aaron mahnke

The new season starring Kathy Najimy and Bethany Anne Lind explores a mysterious coastal town where not everything is as it seems

WHAT: iHeartRadio and Blumhouse Television today launched the second season of Aaron Mahnke’s “13 Days of Halloween,” an original scripted horror podcast. The show was produced in 3-D audio, an innovative approach to audio entertainment that reproduces the effect of surround sound to immerse listeners in the podcast’s environment.  

Season one starred renowned actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key as the caretaker of the Hawthorne Manor, where every room contained a new secret or mystery. Now, the second season of “13 Days of Halloween” transports listeners to the eerie New England village of Direbrook. When a mysterious stranger awakens on the town’s rocky shore, residents pitch in to restore her past — but not everything in town is what it seems.

Season two stars Kathy Najimy — a fan-favorite known for roles in classic movies like Hocus Pocus and Sister Act, as well as the television series Younger — and Bethany Anne Lind, who recently appeared as Grace Young in Netflix’s Ozark. Between its all-star cast and the breathtaking sounds of 3-D audio, the show offers a thrilling spooky story just in time for Halloween.

WHEN: Today, October 19 with new episodes dropping daily through October 31.

WHERE: “13 Days of Halloween” is distributed by the iHeartPodcast Network and is available on iHeartRadio and everywhere podcasts are heard.

COVER ART: Download official show logo + cover art HERE.

About Blumhouse

Blumhouse is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality micro-budget films and provocative television series. Regarded as the driving force in the horror renaissance, Blumhouse has produced over 150 movies and television series with theatrical grosses amounting to over $4.8 billion. The company has produced iconic, genre, film franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, and prolific films like Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man; Glass, The Visit and Split from M. NIght Shyamalan; Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman; Get Out from Jordan Peele; among several others. Blum’s television company operates in horror programming - with streaming anthology series like Welcome to the Blumhouse for Amazon and a slate of horror/thriller films for Epix - and has also expanded beyond genre with provocative and acclaimed scripted and unscripted series and documentaries, such as The Good Lord Bird, starring Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, for Showtime; The Loudest Voice, starring Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe for Showtime; A Wilderness of Error (FX); The Jinx for HBO; A Secret Love, from executive producer Ryan Murphy, for Netflix; and lauded HBO series Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, among others.

About Aaron Mahnke

One of the most successful podcast producers in the world, Aaron began his career in 2015 with the launch of Lore, which went on to become a breakout hit. Aside from racking up over 325-million downloads to date, Lore was adapted for two seasons of television on Amazon Prime, and as a three-book set from Penguin Random House / Del Rey. Aaron has also toured extensively, taking the Lore storytelling experience to tens of thousands of people across the country.

These days, as founder and president of Grim & Mild Entertainment, Aaron stays busy writing, voicing, and producing a number of wildly popular shows, including the 2021 breakout hit Bridgewater. In 2019, Aaron also published his first comic book series, Wellington, through IDW.

Premiering October 19, podcast “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” invites fans of horror into “Hawthorne Manor” and an all-new world of terror that uses cutting-edge binaural audio technology, dropping daily in the 13 days leading up to Halloween

New York – October 12, 2020 - iHeartMedia, the No. 1 commercial podcast publisher globally, today announced the release of “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” from Blumhouse Television and iHeartMedia a new, original scripted podcast series starring Keegan-Michael Key. iHeartMedia will produce alongside Blumhouse, the iconic horror studio behind Paranormal Activity, Get Out and The Purge, and the podcasting master of horror, Aaron Mahnke.

In the 13 days leading up to Halloween, Blumhouse Television, iHeartMedia and its partners will bring a spooky world to life through an immersive audio experience, giving listeners a new daily story that’s a little scarier than the one before it. Set in the purgatorial hotel “Hawthorne Manor” and hosted by the “caretaker” – voiced by Keegan-Michael Key – listeners play the role of the hotel’s latest guest, putting them at the center of a new terrifying tale. Episode stories will range from family haunts and doomsday scenarios, to neighborhood mysteries and more.

“Hawthorne Manor is a unique world and we’re so thrilled to be working with iHeartMedia and Aaron Mahnke to bring this sinister tale to life,” said Jeremy Gold, President of Blumhouse Television. “With people staying home this Halloween, we thought listeners would appreciate getting lost in this world with us and having a taste of the spooky spirit of this holiday.”

“Who doesn’t love a good Halloween story?” said acclaimed podcast host and creator, Aaron Mahnke. “With iHeartMedia’s unmatched distribution platform and Blumhouse’s deep roots in horror storytelling, we’ve built the perfect team to scare the socks off our listeners this Halloween.”

The series will be produced using binaural audio, a cutting-edge audio format that immerses listeners completely in the world of the haunted hotel with a three-dimensional auditory experience. Binaural audio simulates the way humans naturally hear, with detailed soundscapes that have a sense of distance and position relative to the listener, providing a virtual reality experience in audio.

“We’re always looking for different ways to immerse podcast fans into new worlds,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartPodcast Network. “With 13 Days of Halloween, we’re partnering with the best talent in horror to create something special, with deeply haunting stories and ambitious sound technology that makes the experience that much better.”

All episodes of “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” from Blumhouse Television and iHeartMedia will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network. The iHeartPodcast Network is home to more than 750 original podcasts with over 251 million downloads each month. iHeartRadio Original Podcasts span every category from business, sports, spirituality and technology to entertainment, family, comedy and true crime – and everything in between – making iHeartRadio the largest publisher of podcast content in the world. The platform is also home to the most successful podcast of all time, “Stuff You Should Know,” and creator of hits like “The Ron Burgundy Podcast” and the “Atlanta Monster” series as well as fosters over a hundred shows from its on-air talent like the popular “Bobbycast” and “The Breakfast Club” radio show podcasts. These shows are distributed on all major podcast platforms including the iHeartRadio app, which additionally distributes more than 320,000 shows.

Fans can go to iHeart.com/apps to download and listen on all their favorite devices – including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, televisions, gaming consoles and more.

About Blumhouse Television

Blumhouse Television has earned critical acclaim and numerous honors for its dark, edgy fare including Emmy® awards for its productions of HBO's The Normal Heart and The Jinx, as well as the prestigious Peabody award for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. Blumhouse Television launched as an independent studio in 2017 with funding from ITV. Projects since the studio launch include Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominated HBO limited series Sharp Objects; Golden Globe®, Critics Choice® and Writers Guild® award nominated Showtime limited series The Loudest Voice and The Good Lord Bird, the latter starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and based on the award-winning novel by James McBride; and a slate of eight genre films for Amazon Prime under the banner Welcome to the Blumhouse. The studio produced The Purge on USA Network from writer/director/producer James DeMonaco and based on the popular film franchise; the holiday themed anthology event series Into the Dark for Hulu; and anthology series Sacred Lies created by Emmy® nominee Raelle Tucker. Blumhouse continues its true crime docuseries tradition with No One Saw a Thing on Sundance Channel, A Wilderness of Error for FX from Marc Smerling and with Errol Morris, and projects in development at Netflix, Oxygen, and Epix. The studio continues to develop award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary films including A Secret Love produced with Ryan Murphy for Netflix; Pray Away an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival; and Pharma Bro an official selection of this year’s Hot Docs Festival about “the most hated man in America”, Martin Shkreli. Past documentary films include Writers Guild Award® winner Bathtubs Over Broadway and winner of the 2018 Sundance Audience Award This is Home. Blumhouse Television is the latest venture from Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, which is widely-recognized for its pioneering model of producing high-quality micro-budget films including The Purge, Get Out, The Invisible Man and Halloween.

The renowned podcast producer will develop a slate of five new podcasts and also executive produce several new and renewed shows for the network

NEW YORK – April 8, 2020 – iHeartMedia, the No. 1 commercial podcast publisher globally, today announced a multi-year extension to the iHeartPodcast Network’s exclusive partnership with esteemed author and podcast creator, Aaron Mahnke. The deal includes two more years of new content for the popular “Cabinet of Curiosities,” two new seasons of “Unobscured” as well as an executive producer role for the newly launched hit “Strange Arrivals,” additional seasons of “Noble Blood” and a new scripted series set to launch this fall. Additionally, the partnership will add a slate of five new podcasts to feature groundbreaking talent including Rabia Chaudry – attorney, advocate and author of the New York Times bestselling book "Adnan's Story."

A pioneer of the podcasting medium, Mahnke rose to fame several years ago with his megahit show, “Lore,” which is still one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world and was spun off into a TV show, book series and live tour. In 2018, iHeartMedia and Mahnke entered into an exclusive partnership to create an original slate of podcasts. This resulted in new, huge hits like “Unobscured” and “Cabinet of Curiosities.” As part of this deal, Mahnke also began to executive produce new shows including “Noble Blood,” which reached the top of podcast charts everywhere when it launched last year.

“History is one of those areas that has a lot of value for us right now,” said Mahnke. “We can be entertained by it, learn from it, and even add new pieces to its incomplete puzzles—and my partnership with iHeart allows me to do a lot more of all of that through their openness to new ideas and industry-leading production staff. I couldn’t be more excited about the future.”

In addition to being available on digital, full episodes and vignettes of the extended content slate will air on broadcast radio, bringing this exceptional storytelling to iHeartMedia’s more than a quarter of a billion monthly broadcast listeners.

“Aaron ranks among the most innovative, groundbreaking creators at work today, in any medium, and so we are putting all of iHeartMedia’s resources behind him to make more podcast content, faster, for bigger audiences,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartPodcast Network. “This is one of the best parts of our job—putting some of the best creators in the world, on the biggest stage in the world. Beyond being Aaron’s business partner, we are also just huge fans and couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come.”

The iHeartPodcast Network is home to more than 750 original podcasts with over 170 million downloads each month. iHeartRadio Original Podcasts span every category from business, sports, spirituality and technology to entertainment, family, comedy and true crime – and everything in between – making iHeartRadio the largest publisher of podcast content in the world. In addition to Mahnke’s popular slate of podcasts, the platform is also home to the most successful podcast of all time, “Stuff You Should Know” and creator of hits like “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” “Disgraceland” and the “Atlanta Monster” series as well as fosters over a hundred shows from its on-air talent like the popular “Bobbycast” and “The Breakfast Club” radio show podcasts. These shows are distributed on all major podcast platforms including the iHeartRadio app, which additionally distributes more than 320,000 shows.

Fans can go to iHeart.com/apps to download and listen on all their favorite devices — including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, televisions, gaming consoles and more.