Engrid Barnett

Engrid Barnett

Engrid is an award-winning travel writer and cultural geographer who’s long cultivated an obsession with cryptids, vintage tattoos, roadside attractions, and abandoned places. Her public descent into the weird began in 2017 after signing on with Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A longtime fan of Robert Ripley’s cartoons and quirky trivia, she relishes sorting fact from fiction and feeling mind boggled every step of the way. You can also catch her work in Wild West, Rova, Nevada Magazine, American Trails Magazine and more.

Read all stories by Engrid Barnett

Was Egyptian Mummification Really About Preserving Bodies?
Vintage & Historical
Engrid Barnett

Was Egyptian Mummification Really About Preserving Bodies?

It’s time to put the final nail in this ancient legend’s coffin... or, rather, sarcophagus.

Emperor’s Top-Secret Assassination Letter Finally Decoded
Vintage & Historical
Engrid Barnett

Emperor’s Top-Secret Assassination Letter Finally Decoded

After five centuries, a murder plot lost to history has re-emerged.

How the Black Death Is Still Affecting Our Immune Systems
Vintage & Historical
Engrid Barnett

How the Black Death Is Still Affecting Our Immune Systems

The surprising link between the bubonic plague and autoimmune disorders.

This Behavior-Altering Parasite Makes Wolves Go Alpha
Animals
Engrid Barnett

This Behavior-Altering Parasite Makes Wolves Go Alpha

This single-celled parasite can wield impressive power over its hosts, including humans!

Benjamin Franklin’s Beef (Or, Rather, “Turkey”) With the Bald Eagle
Vintage & Historical
Engrid Barnett

Benjamin Franklin’s Beef (Or, Rather, “Turkey”) With the Bald Eagle

He thought the bird had “bad moral character.”

Swirling Pinstripe backdrop
Ripley's Cartoon of the Day

May 8, 2026

Cartoon of the Day

The town of Kyle in Saskatchewan, Canada, faced a hiccup in the run-up to its November 2024 municipal election: no one ran for mayor.

Ripley's Cartoon of the Day

Robert Ripley began the Believe It or Not! cartoon in 1918. Today, it continues uninterrupted as the world’s longest-running syndicated cartoon.

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