Fortean Profile: Joshua and Hayley from the Creep'd Out Podcast

Joshua Malone (left) and Hayley Eldridge (right) co-host the Creep’d Out podcast. — Joshua Malone (left) and Hayley Eldridge (right) co-host the *Creep’d Out* podcast.

Joshua Malone and Hayley Eldridge say they started the Creep’d Out podcast as a joke that grew out of their separately successful blogs on Tumblr.

"I made a Tumblr blog because I wanted to share cool cryptids and weird oddities with others then it just kind of blew up," Joshua said. "The podcast that I co-op with Hayley called 'Creep’d Out' came about from a joke actually. We just jokingly mentioned we should because it’d be fun and I posted the convo on my blog and told her if it got a certain amount of likes we HAVE to do it. It exceeded the amount of likes and so we did it. Now here we are completely enjoying ourselves three months later."

"I started my blog out of boredom and wanted to collect posts that I could read at night before bed," Hayley added. "Once people started following it, I started writing things myself, and it just sort of grew from there. It's mostly his fault we're doing the Podcast…"

Any listeners to the show will recognize that Creep’d Out doesn’t take itself too seriously.

"I am the person that tries to have a lot of fun with paranormal topics," Joshua said. "Some people in the field are very serious all the time and think everything needs to be taken seriously. I am the opposite in that I want to have as much fun, while still being respectful, while learning and sharing. If you’re not having fun it’s not worth it."

But that doesn’t mean the podcast’s hosts aren’t interested in real research.

"My favorite cryptid is the Beast of Gevaudan, and I have been studying it for about 10 years now," Hayley told us.

She spoke on the subject at the 2018 International Cryptozoology Conference hosted by Loren Coleman at his International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Joshua, for his part, appreciates the research of others.

"If I’m honest, I don’t do a ton of researching or investigating," he admitted. "I’m just a huge fan of learning from what others research and investigate and reading/watching what they find."

Outside of the recording studio, both hosts have had their own encounters with the impossible.

"I lived in a house that was built in the 1800s when I was young. There was a ghost in the attic that gave off a really unsettling feeling and a ghost in the rented apartment in the basement. The ghost in [that apartment] was mean, it would mess with the electric stuff and would pull my hair," said Hayley.

This experience, along with the influence of her mother and paranormal media, helped spark Hayley’s interest in the unusual.

"I became interested in the paranormal in general because of my mom," Hayley said. "She's always been interested in ghosts and such since I was little. We lived in a haunted house when I was young and have continued to live in houses that she's had paranormal experiences in. I became interested in my study, cryptozoology, through the TV show Animal X: Natural Mystery Unit, specifically the episode ‘Monster or Murderer’ which is about the Beast of Gevaudan."

Joshua has a similar interest in paranormal media.

"I think my first indulgence of the paranormal started with Unexplained Mysteries," he explained. "The weirdest episodes started to make me wonder about what kind of similar things may exist. Eventually I started watching Weird Travels on Travel Channel as well as other shows that were similar, and just got hooked. I then began to research as much as I could about cryptids and ghosts and UFOs, then I found out I was completely obsessed and haven’t looked back."

"My favorite cryptid story/case is the 2001 Myakka Skunk Ape photos," he continued. "I just think the pictures are so fascinating and terrifying, and I think if there were ever to be a real unknown hominid in a picture, it would be those pictures. As well, the skunk ape is my favorite cryptid. I also have a weird infatuation with the Burrunjor that stems from nowhere, but it’s there."

A series of anomalous experiences throughout his life have helped keep Joshua’s attention on the unexplained.

"I’ve had quite a few experiences but two specifically that bothered me the most," Joshua said. "The first happened when I was around 15, I was staying at my cousin’s house in a historic Civil War town and they happened to own one of the old plantation-style homes. In the middle of the night, I heard a blood curdling scream and thought my aunt or cousin was getting attacked. When I checked everything out, there was nothing and everyone was asleep. The next morning I told my aunt and she said 'Oh yeah, we see and hear stuff all the time but we’re used to it by now.'"

Joshua told us his "other most daunting experience came in the form of a 'ghost car.'"

"My friends and I went to Waffle House late at night to goof off, and as we were returning home we saw a car speeding along the wrong side of the road. As we watched, it quickly turned and darted off the road and into the forest before the headlights went out. We naturally thought it was a wreck and I sped up to go check it out, only for us to find an untouched guardrail where the car exited and no car to be found in the woods," he said.

"I also saw a UFO driving home late at night one time as well," he related. "I was out in rural South Carolina and turning around a large curve when I noticed a thick black triangle with a myriad of lights constantly changing color. (At least twenty lights.) As I turned around the bend it seemed to turn around and face the front, or what I assumed to be the front, towards me and I have never driven away faster in my life."

It’s easy to see how these two ended up involved in the paranormal.

Hayley and Joshua are on the rise in the industry, so expect to see more of them in the coming months and years.

"I have just barely begun my professional involvement, however I think networking is the most important thing right now. Knowing the right people to share your projects and excitement with so they can help spread the word appropriately," Joshua said. "I am a very short-sided thinker. I tend to just enjoy how things are going. However, if I could eventually use the ‘Creep’d Out’ brand in a way to bring interesting topics and oddities to others outside of a podcast, then I may look into that if we ever get popular enough."

"Teamwork makes the dream work," Hayley advised. "Make friends, collab with others, network!"

"I'm actually hoping to write a book," she said. "I want to write a book about Massachusetts’ odd history, roadside things, legends, and such!"

We look forward to reading it.

Follow Hayley on Tumblr at cryptid-wendigo.tumblr.com and @cryptidwendigo on Twitter, and find Joshua on Tumblr at the cryptocreep.tumblr.com and @thecryptocreep on Twitter. Make sure to keep up with the latest from the Creep'd Out podcast on Twitter by following @creepdout, and listen to episodes of the show through Podbean by clicking this link.

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