Paranormal testimony with a spiritual charge.
The Confessionals lets strange accounts breathe, from Bigfoot and dogman reports to near-death visions and childhood abduction memories. It mixes loose studio banter with grave, belief-forward conversations about hidden systems, fear, faith, and what people think they saw.
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The Confessionals is a long-running paranormal testimony show with a strong belief-centered pulse. It does not treat eerie accounts as curiosities to be quickly explained away. It gives them space. The recent material moves through Bigfoot activity, dogman attacks, alleged giants, childhood abduction memories, near-death visions, portals, gray entities, and strange physical encounters that leave people shaken. These stories are framed less like clean investigations and more like late-night conversations with people trying to make sense of something that changed them. The pacing is brisk around the edges. Studio openings can bounce through member previews, family updates, jokes, sidebars, and live-show chatter before the heavier material takes over. Once it does, the show often slows down and lets the account accumulate detail. Tony Merkle is named as host, and Slingshot Nation episodes bring in Derek and Jack for a rougher, more reactive group dynamic. Their exchanges can move from banter to biblical interpretation quickly. Nephilim, spiritual warfare, Genesis, hidden lineages, and supernatural conflict are not decorative references here; they are part of the show’s operating lens. That makes The Confessionals distinct from paranormal shows that keep belief at arm’s length. It is open, urgent, and deeply invested in what these experiences might mean. The show also carries real-world heaviness. Human trafficking, childhood fear, bullying, illness, death, and trauma appear alongside monsters, portals, and alien claims. Its strongest moments come when the room stays human while the subject matter gets bizarre. A guest can describe loneliness or mental captivity, and the show will sit with the pain before returning to the mystery. It is strange, earnest, and sometimes intense. For listeners drawn to cryptids, abductions, conspiracy-shaped questions, and Christian supernatural framing, it offers a rawer kind of paranormal storytelling.
Made for: For listeners who like cryptids, abduction accounts, near-death stories, and supernatural testimony told through a Christian worldview. It best suits people who prefer earnest conversation over detached debunking.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by letting wild accounts stay personal and unresolved while framing them through faith, spiritual warfare, and lived fear. Its live-show sidebars make the strange material feel conversational rather than packaged.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Tony Merkle treats paranormal testimony as personal history, revealing the faith, fear and institutional suspicion carried inside extraordinary claims.
The Confessionals gives extraordinary claims room to become full conversations, with Tony Merkle moving between guest testimony and the live group discussions of Slingshot Nation.
Bigfoot, alien hybrids, and Genesis share one flashlight here, if that is your kind of darkness.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A live conversation that moves from platform banter to human trafficking, child safety, and claims that truth and lies are surfacing together.
Slingshot Nation Live opens with platform banter and thanks for new members and subscribers before settling into human trafficking, child safety, and the host's view that truths and lies are surfacing together.
A faith-driven testimony that links heaven, time, and life into one sweeping frame.
Tony Merkle shapes the conversation as a prayerful testimony, beginning with a plea to keep praying for his wife Lindsay as she faces breast cancer and is prayed for complete healing in Jesus' name.
An unsettling account where eerie childhood memories, bullying, strange dreams, and cautious hope press against each other.
The episode sits with childhood memories that never quite loosen their grip on adult life. The guest recalls a story that shifts from a rumor about a giant killed near a base to the image of three long, bony fingers reaching under a door.
A live paranormal discussion links Genesis, Nephilim, human hybrids, and ancient DNA claims.
The Confessionals opens in live-show mode, with membership shout-outs and some talk about testing a new system, before settling into a steady discussion of Nephilim, human hybrids, and a biblical seed war.
A conspiracy-minded episode about Epstein, media influence, and the stories that redirect public attention.
The episode uses Charlie's Epstein discussion to open onto a broader concern about power, banking, media, and the way public attention can be moved when a damaging story threatens influential people.
A sleepover game leads into paranormal unease, unstable memory, and a loose studio talk about reality shifting underfoot.
Red Door Yellow Door gives the episode its eerie pull, turning a sleepover game into a route toward paranormal unease and reality that seems to shift underfoot. The studio setup stays loose at first, with Oscar the new puppy nearby while the host checks in with Derek and Jack.
An NDE and a radiating light leave spiritual possibility tangled with the limits of perception.
A guest's NDE opens into a broader question about the sky: what was seen, and what kind of meaning it can bear. The account follows a shift in interpretation, from something that once felt impossible to explain, or perhaps linked to government experimentation, toward a more…
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
This episode features Rich, a former Village Public Safety Officer in Alaska, discussing his unexplained experiences.
Tony, Derek, and Jack discuss NASA's Artemis mission and its potential ties to UFO disclosure and lunar conspiracies.
Tabitha recounts family stories linking Welsh origins to Appalachia as warnings that unusual beings were real.
Gabriel dates his encounter to July 2010, during a Fort Polk night exercise in the training area called "the box." After his sergeant left to retrieve a forgotten radio, Gabriel says the woods fell silent and a low red light pulsed nearby.
On Slingshot Nation, Tony Merkel and Derek assess the Iran footage as possibly physical, human-made technology rather than an identifiable craft.
Tony Merkle opens the room with a welcome and a little platform confusion.
A preview of a members-only episode featuring a dramatic story about encountering a giant monster near a cave, with intense action and suspense.
This episode features a surreal narrative blending time travel concepts with intense encounters involving giants, monsters, and mysterious entities.
The hosts introduce a new episode about a teen game that opens real portal doors, while discussing their studio puppy and encouraging listener membership.
A preview of a members-only episode featuring a supernatural military encounter involving a giant being killed and a near-death experience with heavenly portals.
Tony Merkel opens with a prayer request for his wife, Lindsay, who is battling breast cancer.
Tony Merkle's The Confessionals centers on Robert's childhood alien visitation memories in Southwest Michigan, and a later corroboration from a woman abducted from Northern Indiana who recognized his house.
The show opens with Slingshot Nation Live banter, then eases into a theory about Nephilim, hybrid beings, and knowledge passed to humans before turning to the making of homunculus.
Joseph “Joey” Sharafi describes Las Vegas as a transient convention city where the “Sin City” image can support trafficking demand.
Strange stories set the tone.
This preview teases a members-only episode about the discovery of giant skeletons in the Ozarks, featuring eerie eyewitness accounts of monstrous encounters.
This preview features an interview with RJ about his direct contact experiences with the Monroe Institute and paranormal encounters.
This preview teases a members-only episode about how Jeffrey Epstein allegedly blackmailed someone into silence, with dramatic storytelling elements.
A preview of a members-only episode featuring a dramatic story about encountering feral people in Appalachia using echolocation, with an interview from Brian of Black Mass Paranormal.