Beyond the Norm

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"We're back! Truth be told Stephen had covid and I had pneumonia."Well hello once again to our Ghouls and Goblins. We've been out sick for a couple of weeks (but nothing is more terrifying than that sickly death feeling, so to us it feels like we never really left) but we're back just in time for Halloween to get into the spooky spirit!To celebrate Christi has chosen highlight some local New Orleans hauntings she discovered scouring Reddit, a few of which Christi and Stephen have visited in the flesh and can confirm are 100% confirmed spooky and haunted. Because after all, what's more scary than a haunting in your own backyard? Well for starters some of these Reddit usernames which are equal parts inventive and unhinged.Quotes“I feel like I got sick because Christi was like 'I don't feel good.' Then because we talk so much I was like, 'I got to go get covid because I have to one up you!' And they you were like,' Just kidding I have pneumonia!' Oh, you still win.'” (00:36-00:48 | Stephen)“You just told me you love Temu and now you hate Temu, make up your mind. No I hate Temu because they lie to you and make you feel not special.” (11:35-11:42 | Chrisit & Stephen)“I don't want to be spooked like for realsies." (28:33-28:37 | Stephen)“These Reddit names are actually unhinged. Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm dying! Not Croatian Sensation!” (35:33-35:42 | Christi & Stephen) LinksSend us your ghost or weird stories here: beyondthenormpod@gmail.comSubscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/BeyondtheNormPodcastFollow Christi on IG: www.instagram.com/christilukasiakFollow Stephen on IG: www.instagram.com/s_c_mayo

"I'm living my true crime fantasy right now," remarks Stephen as like many of us it's easy to fall down a true crime rabbit hole. You click one YouTube video then the next thing you know you've watched 300 hours of police interrogation footage, watched whatever the latest Netflix thing is (anyone else watching The Menendez Brothers show?) and then turned around and further explored those topics on your own true-crime podcast. Well welcome to the final step of that process, and Stephen has been thinking about this one for a while.It's been two years since the murder of Brad McGarry, an openly gay coal miner from Bellaire, Ohio who was found dead in his basement by his best friend David. Brad had faced great difficulty growing up as an openly gay man, and even though he still faced some prejudice over it the police simply couldn't connect anyone to the crime. But things took a turn investigators didn't expect when Brad's neighbor informed them he'd been having a secret affair for some years with none other than David, who was married and not openly gay. Could a lover's quarrel be the cause of Brad's murder? tune-in to find out!Quotes“What episode is this? I think it's going to be 10. Double digits! It's going to be really funny if it's not. (It is in fact 11)” (00:29-00:37 | Christi & Stephen)“Any time Christi asks something I'm just going to make sure it gets done so she never freaks out on me again.” (15:25-15:29 | Stephen)“If someone didn't know what we were talking about this would be a very perverse conversation. Christi I have a nice hole, not a big hole. Well it's a big hole. I can see the light shine through your hole. You actually really can..." (26:20-26:29 | Christi & Stephen)“Take it with a grain of salt. Oh my god I just ate a grain of salt too.” (37:16-37:20 | Christi) LinksSend us your ghost or weird stories here: beyondthenormpod@gmail.comSubscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/BeyondtheNormPodcastFollow Christi on IG: www.instagram.com/christilukasiakFollow Stephen on IG: www.instagram.com/s_c_mayo

"Do you know somebody by the name of Benjamin Franklin? Doesn't ring any bells." While it might be time for someone to go back to school to learn some American history, today's history lesson isn't something they taught you back in the day. On today's episode of Beyond the Norm we truly go outside of the norm and look at one of America's founding fathers through a new lens.There are many words that one could use to describe Benjamin Franklin, but would you ever expect a lot of them in his time were "perverse" "taint" "rank" and "feral"? It turns out Franklin had a noted history of being a pretty crazy sexual deviant, and Christi has all the salacious details. From his youth to his dying days Franklin indulged in just about all his sexual whims. He would frequent brothels and would bed women both old and young, often simultaneously! His first child wasn't even with his own wife, and she still raised that child!One things for certain, you'll never look at a $100 bill quite the same after today's episode.Quotes“Don't send Stephen nudes, that is my request. That's what Snapchat is for.” (02:38-02:45 | Christi & Stephen)“I don't want to be pretty! I wanna be scary and terrifying.” (08:50-08:53 | Stephen)“I feel like rather than being like you're a sex addict, if "pervert" is in there or "perverse" or anything, we're going down a slippery slope." (32:44-32:52 | Stephen)“I don't know if he had syphilis. Allegedly. Alright he frequented red light districts. Oh he had syphilis. Spoiler!” (34:40-34:51 | Christi & Stephen) LinksSend us your ghost or weird stories here: beyondthenormpod@gmail.comSubscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/BeyondtheNormPodcastFollow Christi on IG: www.instagram.com/christilukasiakFollow Stephen on IG: www.instagram.com/s_c_mayo

"They found like a gelatinous mass in the septic tank because all the body parts had fused into a clump. You're not allowed to say the words "gelatinous mass" again!" Christi is very upset with Stephen because when he's not intentionally messing up words to keep his husband on his toes he's either struggling to say the right words at all or he won't stop saying "gelatinous mass"! What stories might compel Stephen to repeatedly use the phrase "gelatinous mass"? Well he's got two recent true crime stories for our Ghouls and Goblins this week that more than justify the use of the phrase.Our first story concerns the crimes of Xu Guoli, who was recently executed in China for the murder of his wife. Security footage showed his wife never left their residence and yet it took almost an entire year for the police to find her remains. How did Xu manage to hide the body for that long? The answer is so outrageous even Christi had a hard time believing it was real.In our second story we jump to Thailand where a Spanish celebrity chef, who also happens to be the son of two high profile Spanish actors, was just this week charged with the murder of a Columbian plastic surgeon he was meeting up with for a music festival. The detail of how he got caught and his "plan" might be up there for some of the dumbest crimes we've yet to cover. It turns out when you're rich you really can fail to the top, even when it comes to murder.Quotes“Hello all my Ghouls and Goblins... so stupid. I'm going to make it work though. It's going to work like "Fetch". Fetch is not a thing you dumbass.” (00:01-00:12 | Christi & Stephen)“I don't give a f**k what you do. I don't care what you do. You know as long as you're not murdering people or whatever.” (09:53-09:58 | Stephen)“He probably thinks that we're unhinged. No he knows we're unhinged, there's a difference." (26:27-26:32 | Christi & Stephen)“The craziest part of all of this... was homeboy murdered this guy and then went to the music festival that night.” (46:00-46:06 | Stephen) LinksSend us your ghost or weird stories here: beyondthenormpod@gmail.comSubscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/BeyondtheNormPodcastFollow Christi on IG: www.instagram.com/christilukasiakFollow Stephen on IG: www.instagram.com/s_c_mayo