About Our Podcast
Exploring Strange Encounters, Folklore, and Unsolved Mysteries
Join host Robert Barber as he explores stories that exist at the edge of explanation.
State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast that examines strange encounters, unexplained events, folklore, and enduring mysteries. From UFO sightings and creature reports to haunted objects, disappearances, and local legends, each episode begins with the story itself before separating what was reported, what can be explained, and what remains unknown.
Rather than focusing only on the mystery, State of the Unknown explores the people at the center of it—the witnesses, investigators, families, and communities whose lives were shaped by an encounter they could not fully explain.
Some stories have answers. Others leave questions behind.
This isn’t just about ghost stories. It’s about the places they leave behind.
Recent Episodes
Featured podcasts
Paranormal Encounter: Bobby Mackey's Music World | The Caretaker Who Started the Legend — Ep. 63
When 20-year-old Carl Lawson took a job helping renovate Bobby Mackey’s Music World, a country nightclub in Wilder, Kentucky, he had no idea he was stepping into what would become one of America’s most infamous paranormal haunting cases. What began with footsteps echoing through an empty dance hall ...
Fragments | Franklin Castle: The Ghost Who Confessed to Murder — Ep. 03
Two listeners pointed me toward Franklin Castle, one of Ohio’s most famous haunted houses and the center of decades of ghost stories and paranormal claims. I expected to find another ghost story. Instead, I found something far stranger. In 1980, a woman living inside Franklin Castle claimed the spir...
Fragments | Blackbeard’s Ghost: The Light That Never Left Ocracoke — Ep. 02
In November 1718, the pirate known as Blackbeard was killed in the waters near Ocracoke Island. His head was carried away as proof of his death, while his body disappeared beneath the surface. But around the Outer Banks, people believed the story didn't end there. Join host Robert Barber for a short...
Reviews
What the people say about us
Very, very interesting!
Just found you. Only listened to 1 episode so far. Very good ! I’ll be catching up . They all sound interesting. Thank you.
New Favorite!
Fantastic, absolutely riveting podcast about the unknown that actually...keeps it real! Love the storytelling, the subtle effects, the delivery and the questioning at the end...Robert Barber does an excellent job of reflecting on each episode by questioning the validity, the possibility, the reasoning and the parallels...
Read MoreThoughtful and Curious
Great podcast!