T H E S H O W
Luke Mordue examines the historical impact of the stories that haunt our society, tales that have gripped towns and cities worldwide for centuries as true events - Urban Legends.
First, hear the tales retold as short stories before delving into the history of the legend, dissecting its cultural significance, factuality, and origins.
Released Fortnightly alongside a mini-series that delves into shorter legends under the title of 'Modern Myths'.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, & most other major
podcast providers.
SUGGEST A LEGEND
T R A I L E R
Folklore - noun
The traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.
Urban Legend - noun
A modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humour, moralizing, or horror.
W H A T I S T H E S H O W ?
Since the first days of human consciousness, stories were shared - first through the art forms of cave paintings and then through word of mouth. Later, these tales would be documented in writing before evolving again for the modern age. These stories were often shared as a way to remember the past, as ways to warn people of dangerous environments, and often used to make sense of things far beyond our limited science at the time.
These tales are now known as Folklore, often shared as nothing but stories but often believed by many who had heard them. To many, Folklore is now part of our history. However, many of those stories live on in today’s world. Whether embedded in our social structures, within modern stories, or even widely believed, the act of sharing folklore has not ended. In fact, new and exciting stories are shared often to this very day, now under a new guise - now known as ‘Urban Legends’.
Understanding folklore, whether from the past or the modern day, can help us understand the cultures the stories reside inside. We can better understand customs and traditions and grow our understanding of the human psyche and our belief systems. Oftentimes, the legends shared are not simply plucked from the air but can be traced back to specific people, events, or situations, often using tales to make sense of an otherwise confusing time in a culture’s history. Looking back and understanding that is not only fascinating from the point of view of anthropology and storytelling, but it is also useful to better our pasts and perhaps even make it easier to spot fact from fiction in today’s world.
W H O I S T H E S H O W F O R ?
‘Urban Legends’ often fall into spooky stories, with many tales venturing into true crime and horror. However, this is not a True Crime / Horror podcast. Each chapter leans into the tone of whatever that tale may be - whether that be the dark thrills of ‘Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?’, the twisted horrors of ‘Bloody Mary’, or the fascinating wonder of ‘Will-O-the-Wisp’.
This show is created by a lover of stories, an admirer of folklore and cultures, but a firm supporter of science. With a mixture of these three things, each legend is approached with wonder, curiosity, respect, and mystery, with the sole purpose of further understanding our planet through the incredible stories our ancestors created.
R E L E A S E S C H E D U L E
‘Urban Legends’ releases fortnightly with eight chapters per season. Alongside this is a Bonus series titled ‘Modern Myths’ that ventures into the smaller legends that may not extend to the full running time of a chapter. These episodes run concurrently with the main series, ensuring a new episode is released every Monday during a season run.
In total, this results in 16 episodes throughout 16 weeks. Once this run is complete, there was be a pause in new content whilst the research and writing into new legends begins.
U P C O M I N G S E A S O N S
Season 4 begun in January 2024 with eight new Legends.
Running alongside this will be eight new Modern Myths, continuing the legends weekly for 16 weeks, taking us through the summer months.
Luke Mordue is a Writer & Filmmaker based in London, England.
With one of his first childhood books being one of British Folklore, and with the first horror movie ever purchased on DVD as a prepubescent teen being titled ‘Urban Legends’, it seems as though a curiosity behind folklore was inevitable. From very early doors, Luke found himself fascinated by life’s curiosities, often wondering what could lie beneath the surface of Loch Ness or whether the stories of ghosts haunting the cemeteries could be real.
Whilst these wonders would become nothing but folk stories in the mind of Luke with age, as his understanding of science and the mysteries of psychology grew, this did nothing to wade off the spell these wondrous tales had on him. Working full-time as a writer and filmmaker, Urban Legends and Folklore would often find themselves morphing into his work in ways that ranged from small to large. It wasn’t until the infamous lockdowns of 2020 that a new curiosity began.
Luke wanted to know just how much of these legends were stories and how much was based on reality. Were any of these legends true in some way? And if they were, where? With this in mind, the research into the legends began, eventually becoming the concept of a book. However, rather than simply writing up each chapter with the intention of publishing, Luke decided first to record each chapter in an audiobook-like format, releasing them as a podcast. This idea quickly became reality until the first season of Urban Legends began in October 2020.