiences with Jim, who listens, asks follow-up questions, and lets the callers tell their stories. No dramatization, no sound effects, no skeptical debunking. Just people describing the things that happened to them in their own words.

The show releases weekly and has accumulated over 810 episodes covering ghosts, shadow people, UFOs, cryptid encounters, precognitive dreams, demonic activity, and basically every category of unexplained experience you can imagine. Jim has a warm, conversational interview style that puts callers at ease. He is clearly fascinated by the paranormal but maintains a respectful tone whether someone is describing a comforting encounter with a deceased relative or a terrifying home invasion by an unknown entity.

What makes Campfire compelling is the sheer volume and variety of stories. After 810 episodes of listener submissions, you start to notice patterns. The same types of encounters get reported independently by people who have never spoken to each other, from different parts of the country, decades apart. Jim does not push any particular interpretation, but the cumulative effect of hearing hundreds of these accounts is genuinely thought-provoking.

The podcast holds a 4.8 rating from nearly 7,000 Apple Podcasts reviews. Jim also hosts The Paranormal Podcast, a more interview-driven show with researchers and authors, but Campfire remains the flagship because there is something uniquely powerful about hearing ordinary people share extraordinary experiences without any production filter between you and their story.

Weekly Spooky is a horror fiction podcast that treats quantity and quality as equally important. Hosted and narrated by indie horror filmmaker Henrique Couto, the show publishes new episodes every Monday and Wednesday, and has built a massive catalog of over 920 episodes since launching in 2019. Each episode features an original horror story with narration, atmospheric music, and sound design that Couto produces himself, drawing on his background in low-budget horror filmmaking.

The stories span the full spectrum of horror subgenres. Urban legends, haunted houses, cursed objects, vampires, werewolves, cryptids, and psychological horror all get regular rotation. Couto's narration style is measured and deliberate, building tension through pacing rather than volume. The cinematic sound design reflects his filmmaker instincts, using ambient noise and score to set mood without overwhelming the story itself. Episodes typically run 15 to 30 minutes, making them ideal for commutes or bedtime listening.

Couto openly targets the "spooky season year-round" audience, and the twice-weekly publishing schedule means there is always fresh content. The show leans into mature themes without becoming gratuitous, and each story usually lands on a twist ending or an unresolved note that sticks with you. The writing quality varies somewhat given the volume of output, but Couto's best episodes are genuinely creepy.

With a 4.4 rating from 264 reviews, Weekly Spooky has built a loyal audience that appreciates the consistent output and Couto's particular brand of slow-burn storytelling. If you burn through horror fiction podcasts faster than they can produce new episodes, this one's publishing pace will actually keep up with you.

Chilling Tales for Dark Nights is the horror fiction empire you probably did not know existed. The show has been running since 2016 and sits at over 500 episodes, with host Steve Taylor introducing multiple original horror stories per episode, each performed by professional voice actors with full sound effects and musical scores. The production company behind it, Chilling Entertainment, also produces Horror Hill, Scary Stories Told in the Dark, and Fear From the Heartland, essentially cornering the market on horror anthology podcasting.

Each weekly episode typically bundles three to five stories running a combined 60 to 90 minutes. The stories come from a mix of established horror writers and community submissions, and the best ones rival published short fiction in quality. The voice acting roster is deep, with different performers cast for different stories based on tone and character requirements. Steve Taylor ties everything together with introductions that set the mood without overstaying their welcome.

The show holds a 4.6 rating from nearly 2,900 Apple Podcasts reviews, and the most recent episode dropped in late January 2026. The production team clearly has a system dialed in. Episodes feel consistent in quality despite the volume of content, and the sound design walks the right line between atmospheric and restrained. You will not find gratuitous jump-scare audio stingers here. The horror comes from the stories themselves.

Chilling Tales works particularly well as background listening for October evenings, road trips through rural areas, or any situation where you want a steady stream of well-produced horror fiction without having to choose individual episodes. The catalog is deep enough that you could listen daily for over a year without repeating.

It's Always Halloween is a year-round celebration of the holiday hosted by self-described "master of scaremonies" Luce Tomlin-Brenner. The show treats Halloween as a living cultural tradition worth examining from every possible angle, covering everything from the holiday's ancient Celtic roots to modern haunted attraction design to the economics of the Spirit Halloween store phenomenon. Luce brings an infectious enthusiasm that never feels performative. This is someone who clearly thinks about Halloween constantly and has found a way to make that obsession productive.

The podcast has been running since 2020 with over 200 episodes, releasing weekly through the year and ramping up frequency as October approaches. Episodes typically run 30 to 60 minutes and alternate between solo deep dives and interviews with guests from the Halloween world, including haunted house operators, horror directors, costume designers, historians, and fellow Halloween obsessives. The research is solid. Luce does not just skim the surface of a topic but traces traditions back to their origins and follows how they evolved.

The show holds a 4.5 rating from 360 reviews, with listeners consistently praising the warmth and depth of the content. The most recent regular episode dropped on Halloween 2025, though the feed stays active with bonus material and related content during off-months. Luce has a talent for making niche Halloween history feel accessible and entertaining rather than academic.

If you are the kind of person who considers October 1st to be the real start of the year and views the other eleven months as the off-season, It's Always Halloween validates that worldview entirely. It is the podcast for people who never want spooky season to end.

Real Life Ghost Stories has quietly become one of the most prolific paranormal podcasts around, with over 1,100 episodes and a near-perfect 4.9 rating from nearly 2,900 reviews. Host Emma runs a tight operation, publishing multiple episodes per week in different formats. Sunday episodes feature deep dives into famous haunted locations and historical cases. Wednesday and Friday mini-episodes spotlight listener submissions, creating a steady flow of content that keeps the community actively engaged.

The show covers classic ghost stories, haunted buildings, poltergeist cases, and unexplained phenomena, but what separates it from the crowded paranormal field is the research depth on the longer episodes. Emma traces the full history of a haunted location rather than just listing reported sightings. You get the context of who lived there, what happened, and why the hauntings might have started. The listener submission episodes add a personal dimension, with people sharing encounters from their own homes, workplaces, and travels.

Emma's narration style is measured and clear, treating the subject matter with seriousness without becoming humorless. She occasionally brings in co-host Dan for discussions, and the dynamic between them adds a conversational element to what could otherwise feel like straight documentary reporting. The show also intersects with horror film reviews on occasion, broadening the scope beyond just real accounts.

The publishing schedule is aggressive enough that new listeners will find themselves with a genuinely overwhelming backlog. But the episode variety means you can pick and choose based on mood. Want a well-researched deep dive into a famous haunting? Sunday episodes. Just want a quick, creepy listener story? Grab a mini-episode. The flexibility is part of what has built such a large and loyal audience.

The Preserve Halloween Podcast comes from the Halloween Preservation Society, and the name tells you everything about the mission. Host Gregory Hallows approaches Halloween as a cultural tradition worth protecting, documenting, and celebrating in all its forms. The show examines the holiday's diverse historical roots, regional variations, and evolving practices with the earnestness of someone who genuinely believes these traditions matter and fears they might be lost.

With 92 episodes since launching in 2020, the show releases weekly and covers an eclectic range of topics. Episodes explore the origins of specific Halloween customs like jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treating, profile communities with unusual Halloween traditions, interview historians and folklorists, and examine how the holiday has changed across different eras and cultures. Gregory's approach is educational without being dry. He clearly enjoys the material and presents it with a storyteller's instinct for what makes a historical detail interesting.

The podcast carries a 4.8 rating from 29 reviews, a small but passionate audience that values the show's unique positioning. Most Halloween podcasts focus on horror content or paranormal stories. This one focuses on the holiday itself as a subject worth serious attention. That distinction matters because it means you will learn things here that you simply will not encounter on other shows.

Recent episodes have included examinations of Halloween-adjacent traditions from other holidays, suggesting the show's scope is expanding beyond strictly October territory. If you have ever wondered why we carve pumpkins instead of turnips, where the concept of a haunted house attraction originated, or how Halloween celebrations differ between New England and the American South, Gregory Hallows has probably already recorded an episode about it.

HHN 365 is the definitive podcast for Halloween Horror Nights fans, and it treats Universal's annual scare event with the same analytical seriousness that sports podcasts bring to their leagues. Co-hosts Duff, Jess, and Jonathan cover news, rumors, house announcements, scare zone reviews, and detailed event history, primarily focused on the Orlando event but also covering HHN Hollywood, Japan, and Singapore locations.

The show has been running since 2019 with 217 episodes, releasing weekly and running close to two hours per episode. That length reflects just how much there is to discuss. Halloween Horror Nights has become a massive cultural and commercial phenomenon, with houses based on major horror franchises, original intellectual properties, and elaborate scare zones that change entirely each year. The hosts break down each house's design philosophy, compare it to previous years, and analyze how Universal's approach to themed entertainment has evolved.

The most recent episode covered the announcement that Jack the Clown, HHN's iconic original character, is returning for the 2026 event. That kind of deep-cut knowledge is what the show's audience comes for. Duff, Jess, and Jonathan are not casual fans summarizing press releases. They know the event's history going back decades and can contextualize every new announcement against that history.

With a 4.4 rating from 145 reviews, HHN 365 serves a specific niche extremely well. If you attend Halloween Horror Nights annually or are planning your first visit, this podcast is essential preparation. If you have never been but are interested in how themed entertainment and horror intersect at the highest production level, it is a fascinating window into an industry that takes scaring people very seriously.