The Moonlit Road

08/18/2026

Deep in the Tennessee mountains, some legends come with a warning.

A young bride must confront the terrifying Wampus Cat to save her husband — but the strange old mask she's given may carry a danger of its own.

🎧 Hear **The Wampus Mask** on *The Moonlit Road Podcast*.

https://www.themoonlitroad.com/wampus-mask-tennessee-legend/

08/16/2026

🌙 THE MOONLIT ROAD RECOMMENDS

“The Storied Song” is a new podcast from Appalachia Book Company where they’ve adapted traditional Appalachian ballads into fully produced radio plays. Check them out at:

The Storied Song is an audio drama series from Appalachia Book Company. Four Appalachian ballads, reimagined as fully produced radio plays. Listen now on Spotify.

08/14/2026

Our story is inspired by one version of the East Tennessee legend of the mysterious Wampus Cat. According to one Cherokee tradition, a woman named Running Deer donned a magical wildcat mask to confront an evil spirit threatening her village. Some believe the Wampus Cat still roams the Appalachian Mountains today.

🎧 Listen to The Wampus Mask:
https://buff.ly/T6KjMz7

08/10/2026

08/10/2026

”The Wampus Mask” is a long lost audio production of a story we featured in the late 1990s. We were honored to have veteran storyteller Janice Butt tell it. Janice sadly passed away in 2018.

Called “ Queen Mum” by fellow storytellers, Janice was a retired Georgia educator with more than 30 years of teaching experience and over 15 years as a storyteller. She presented storytelling programs and workshops for children and adults throughout the Southeast, using stories to encourage literacy, creativity, and personal growth. A founder of the Women's Imaginative Guild of Storytellers (WIGS) and an active member of the National Storytelling Network and the Southern Order of Storytellers (now Georgia Storytelling Network), Janice also used storytelling to promote peace, understanding, and community through educational and interfaith programs.

Listen: https://www.themoonlitroad.com/wampus-mask-tennessee-legend/

08/05/2026

"I must warn you, however, that if you put this mask on, you may wish you hadn't."

Deep in the Tennessee mountains, an old mask carries a warning no one should ignore.

Discover the Appalachian legend of The Wampus Mask and the mysterious Wampus Cat.

🎧 Listen to the complete story:
https://www.themoonlitroad.com/wampus-mask-tennessee-legend/

07/29/2026

👹 **The Devil Man of Algiers**

Long before social media, one terrifying rumor spread across New Orleans so quickly it sparked armed mobs, school panics, and front-page newspaper headlines.

Was the Devil Man a con artist... a mass delusion... or something far stranger?

Discover the bizarre urban legend that gripped Algiers in the 1930s.

Read the story:
🔗 https://www.themoonlitroad.com/the-devil-man-of-algiers-a-terrifying-new-orleans-legend/



Photo by Timothy Neesam. Licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

07/27/2026

Some warnings are more than superstition.

Old folk beliefs often survive because someone, somewhere, learned the hard way.

**Don't Fish on Sunday!** is a classic Virginia folktale about tradition, temptation, and the consequences of ignoring an old warning.

Listen: https://buff.ly/lo02xyE
Follow: https://buff.ly/Xa8EWmR

07/24/2026

🌙 The Moonlit Road Recommends

We're often asked what else we're listening to, watching, reading, or visiting besides our own world. So we thought we'd start sharing a few of our favorites.

First up: Desert Oracle Radio. Desert Oracle If you've ever visited Joshua Tree or California's surrounding High Desert, you know it can be a strange place. Host Ken Layne shares campfire tales, ghost stories, local legends, UFOs, odd characters, natural phenomena, and whatever else comes to mind—all wrapped in trippy sound design that transports you to a desert campfire beneath the stars.

https://buff.ly/NBIECgO

If you enjoy The Moonlit Road, we think you'll enjoy this one too.

What podcasts are you listening to these days?

07/21/2026

Everyone warned Moses not to fish on Sunday.

For weeks, he ignored them—and kept coming home with a full catch.

Then one Sunday, something enormous took his hook.

What emerged from the river wasn't a bass.
It wasn't a trout.
It wasn't even natural.

Would you have reeled it in?

Listen: https://buff.ly/lo02xyE
Follow: https://buff.ly/Xa8EWmR