We salute the seductive sirens of the sea this week on Ripley Radio, the official broadcast program of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! We ask the question, are they real? Although she hasn’t seen one, Varla Ventura believes there are live mermaids in the vast depths of the seas. We talk with her about her new book, “Among the Mermaids,” in which she presents a wide array of stories, myths, and legends. Stayce McConnell, a “live” mermaid who has performed at Florida’s Weeki Wachee State Park for 14 years, stops by and tells us how cool it really is to be a working mermaid every day of your life.

Additional Weird, Wild and Wacky Stories on the September 30 Episode of Ripley Radio includes: Jessica Mula of Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, SC, tells us about the live mermaid shows at her aquarium as well as Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, in Gatlinburg, Tenn.; Angela reports on a new Nike store in Japan that was built from the ground up with up-cycled garbage; Florida TV personality Scott Fais joins us in the studio to tell us about his mermaid experiences; and we kick off a new segment, The Weekly Wheel of the Weird, in which we pick a random location each week and search for its weirdness. This week, a little town in Wisconsin was selected and we found living there Don Gorski, who has eaten more than 26,000 McDonald’s Big Mac sandwiches during his life and at age 60, he continues to eat at least two a day.

In keeping with this week’s theme, Train gives us our musical egress with “Mermaid.”