MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

John Allen, better known as MrBallen, built one of the biggest YouTube channels in the true crime and mystery space before bringing his storytelling to podcast form. The result is exactly what you would expect from someone who perfected the art of the 20-minute creepy story: tight pacing, vivid details, and a narrator who knows how to build tension without overdoing it. His background as a former Navy SEAL gives him a matter-of-fact delivery that makes even the most outlandish stories feel grounded. Episodes run 25 to 40 minutes and cover cases that span true crime, unexplained disappearances, bizarre accidents, and stories that are just plain strange. New episodes land on Mondays, with bonus remastered episodes from his YouTube catalog dropping on Thursdays. The podcast has over 440 episodes and maintains a 4.9-star rating from nearly 28,000 Apple Podcasts reviews, which puts it in rare company. What makes MrBallen stand out from other true crime narrators is his ability to tell a story like he is sitting across from you at a campfire. There is no co-host, no banter, no tangents -- just one person telling you something unbelievable that actually happened. He picks cases that often have a supernatural or unexplained element alongside the criminal ones, so the show appeals to a broader audience than strictly true crime fans. If you like your stories strange and your narration rock-solid, MrBallen is hard to beat.