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
Introducing State of the Unknown: Fragments
Something new is coming to State of the Unknown. Every story doesn’t need thirty minutes. Some are too strange to ignore… too fascinating to forget… and too small to become full documentaries. Beginning next week, I’m introducing State of the Unknown: Fragments—a brand-new storytelling series featur...
Creature Encounter: The 1909 Jersey Devil Panic | The Week Police Opened Fire — Ep. 61
For one remarkable week in January 1909, communities across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were gripped by a wave of reports unlike anything the region had experienced before. Police officers claimed to see something moving over rooftops. Families awoke to strange sounds outside their homes....
Men in Black: Albert Bender | The Visit That Silenced America's First UFO Bureau — Ep. 60
Join host Robert Barber as he explores the case that gave rise to one of the most enduring legends in UFO history—the Men in Black. In the early 1950s, Albert K. Bender founded the International Flying Saucer Bureau, one of America's first civilian organizations devoted to investigating reports of u...
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!