Dead Air | Ep. 09 | We Need to Talk About The Howler

Dead Air is what happens between Fear Archive episodes — no research, no structure, no plan. Just Amanda and Mike talking until something disturbing comes up. It always does. This week: an Ohio man camping alone on a remote beach in Puerto Rico was shot execution-style after complaining to friends about a man he called The Howler — someone setting off fireworks near his campsite and howling like a wolf. The killer has not been identified. Mike has stayed near that exact stretch of coastline before, which does not make it feel any less unsettling. Also this week: Brian Kohlberger, who pleaded guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students, has publicly retracted his guilty plea and is now demanding a full trial, calling the prosecution's case a myopic work of fiction. Amanda watched the new Netflix documentary on the case and has thoughts about what it actually means to sit with victims instead of just consuming the crime. Also: the Circleville Letter Writer, a still-unsolved decade-long anonymous harassment campaign that terrorized a small Ohio town starting in 1976. TikTok's collective conviction that the zombie apocalypse has quietly started. Mike's two personal chupacabra-adjacent Puerto Rico stories, one involving a small humanoid creature and one involving a literal handful of human teeth pulled out of the ocean. Bat Boy, the Weekly World News tabloid legend who somehow got his own off-Broadway musical. And the return of physical media, one flyer at a time. Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production. LISTENER WARNING: This program contains strong language, discussion of murder, and a genuinely unsettling amount of ocean debris. Popular Topics Include: Fear Archive podcast, Dead Air podcast, horror podcast bonus episode, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, The Howler Puerto Rico murder, Tyler Wilken murder, Circleville Letter Writer, Brian Kohlberger retracts plea, Idaho student murders Netflix documentary, Bryan Kohlberger news, El Chupacabra Puerto Rico, zombie apocalypse TikTok panic, Bat Boy Weekly World News, Batboy the Musical, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun film, horror podcast, true crime horror, Violet Hour Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices