Offbeat & Overlooked:
Offbeat & Overlooked (formerly Tombstones Tuesdays) is a weekly live-streaming show where Tui Snider interviews fascinating guests about cemetery symbolism, forgotten history, haunted places, paranormal experiences, UFOs, quirky travel, folklore, unusual cultural beliefs, and anything that doesn’t quite fit into life’s “normal box.”
Upcoming guests? To be in the loop for upcoming guests, subscribe to Tui Snider’s weekly private newsletter. Here’s the link: Grab Tui’s free book when you sign up for her newsletter.
#24 Guest: Martha Hazzard Decker
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #24
Bio:Jack Osbourne calls Haunted Hill House in Mineral Wells, Texas, “the most-sinister location we visited this season.” Learn more about this infamous home plagued by rumors of murder, prostitution, devil worship & paranormal activity in my interview with Martha Hazzard Decker, who is the author of a brand new book “Haunted Hill House: Where Spirits Speak.” She is also a retired detective, so her approach to the paranormal is informed by her law enforcement background.
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#23 Guest: Katherine Benjamin (Funeral Ephemera)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #23
Bio: Kathy Benjamin returns to share her funeral ephemera collection. It’s fascinating to see the details, handwriting, and to read between the lines to gain glimpses into funeral history and cemetery customs. Kathy Benjamin is a writer and editor at Grunge.com, and a former columnist at Cracked.com and MentalFloss.com.
Last time she was on (Episode #4) we talked about her amazing book “Funerals to Die For: The Craziest, Creepiest, and Most Bizarre Funeral Traditions and Practices Ever” and we barely scratched the surface! Kathy’s new book, “It’s Your Funeral: Plan the Celebration of a Lifetime Before It’s Too Late,” is coming out next month. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Simon and her dog, Briscoe.
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#22 Guest: Dan Shaw (a.k.a. the Vortex Detective)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #22
Bio: Dan Shaw is a vortex expert whose TV and film appearances include shows on the History channel, Travel channel, and the documentary Ancient Tomorrow. Dan has written several books on the topic of vortexes and travels extensively to visit vortexes all over the world. Our chat today focuses on Mystery Hills in the USA. VISIT DAN SHAW’S WEBSITE: https://www.danshaw.com DAN’S BOOKS: http://www.vortexmaps.com/
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#21 Guest: E.R. Bills
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #21
Bio: One of my favorite Texas authors is E.R. Bills, so I’m super excited to have him as my guest for this week’s Tui Snider’s Offbeat & Overlooked show. E.R. Bills is a prolific author. Two of my favorite books that he’s written include Texas Obscurities and Texas Far & Wide. You can peruse his many titles at his Amazon Author page. E.R. Bills is a wonderful researcher and chock full of interesting historic tidbits.
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#20 Guest: Ernie Kern (re-setting military headstones)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #20
Bio: My guest for this week’s Tui Snider’s Offbeat & Overlooked show is newsletter subscriber, Ernie Kern. He often sends me photos of military graves that he and his wife, Carol, have cleaned and repositioned. The Kerns have re-set over 1000 headstones in Florida!
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#19 Guest: David Castleton
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #19
Bio: Sacred Eels, Holy Clowns, Sheela-na-gig & Other Churchyard Oddities! My guest, David Castleton, tells us about his new book, “Churchyard Obscurities: Strange Objects & Bizarre Legends,” and those are just a few of the topics we discuss.
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#18 Guest: Courtney Mroch
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #18
Bio: Courtney Mroch (aka The Mistress of Dark Tourism) joins me to chat about Submerged Cemeteries, Mermaids, and who knows what else! Courtney is a blast, so brace yourself for an extra-fun show.
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#17 Guest: Jeff Morrison (gargoyle photographer)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #17
Bio: My guest for this week’s Tui Snider’s Offbeat & Overlooked show is photographer and art historian, Jeff Morrison. We will talk about the fascinating gargoyles and grotesques in his beautiful coffee table book “Guardians of Detroit.” Come ask questions! Jeff’s website: https://www.guardiansofdetroit.com/
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#16 Guest: Daniel Alan Jones
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #16
Bio: Daniel is the host and producer for The Vortex, a show that explores the mysteries of the world and beyond. Daniel has been researching unexplained phenomena for over a decade and has investigated strange sites, conducted numerous interviews, and provided media coverage for several events. His new book, myth.OS–Mythical Operating System, takes a closer look at his personal journey into the unknown and the quest to understand reality. Daniel leads several UFO and Cryptid interest groups on Facebook, which brings folks together to report sightings and share information and experiences. He is also a talented musician who teaches drums around the DFW area, and a Star Wars fan!
Topics:
To be determined. Come ask questions during the live show!
#15 Guest: Linda Anthony Hill
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #15
Bio: Linda Anthony Hill and her husband Del own the infamous Hill House Manor in Gainesville, Texas. You may have seen it on My Ghost Story or Real Housewives of Dallas, other shows, or even read about it in my book, Paranormal Texas.
Topics:
The Angel of Grief
How Linda accidentally bought a haunted house
Linda’s conversation with a man who wasn’t there
What it was like being on the TV show “My Ghost Story”
Photo: Unexplained shadow in the mirror
Photo: Do you see the little ghost girl?
How Linda debunked this EVP
Photo: Girl’s hair being lifted up
World’s Largest Ghost Hunt
Mysterious feathers appearing
#14 Guest: Icy Sedgwick (Cemeteries in Film!)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #14
Bio: Icy Sedgwick writes dark fantasy and Gothic horror when she isn’t blogging about folklore, mythology, and weird superstitions. She also runs the Fabulous Folklore podcast, available on all podcast platforms.”
Topics:
Cemeteries in film: The Frighteners, Session 9, The Woman in Black
Highgate Cemetery and Dorian Gray
What it means when a sphinx has breasts
Which cemetery could you hide out in?
Highgate Cemetery’s unique venomous crypt spider
Why cemeteries are not a waste of land
Night of the Living Dead – Fast or slow zombies?
Pet Sematary with a Stephen King cameo
Easy Rider cemetery acid trip with Peter Fonda
Zoolander – best for last? “Eugoogly”
#13 Guest: Greg Bishop (Radio Misterioso)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #13
Bio: Greg Bishop has been hosting radio shows since 1997, when he broadcast from a pirate radio station in LA. Since 2000, he’s been running a show called Radio Misterioso. If you are into UFOs, high strangeness, the paranormal, whatever you want to call it, you need to dig through the archives at radiomisterioso.com because he has interviewed so many key players and fascinating people, including Stanton Friedman, Jacque Valle, Eric Wargo, Red Pill Junkie, Nick Redfern, Dean Radin, Shannon Taggart… etc and so on! Greg is also a writer. In 1991, he co-founded a magazine called The Excluded Middle. He’s also written several books including “Wake up down there,” “weird california,” “Operation Beta,” and “It Defies Language.”
Topics:
Giorgio Tsoukalos and Greg’s clandestine selfie
Laurie Anderson was NASAs only Artist in Residence
Looking to art as well as science for answers?
Tui’s accidental out-of-body experience
Greg’s current project: perception in UFO accounts
Greg interviewed Larry King at Area 51
Arizona’s Prison Outlet Store
Red Pill Junkie’s wonderful book covers
Phillip Glass, Dracula’s castle, and Armadillos
Cloudbusting machines, Kate Bush lyrics, Wilhelm Reich
#12 Guest: Colorado Martini (Denise Knowles)
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #12
Bio: Denise and her husband explore ghost towns, abandoned buildings, cemeteries, museums & historic places. They have a gorgeous website and a very popular YouTube channel. (Make sure you subscribe to it!) Colorado Martini even made the list as one of the Top 30 Colorado YouTubers on the web. She also hosts a podcast called “The Strange” – which is right up my alley. And here’s a quote from their about section on YouTube that I really like: “The past speaks. Let’s go see what it has to say.” We had a great chat!
Topics:
Why is Mattie Culver buried all alone in Yellowstone Park?
Why was Mattie’s body kept in a wine barrel?
Understanding the symbols on Mattie Culver’s headstone
Is this the real Sacagawea or an imposter? (Denise knows!)
Here’s the story behind Doc Holliday’s grave in Colorado
Did you know the “Gettysburg of the West” is in New Mexico?
Creepy history in Denver Botanical Gardens and Cheesman Park
Denise is interviewing a beer anthropologist next
The macabre history of New York’s Hart Island burial ground
What about the Denver International Airport?
#11 Guest: Mitchel Whitington
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #11
Bio: Mitchel Whitington is an author and paranormal researcher with a passion for history. He lives with his wife at The Grove in Jefferson, Texas, which has been called the most haunted home in the state, and is open to the public. Mitchel is the author of “Funeral & Mourning Traditions of the Old South” among more than 30 other books.
Topics:
What is the “Hora Fatal” aka “Fatal Hour”?
Why did they stop clocks at time of death?
Tradition of funeral vases on the front door
What are funeral dolls?
What are funeral tickets?
What are sin eaters?
History, Haunts and Legends in Jefferson, Texas
Why did Mitchel buy a haunted house called The Grove?
The Grove has been featured on TV shows hosted by Penn & Teller, William Shatner, and more
What was the Philip Experiment?
Strange Stairs and Secret Steps
#10 Guest: Loren Rhoads
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #10
Bio: Loren Rhoads is the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She’s working on a new book of cemetery travel essays called Graveyard Field Trips.
Topics:
Leprechaun in a mausoleum
Shamrocks are NOT 4-leaf clovers
Egyptian Avenue in London’s Highgate Cemetery
Caskets would explode
Capuchin Catacombs in Rome
Crypt vs catacomb?
Mt. Auburn – America’s first garden cemetery
Loren’s cat cremains in a paperweight
Barcelona’s Kiss of Death
The emotional power of seeing statues outdoors
Loren’s current book: Cemetery Field Trips
#9 Guest: Janice Oberding
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #9
Bio: Janice Oberding is a historian, paranormal researcher, and prolific author. (We first met in a historic cemetery at midnight!) If her name sounds familiar, maybe you’ve read some of her 30+ books. Or maybe you’ve seen her on the Syfy, History, or Travel Channel.
Topics:
Grave of Mother Goose
Janice and I first met in a historic cemetery for a midnight seance
How long does lipstick last at a gravesite, such as James Dean’s?
This guy kept fancy coffins under his bed
James Dean’s eerie premonition?
Is this the rudest epitaph ever?
Her adventures (& misadventures!) on paranormal TV shows
She stayed in Alcatraz prison with the TAPS crew
She saw a freaky & scary creature – like a gargoyle – in this cemetery
Bizarre talking frogs & a mimic talking on the porch
Janice’s funniest paranormal investigation
#8 Guest: Harry Hall
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #8
Bio: During his 25-year writing career, Harry Hall has written for the Dallas Morning News, been an award-winning radio talk show host, and taught public speaking. His background as a distance runner (he’s completed two Boston Marathons) inspired him to write The Pedestriennes, America’s Forgotten Superstars, which was honored at the 2012 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.
Topics:
How Harry discovered “the pedestriennes” (professional walkers)
Bizarre duck feet helped Harry find a long-lost relative
The richest, most famous 1800s woman was a professional walker
How Gen. Tom Thumb rocketed this female walker to fame
The Michael Jordan of his day – only more famous
How did they eat & sleep during races lasting days?
They poisoned her pets & tried to burn her house
What it’s like to visit the Library of Congress
Prima donna behavior leads to a pistol-whipped lemon peddler
This record wasn’t broken until a couple years ago
When and why did professional female walking die out as a sport?
#7 Guest: Angel Cronk
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #7
Bio: Angel is a longtime newsletter subscriber who I’ve become friends with. She’s a devout Catholic who lives in Boston. Angel is my go-to for questions about Catholicism.
Topics:
Afternoon Tea League & special shout out to Ken Reed
Cemetery Photo of the Week: Pocket watch symbolism
The Granary: Famous historic burial ground
Boston Massacre – why the marker was moved
Mother Goose is buried here
John Hancock – my silly story
Progression from skulls to cherubs
Hypocrisy in the graveyard
Paul Revere’s grave goods and his pet squirrel
JFK burial plot (Jackie’s stillborn son is buried with JFK in Arlington)
#6 Guest: Robert Wright of SideStep Adventures
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #6
Bio: Robert Wright is a founding member of Sidestep Adventures. Sidestep Adventure is a video series documenting explorations of the South Eastern United States. Robert and his crew look for rapidly vanishing history and anything else that catches their eye. From ghost towns to forgotten homesteads, to rusty things and forgotten people, their goal is to document it before it’s gone.
Topics:
Bird feeders and a possum named Albert
Southern cemetery tradition: Moss in Old Biloxi City Cemetery
This cemetery has 4 museums & people get married there!
Robert shares the story of a forgotten cemetery that was bulldozed
Strangest location you have found graves?
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found?
Finding a mummified cat
Why is it important to save history?
Tell us about the bomb you found under your house!
Robert tells us about finding human remains
#5 Guest: Icy Sedgwick
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #5
Bio: Icy Sedgwick writes dark fantasy and Gothic horror when she isn’t blogging about folklore, mythology, and weird superstitions. She also runs the Fabulous Folklore podcast, available on all podcast platforms.
Topics:
Father Time vs Grim Reaper
What do Urns symbolize?
Fringe vs Non-Fringed cloth symbolism
What are corpse roads?
What are parish coffins and coffin rests?
What is a corpse candle?
Bioluminescent owls?
The real reason you should not walk across a grave
Newcastle’s vampire rabbit
Amish country in the USA hex symbols
Where Tolkien may have gotten his inspiration
#4 Guest: Kathy Benjamin
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #4
Bio: Kathy Benjamin is a writer and editor at Grunge.com, and a former columnist at Cracked.com and MentalFloss.com. Kathy is the author of Funerals to Die For: The Craziest, Creepiest, and Most Bizarre Funeral Traditions and Practices Ever. Her new book, It’s Your Funeral: Plan the Celebration of a Lifetime Before It’s Too Late, is coming Summer 2021 from Quirk Books. Kathy lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Simon and her dog, Briscoe.
Topics:
Coffin vs casket – what is the difference?
These coffins hang off a cliff – why?
Kathy tells us which president owns 2 fantasy coffins
This cemetery city looks like Hobbits should live there
Prague’s “church of bones”
Mormon grave robber banished to an island
Drive-thru funeral homes
Why so many men in Boot Hill died from “lightning strikes”
Colorful grave markers and funny epitaphs at Merry Cemetery in Romania
He hopes there are cheese sandwiches in Heaven
#3 Guest: David C. Kravetz
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #3
Bio: David Kravetz is a freelance travelographer and focuses on the normal, the wacky, the wonderful and the quirky things of this wide world. His popular travel blog is called Less Beaten Paths and has nearly 400 posts about offbeat and back roads travel. He is also the author of a travel series called “Less Beaten Paths.”
Topics:
Yes, I can weave wheat!
Why Centralia, PA is a ghost town and its connection to Silent Hill
Eastern Orthodox/Byzantine/Greek Orthodox/Russian Orthodox Cross
What does “Theodokos” mean & why is it on this headstone?
There are over 300 types of cross
Why 3 bars on the Eastern Orthodox Cross & what do they mean?
Grave goods: bandanas
Monument for Future Birthplace of Capt. James T. Kirk
Hugo, Oklahoma – Showmen’s Rest, circus performers buried here
Paris, Texas – Jesus in Cowboy Boots monument
Uranus Fudge Factory
#2 Guest: David M. Habben
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #2
Bio: David M. Habben has been documenting, photographing and researching cemeteries and grave yards for decades. His interest began when visiting the graves of blues musicians in Chicago, where he grew up. His work as a paramedic in Emergency Medical instruction and consulting has taken him all over the world where he has visited hundreds of cemeteries and taken thousands of photographs. He has, and continues, to study the history of cemeteries and the symbols and emblems on gravestones.
Topics:
Book of the Week – Footloose, Fancy & Free by Patricia B. Mitchell
The Afternoon Tea League (Living History Group) from Ken Reed.
Cemetery Tea parties
Monument that’s mistaken for a phallis
Why cops stopped David M. Habben, after he visited a little girl’s grave
Special graveyard section for sports fans
Why FindAGrave is so great – David is a longtime member
David’s cemetery symbol tattoo
Romani graves
Henry Ford’s mortsafe
Cemetery scavenger hunt
#1 Guest: Teal L. Gray
Replay link: Tombstone Tuesdays Show #1
Bio: Teal Gray is a sacred site traveler, artist, ordained non-denominational minister, professional psychic medium, and the author of several books. In her spare time, she quilts, sews, bakes custom cakes, grows lavender and has a line of bath and beauty products. She’s also a dear friend of mine!
Topics:
New Orleans cemetery photos from newsletter reader, Tammy Love.
The real reason you shouldn’t walk across a grave
Teal’s memento mori bracelet made from human hair
Obadiah Wheeler is one of the most famous headstone carvers in Colonial America. What makes his carvings so special?
How was Obadiah progressive in the way he refers to women and children?
For more topics along with timestamps see the replay!