Aaron Mahnke

Aaron Mahnke is an American author, podcaster, and television host, with his most well-known works being the Lore podcast and the Lore television show. From Illinois, he worked as a freelance graphic designer and writer after obtaining a psychology degree before starting a career in podcasting. Publishing several thriller books in the early 2010s and having Lore related written material as additional rewards for his followers, the podcast version was his first major creation in 2015 that allowed Mahnke to showcase his psychological background and influences from shows like Unsolved Mysteries.

The success of Lore resulted in an Amazon Prime Video adaptation into a television series and allowed the signing of a collaboration with iHeartMedia for additional podcasts. Acting as host for several new series, writer for others, and producer for a much larger number of podcasts hosted by others, such as Dana Schwartz's Noble Blood and Toby Ball's Strange Arrivals, Mahnke eventually moved into creating fictional podcast shows as well. These have included Bridgewater with Lauren Shippen and Consumed and Havoc Town with Carlos Foglia and Nicholas Tecosky, respectively.

Education Born in Illinois, Mahnke completed a Bachelor of Psychology degree in university.

Career After graduation, Mahnke worked as a freelance writer and graphic designer while also self-publishing three thriller novels. He also produced a podcast with Dave Caolo called Home Work that was a "typical two white dudes talking" style.

Creation of Lore Begun in March 2015, the Lore podcast was started to cover stories of local mythology and folklore, including their impact on historical communities and the impact that mass psychology can have on society. The podcast had reached the top 20 most listened to publications on iTunes by October 2015, with Mahnke noting that each episode released twice a month took around 30 hours to write and produce.

The originations of the Lore series came about as a series of PDF files given to readers of his earlier thriller novels, adding in historical notes to the pieces of folklore utilized in his fiction. These files eventually became large enough that they weren't as convenient or useful to read, leading to Mahnke to consider stopping the project altogether, before instead choosing to turn them into an audiobook format.

In October 2017, the Lore television show launched on Amazon Prime Video with six episodes of the podcast converted into a visual form, featuring Mahnke as the host telling the story alongside dramatized versions of the described events.

Collaborations and fictional podcasts In 2018, beginning his first new podcasting work since Lore, Mahnke entered into an exclusive partnership deal with iHeartMedia to collaborate on making new podcast shows. For his part, Mahnke created the production company Grim & Mild and acted as producer and host for some shows, such as Unobscured and Cabinet of Curiosities, and Toby Ball's Strange Arrivals. This exclusivity deal was renewed in 2020 and, along with the revival of additional seasons for existing podcasts, Mahnke signed on for the production of five new shows, including Rabia Chaudry's The Hidden Djinn. It also resulted in the 2020 release of the podcast 13 Days of Halloween, a collaboration between Mahnke, iHeartMedia, and Blumhouse Television that featured Keegan-Michael Key in a primary role as the "caretaker".

After years of his more serious non-fiction podcast, Mahnke wanted to also create one that was fictional in basis, but still able to present folklore material and research. He contacted Lauren Shippen, creator of The Bright Sessions podcast, and they collaborated on a new podcast called Bridgewater that began releasing in 2021. Based around the Bridgewater Triangle, a former covered topic of Lore, it followed the investigation of a series of disappearances in the Massachusetts area and the variety of supernatural folklore that makes up the Triangle's mythology. The three main cast members were made up of a skeptic, a believer, and an unsure character in the middle, which Mahnke said was necessary so all listeners would have a person to represent them in the story.

He also acted as executive producer for the podcast 12 Ghosts written by Nicholas Tecosky, released entirely in December 2022. Mahnke took up the same production role when his 2014 thriller novel Consumed was turned into a podcast in 2024 in a collaboration with iHeartPodcasts and Carlos Foglia as the writer. The third fictional podcast that followed in 2025, Havoc Town, also featured writing by Tecosky and covered a supernatural horror setting and a centuries long vampire and occult problem in a small town in New Hampshire.

Continuing on from his previous written works, Mahnke published an eponymous book in 2024 based around the scripts for his Cabinet of Curiosities podcast. The title of the book was inspired by the shelves of "oddities" in the Enlightenment Room at the British Museum. This followed with an original written work in 2026 titled Exhumed that discussed the history and folklore of the New England vampire panic in the 1890s and how the public understanding of the vampire at the time developed from prior decades to result in the Mercy Brown vampire incident.

Awards The Lore podcast was given the "Best in 2015" award by iTunes and was named one of the "Best Podcasts of 2016" by Entertainment Weekly. In 2024, Mahnke was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame.

Personal life Mahnke lives in Danvers, Massachusetts. 2022 - 2023 Grim & Mild Presents 2022 - 2022 12 Ghosts 2021 - 2023 Bridgewater 2020 - 2021 The Hidden Djinn 2019 - Current Noble Blood 2018 - Current Cabinet of Curiosities 2018 - 2021 Unobscured 2015 - Current Lore