Indrid Cold
Fictional characterWikipedia
57
MENTIONS
21
EPISODES
20
PODCASTS
Search complete. 57 mentions across 21 episodes found for "Indrid Cold".
Sep 21, 2026
Harini BhatHOST
They looked up and saw something come out of the trees above them, something they later described as a brown human being gliding over their heads from tree to tree.
Harini BhatHOST
And 10 days before that, an appliance salesman named Woodrow Derenberger had held a press conference in the region to describe a roadside encounter with a being who told him his name was Indrid Cold.
Harini BhatHOST
That's a lot to unpack from that, but for now, the important thing to know is that this part of the Ohio Valley was already primed for something paranormal.
Harini BhatHOST
Now let's get to November 15th, 1966.
20 MINS LATER
Harini BhatHOST
The Silver Bridge came out in 1970 on Barker's own small press.
Harini BhatHOST
It's about 150 pages and it barely tries to be a factual account.
Harini BhatHOST
It's a patchwork of vignettes and written in a poetic style, going for atmosphere over evidence, including invented interior scenes for a man in black and for Indrid Cold, the being who supposedly appeared about a week before the Mothman.
Harini BhatHOST
Barker later admitted that one chapter was constructed, in his own words, quote, "out of whole cloth." But like I said, he wasn't the only one telling the story.
Mark MuncyHOST
Now he tied in one of our favorite characters from mythology of West Virginia, but not mythology.
Mark MuncyHOST
It's an encounter that happened, which was Indrid Cold.
Mark MuncyHOST
And he tied that into Mothman.
Erika LanceHOST
Aliens.
Erika LanceHOST
You wanted her to put aliens.
Erika LanceHOST
You wanted aliens.
Erika LanceHOST
I think Indrid Cold should definitely
Mark MuncyHOST
be the love triangle.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The visitor gave one name.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Cold.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Within about a day, Derenberger had reported the experience to authorities and described it on local television in Parkersburg.
speaker_0NARRATOR
That broadcast still survives in a later copy.
speaker_0NARRATOR
It is the strongest surviving record in the case, and it leaves one central question unresolved.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Did a salesman meet an unknown visitor on a West Virginia road, or did a single uncorroborated encounter become Indrid Cold through retelling, publicity, and folklore? Derenberger was not known as a paranormal investigator before that night.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Contemporary newspaper accounts described him as a traveling salesman, working in the Parkersburg area and living with his family near Mineral Wells.
speaker_0NARRATOR
His story began, at least publicly, with an ordinary drive home after work.
Jim HaroldHOST
You talk about the jinn, for example, and it seems like, uh, and I think Jacques Vallée would agree with this, um, the, the trickster, the trickster element.
Jim HaroldHOST
And you get into it even with John Keel and the Mothman story and Indrid Cold and all these different things.
Jim HaroldHOST
There seems to be a trickster aspect to this.
Jim HaroldHOST
Um, you know, I think a lot of...
KristenHOST
It's just so, so interesting.
KristenHOST
But here we have the smiling man, Indrid Cold.
KristenHOST
And I thought Leo would enjoy this.
KristenHOST
I'm so
LeahHOST
That's way scarier.
KristenHOST
Yeah, absolutely.
KristenHOST
So again, this man, Derenberger, said that the man was telepathically communicating with him and he identified himself as Indrid Cold.
KristenHOST
So that's his name.
KristenHOST
It's just so, so interesting.
KristenHOST
But here we have the smiling man, Indrid Cold.
KristenHOST
And I thought Leo would enjoy this.
KristenHOST
I'm so
LeahHOST
That's way scarier.
KristenHOST
Yeah, absolutely.
KristenHOST
So again, this man, Derenberger, said that the man was telepathically communicating with him and he identified himself as Indrid Cold.
KristenHOST
So that's his name.
Jonathan KendallGUEST
And I think that's significant.
Jonathan KendallGUEST
If we just take some of the crazy stuff that happened to Kiel that he says happened just to him, forget about Indrid Cold and some of these other more controversial aspects of Woodrow Derenberger and so forth.
Jonathan KendallGUEST
Forget about that.
Jonathan KendallGUEST
Just put that to the side.
Michael HughesGUEST
Exactly.
Summer SnapeGUEST
You know, that kinda reminds me of the, uh, Indrid Cold, uh, you know, Grinning Man experience.
Summer SnapeGUEST
You, Saria, you know what I'm talking about.
SariahHOST
Yes.
Michelle NewmanHOST
But before the internet ever had a name for it, these figures already existed in classic cryptid lore.
Michelle NewmanHOST
Back in 1970, investigator John Keel documented an entity tied to the broader Mothman phenomenon called Indrid Cold, sometimes called the Greening Man.
Michelle NewmanHOST
Witnesses, including a salesman named Woodrow Derenberger, who claimed to have encountered him on a dark road, described a very tall man with an unusually deep tan, slicked back hair, and a strange glossy suit, sometimes, sometimes green, sometimes blue.
Michelle NewmanHOST
He would appear out of nowhere, stand completely still, and stare with the same ear-to-ear unmoving grin.
Michael McMillianHOST
The Mothman pops up here and there, but it's mostly about the eeriness looming over and the sense of dread.
Michael McMillianHOST
But there's, like, Indrid Cold references.
Riley BrayHOST
Mm-hmm.
Michael McMillianHOST
And they really get into the concept of, of entities from parallel dimensions or neighboring dimensions interacting with us, and I think that's very fun, so.
11 more episodes mention Indrid Cold.
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