The Creep Dive

This week we're heading back to Victorian London, where the richest city on Earth was quietly drowning in its own waste.As London's population exploded during the Industrial Revolution, millions of gallons of sewage, animal carcasses and factory waste poured straight into the River Thames. The result was The Great Stink of 1858 a summer so unbearably foul that Parliament was forced to flee its own chambers, and an engineering project was launched that would transform London forever.We also look at the pioneering doctor who proved cholera wasn't spread by "bad air", the Irish labourers who built the hidden city beneath London, and the extraordinary sewer system that still serves the capital today.Plus, we finish with the astonishing true story of a Japanese husband who paid rent on his wife's murder scene for 26 years in the hope that advances in DNA technology would finally identify her killer.⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains extensive discussion of sewage, bodily waste, disease and decomposition.🤢 Friendly advice: maybe don't eat while listening to this one.🎧 Listen ad-free and get an extra bonus episode every week on Patreon: patreon.com/thecreepdive⚾ Want to join Cassie's giant game of Rounders in the Phoenix Park? Get all the details here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5daSjgGO4YkYTPP1d_doVQDzwO_tGL8ybS_uHVYNEZIc9-Q/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of graphic violence, fetal abduction, infant death, pregnancy trauma, and crimes against women and children.This week on The Creep Dive, we're diving into one of the rarest and most disturbing crimes imaginable.Following the shocking Taylor Parker case, Soph investigates a terrifying pattern that has appeared again and again across America: women faking pregnancies, building elaborate lies, befriending expectant mothers, and committing unthinkable acts in pursuit of a child.From online friendships forged through puppy breeding forums to fake baby bumps, fabricated ultrasounds, and years-long deceptions, these cases reveal a chilling psychological pattern that feels almost impossible to understand.Then, because we all desperately need a palate cleanser, Jen takes us to Belgium for one of the greatest robberies in history: the Antwerp Diamond Heist. A gang of thieves spent years infiltrating the world's most secure diamond vault, bypassed layers of security that experts believed were impossible to defeat, and nearly got away with half a billion dollars in diamonds.Fake pregnancies, stolen babies, giant diamond vaults, salami-based detective work, and some of the strangest criminal behaviour we've ever covered.Listen ad-free and get hundreds of exclusive bonus episodes:🐝 The Creep Dive Patreon

This week on The Creep DiveWe begin with a tragic bungee-jumping disaster at Brazil's infamous "Skeleton Bridge" before spiralling headfirst into a world of magic schools, witches, secret rituals, spiritual manipulation and the blurry line between belief and control.What starts as a conversation about alternative education becomes something much darker as we unpack the experiences of people raised inside a movement that promised supernatural powers, protection from death and a direct connection to hidden knowledge. Along the way there are flying claims, psychic abilities, mysterious ceremonies, tithes, cult comparisons and one very uncomfortable question:At what point does a spiritual community become something else entirely?Plus: the girls debate religion, cults, magical thinking and why humans seem endlessly drawn to people who claim to have special powers.Part 2 is available now.Listen ad-free and jump straight into Part 2 on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thecreepdive

Jen takes us back to 1920s America and the story of Henry Ford, anti-Semitic propagandist, Hitler fan, and all-round moral crusader who decided that owning the world's car industry wasn't enough. His next project? Buying 2.5 million acres of the Amazon rainforest to build a rubber empire and implant a wholesome, alcohol-free, jazz-free, union-free Midwestern town in the middle of one of the most hostile environments on Earth. The Soph  brings the misery with a story from July 1999. Best friends David and Raffi set off on a road trip from Boston to California. A detour into Rattlesnake Canyon in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, with one and a half litres of water between them, goes catastrophically wrong.

This week on The Creep Dive we spiral headfirst into one of the strangest tabloid stories currently unfolding online: Katie Price’s whirlwind marriage to alleged millionaire entrepreneur Lee Andrews a Dubai-based “visionary CEO” whose AI-generated Instagram empire, mysterious business claims, suspicious exes, possible travel bans and sudden disappearance have left the British tabloids absolutely foaming at the mouth.Is he a billionaire futurist? A Tinder Swindler-style scammer? A man held together entirely by Canva, motivational quotes and black-and-white podcast photos? We investigate.Then, because apparently this episode accidentally became about fame, fraud, mythology and the terrifying power of collective belief, Jen takes us into the extraordinary true story of the Mona Lisa theft the bizarre 1911 heist that transformed a relatively overlooked Renaissance painting into the most famous artwork on earth.Featuring: fake wealth, fake identities, Picasso being questioned by police, Katie Price refusing to back down, the psychology of scams, AI self-invention, a handyman hiding the Mona Lisa in a trunk for two years, and the increasingly unsettling feeling that modern life may just be one giant confidence trick held together by vibes and good lighting.Listen ad-free and get an extra full bonus episode every week over on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thecreepdive

This week on The Creep Dive, Sophie brings us the truly bananas story of Donald Crowhurst, a hobbyist sailor, inventor, businessman and possible Olympic-level bluffer, who entered a solo round-the-world yacht race despite having a boat that was barely ready, a business that was collapsing, and a personal relationship with reality that was about to become extremely negotiable. What begins as a desperate attempt to save face turns into a fake voyage, a vanishing act, a psychological collapse at sea, and one of the strangest, saddest mysteries ever to bob around the Atlantic.Cassie also brings us an outbreak boat, Jen brings deep suspicion and boat opinions, and somehow everyone ends up discussing sea madness, fake logs, cosmic beings and whether men should be allowed hobbies.Listen ad-free on Patreon for the full uninterrupted descent into nautical chaos. https://www.patreon.com/c/thecreepdive

The girls tackle the increasingly viral story of the 11 scientists a cluster of researchers linked to propulsion, plasma physics, nuclear weapons, orbital comms and advanced military tech who have either died or vanished in the last couple of years. Jen walks through the names, what they were actually working on, what can be verified, what absolutely cannot, and why the internet has gone feral with theories about UAP tech, anti-gravity, foreign intelligence, and the possibility of fossil-fuel-ending breakthroughs being buried before they ever see daylight. It’s murky, fascinating, occasionally very thin, and deeply unsettling. Also: Trump, Bob Lazar, Los Alamos, and the tiny little issue of whether the people in charge would ever let the world change that much.Listen ad-free and get weekly bonus episodes on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thecreepdive

This week: an AI girlfriend dumps her human boyfriend (correctly), a German celebrity finds herself at the centre of a deeply unsettling AI deepfake scandal that’s now causing protests and legal fallout, a billionaire dies in circumstances that feel… a bit Succession, and we meet a footballer who simply never played football but still lived the full lifestyle.Honestly, reality is hanging on by a thread.Listen ad-free and dive into 600+ extra episodes here: 👉 https://www.patreon.com/thecreepdive

He wasn’t escaping jail. He was sneaking into one. This week we cover the absolutely unhinged true story of a prison reform star who broke into a brand-new prison and hid loaded weapons in the walls like some sort of deeply traumatised Batman. Listen ad free on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thecreepdive