Episode 280: Your Urban Legends LXII - Haunted Houses Shouldn’t Be In Haunted Houses
/There’s a lot of teens getting into shenanigans in this episode. Driving on haunted roads that might not exist, accidentally turning themselves into urban legends, and singing karaoke with ghosts. Teen shenanigans!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, child endangerment/death, hanging, sexual innuendo, ableism, trauma, sexual assault, cancer, enslavement, divorce, and animal death.
Housekeeping
- CTA: See us this weekend at HavenCon!
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends The Game Changer series by Rachel Reid.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out Exolore: Helping you imagine other worlds, but with facts and science! Every other week, astrophysicist/folklorist Moiya McTier explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional worldbuilders, or reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built.
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Find Us Online
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Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
ERIC: And I'm Eric.
AMANDA: This is Episode 280: Your Urban Legends.
JULIA: Oooh! Here we go. It's spooky and particularly spooky because Amanda and I are [whisper] in the same room.
AMANDA: It's weird, Julia, I'm hearing you out of the ear that does not have a headphone in it instead of the earphone that does.
JULIA: So strange. So bizarre
AMANDA: So weird.
ERIC: It's very spooky seeing the two of you together in a darkened room. all of that. The bitrate on the video is extremely low which is spooky in a very specific way.
AMANDA: Yeah!
ERIC: It's- it's nice.
JULIA: I feel like it's even spookier because it evokes the idea of like gathering around a campfire to tell stories And that's what we're going to do today.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Absolutely. Who wants to begin?
JULIA: So I can go first. And I have one email that is split into two stories. So I'll tell my first half of the story this time around. And then after we get back from our refill, I'll tell the other half of the story.
ERIC: Sounds good.
JULIA: So this is from Emma, and she titled it, My Past Life Theory & The Time My Best Friend and I Became a Hometown Urban Legend.
ERIC: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: Yes, please.
JULIA: "Hello Amanda, Julia, and Eric! I've been a long time listener of the podcast and have been DYING to send in a hometown urban legends email because all of the other Conspirators are so creepy and cool and I just want to be creepy and cool as well. It wasn't until recently when I was catching up on the backlog of episodes that two very specific stories came to mind that I would like to share with you today. My grandmother was a BIG believer in reincarnation. I personally don't know what I believe, but I do find the idea of being reborn fascinating and would get into long conversations with her about her theories. Every time I would go visit her in Syracuse, New York- shout out, Syracuse - she would tell me the same story of an old friend who had a little boy. While she and her son were walking in the neighborhood one day, the boy turned his face up to look at his mother and simply said, "Mommy, do you remember when I was the mom and you were the baby?"
AMANDA: Whoa! I mean, understandable, but also so creepy.
JULIA: Just again, I think children are just creepy. Inherently creepy.
AMANDA: I know. And like, I know, listen, I'm sure there are psychologists and like parents in the audience who are like, Yeah, you know, like, you know, kids tell stories and they may not have a strong sense of temporality instead of saying, you know, Wouldn't it be funny if they'll say Do you remember, but damn, it's creepy.
JULIA: Well, luckily, the next line, "Now I agree with you guys that this could just be a case of creepy children being creepy, but it does stir something in the back of my brain that just makes me think 'What if?' My dad is more of a skeptic and would roll his eyes whenever my grandma and I would dive into these debates over past lives and reincarnation. However, there was one time that was different. We had flown up to visit my grandparents for a week or so in the summer and I was having my usual yearly chat with her about reincarnation when I suddenly remembered something from my childhood. When I was young - probably about 7 or 8 maybe? I really don't remember - there would be times where I would distinctly hear the deep voice of a man. I could never tell exactly what he was saying to me, like I was eavesdropping on a one-sided conversation through a closed door, but it was a distinct sound that I knew I wasn't hallucinating or making up. I realized as I had gotten older that voice had grown fainter and fainter and at that current point that summer - when I was maybe 15 or 16 - I hadn't heard his voice in a long time. My grandma had no answer and so our conversation faded into an uneasy silence where we contemplated what that voice could mean." Any guesses what the voice could potentially mean?
AMANDA: I've got nothing yet.
ERIC: I mean, it could just be like, from beyond maybe it could be a time-traveling ghost.
JULIA: Time Traveling ghosts.
ERIC: Because he got that temporal stuff going on.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
ERIC: You got a time travel ghost.
JULIA: So conversation falls into uneasy silence. "It was then that I realized that my dad had gone very still on the couch next to me. He has always been sarcastic and a cynic in most things (which is where I got my own cynicism) so I assumed he was going to poke fun at the two of us for being so superstitious. However, his brow was furrowed and he had started chewing on his nails like he usually did when he was thinking hard about something. "I've heard that voice too," he said finally. He closed his book to give us his full attention so I knew that he wasn't joking around. "I heard a deep voice when I was a kid as well and it slowly went away as I got older. I haven't even thought about it until now."
AMANDA: Listen to as I get older, and I'm only 30, people, the more I forget. I'm constantly remembering stuff that I had completely forgotten and I'm only 30. And I can't imagine how that will keep on happening as I get older. And so, for something like that to hit you, what a creepy sensation, right? To be like, oh my god, like it's something that I too experienced in my childhood and until now I've buried or forgotten.
JULIA: I had that feeling happened to me, not like recently, but like I remember a very vivid moment where that happened to me in like the past five years or so where I had a dream. And it was a dream of a place that when I woke up, I was like, Oh, I've been there. I've been there a lot. I didn't remember it until just now why am I just remembering this place just now? And it was that like, reptile museum on Long Island. Do you know what I'm talking about?
AMANDA: I do.
JULIA: Completely forgot about it for like, a decade and a half. And then one day, like woke up being like, the reptile museum.
AMANDA: I have it all the time, like driving through specific intersections, or, you know, as we've discussed, the creepiest version of this as a smell, because I'll smell a smell and then be like, Oh, yes, my crush when I was in fourth grade, or like, Ah, yes, my grandfather who I miss, and it's just like, the brain, man. Like, I didn't sign up for this highlight reel. Why is this happening to me?
ERIC: I've never remembered anything. Constantly, just gone. I'm never gonna think about this moment ever again.
AMANDA: That's why we podcast.
JULIA: So they continue, "In a surprising turn of events that I wasn't expecting, he joined our conversation and, between the three of us, we came up with a theory as to why my dad and I had heard the same voice when we were children decades apart. Our theory is that reincarnation is real and that the deep voice we had heard was some higher being - maybe God or who/whatever higher being is out there - and, when we are reborn our souls are still close to that veil that separates the living from the dead. As we get older we move further and further away from it so that we can no longer hear the voices of those still in that in between place. Its a theory I have no way of testing until maybe I have my own kid, but since my grandmother died back in 2016 I like to think that maybe she's there on the other side of that door or that veil waiting to slip back over to the other side. Well....that was kind of heavy, huh? I have a lighter story..." - that I will tell after our refill, but who would like to go next?
ERIC: I've got a story about a road which I feel like is like a classic Spirits type story. You know, just like the creepy road in town and this is called Dudley Road. And it comes to us from Pam and she writes, "In all honesty, I'm not sure-" I love how this one starts, it's like there's no-
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
ERIC: -like it's all like I love the podcast you guys it's just like, it's just like, here we go! spooky story. I love this intro.
AMANDA: We made a hard left on two Dudley Road and there's no time to waste.
ERIC: Exactly. "In all honesty I'm not sure when teenagers started driving down Dudley Road, and I'm not sure if they still do. The first time I..." that made it sound more- more nefarious that it was, she just might not know. I don't think it's like all of our teenagers in town are dead, nothing like that.
JULIA: Oh no! We're into the story like that.
ERIC: Exactly.
AMANDA: I mean, this is why we love hometown urban legends, right? Like, they are- they are timeless they have always existed nobody specifically told you about them, and yet somehow by the time you graduated high school, you know all of them and also your little siblings do and it's like who told them about that?
ERIC: Exactly, exactly. "The first time I drove down it, my friend told me her brother had taken her. There was a group of us crammed into a car with nothing else to do before driving curfew late one night. The "Legend" (and please do mention the quotes)..." "Legend" in quotes. "...has it that the nunnery was condemned for some sort of deaths or murders, I vaguely remember being told nuns were hung from trees."
JULIA: Whoa!
ERIC: That's- that's- that's how you know it's got what, when they've turned on the nuns it's gone bad.
JULIA: When they have to break out the nuns you know, just got creepy.
ERIC: "Now, this part is just to coax your friends to the road and get them all ready a bit on edge."
AMANDA: Sure.
ERIC: "Now, this part is just to coax your friends to the road and get them all ready a bit on edge. This is not the actual scary part of this road. There is in fact an old religious building on Dudley Road. Not sure what it is or was and I never bothered to find out. Coming from my town, you turn right onto Dudley Road. You wind around the single lane road neighborhood hoping a car doesn't come in the other direction. As the road gets narrower and darker, you approach the nunnery." Love a nunnery. Love a classic nunnery. “You and your friends stop and gape out your windows telling each other you see shadows of where the nuns must have died, you startle each other get a good scream and a laugh, then move on."
JULIA: I'm really thrown off by this secondary narrator. in particular for the story. Like it makes it creepier like a choose your own adventure."
ERIC: Yeah, I love it.
AMANDA: Yeah. Now, Julia, we were reminiscing recently about our youth on the Neopets role-playing boards. I remember specifically in my advanced literate roleplay you know posting saying, no second person, are you kidding me? And like if I read the second person fanfic like it's two out of every 100 fanfics that are in second person that I think are actually justified in their use of second person this urban legend, I'll allow it. It's really it's getting me there.
JULIA: Also, I know that in fanfiction a lot of secondary narration is used for like inserting yourself into the story. So it'll be like Character X, you.
AMANDA: Right, Capital Y, you. Yes, not exclusively, but it definitely often happens which is not my cup of tea.
ERIC: So Pam continues both figuratively-
AMANDA: This is not part of Eric's shared experience online.
ERIC: Not a part of my shared experience. I did do some Neopets stuff but I can't- I can't comment on it anything further about the Neopets world.
AMANDA: You were there for the omelet?
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah, it's okay.
ERIC: But Pam continues both figuratively and metaphorically down this road.
AMANDA: Oh, boy!
ERIC: "You take a big curve and are now headed back toward the main road. Slowly brighter houses start to appear, the road widens and you end up in the next town over on an old farm lane, not called Dudley road anymore, with street lights and cookie cutter early aughts constructed homes. It's not clear when the road changes names or when you switch to the third town, but you and your friends are laughing and glad you went. You turn left back on to the main road to head home. Eventually you drive by Dudley Road again. It's on your right, again. There is not Dudley road across the street where you would have entered. Where did it go? So you turn around to take this new Dudley road. You turn left this time. It's just a short cut through street to another main road. No nunnery, no dark winding streets."
AMANDA: Is this like a- like a creepypasta about urban planning? Is that what we're experiencing right now?
ERIC: I mean, I think it is that. That's kind of why I love it.
AMANDA: I like it too.
ERIC: "So you circle back to the old farm road. You keep driving through the lit neighborhood only to discover it doesn't connect to Dudley Road. It eventually comes to a dead end. You and your friends decide you just got lost and confused and head home."
JULIA: I feel like the problem with this story, in particular, is that it would be solved by a map app in the modern-day.
ERIC: Interesting. Interesting. We might get to a map app quite soon in this story. "The next year I tried to show some friends. Try as we might we couldn't find Dudley road. We turned on streets without names, we tried other main roads, other towns, It wasn't there. We looked so long we got pulled over for being so suspicious. The officer gave us directions to Dudley Rd. The short cut through. A couple years later, in college, some friends and I found it again. Same thing, we somehow came out on the wrong side of the street and couldn't find the entrance again. After college I worked a few towns over and always took that main road on my commute. The short cut through was there to my left. The old farm lane miles down on my right. I saw the street once more in the dark hours of winter just before midnight when I was lost on my way home from somewhere. I wanted to turn, I wanted to take it. TomToms had been invented, I could use the GPS. I had a flip phone I would be fine. The GPS just showed green. No roads, no buildings. So I didn't go and I think I'm glad for it. Not sure what's up with the mystery vanishing street or how it works, but I always note the left side Dudley and the right side old farm lane when I drive by them and wonder." And that is the end of Dudley Road from Pam.
JULIA: Okay, so the last time Pam investigated it was with a flip phone at a TomTom. Has Pam considered going back with perhaps a smartphone and Google Maps?
ERIC: Pam, we got to.
AMANDA: Technology has advanced.
ERIC: We got to find Dudley Road.
JULIA: We got to go.
AMANDA: Live show, people. 2023, Dudley Road.
JULIA: All on Dudley Road.
AMANDA: Can you find it? Will you show up? Will we show up? Who can say?
JULIA: If you find it, free tickets.
ERIC: This reminds me of that there's- there's a creepy road in the show, Dark that they take through the woods and that- that is always there. It's not like a temporal.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: It's one part of that show that isn't like temporally weird.
AMANDA: It's the one constant right?
ERIC: Yeah, it's a creepy little street and I was just kind of envisioning that throughout this whole thing. Y'all kind of watch Dark, what a good show I'm gonna rewatch that this year probably.
AMANDA: I got two episodes in and it was it was too fucking weird. My- my sister who loves weird shit on Netflix made me watch the same kind of like murder you know, shows or whatever. I was like, this is too weird for me, honey. Like, I sat through Lost, I don't need to do it again.
ERIC: Yeah. It's as good Lost.
AMANDA: It was like all it was like seven seasons of Lost like per episode.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: That's how it felt to me. Dudley Road does remind me though of the one intersection in the West Village where it's like Ninth Street, 12th Street, and Seventh Avenue all cross each other something like that.
JULIA: Oh, no!
AMANDA: Like you read the sign and you're like, you're supposed to be sequential! How is this happening?
JULIA: I hate bad urban planning.
ERIC: So most urban planning.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, would you consider instead an email that I chose just for you? This is from Pax, and they title their email, Follow-up: Working at a Halloween Haunted House....that's ACTUALLY haunted.
ERIC: Here we go!
JULIA: Yes! I want it in my life!
AMANDA: Amazing. So Pax says, "Hi all! So way back in 2019 I wrote to you about my work at an art museum that was definitely haunted, but I neglected to tell you all about the couple of years in high school when I worked at historic house that hosted a fun haunted house for Halloween."
JULIA: You can't use- haunted houses for like funsies like the ones that you go to and you pay tickets for should only be done in like abandoned like warehouses or someone's farm. It should never be like a location that might actually be haunted. because then you're just- you know? A line has to be drawn!
ERIC: Wow. Julia has got thoughts and opinions on where haunted houses are allowed to be.
JULIA: You're just inviting bad shit into your vibes if you're like, oh yes, here's a haunted house and we're gonna have a man with a knife jump out and scare you.
ERIC: Julia's a NIMBY for haunted houses.
AMANDA: No, but like the odds that there is actually a passageway, a loose floorboard- like a mysterious creaking noise. It's much stronger in a haunted property than not.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: "Part of the fun house tour was of course filled with screaming and typical commercial haunted house stuff, but before that part started, guests got to tour the actual house and hear a bit about its history and it ghosts. At the time I was in high school, so 2007ish-2009ish I was a staunch non-believer, but was curious about the "supernatural" and well, I have always been obsessed with history (hence why I am now in grad school for historic archaeology)..." That's awesome.
ERIC: Hold on, hold on, hold up. What's the other kinds of archaeology?
JULIA: Biological archaeology, maybe? Or sociology-like archaeology?
ERIC: Okay, I was thinking like you can't do Future Archaeology. All archaeology is historical.
AMANDA: I don't know. I don't know what the difference- what other kinds of archaeology are. Archaeologists, write in, we want to know more about you.
ERIC: Future archaeologists tell us what you guys have discovered about time and space.
AMANDA: I wonder if like the you know, how there's like, you know, future leaders of tomorrow and like future doctors clubs and stuff.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: I wonder if this made-up field of Future Archaeology call themselves just the Future Archaeologists.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: I love that.
AMANDA: "...when my mom and sister joined a ghost hunting group that ran the historic ghost tours, I shrugged and joined too. The first year nothing much happened, except getting spooked because 1830s basement where they tell you a group of run-away enslaved people died after a tragic fire.. well you get the idea-spooky. The second year however I was giving house tours and the upstairs was known for the builder of the home to mess with people, doing things like tugging on clothing and blowing in your ears. Well, no entity ever blew in my ears..."
JULIA: The worst thing a ghost could do I feel like is blow in your ear. Well, the worst thing ghosts could do is like, murder you. But like if we're talking about innocuous things that ghosts can do, blowing in your ear feels bad.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: I mean, we've definitely have discussed this and I feel like we landed somewhere of like, licking a foot being one of the worst options, but blowing in your ear is also bad.
AMANDA: I think grabbing my ankle would also be bad because I'm kind of like, you know, one excuse away from tripping at most times.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: And I think that would just not be good for me.
JULIA: I thought you're gonna say grabbing my ankle would be bad because I need those.
AMANDA: I do need them. That's true. I have to say- "...no entity ever blew in my ears, but almost every night I gave tours, towards the end of the night when tour groups were small and we were winding down for the evening I would be talking about the history of the house and the activity experienced in the rooms upstairs when I felt a tugging on the scarf I had in my hair. At first, I put it down to gravity doing its job, but it only happened during the end of the night and felt more like someone tugging at my scarf to get my attention, not the scarf slipping off. One time it became so insistent that I stopped right in the middle of my spiel to turn my head and see if someone's child or something was trying to get my attention, at which point the tugging on my scarf stopped and of course, no living person was behind me."
JULIA: Nope, bad. Bad. Also, the worst part about that as like the person who is giving the tour is that if something happened to you, all those people on the tour would assume like Oh, that's funny. They're just doing it to like make it seem like it's really haunted. Uh-huh. Sure, sure.
AMANDA: Yeah, I mean, that's what makes every procedural episode or murder mystery set in the haunted house so exciting because it's like, oh, yeah, like the body was there for like five hours, I don't know like we just thought it was part of the set. Good dramatic setting so- "The last year I give tours of the house, we decided to dress in period clothing to add to the atmosphere." What do we think guys? thumbs up thumbs down?
JULIA: Bad. bad. It's because the problem is going to be that someone is going to assume that you are also a ghost-
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: -one of the ghosts is going to assume you're also a ghost.
ERIC: It's a classic the thing situation, but different.
AMANDA: Classic but different. "One of the last weeks of the haunted house tours I had just arrived and was in the foyer talking to some of the other volunteers before going upstairs to get dressed. As I was wrapping up the conversation I noticed a woman's hand and arm in on the upper landing of the staircase, as if someone were getting ready to descend the stairs" and then Pax said in parentheses, "(don't worry not a disembodied arm, just my view was blocked by the staircase)."
JULIA: Gotcha. Okay, cool. Or I assumed that maybe like there was a doorway or a some sort of like entranceway and you could only see like an arm and a hand draped over it like someone had fallen.
AMANDA: Yes, that would also be very scary. "I asked the others in the foyer who was upstairs, to which they replied that they hadn't seen anyone go upstairs in the half-hour they had been there. Since I had to get dressed anyways I headed up, calling out as I did so let the person who had been on the stairs a moment ago know that I was coming up. No one was there, but I had definitely saw someone, I assumed they had gotten dressed and headed down the library "secret" passage that lead to the kitchen that was used by servants when the house was still occupied."
JULIA: This is what we were just talking about. This is why you don't have haunted houses in historic houses. You just don't do it!
ERIC: Special little staircase for the servants, no good.
AMANDA: Too scary. "Later in the evening while all the tour guides took a break for dinner I asked who had been getting dressed before I went upstairs and had used the passage to get back downstairs, to which my friends gave me strange looks and said that I had been the first person to go upstairs that day, meaning that no one was upstairs for me to be seeing in the first place. Stay creepy and cool, Pax"
JULIA: T'was a ghost, Pax! T'was a ghost.
ERIC: T'was a ghost.
AMANDA: T'was a ghost, definitively. Well, Pax. Thank you so much. And Julia, I gotta say you have me on a cliffhanger here. So is it about time for a refill?
JULIA: I think it is. Let's go.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
AMANDA: Julia, welcome to the refill. Where is it a little warmer than usual? Do you- do you see some like succulents and like different kinds of vegetation outside?
JULIA: I do. Amanda, there's- there's things coming from the ground and there's little buds coming from the trees. What is this?
AMANDA: It's springtime all across the US. But it feels like a whole nother world here in Austin, Texas, where we have traveled for HavenC on this weekend.
JULIA: That's true! Oh my goodness! it's us at a live event.
AMANDA: I can't believe our last live event pre-pandemic or The Big Spicy as we've taken to calling it in my household was in Austin, Texas in February of 2020. And here we are back at it again at this wonderful queer convention. We can't wait.
JULIA: It's come full circle.
AMANDA: Oh my goodness. We're gonna get breakfast tacos and burritos we're going to look at succulents and I'm going to bring none of them home on the plane. And most importantly, we are going to be doing a live show and several panels and meeting you our lovely, lovely listeners at HavenCon. So if you would like to come and see us go to havencontx.org. Shout out to Tiffo who invited us, we're so excited to be here, and yeah, awesome. Hello.
JULIA: We're so glad to be here and you know who we're GLAD is also here Amanda with us at HavenCon? Oh my, God had to get here?
AMANDA: Or maybe in spirit. I'm not sure but it's our newest patron, Lily thank you so very much for joining, and thank you to our supporting producer level patrons, some of whom we may or may not be seeing this weekend: Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Froody Chick, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jaybaybay, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, Taylor, and Zazi and the was a legend level patrons: Arianna, Audra, Bex, Clara, Iron Havoc, Morgan, Mother of Vikings, Sarah, & Bea Me Up Scotty.
JULIA: They woke up and there was like already, like breakfast in bed. Just a full spread of breakfast burritos.
AMANDA: God! So good. If you would like to join our Patreon help keep the show going and access six-plus years of bonus material. That's right, folks. Go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast.
JULIA: We can't promise breakfast burritos, but we can promise a good time.
AMANDA: And drink cards alcoholic and not for every dang episode.
JULIA: That is true. Now, Amanda, I love hearing your recommendations. And I noticed when we were on the plane to Austin, you had a book in your hand. What was that book?
AMANDA: I did, Julia. I angled it away from you because as our friend and collaborator Nicole Perkins does on Instagram, she'll rate romances that she reads out of one to five peppers. This book is five peppers. So you know? Your mileage may vary my mileage is this is a romance novel that I've bought in physical copy because I know I will want to keep it around to reread for years to come. This is The Game Changer Series by Rachel Reid. The second book in that series features my favorite hockey husband and a sequel like a new installment of the series which normally you know in romance like you focus on different characters and then you might catch glimpses of them in future books, but this one is the continuation of my favorite hockey husband's story and I found out it was coming out a few weeks ago. I dropped my phone and gasped I was so excited. So I've been rereading the entire series in preparation for the new book by Rachel Reid that is coming out on April 26. I didn't even get an advance copy sometimes they send me advanced copies and then I shut it down on the show. Not this time. I just pre-ordered it. I'm just gonna buy it. I'm so excited. So if you are into romance if you are up for a number of peppers, go to spiritspodcast.com/books where you can find a link to buy The Game Changer series and my fav heated rivalry by Rachel Reid from an independent bookstore near you.
JULIA: I love that, Amanda. And that book does sound out of this world much like the podcast from Multitude collective: Exolore.
AMANDA: Ey! It's excellent with Dr. Moiya McTier, who you heard just last week on our Advice from Folklore episode.
JULIA: Yeah, if you don't know Dr. Moiya McTier, I don't know what you're doing. But she is a astrophysicist and folklorist. And she explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional world builders, and even reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built. I think you are going to learn you're going to laugh and you're going to gain an appreciation about how special our planet, the earth, the one you're on currently really is. And you can subscribe today by searching Exolore in your podcast app or going to exolorepod.com.
AMANDA: And finally, Julia, it is time to thank our sponsors for this episode. And while we were on the plane while I was blushing and reading this romance novel. I was listening to some lovely and relaxing soundscapes in my Calm app because I love background noise. I love white noise. I love the roar of the plane engine. And I was like, You know what, I just want to layer a little rain into this lovely soundscape. And the Calm app has many things not just sleep stories about trains, but things like guided meditations, curated music tracks, and of course all other kinds of things to help relax your body and uplift your mind the. They added new daily movement sessions which I really enjoy. If you can't commit to you know or can't fit in a daily you know, move your body and feel nice in it of some kind. The Calm app is a great place to begin and it gives you kind of a low stress and guided way so you're not just like I guess I could I should stretch to start my day. It's a thing that you can follow along with which I love. And for listeners of the show Calm is offering an exclusive offer. Exclusie, people: A 40% off a Calm Premium Subscription at calm.com/spirits go to c a l m dot c o m slash Spirits for 40% off unlimited access to coms entire library. That's calm.com/spirits
JULIA: Amanda, I used to love going to hotels and getting cozy in the nice hotel bed. But now, I kind of don't feel as luxurious when I'm in a nice hotel bed because I left my Brooklinen and sheets at home. I have to tell you I am celebrating with Brooklinen right now because it is their eighth birthday and they are throwing themselves a little bit of a birthday sale, Amanda!
AMANDA: Oh my God!
JULIA: It is truly incredible. They have every Brooklinen in on sale for 20% off we're talking those super soft sheets we are talking their luxurious towels and robes. Did I bring a robe to this hotel from Brooklinen?
AMANDA: Yes, I did. Did I buy my grandma and also my dad Brooklinen in robes this month? Yes, I did.
JULIA: But they also have these lavish silk eye masks. They have the pillowcases and they are the internet's favorite sheets, Amanda and I understand why. If you're trying Brooklinen for the first time try their best-selling Lux sheets, they are a perfect place to start and they have that irresistible soft feel and buttery smooth finish that these hotel beds are just not cutting it for me.
AMANDA: I don't know how they do it. I get into bed and it's nice and crisp. But then the moment I lay there and warms up just perfectly to my body heat people. I am a hothouse flower, I am never the right temperature and yet in my Brooklinen sheets I always am.
JULIA: And don't miss out because Brooklinen and biggest sale of the year is almost here with 20% off everything listening after the sale? You can still save visit Brooklinen.com and use the promo code Spirits for $20 off your purchase of $100 or more. That's B r o o k l i n e n.com.com, promo code: Spirits.
AMANDA: And finally, we are sponsored by BetterHelp online therapy. Most of us, Julia, and I know you'd do this, for me, would drop anything. If I needed you, you'd be there. If you needed me, I'd be there.
JULIA: That's true.
AMANDA: It is really difficult to apply that same kind of love and attention to yourself. So this month, BetterHelp wants us to remind you that just as much as everyone else in your life matters to you, you matter that much as well. And therapy is one way that you can make sure that you show up for yourself.
JULIA: BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. And it's much more affordable than in person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy.
AMANDA: That includes me every day of the week and weeks like this when I'm traveling, I can message with my therapist or go into my little journal or fill out worksheets and you know, if we're not able to meet face to face, those are many many options for you. So once more this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Spirits listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/spirits. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com/spirits. And now let's get back to the show.
JULIA: So y'all I have been kind of downsizing my kitchen lately because we are moving soon. But I also don't want to diminish my ability to make delicious cocktails in that time. So I made a new batch of simple syrup that I figured we could take to the new place if I don't finish it in time. But I had a bunch of tea boxes that I was going through that I was like alright, some of these need to go some of these are brand new and I should probably use some of them and one of them was a can of loose leaf superfruit green tea and I was like, [whispers] this would make an incredible simple syrup.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And lo it did. So I made for myself last night gin sours with this super fruit green tea syrup, which I'm calling the super green tea syrup.
AMANDA: Oh, I love that.
ERIC: Pretty good. Pretty good. How about y'all?
AMANDA: What's new in- in Ohio?
ERIC: I mean, not much, but I had some as I think I said on a recent episode we're doing a bit less drinkin' here, and Kelsey is- is not doing any drinking. And she had some leftover tequila, and we had some- some Squirt, some cans of Squirt. And you know what, that's a pretty good combo right there. Tequila and Squirt. So I mean, I'm just saying like, look at your liquor cabinet, look at your sodas. Maybe something could happen between those two. You don't know. Not every mix is going to be good. [30:37], probably a big mistake. Don't suggest it. Most likely. But you never know.
JULIA: Eric, you're gonna have to explain to us because they don't sell Squirt here. What- what is that?
AMANDA: What the fuck is Squirt?
ERIC: You don't know Squirt?
AMANDA: What squirt? Why is it called Squirt?
JULIA: Is it like Sprite?
ERIC: It's grapefruit. It's grapefruit soda.
AMANDA: What?
ERIC: You guys don't have Squirt?
AMANDA: No!
JULIA: No!
ERIC: How many times you think I can play a squirt before we get a double explicit rating on this episode? Yeah, guys, here's what I've got to say about Squirt soda. Don't just Google the word, "squirt". I knew I could get some stuff, I did not expect it to just be the third link at all. Wow. This is the- this is the worst thing I've ever searched. Okay, squirt soda foof- yeah, turns safe search back on.
JULIA: Turn that on!
ERIC: All those links were not appropriate.
AMANDA: Incredible.
ERIC: Yeah, squirt. It's naturally flavored but contains less than 2% Grapefruit juice. Like many other soft drinks, the path to dig up squirt has varied over the years.
AMANDA: Why is it called Squirt?
ERIC: I think it's because like it's like you squeeze citrus fruit and it squirts at you sometimes.
JULIA: It's bad. It's a bad name for a soda.
AMANDA: I don't like it.
ERIC: Made by Keurig Dr. Pepper. Apparently, there's one company called Keurig Dr. Pepper which is honestly worse than something be called Squirt.
AMANDA: I thought you said the current Dr. Pepper to which I was like- Whoa!
JULIA: The mantle was passed down.
AMANDA: Yeah, it's just like a- like a Holy Office?
ERIC: Just like Colonel Sanders. There's one Dr. Pepper who is [32:15] at a time. No, apparently the company that makes both Dr. Pepper and Keurig is the same company and it's the company is officially called Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: I hate that.
AMANDA: I hate it.
ERIC: Weirdly, the worst thing I found out today and I just Googled the word, "squirt". That's also, very bad word.
JULIA: But you didn't click on any of the links. So...
AMANDA: It's true. It's true. Just run some like malware detection after this call.
JULIA: Oh boy.
AMANDA: I have been drinking a lot of Palomas, which is grapefruit juice, mezcal, and lime and we put in some, some just like lime-flavored Topo Chico as well, which I have to recommend if you're not in the Squirt distribution area.
ERIC: I'm just looking at what Keurig Dr. Pepper makes. Because it's mostly sodas at that it's just also all of the Keurig machines and K cups.
AMANDA: Is it not owned by like PepsiCo or somebody?
ERIC: I mean, it might be owned by that. It's owned by its I mean 67% of it is owned by JAB Holding Company, obviously-
AMANDA: Oh, sure.
JULIA: Obviously.
ERIC: - and 13.6% of its hauled by Mondelez International. So I mean, it's- it's owned by a whole bunch of people. I'm sure if I click- keep clicking here it is eventually owned by Disney or something.
JULIA: Probably.
ERIC: The company that owns this company also owns that Krispy Kreme, Einstein bros, Caribou Coffee, barely shoes. I mean, it's just all over the place. Everything's owned by one company and it's all good, Keurig Dr. Pepper in turns out.
JULIA: I do want to say like regional sodas are really interesting as like a historic food thing. Like I know in New York, Cel-Ray Soda is very much a thing.
AMANDA: Cel-Ray, yeah. So good.
ERIC: That's ridicu- no, that's ridiculous.
AMANDA: It's so good, bud. It's so good. It's so good.
JULIA: It's so like big Jewish Diaspora thing, right?
AMANDA: Yeah, it's so delicious.
ERIC: I can't believe you guys don't have Squirt.
JULIA: No Squirt.
AMANDA: Let's get to something much less divisive and more straightforward. Urban Legends.
JULIA: Great. How about I tell you guys about how Emma and her best friend became hometown urban legends?
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yes, an origin story.
JULIA: So Emma writes: "When my best friend, Jessica and I were kids - probably around 13 or 14? - our parents enrolled us in a tap class." Very quickly around the table, what is the thing that your parents paid you to do that you had very little interest in actually doing?
AMANDA: Soccer and ballet and it was an absolute waste of money because I hated it.
ERIC: I did like one season of baseball which was not a good experience but I don't even know if I played in games actually, I might have just gone to practice and then quit. But I didn't do I didn't do anything like that. Like my sisters did like, gymnastics for like a year or two and stuff like that. But like I did band but I like band. So there I don't think there were any, any things like that for me.
JULIA: Softball was definitely one that I had zero interest in whatsoever and I never had to take any like dance classes or anything like that. But my parents did pay a tutor for me on the trumpet because I liked the trumpet, but I also was like, I'm never gonna, like pursue the trumpet as a passion. You know what I mean?
ERIC: Now, did you not like softball because you didn't realize you were bi yet?
JULIA: I think I didn't like softball because I wasn't good at it and they put me in the outfield as a person with ADHD, it's like, I was just standing there being like, nothing's gonna happen because we're like second-graders in softball and no one's going to hit it to the outfield.
AMANDA: And I stayed in softball until I switched over to full-time drama kid in eighth grade because my love of women outshown my hatred of sports.
JULIA: Fair enough.
ERIC: That makes sense. That attracts.
JULIA: I feel like, though, the problem was softball, and again, this is just a fully bisexual thing. The problem is softball is like, there are so many other sports where women are in like, less clothes, you're like fully covered in softball, you know?
AMANDA: That's true, but the pants are very butt-sy. When you practice, you being in a tank top some time, which was a delightful treat.
JULIA: Fair enough. Fair enough.
ERIC: I think it's also like you have a large number of people on a team. So it's kind of like a community. Like you, you only got two women at bikinis play beach volleyball, so like, you just have your friend, "your friend". But in softball, you can have like 15, 20 women all around you. So there's- there's that benefit of just of just numbers.
AMANDA: Yeah, but Julia, until he became a catcher, I also would just stand in the outfield like looking at flowers and being like, how am I supposed to catch that ball? It's so high and coming at me so fast like I don't understand.
JULIA: And I was so small.
ERIC: That was biologic when I was playing baseball as well. They put me in right field where I absolutely belonged.
JULIA: Alright, so Emma and Jessica were doing tap. "Jessica was an amazing ballerina so I understood why her parents thought to enroll her in the class, but I am notoriously clumsy so I suffered. Regardless, we both resented having to go to a dance class for an hour however many days a week and would be Bad Kids..." in capitalization "...and skip class (which is hilarious because I was the furthest thing from a bad child you could get. I told my parents I wanted to sneak out just to say I snuck out of my house and then I DIDN'T)."
AMANDA: Yeah, I felt the same about skipping a day of school for like senior skip, which our drama director did not let us do. But I-I like arranged with my parents to be able to skip an alternate day when I like didn't have class.
JULIA: Love that for us. So, "We wouldn't skip all the time because it would be pretty obvious when recital time came around that we had no idea what we were doing so we'd skip here and there. One of our parents would drop us off at the front of the Arts Center where we would head downstairs towards the classroom, duck into the nearby restroom, and take up residence in the handicap stall for the remainder of the class period. I realize now how problematic that was, but at the time we both thought we were geniuses."
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: "One of us - usually Jessica - would crouch on the toilet seat and the other would stand with their back to the plastic stall thing that blocked off the toilet so that no one would be able to tell that anyone was there if they walked in."
AMANDA: Can we just acknowledge the terror of two missing children? If anyone ever were to notice I just that's occurring to me for the first time how a like, Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E...
JULIA: Frankweiler?
AMANDA: Frankweiler situation would really be terrifying at the end of the day.
JULIA: Yes. Especially if you're a parent. I mean, like these aren't like chil... like these are not like eight-year-olds or 10-year-olds or something like that. These are teens.
AMANDA: That's true.
JULIA: But at the same time, like, yeah, if your teen went missing, you would be concerned. So "Usually the bathroom wasn't very busy as it was located in the basement, but occasionally as different dance classes ended there would be a person or two who would use the bathroom and head out. One day we were being ridiculous, cracking jokes that only really made sense to us, and we were both losing our shit. I don't remember what it was - if it was a joke or just a weird look on Jessica's face - but I was still struggling to pull myself together when we heard the bathroom door open. I bit the insides of my cheeks, clenched my fists, and tried to look anywhere but at Jessica as we both shook with silent laughter. I could hear the person do their business, flush the toilet, and step up to the sink. As they turned on the faucet, Jessica and I made eye contact. I think it was probably the image of my best friend, crouched on a toilet, visibly trying not to laugh that broke me. I let out a loud snort of laughter and immediately slapped a hand over my mouth. Luckily the person took the Eric route and decided not to investigate the weird noise coming from the handicap stall. Once they had left and we waited about 30 more seconds we exited the bathroom before they could bring back-up, laughing so hard our lungs hurt, and we thought that was the end of it."
AMANDA: Oh, boy.
JULIA: "Years later we were hanging out with another one of our friends who also took dance classes at that arts center. I think we were talking about the tap class we had taken and had just started telling the story of skipping class to hide in the bathroom when our friend spoke up. "Oh that bathroom's haunted," she said."
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: "Jessica and I exchanged looks. For a second I believed that we had somehow dodged a ghost from all the times that we had hid there. Then I had a sudden realization. "The bathroom? Or a particular stall?" I asked. The friend shrugged. "I think it was the handicap stall. Someone said that there had been creepy noises coming from the stall and the rumor is that its haunted."
ERIC: There we go, there we go. Mystery solved.
AMANDA: I love it. If you have an urban legend that you were thinking about writing in and it involves a several years later, I need to know, I need to know!
JULIA: We need the decades later follow-up.
AMANDA: Truly.
JULIA: "I remember feeling that warm bubble feeling from suppressed laughter growing in my chest and didn't look back at Jessica. Our friend looked confused, but we didn't say anything else. That was a secret we'd keep for ourselves (Alternate ending: That was a secret we'd take to the grave)." I like the- like, Oh, yeah? Well, someone's dead now and we kept that secret to the grave. "I hope you liked the stories and thank you so much for creating a creepy cool podcast that has helped me stay sane during the last year of quarantine!"
AMANDA: Incredible.
ERIC: I think if you hear a weird sound in the bathroom, and this is just me. You don't have to start being like that's haunted. I think that's quite a leap. There's a- there's a weird sounds going out at bathroom stalls. I think you can just be like haunted. I think that's the wrong approach because you're gonna be like, everything's haunted if it's just a weird sound that's like enough to get you there.
AMANDA: The laughter of teens with no feet visible under the stall, that I get.
ERIC: That's true.
AMANDA: But you're right. They did describe it as sounds and not like something specific.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: So I think there also is something like particularly creepy about like, young women's laughter that we've kind of created in culture in general.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: You know what I mean? So like, hearing young women laughing in a bathroom where you don't think anyone else is would be creepy.
AMANDA: Would be!
ERIC: Yeah, for sure.
AMANDA: Well, guys, I have a final email here from TJ, titled: I’m A King’s Cross for the Dead?
ERIC: Oh, for the dead.
AMANDA AND JULIA: For the dead.
ERIC: This was a different thing from this one, just for the dead.
AMANDA: Just for the dead.
ERIC: Why not?
AMANDA: So TJ says, "I have been debating whether or not to share my story with you guys for a while now. Mostly because I felt like my supernatural tales were never as cinematic or ethereal as previous Urban Legend participants’ have been. I guess you could say I am mystically insecure (lol). But I want to share my experiences with you all, so I’m going to gather the courage to tell you – and the rest of the co-spiriters – all about how I’m a King’s Cross station for the dead." Then she goes to note that there are sections of trauma, sexual assault, cancer. "There’s a lot of backstory that I have to cover in a short amount of time, so to oversimplify…? I was honored the opportunity to be born into a matriarchy filled with amazing black women, and as I began to go through puberty, I started to have questions about who we are, and where we came from. When you’re a brown girl of 10, you learn really fast why the family doesn’t want to talk about history: either because it was too painful, erased, or completely filled with lies that some ancestors have been contributing to make our family seem more white-washed. What I do know from pestering my mom and second cousin so much is that their grandfather was born a slave in Louisiana, who moved to Virginia as a free man with my great grandmother. They had thirteen children – mostly daughters – and some of those children were rumored to practice witchcraft."
JULIA: Also 13, usually bad sign in-?
AMANDA: A mythically charged number.
JULIA: Super is.
AMANDA: "Fun fact: it is more common for my family to produce daughters than sons, and the sons who are born into our family have a deep and profound respect for us and their partners as a result." I mean, that just sounds good.
ERIC: Yup.
AMANDA: " I also know for a fact that my great-aunts can speak Gullah-Geechee although most of those relatives have passed and the remaining ones who know the tongue refuse to acknowledge – much less share – it with the younger generations. Despite this though, as I have grown up, I have noticed that the women in our family have this…je ne sais quoi that just oozes black girl magick." with a C K. "So, to sum it up, I’ve been “seeing dead people'' for a long time now."
JULIA: Oh boy.
AMANDA: "I noticed something was up when I was in fourth-grade. I was daydreaming in class, staring out the window to my school’s micro-forest that engulfed an entire third of the campus. All of a sudden, I shuddered and saw my next-door neighbor appear to me. My next-door neighbor was like a grandmother to me, and I used to incessantly ride my bike to her house just to hang out with her, her husband, and their two Siamese cats: Salt and Spice."
JULIA: Good names!
AMANDA: "But at this moment, she looked more like a holoprojection from Star Wars. The image of her wanted to say goodbye before leaving and I remember saying goodbye back, not really thinking too much of it. It wasn’t until I got home from school that day that I found out she had passed away that afternoon, after a few years of fighting throat cancer. When I was in high school and my mother’s sister died, she came to pick me up from my job at McDonald’s to break the news to me. But as soon as I got in the car I already knew and began to burst into tears before they could even prepare to comfort me. I guess you could say I’m somewhat of a Banshee? When I got to college, the activity began to get worse. I was in a bad place while at university, mostly because I had just survived a horrible experience with a classmate and I was missing my maternal aunt. Not to mention, my childhood pet was being put down, and I was unable to open up to my divorced parents that I wasn’t happy in my major and path to go to medical school. I began to notice during this time that my dreams were starting to become more lucid and vivid than before. I’ve always maintained self-awareness in my dreams; like it’s a movie and I just play along, but this was something different. Sometimes when I would fall asleep, I would wake up in this “upside down” and “insidious” styled space. Sounds would feel like you’re listening to people talk while sitting at the bottom of a pool, muffled and indiscernible. While here, I’ve been accosted by tall dark figures that stalk you or grabbed by desperate and confused souls. A lot of the time, they are more observant and give you your space, but others don’t. I remember one got so handsy that I put my hand on his face and saw some weird light shot from my fingertips. I wanted to say something badass-y as the soul retreated, but passed out instead and woke up in my bed drenched in sweat. At the time, I believed that the dreams were a symptom of the developing PTSD inside of me and sought the help of my uni’s mental health team first. While they did help me, the dreams got weirder and I started to notice that I would have dreams of events and conversations before they would actually happen, in addition to the original-styled ones. While I do think that the trauma was contributing to what I was experiencing, this felt beyond my control. As if a board over my third eye had been removed from the pain, and now I was finally seeing clearly for the first time. This is when I started becoming a spiritualist."
JULIA: We'll say like there is something about that period of time in like a young adult's life, especially like when you're transitioning to college and like the additional stress of like, all of a sudden you have to have your entire shit together because you're on your own-
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -probably for the first time. That is their universal.
AMANDA: It is. I also specifically remember the experience of feeling like declaring that my path would be different, or my study wanted to be different, or the jobs I wanted to go for or not the ones I talked about when I was like a child felt so impossible. Like I think for a lot of people, it's the first time that you have to or that you can really sort of clarify for yourself like No, no, this is what I want. And you know, it's a terrifying thing to do. Yeah, "After college, I moved back home with my mom while I started working and applying to graduate school. As we arrived, I noticed that a lot of nursing homes and memory-care centers had been erected in my absence. And I’m talking a lot. Try six within a 2-5mi radius. Now…my house has never been haunted. It might have bad juju because this is where my parents split up and therefore has that subsequent pain swelling within the walls, but it’s not haunted. We never had cold-spots or heard the sounds of footsteps in the middle of night. It was just a regular house. But once I moved back in, I started having more of the weird dreams again. The night that I had my biggest encounter was on a Wednesday night about two years ago at 2:30am. I was face-timing one of my friends when all of a sudden, I started hearing music from outside my bedroom. Our house was wired to have surround sound, and a particularly favorite drunk activity of mine was to use it to perform karaoke when left in the house alone." A dream. I would love to do that.
JULIA: Incredible.
AMANDA: "My mom’s house has high ceilings and amazing acoustics, so I used to practice my faux Broadway auditions in the living room. On this night though I was not, and the house was completely dark and empty. Afraid to confront the sound alone, I grabbed my iPad and started walking towards the music. My mom was ... asleep because her bedroom doors looked undisturbed but there was a bright light in the family study. I continued to creep towards the room. When I entered, the computer was alive! It looked like someone had logged into the desktop, pulled up YouTube, and played my favorite karaoke version of “Hometown Glory” by Adele. I was ... All the hair began to stand up on my body and I couldn’t do anything but stare as my friend started screaming at me through the screen to tell them what was going on." I hadn't put together that the iPad had the FaceTime. And I'm like, oh, smart, good, keep a friend with you.
JULIA: Yeah. Keep your friend with you, obviously. That we learned from the most recent Scream Movie that doesn't necessarily help you.
AMANDA: Not necessarily. I was pretty freaked out. "I eventually snapped out of it and shut everything down. When I knocked on my mom’s bedroom door and woke her up to tell her what had happened, my mom simply just blinked at me and said, “what music?” My friend and I still talk about that experience to this day and we have theorized that while my house – and now my apartment located near the historic slave trail in Richmond – are not haunted; I might be a channel. Maybe it’s my energy, which would make sense since I’m in graduate school to become a therapist now. I don’t know. All I know is that practicing has given me more control and has been integral to my healing process. Plus, now that I live in an old part of Virginia where the now farmer’s market used to be a slave market, I have noticed some friendly passing ancestors who have been guiding me slightly in my practice; telling me which herbs to invest in and protecting me from negative energy. I still sometimes am scared by their presence because not all ghost friends are kind and honest, so I make sure to always cleanse my apartment and keep my craft “green” (healing and naturalistic) at all times. I have more interesting stories to share, like the time that I stayed at a haunted plantation with my parents and was touched by ghost children, or the times that I have woken up from a nap and had friends tell me that they had a conversation with me that I have no recollection of, but I’ll save those for another time. I hope you all are staying safe in these trying times, want you to go vote, and remember to stay creepy, stay cool."
JULIA: So much- so much happening there. Oh my god!
ERIC: There's a lot happening there. There's a lot happening and those final stories that we didn't even get to hear, just- just a whole bunch of going on.
JULIA: Do you think that ghost is really likes Adele or they're like this is a song that plays constantly in this house and it's easiest for me to pull up on YouTube.
AMANDA: Yeah, like maybe if it goes has to manifest energy to do some clicking then you know the most recent played-
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: -could save you a couple clicks.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: Just like how I watched the same ASMR videos before bed because it's like what's the most recent one in the history.
JULIA: There we go.
AMANDA: There you go. But TJ, I am so glad that though you're in a place that is so filled with impressions and your ancestors that you feel like they are guiding you and you've kind of made peace with whatever their intentions might be, there is a PS by the way, she writes, "I was in my bathroom yesterday listening to your “is the ghost capitalism” episode of Urban Legends and doing my makeup when I had an apparition pass me in the mirror. I panicked and threw my bathroom door open to let it out, but couldn’t make out who or what it was because of the fog on the glass. I guess even the spirits like your podcast! Or maybe they wanted to get featured in an episode, since it was this experience that motivated me to write to you guys today."
JULIA: Oh, look at that. Also, I feel like can't that goes get out on its own?
AMANDA: It's very thoughtful of you but I think that ghost is okay.
JULIA: I think that ghost can get out it either can open the door itself for you know, traveling through, face through that wall?
AMANDA: Well, TJ, thank you. We loved hearing what you have to say and encourage you to write back with us other stories. I'd love to hear about the ghost children.
JULIA: Yes, please.
ERIC: I want to know the tips that ghost is giving at the farmer's market.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: I mean that sounds good. Because sometimes you- you don't know what you're gonna get. I mean, you know, it's gonna be good. It's a farmer's market like-
AMANDA: Sure.
ERIC: -sometimes it's hard to tell.
AMANDA: Like what herbs will last a couple of days-
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: -which of them will wilt to the moment you take them home.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: I also bet that a lot of the ghosts are really good at haggling and knowing like when that person be like that's not a good deal shouldn't take that go to that other person.
AMANDA: I surveyed the tent for it four tents down and they have much hardier thyme at a pretty reasonable price.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Love it.
JULIA: I wanna go shopping with more ghosts.
AMANDA: I know. Oh, Julia, now that we're in person, we can go check out a farmer's market.
JULIA: Yes, please!
AMANDA: I love it. Well, everybody thank you again for writing in hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and of course-
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
AMANDA: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @spiritspodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website as well as a forum to send us in your urban legends, and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more like recipe cards with alcoholic and non-alcoholic for every single episode, director's commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits, you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye.
Transcriptionist: KM Casil