Hollywood is built on illusion.

Lights. Soundstages. Carefully controlled darkness.

But what happens when the darkness doesn’t follow directions?

In this episode of One Up the Annals, host Rab Greeson sits down at the séance table to explore the most infamous cursed and haunted movie sets in film history. From early silent cinema to modern horror, where coincidence piled up, accidents felt intentional, and rumors refused to die.

Guided by special guest Victoria co-hosting as the medium “the spirits agreed to speak through,” this episode unfolds like a séance disguised as a podcast. Together, we trace the strange pattern that emerges when cameras roll on stories about ghosts, demons, and the Devil himself and something off-script shows up to watch.

You’ll hear about:

• Films that survived fires meant to erase them
• Sets where actors didn’t just play ghosts, they became legends
• Locations that seemed to remember what was done there
• Why certain roles feel like they keep the people who play them
• And how rumor itself can become a haunting that never leaves the screen

This isn’t a list of jump scares. It’s a slow burn through Hollywood’s shadow history—where belief, coincidence, and fear blur just enough to make you check the hallway afterward.


You came for the facts.
You’re not leaving alone.

Goodnight

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Episode 24 — Seasoning the Season: When Holiday Traditions Get Cooked

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This December, we’re not talking about the holidays you planned. We’re talking about the ones that happened anyway. When something slips. A turkey gets dropped. A gift detonates a relationship. Kids are kids. Someone discovers the punch wasn’t “lightly spiked,” it was weaponized.

And just like that, the holiday now has a name.

In this episode, we collect the true stories of December disasters that didn’t ruin Christmas… They became Christmas memories.

Because tradition tells you how the season is supposed to go. Reality tells you what actually happened.

And that’s the seasoning of the season.

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December is supposed to be warm, joyful, and magical.

So why does it also feel loud, expensive, exhausting, and emotionally charged?

I’m Rab Greeson and in this episode of One Up the Annals, we take a Dickens-style journey through the traditions of December guided by three ghosts who know exactly why this season hits the way it does.

We explore:

• Why Christmas trees were once fire hazards and survival symbols
• How lights went from “don’t die in the dark” to neighborhood competitions
• The strange, sacred, and occasionally unhinged origins of mistletoe, caroling, stockings, eggnog, fruitcake, and flying reindeer
• How December traditions transformed into performances, surveillance, and consumer rituals
• Why modern Christmas feels louder than ever and what we might want to carry forward instead

This isn’t about canceling Christmas.

It’s about understanding it.

From pagan fire rituals to mall Santas, from survival to spectacle, from quiet generosity to public performance, December has always been watching.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s trying to remind us of something.

Where December becomes legend…

It’s in the Annals.

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This is the final chapter of The Season of Obsession.

Across this series, we followed some of the brightest minds in modern history. Howard Hughes, Heath Ledger, Robin Williams and then descended into the Madness itself. We traced the same atomic question through every story:

Where does genius end… and collapse begin?

In this season finale, we step back from the individual lives and examine the core that connected them all. Control. Creation. Motion. Brilliance. Awareness. And the moment that barrier fails.

Howard Hughes tried to master the world through control, until it sealed him inside it.
Heath Ledger dove into creation, until the line between role and self. Disappeared.
Robin Williams ran on motion and empathy until biology betrayed awareness itself.
And the Madness episode showed us what happens when awareness collapses completely.

This final episode weaves those stories together into one closing truth: genius and madness orbit the same core and awareness is the only thing that keeps the atom intact.

This is not a tribute to tragedy.
It is an anatomy of obsession.
A map of brilliance.
And a warning written in light.

Season Finale – One Up The Annals: The Season of Obsession
Hosted by Rab Greeson — The Original Un-fluencer

Where shame becomes legend… and obsession becomes history.

Goodnight.

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Season Of Obsession The Madness Arc

What do a conman, a cannibal, a campus stalker, a towering intellect, and a boy-next-door have in common?

They weren’t just killers. They were obsessed with control, legacy, and the illusion of genius.

In this dark descent of the Madness Arc, we ride the elevator to the lowest levels of the human psyche… and meet five men whose atoms split without warning:

• H.H. Holmes – The blueprint of murder
• Ted Bundy – The killer who rehearsed his charm
• Ed Kemper – The intellect who dissected his own family
• Jeffrey Dahmer – The man who tried to build love from corpses
• Dennis Rader – The file clerk who thought he was a god

They weren’t monsters. They were men.

And that’s what makes them terrifying.

If genius is powered by awareness… what happens when awareness turns off the lights?

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Robin Williams lived like a spark that refused to sit still a one-of-one supernova built from motion, empathy, and a restless drive to make the world feel seen. In this episode of One Up the Annals: Season of Obsession, we follow the lonely child from the quiet mansion, to the comic hurricane who rewrote stand-up, to the actor who healed millions, to the heartbreaking final battle no one saw coming.

This isn’t the simplified story the world told after he died.

This is the truth through the lens of genius, madness, and the fragile barrier that separates the two: awareness.

We explore:

• His childhood isolation and the birth of his “Love Me Syndrome”

• The San Francisco stand-up scene that couldn’t contain him

• Cocaine, Belushi’s death, and the moment he changed course

• Why Mork & Mindy exploded into a phenomenon

• The roles that defined him Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting, The Fisher King, and more

• His radical compassion, private vulnerability, and relentless need to connect

• The silent, biological betrayal of Lewy Body Dementia

• The truth behind his final months and why depression was not the story

Robin wasn’t a tragedy.

He was a North Star, a force of motion and love whose spark still echoes long after the silence.

I’m Rab Greeson, the Original Un-fluencer and tonight, in the Annals, we see Robin clearly. He’s not alone. And the mission he carried his whole life, to make us feel seen, is complete.

Nanoo-nanoo.

Let’s goooooo.

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If the Annals moved you, cracked you up, or kept you company today, you can toss a little love on Venmo: @RabGreesy

Heath Ledger

He wasn’t chasing fame, he was chasing perfection and damned near found it. But the cost of brilliant obsession can blend genius and madness to something else.

From restless Perth kid to Hollywood icon, Heath Ledger lived like a spark looking for fuel.

This episode dives deep into the mind and motion of a man who built brilliance from obsession, who prepared for The Joker role with obsessive detail, who filmed, sketched, and sound-tracked his own descent into legend.

We trace his journey from Peter Pan to Patrick Verona, from Brokeback Mountain’s quiet ache to The Dark Knight’s immortal grin.

This isn’t just the story of Heath Ledger. It’s a study of how far an artist will go before brilliance starts to burn like chaos.

One Up the Annals — where shame becomes legend, and genius flirts with madness.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube.

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Before Elon Musk built rockets, Howard Hughes tried to sterilize the sky.

He was a visionary who conquered Hollywood, rewrote the rules of flight, and then vanished into a fortress of milk bottles and Kleenex.

From the Spruce Goose that flew only once to the Vegas empire he bought just to be left alone, this is the true story of the man who turned genius into isolation and obsession into legend.

Where shame becomes legend.

Listen now on One Up the Annals Episode 18: Howard Hughes The Man Who Tried to Sterilize the Sky.