Keeping It 100 For Our 100th Episode!

Introduction to Spooky Science Sisters

0:00No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately, though, the shop's been quiet. So Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks Copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs and help him see if he can afford it. Copilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the $1 slice work. Now Hank's has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Copilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work.

0:30Listen, that's a baller move right there.

0:36Disappear for 11 days, freak your husband out, everybody else out, and then like check into a hotel using the last name of his mistress. Like, man, you can't top that. I will never do anything cooler than that, as cool as that ever.

0:56I'm Paige. And I'm Megan. And this is Spooky Science Sisters.

1:05Hello, you're listening to Spooky Science Sisters, a podcast where we present to you a science-based and probably very giggly discussion on all things strange and unusual. It is time for our 100th episode, which means we have chosen a story or a topic for today that somehow relates to the number 100. I think we did a good job. We did it. We should have done 100 topics. I would have never recorded that episode. We just say them to you, and then you have to do the research.

1:39Yeah, right. Here's a list of 100 things. Look it up yourself. So, first, though, before we talk about our 100 topics,

Spooky Story Sharing

1:50we have to do something spooky. So, Paige, has anything spooky happened to you recently? So, I didn't really have anything spooky, but while I was trying to figure out what to do for this episode, I was like, oh my gosh, Harry Houdini died in 1926, which is on Halloween, for those of you who didn't know. And I know we've mentioned him before in one or two episodes, and he's also mentioned in the book, but I was like, this would be a good topic, except it would be way too long for this episode. Yeah. This is my formal request to do a Halloween Houdini episode this October.

2:24Yeah. Yay. I already saw this request in the notes, and I already put it on the schedule. So, we are doing it, people. So, it's just happening at this point. But that's all I have. So, Megan, do you have anything spooky to share? I do have something spooky, and it's that I might be accidentally psychic when it comes to coffee-related things. This sounds real.

2:53It's real, Paige.

2:56Okay. So, at the beginning of December, because it's been a little while since we last recorded, I got my new planner for 2026. And that's, like, a big deal for me. Paige knows. It is. I'm very excited when I get to order the new one. I really like when it comes in, because I get to see, like, the cover that... Like, I do, like, one from a company that lets you, like, customize your layout and, like, pick a cover and put your name on it and whatever.

3:26I take this very seriously. So, I got the new one. I was really excited about it. And I brought it into work early, because I was like, I already know some January things, so I can start putting some stuff in here. And got into work and realized that I had been carrying my coffee mug, which, like, supposedly does not spill, but that is a lie. I had been carrying it in such a way that it was, like, dripping coffee out of my mug

3:57and, like, onto the spine of my brand new planner. So, I was very sad. So, there's, like, January and February, a lot of the pages have coffee-stained edges and some drips. And I had to, like, just rip some pages out because they got totally soaked. And I was very sad. And I texted Paige when I got into work, this is an omen. Like, this is a sign. This is a wrap on 2026.

4:28Like, it's not going to get any better. My planner's ruined. This year is already done for me. So, that's the story of the planner. It was very tragic for me. So, flash forward to literally the morning of January 1st. So, New Year's Day. We're staying with my parents. And I woke up at, like, I don't know, 5.30 or 6 in the morning and, like, heard a really weird dripping noise or it sounded like liquid, like, hitting the carpet in the room

4:59because we were in a downstairs room. And I woke up because I was like, what the heck is that? Like, is that dog peeing on the carpet? Like, is something going on here? And I wake up, I turn the lights on and there's, like, brown liquid coming from the ceiling. I was like, oh my God, it is, like, raining sewage into the room that I'm sleeping in right now. This is a nightmare. And they come to find out that it was not sewage. It was an entire pot of coffee

5:30that my dad had brewed because the kitchen is right above our room. And my dad had forgotten to put the coffee pot under the coffee maker. So it brewed, like, 50-something ounces of coffee just, like, onto the counter and onto the floor. And it spilled into the holes that are cut, like, for the water lines for the refrigerator that go up there. And it just, like, was raining down through our ceiling in our room. And I was like, this is... Who could have imagined

6:00that I would have said, this is a wrap on 2026. Like, I spilled coffee on my planner. And then I literally started 2026 with coffee raining into my room. At six in the morning. And so we had to, like, clean it all up after we'd been up until one in the morning or whatever the night before. So I was like, this is... This was some kind of omen. Like, I was destined to have the coffee flood of 2026. So, anyway.

6:30It was a really weird coincidence. I had no idea where you were going with this when I saw the coffee psychic note. And, like... Did I not tell you about the coffee you're writing down into our room? Oh, no. I had heard about both of these stories. But when I read it, I thought you were going to tell me that, like... I don't know. I don't know what I thought you were going to say, honestly. But it wasn't that. Okay. So, anyway. That's me accidentally being coffee disaster psychic. Um... Okay.

Hayakumono Gatari Kaidenkai Game

7:00So, like Paige said, we each chose a topic that relates to the number 100. For my topic, I wanted to tell everyone about the Japanese storytelling game called... And we're going to... I'm going to try really hard on the pronunciation here. Uh... Called Hayakumono Gatari Kaidenkai. Which means a gathering of 100 supernatural tales. So,

7:31you tell 100 spooky stories. So, it's perfect for this episode. So, here's how the game works. There are two ways that you can play. So, there's a first simpler way, which is where participants just sit in a circle in a room with 100 lit candles or lamps. And they take turns telling ghost stories or other supernatural stories. And after each story, a candle is blown out so that the room gets progressively darker

8:01and spookier. And at this point, I was already like, well, we have to make sure that at our Halloween party, we like have exactly 100 candles lit up around the room because I was like, this is already my favorite thing. So, that's the simple version, right? It gets darker, it gets spookier. You see how far you can go before people freak out, presumably. So, the second variation adds in elements of what is called chemo de meshi, which is a test of

8:31courage. So, other forms of chemo de meshi are things like visiting cemeteries or haunted houses or secluded areas like a dark forest path. And often, these little tests come with a specific mission or task that you have to complete there. So, it's the same thing as like legend tripping here. You're like purposefully going to spooky places, sort of like trying to creep yourself out. But this idea

9:01or concept of chemo de meshi has been around since at least the 12th century. So, that's pretty cool.

Game Rules and History

9:09So, here's how the

Game Rules and History

9:09100 stories game is set up and then, yeah, you'll see how it becomes a sort of test of courage. So, there are three connected rooms and you have 99 candles or lamps that get lit in the last room and also in that last room a small mirror is placed on a table and then the middle room is empty and unlit and then all of the participants, so the storytellers and listeners,

9:40gather in the first room which contains the 100th lit candle or lamp. So, again, you have like 100 candles or lamps but only one of them is with the participants and in the ideal setup for this game, the rooms are in an L shape so that the participants can see the glow of the light from the final room but not the room itself. And that is important because at the end of each story, the storyteller must take the lamp or candle

10:11from the first room, so that 100th candle, and carry it through the dark center room into the final room where they extinguish one of the other 99 candles or lamps and obviously it would be very spooky to like walk yourself into that last room and then have to return to the group but it also leaves the rest of the group like in darkness waiting for you to get back from around the corner and they like can't see what you're doing over there. So it's very spooky

10:41and sounds very fun but I would like for sure be really freaked out once we got down to those last few candles. Yeah. Okay, so the game ends then when the final storyteller takes the 100th lamp into the last room and extinguishes it in front of the mirror and they'll sometimes do this alone or the entire group will walk into the last room with the last candle and blow it out but the catch here is that some people believe that

11:12this whole process acts as a summoning ritual so a spirit or other supernatural being will be released when the final light goes out and because of this the game commonly ends before the 100th story like people will purposely end it on 99 or you know they'll get too freaked out sometime before that and the other thing is like apparently there are no instructions as to you know what you do after you summon the spirit so it's like good luck after the 100th

11:46story anyway so i think this is so fun and i would totally play this although like that is a lot of stories so the game does take a long time to play i totally would have played this as a kid if i had known right though yeah i was like this would be a perfect sleepover game and i guess there is like a tabletop game or like some that's like a 10 stories game so like there are shorter versions that have been invented but it sounds super fun yeah so the exact origins of this game

12:16are unknown but we do know that it's been around for centuries it's thought that samurai first played it to test their courage so as like this kimodameshi aspect to it there is it first shows up in a children's story that was published in 1660 so almost 400 years ago which describes a group of young samurai playing the game and the story goes that as the 100th story was finished the final

12:47storyteller noticed this like huge gnarled shadow hand dropping down from the ceiling as he goes to blow out the final candle and this brave final storyteller takes his sword and swipes it at the giant hand and then finds out that it's not a giant shadow hand it's just the shadow of a spider dropping down from the ceiling and that this like you know it looks really big but it's actually just you know light behind the spider which I really love that aspect of it you know he thinks he's seeing something supernatural and

13:18crazy and then it's like nope it's just a spider the other part of the story is that the other samurai who were around him who like did cower in fear were mocked for being cowardly at this thing that like wasn't a big deal but once that story is published and I'm a little unclear like if that story is the one that like really makes it popular with everybody or if that's just sort of the first version of it that's out there but in the years after 1660 the game did become very popular and many Kaidan

13:48themed books were published and Kaidan in this case just means supernatural tale or ghost story but it is associated specifically with these old fashioned or traditional stories the first Kaidan Shu which is a collection of them I was published in 1677 called Shukoku Hayu Komonogatari which means 100 tales of many countries and they start publishing these volumes of stories because like I

14:20said the game is really long and people would bring these books along with them because there was this sort of competitive aspect to it to always bring new stories to tell the group and to be able to tell the best scary story and part of this was that it was desirable for the stories to be true life encounters with the supernatural or with ghosts and even if they weren't it was sort of like the unspoken rule that

14:51you were to take them at face value like you were meant to sort of assume that these were true stories that you were being told so it's like basically this is like the original creepy pasta or no sleep subreddit like that we're creating all these stories for which is pretty awesome and I was like dang Japan really has it figured out on the whole spooky story ghost story aspect of things so you shouldn't be surprised as there often is

15:22with these things there's sort of like a practical science adjacent reason for this game being played so the 100 ghost story game is traditionally played during the summer in conjunction with Oban which is the Buddhist festival of the dead and so it's in conjunction with that festival but it's also because of a folk belief that by like telling scary stories and getting the shivers or getting goosebumps

15:53from them that it would cool you down in the really hot summers really yeah I verified that when I looked it up in several places because I was like really like that sounds sort of made up yeah it's like a real thing that they thought that you'd get the shivers you'd get the goosebumps and like you'd get cooled down because you'd be so creeped out by the stories that you were hearing and I was like well jokes on them because like when I watch really scary movies like I just get really sweaty yeah yes which I guess

16:24technically I'm sweating so my body is cooling me down but I love that though yeah I like that there's this sort of practical aspect to telling these stories and the time of year that they're very popular yeah yeah so it is like a very old-fashioned game it's not you know super fashionable to play it anymore I think it's not played super often but it does live on as this like cult phenomenon in Japan

Game in Popular Culture

16:51and has spread outside of the country but it's shown up in movies and television and books and games it's the basis of a 1968 movie called Yokai Monsters or Yokai Monsters 100 Monsters it is also the basis for a 2002 TV series on Fuji TV which use the game as a construct to tell classic Japanese ghost stories movies unfortunately only ran for 11 episodes and I was like well that's a bummer because that sounds like an

17:21awesome TV show but yeah but like classic like Japanese ghost stories like you and I play Phasmophobia and you've got like the the Yuri and the like those types of ghosts that show up in it like those are all from these like Kainan stories that they would tell associated with this game so which is pretty cool there's an episode of the ghost hunting show paranormal state where they show students in the Penn State paranormal research

17:52society playing the quote ancient Japanese game of 100 candles which side note I like had to mention that one because I've watched a few episodes of paranormal state and like I strongly believe that it's like the worst of the ghost hunting shows which is unfortunate because it's not the worst because they play this game I think it's very cool that they mentioned it but it was like very heavily associated with Lorraine Warren oh like she shows up I

18:23think in some of the early episodes so it's very heavily associated with her and like I think I thought I felt like it was very silly because her whole thing and their whole thing was sort of like everything's demons and like evil stuff from hell or whatever and I was like this is very silly like I don't believe this anyway though so yeah but it does show up in a US TV show I wondered and then I forgot to look it up but I was like I wonder if the sort of

18:53like midnight club is at all inspired by this like where the kids get together and tell scary stories to each other yeah I mean I feel like even if they don't credit it like it is a very similar concept right yeah well yeah I mean any of those TV shows right like are you afraid of the dark was sort of like the same right kind of thing where you're telling individual stories like and sort of around a campfire so really like any situation like that like you could reference

19:23it back to this and it's not necessarily directly inspired by this but it's just this happens to be a very old example of that right tendency yeah but as a side note like I know that we have listeners in Japan and I would love to hear some from somebody who hear if they have experiences with the game with this game or if people still play it or just like how it was because it sounds like a super awesome time yeah but like I said yeah 100% I would have

19:55played this game all the time as a kid oh for sure yeah I mean like we we kind of were you know like again in a different way like sleeping out in the tent and all of us sitting around telling scary stories to see who could scare the other ones the most like it it all kind of comes back to this but the game itself sounds super fun no I for sure creeped out some friends when we were like sleeping out in tents in the backyard yep which like do kids do that anymore I don't know

20:25you tell me man anyway yeah so that is Hayekamono Guitari Kaidenkai which is gathering of 100 supernatural tales and that is my 100 themed subject yay somebody play with us we need more stories though I guess I could argue that this being our 100th episode we kind of have we kind of have played because we've been

20:55creeping people out for a hundred stories yeah oh okay usaa knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance with usaa you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10% tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle restrictions apply okay yeah so Paige what is

Agatha Christie's Disappearance

21:30your 100 themed topic for tonight so I feel like I'm a I'm a little bit cheating so I did I did mine on famous English mystery novelist Agatha Christie's disappearance which was technically a hundred years ago because it was in 1926 but it was in December so like it it's like kind of feels like it was a hundred and one or no yeah a hundred and one years ago right now it's like basically 99 years ago and

22:01it'll be a hundred in December yeah I have that backwards I do know how to do math even though that was not a good example of that skill so yeah it was it will be a hundred years in December but it's fine yeah close enough it's this year it's fine at some point you just start rounding so it's fine yes so that's what I'm gonna do so in April of 1926 and you said you

22:31don't really know much about this right no I think I wrote it down as like a thing that I was thinking about and then I never actually did any follow-up stuff on it and then focused on the game instead so I I don't know anything okay cool so I didn't really either but I'm very excited about it so in April of 1926 and this will be important later but Agatha Christie's mom Clarissa dies and I'm not sure how close they were but it see like this

23:03was like a really hard time for her and it took her a long time to overcome the grief of that loss of her mom and while trying to overcome this she is told by her husband hey I'm having an affair with another woman her name's Nancy Neal and over you know a period of months he ultimately decides like yes I'm gonna marry this other woman I want a divorce way to like kick her while she's dead hey your mom is dead also I'm cheating

23:36on you I'm having an affair so good job Archie off to a good start that guy sucks yes so then on December 3rd 1926 they are still together Agatha and Archie but at this point like things are not looking good for them and they have like a pretty bad fight that breaks out between the two of them and that evening Agatha leaves and Archie doesn't know where she goes she's she's disappeared and so when it's reported that she is missing which like good on

24:09Archie I guess for reporting that she yeah because like we don't know Archie we don't know not being like oh well that's convenient now she's gone so when it's reported that she was missing the police obviously start searching for her and they find her car crashed and it's got some of her personal belongings in it like her I think her wallet's in there her like her nice fur but there are no like signs or clues of where she had gone so she's not there but they find her car

24:39gotcha and like is she famous at this point or no so she has just landed like her first big publishing deal she had previously had one but it sounds like it was like this is like the publishing deal that like really sets her career okay but she but it hasn't like been published yet so she's like not a super big deal she's not a super big deal yet okay she's well but like she's big enough so like that so okay they don't really have any leads right they find her car they don't have any clues and

25:11so they launch this large-scale like missing person operation and it goes global so like she's a big enough deal that it makes international headlines people are kind of like freaking out they're looking for her everywhere the author of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle he even gets involved at some point he's like I need to get in on this action he gets a I think I've read a glove but it gets like an article of clothing of hers and takes it to a psychic and is like hey can you help us

25:42find her unclear that that psychic was any help but he tried and then would we have believed it no and then at one point they even like go to a local lake that they dredge up because they were like fear they feared that she has drowned or like you know thrown herself in the lake okay so they're searching for everywhere she's found 11 days later over 200 miles

26:13from that crash site at what was then called the hydropathic hotel and that's in harrogate yorkshire and they find her there when the head waiter at the hotel contacts the police with the information that a woman matching the description of agatha is staying at the hotel but under the name theresa neil listen that's a baller move right there yeah disappear for 11 days freak your husband

26:44out everybody else out and then like check into a hotel using the last name of his mistress like man you can't you can't top that I will never do anything cooler than that as cool as that ever so that's where I'm at at this point right it's like okay girl she's trying to have herself a nice spa week and you're all right bothering her everyone's freaking out yeah okay so I read several places that Archie apparently

27:14travels to this hotel to go wait for her and like approach her and and be like hey why why did we leave okay though I find this like sort of weird because I've also read that Archie and his mistress are like the two prime suspects like why she's disappeared so to think that they would just be like yeah go ahead go find her Archie feels weird to me but whatever that's apparently what happens she ends up coming to the dining room she's sitting at a table reading a newspaper and

27:44apparently that newspaper has like the headline like it has her face on it saying like Agatha Christie has gone missing or manhunt whatever and she's reading it when Archie approaches her and is like yo what's up she looks at him is totally confused claims she doesn't know who he is doesn't know what's going on and oh this I say like dude go away because worst case scenario here she is unwell like

28:16something has happened after everything that she's had happened to her over the last couple of months yeah best case scenario she's just trying to hide from you so yeah that's tough to say if she's trying to pretend like I don't know who you are get away from me so that way someone else would like step in or yeah yeah who knows she's just like yeah or if it was like you know everything was traumatic enough that she actually suffered some sort of mental event and

28:46like some sort of weird amnesia I don't know right and so that's where this goes right so she's claiming that she is suffering from amnesia she it sounds like doesn't seem to remember like their daughter there's like all these life events that she's claiming she doesn't remember I think even like Archie seems to like agree that this is what's happened like he is buying into the amnesia story but importantly at some point it even seems to be confirmed

29:16by a number of psychiatrists that that's what's happened okay so at this point

Investigation and Theories

29:21it kind of seems like yeah she's just had a number of traumatic events that have happened and like she's just yeah had some sort of like mental health crisis yeah and that's like it right like that's the story a woman in the mid-1920s gets a career-defining publishing deal loses her mother finds out her husband is cheating on her and he wants a divorce and disappears for a week and a half and like to me like that's it like that's all that happens yeah okay but for some reason a hundred

29:51years later people are still talking about this and you know obviously they know where she disappeared to but they feel strongly that they need to know why like don't we know why well I think I do but like a lot of people don't and like I was gonna get there later but like people are still kind of mean about it like just looking around and like I looked at like a couple reddit threads and some posts on like Facebook and stuff and people are like still mad about this and like think

30:24that she's like trying to pull one over