Here are some great spooky podcasts to get your kids and teens (and you!) in the Halloween mood.

All of these should be available on any service you use to listen to podcasts, such as Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, etc. If you have some great podcast recommendations, leave them in the comments below! For additional (non-spooky) podcast recommendations, click here!

FOR KIDS & FAMILIES

The Creeping Hour
If your kids like Goosebumps, then The Creeping Hour horror anthology series from NPR is going to be a hit. Recommended for ages 8-12 and families, these are some seriously spooktastic stories!

Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest
This Webby Award nominated podcast is created by Adam Gidwiz, author of A Tale Dark and Grim. For ages 5+, but these modern takes on classic fairy tales can get pretty spooky.

The Hollow
With connections to local lore and created to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Hollow is a great spooky listen for upper elementary ears. Three Sixth Graders at Sleepy Hollow Middle School find themselves in the middle of a modern ghost story, featuring none other than the Headless Horseman himself.

Revenge of the Creeps… and Other Scary Stories
At the time of recording, creator Natalie was a six-year-old obsessed with scary stories. The 10 episodes of the podcast feature her original scary stories and her reporting on actually visiting haunted/scary sites around the country.

Unspookable
Recommended for ages 8+, Unspookable is a family-friendly look at the history of dark myths and folktales, urban legends, and scary stories. Including such wide ranging fare as The Mothman, the Illuminati, the Black Plague, the Book of the Dead, Ouija Boards, Bloody Mary and beyond, Unspookable is a great, spooky, intriguing listen for your ears. For older listeners interested in these kinds of stories, check out Lore and The Strange & Unusual below.

Individual Spooky/Halloween Episodes of Various Podcasts for Kids

April Eight Songs & Stories
10/28/20 – “The Witchy Sing-Along Song”
10/21/18 – “Halloween Songs”
10/16/18 – “The Which Witch and the Goblin”

Good Stuff Kids
10/26/17 – “Andrew and Polly Break Down Ghostbusters” Good Stuff Kids was featured in Great Podcasts for Kids, Pt. 2 and Andrew and Polly are the creators of Ear Snacks which was featured in Great Podcasts for Kids, Pt. 4.

Kids Listen
Season 2, Episode 28 – “How to Tell a Scary Story” from the podcast This Week in the Multiverse, along with a related activity featuring “Tips for Spooky Storytelling.”

Little Stories for Tiny People
Little Stories for Tiny People was featured in Great Podcasts for Kids, Pt. 3.
10/21/18 – “Zebra and Donkey’s Halloween”
10/24/17 – “Little Rabbit’s Halloween: a Story for Kids”

The Past & the Curious
The Past & the Curious was featured in Great Podcasts for Kids, Pt. 2.
10/29/19 – “Mechanical Monsters”
10/08/18 – “Fakes and Frauds”
10/23/17 – “Ghost Ships”

Tumble Science
Tumble Science was featured in Great Podcasts for Kids, Pt. 2.
10/30/20 – “The Science of Candy Land”
10/26/18 – “The Mask of the Crow Scientist”
10/27/17 – “We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts”
10/31/16 – “The Laboratory of the Haunted House”

FOR OLDER LISTENERS

Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween
Welcome to Hawthorne Manor, where the Caretaker (voiced by actor Keegan-Michael Key) will give you a grand tour. 13 Days of Halloween is more than just a story. It's an immersive auditory horror/spooky experience for teens that uses sound effects and 360 degree sound technology to really pull you into this creepy haunted house, exploring its rooms and meeting its residents, both alive and… not.

Origins Unknown
This Webby Award nominated podcast features two seasons of a horror-mystery-adventure series starring a 16-year-old protagonist. It’s like a mash of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Stranger Things, Scooby-Doo, The X-Files, and Eerie, Indiana. You get all those references, right?

Lore
Lore is like Unspookable above in terms of content, but on a much darker, deeper, and older listener-focused level. Winner of multiple awards and spawning a very creepy/scary horror anthology TV series on Amazon, as well as a gorgeously macabre series of books, Lore is definitely not for younger ears, however older teens and adults will love it. Diving deep into the facts and realities behind scary stories and folklore, Lore is like a true-crime podcast for the potentially supernatural, bizarre, weird, and inexplicable things of the world. From mythological beasts and scary monsters, to crimes and con artists, to hauntings and haunted places, to the utterly weird and wonderful, to urban legends, Lore covers a lot of ground while diving deep into historical fact.

If Lore isn’t enough to overwhelm your ears with the spooky, bizarre, and darker aspects of history and the world, check out all of the podcasts put out by the same production company, grim & mild.

Scary Stories Told in the Dark
If the classic book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was made into a podcast, it would be a lot like this long-running and well-narrated collection of original scary short stories by independent and previously published authors. For teens and adults.

Speaking of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, check out this episode of Remember Reading, which dives into the history of the book which has spent decades regularly appearing in the Top 10 “banned and challenged” books of the year. Find the Scary Stories series in the Library Catalog, on Hoopla, and on OverDrive/Libby. For even more, borrow these films from the Westchester Library System: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019, Rated PG-13) directed by Guillermo del Toro and the documentary about the book, Scary Stories: The Story of the Books That Frightened A Generation (2018, Not Rated).

Spooked
Spooked features supernatural stories, told by the people who experienced them. For teens and up.

The Strange & Unusual
Like Lore, The Strange & Unusual looks at the dark, weird, creepy, and bizarre side of history. It is distinct enough from Lore, however, to check out as well, especially considering its focus on high-quality storytelling. Due to its local connections, Episode 24 from 10/26/20 – “Sleepy Hollow, A Region of Shadows” is highly recommended.