All of the podcasts featured here can be strange and sometimes gruesome, and one includes frequent profanity. With that in mind, consider listening with headphones and previewing episodes before sharing them with younger listeners.

All fall within the true crime genre except Essential Salt, which is simply quirky and often fun. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Weirder After Dark

The three creators of “Weirder After Dark” are cousins, Sean Pirttiaho and Cathy and Chris Casagrande. Their true crime podcast has 65 episodes from all over New England. Casagrande wrote to say that 10 of the next 11 dropping this month are about Maine.

Recently released is the “The Haunting of Nelly Butler,” the chilling story of a Sullivan, Maine, family who, in 1799, reported nightly visits from their deceased mother.

Based on “The Nelly Butler Hauntings,” the first documented alleged haunting in American history, this case only gets stranger: a spirit that ordains a marriage, persuades 80 people to exhume a child’s body, foretells a young woman’s death — and over 100 witnesses who claimed to see and speak with the apparition, leaving written testimony behind.

“The Dash,” a Maine schooner, has been haunting Casco Bay since the 1800s when it was lost to sea, according to more than 100 eyewitness accounts from the 1940s until today.

“‘The Chinese Curse of Naples‘ is an absolutely wild ride,” Casagrande said. A man travels to China for ancient relics, steals a few, and brings them back to Maine. When one accidentally cracks open — revealing gold and jewels — he becomes instantly rich.

“However, shortly after, it seems nothing can go right for him, his family, or anyone else who opens up shop on the land where these relics are stored in Naples, Maine. Without giving too much away, one of these artifacts can still be seen today at the Naples Historical Society,” she adds.

Essential Salt

“Essential Salt” is a collaboration between the  Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art and Design and Maine Public.

Since 1974, more than 1,000 stories of Maine have been reported by Salt students. Everything is archived to search by people, subject, region or year.

The podcast series is newer and features reported stories from students living in Maine assigned to covering topics of community and local history. The reporting is rich and satisfying; stories are often odd, quirky or heartfelt.

Thoroughly enjoyable is Julie Conquest’s, “A Body is Buried in a Backyard” and “A Woman Helps Save her Language,” The first episode undoubtedly raised eyebrows in Norway, Maine, and beyond. Ultimately both episodes are about belonging.

Learn the backstory of a legendary Portland hero in the first half of a “A Bandit Papers A City in Hearts, and Strangers Meet Their Matches.”

Salt is produced by Lucy Santerre and hosted by Lucy Soucek at Maine College of Art and Design where Salt Institute is located.

Malevolent Maine

There are 84 “Malevolent Maine” episodes, a paranormal and horror podcast set in Maine. The website describes it like this, “our team of investigators research the strange, the odd, and the unexplained. There is more out there than we know. Spirits, UFOs, magic.”

“Malevolent Maine” recalls “The Shadow,” the classic program known for the line, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows…” The storytelling is dramatic and atmospheric, evoking the days when families gathered around the radio for spooky tales. Not all episodes are suitable for all ages.

Stories range widely: Aroostook County potato gremlins; Samuel Griggs’ cursed 1860s Wiscasset horseshoe; and a werewolf prowling the woods near Wilson Pond in North Monmouth. The team also revisits the 1814 Rain of Frogs in Castine, when, “hundreds of people witnessed a bizarre storm where thousands of frogs fell from the sky.”

Host and writer Chris Estes is aided by investigators, Mark Mercier, Lucas Knight, Megan Meadows and Tom Wilson.

The 2023 five-episode miniseries “Malevolent Minutes” are short stories that come from listeners and are unconfirmed and uninvestigated.

An email from Estes echoes his podcast persona: “This season the Malevolent Maine team races to uncover the truth behind an ancient force stirring beneath the earth. But as dreams begin bleeding into reality, they may discover that some doors were never meant to be opened.”

Estes ends each episode with, “Stay safe out there, Maine.”

Dark Downeast

“Dark Downeast” features true crime stories about missing people and unsolved homicides, with a focus on helping victims’ families. Since launching in 2020, host Kylie Low has covered more than 150 cases in more than 300 episodes.

Low, a Maine native with a journalism background,started the podcast in her bedroom closet in 2019. According to her website, it is a “top 20 true crime podcast” with more than 2.4 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of listeners worldwide.

While true crime coverage can distress victims’ families, Low says she aims to support them and sometimes meets with them in person. “More importantly, I’ve been able to lend this platform to dozens of Maine and New England families who deserve justice and answers in their loved one’s unsolved homicide and missing persons cases,” she writes.

Low cites sources, invites listeners to submit tips and shares phone numbers for state police. Listeners may also suggest cases in the show’s notes section.

“The Murder of Abraham Levine and Trial of Eleanor Johnson,” is a 1931 case covering a cattle dealer’s murder, featuring a controversial trial; “The Murder of Sarah Cherry,” is about the 12-year-old from Bowdoin who was kidnapped while babysitting. In 1971, Cathy Marie Moulton, age 16, disappeared after a shopping trip in Portland.

While the podcast now covers cases across New England, the majority of its episodes — roughly two-thirds — focus on crimes that happened in Maine.