0:00

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all

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10 episodes of Academy ad-free. Find

0:05

Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or

0:07

on Apple Podcasts. Hi,

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my name's Christina Freel. I'm one

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of the creators of Academy and

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I love scary stories. So I

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have to tell you about the new

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podcast Run Fool, created by the

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incredible Rodney Barnes. It is

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genuinely so spooky. I locked myself in my

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room because I got so scared and now

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I can't get out. Here's

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a clip from Run Fool. I'll be back right

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after. It's

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the middle of the night. You're in

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a deep, heavy slumber until

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slowly you stir. You

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realize your chest is heavy. You

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open your eyes, but you

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can't focus because you're not awake. But

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the thing is, you're not asleep either.

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All you know is there's something on top of you,

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something alive, that's deeply inhaling

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whatever breath emerges from your lips. You

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want to move, but your heavy, sleep-ridden

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limbs won't let you. You

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want to scream, but your mouth won't open.

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And just trying to do either of these elicits

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a growl from the thing that's on your chest.

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Unfortunately for you, this isn't

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a dream. It's a

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boo-hag. And if you feel

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it sitting on you in the middle of the night, you're

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out of luck. It's already

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too late. I

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heard about the boo-hag while staying in the

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Georgia sticks, somewhere outside of

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Savannah. See, I'd been

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tasked with writing a script set in that area

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and sometimes the words don't flow unless you're there

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in the flesh. Unfortunately,

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even after I got to town, the

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words still weren't coming. It

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made this worry seep in, a

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cruel internal nature. Sarah

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in my head started telling me all kinds

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of tales, that I wasn't good enough

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to write this thing, that I'd never get

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it done, which is why I

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found a way to procrastinate putting pen to paper, and

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involved making a social call to

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some friends who lived even further out in the

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Boney's. They

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were surprisingly iffy on having me. When

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I got there, I found out why. Something

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had happened, next door, and

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it made them afraid for the safety of

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any potential guests. A creature

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called a boohag had made a social call to

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their neighbor. According to

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them, this kind of hag is a special

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breed of witch, straight from

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Gullah folklore, brought to Georgia's

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low country on the lips of enslaved people

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who toiled there. It's

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considered by some to be a metaphor for

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possession, or an old

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explanation for sleep paralysis. But

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really, the boohag is a whole

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lot more than that. It's a

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night prowler, the denizen of

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evil that sneaks into homes through the

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tiniest of cracks, an open

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window, a door lock. Once

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inside, it sits on its victim's chest and

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steals their breath while they sleep. That's

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how these vampiric creatures feed, you

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see, on your

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air, your life force.

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If you somehow manage to fight back, boohags

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don't like that. It'll make

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them take something from you, something

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even more essential than your breath. Before

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I get into what that is, I do want to

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warn you. This story,

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it got under my skin, and

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I bet it's going to get under yours too. You

3:44

can listen to Run Fool on Apple Podcasts,

3:46

Spotify, wherever you listen, just make sure to

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be in a room where someone can slide

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a snack under the door. I

3:53

should have thought of that. Hello? Hello?

4:00

Binge all 10 episodes of Academy early

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and ad-free on Wondery+. Join

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Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or

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on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell

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us about yourself by completing a

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short survey at wondery.com/

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survey.