#322: Ghost Stories

0:00 Elsie You're listening to the Beautiful Musk podcast, your cozy comfort listen. I'm your host Elsie Larson. Emma And I'm your host Emma Chapman. Elsie This week, we're doing our annual reading of listener submitted ghost stories. We're also sharing our review of the movie Verity and a hot take about spoilers and book reviews.

0:07 Emma This is a good one. It is a good one. Ghost Verity spoiler hot take oh yeah. Elsie Yes we have 10 ghost stories this year that have been selected by our wonderful editor Jillian and we have not read them so we're going as blind as you which is kind of exciting okay so before we jump in, Lauren is requesting that we review Verity, which I don't know if she knows what she's asking.

0:13 Emma Yeah, we went and saw it with kind of a big group of friends. I feel like there was like 10 of us, or I don't know. Elsie Yeah. Emma A lot of husbands, few just friends too, and yeah, and I I would say about half of us had read it. You think that's true? Yes. Yes. Maybe even more than half. Elsie Probably most.

0:23 Emma I almost wore my hat. I have a Verity hat. I was wearing it in Disneyland that I bought off the Colleen Hoover website. Nova Yes. Emma Okay. So what would you say is your yeah overall review of Verity? Elsie So I feel like that kind of says like Emma is a real Colleen Hoover fan. Emma Yeah. Elsie And I am too.

0:36 Emma Who isn't? Look at the sales numbers. Elsie Yeah. Emma Some people don't. That's fine. Elsie I've read two of her books, and by far I loved Verity. I feel like Verity is like I know people like to roast it, and I do too. Yeah, but I think that it is also really really fun. So yeah, love it. Yeah, and I was very excited to see the movie. And when the casting came out, I remember like Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett is like the millennial girls. Like it's perfect. It's perfect. Yeah, for it's everything millennial all the time. So yeah, okay. Did we like the movie? I I didn't like it that much, honestly. Okay, I'll say the good parts first. I loved Anne Hathaway's spooky little voice. Yeah, that she did narration,

0:49 and I loved her like her Jackie O hair, and I loved how the back of the books had these giant photos of the women because usually real books have like information on the back, but not these books. There was just like a huge giant photo so you could make sure and see it. And there's this one scene if you've seen it with a butter knife scene. I thought that was like I wished for more unhinged stuff like that. It just wasn't unhinged enough for me. That was probably my one sentence critique.

0:54 Emma Yeah, which I would say out of Elsie and I and longtime listeners will know this. Elsie is a horror movie buff. Like you've seen a lot of horror movies. You like horror movies. You have opinions about horror movies, you're on that level. I really am not. I get too scared. I've seen like a handful of pretty famous ones, and that's about it. So I cannot even keep up in a conversation with like people who know about horror movies. So to me, this like kind of leaned a lot more psychological thriller than it did horror. Like that was the butter knife is probably the one moment where I was like, okay, now we're doing a little bit of.

1:02 Elsie Yeah. I honestly wouldn't even call it horror. I would I would call it a thriller. Like if you liked the Housemaid movie, you would probably be able to like this movie. See, I didn't like the Housemaid. I didn't either, and I loved this. Emma I I loved Verity. I've sat down. Wait, you loved the movie? Oh, I loved it. Okay, say your review. I loved it.

1:08 So to me, the book Verity is like it feels like a very adult version of like Days of Our Lives. So like I grew up watching Days of Our Lives. Elsie You mean like a subversive version? A dirty version. Emma A dirty version. Yeah, an adult version. You know, like you wouldn't let kids., you probably shouldn't let kids watch Days of Our Lives. But to be honest, Elsie and I did watch it as like middle school and high schoolers. God, yeah, we did. It was like, yeah, fun. It was what we would do in the summer because you're like kind of bored as a kid. And so, if you don't know, Days of Our Lives is a long running soap opera. So, some people wouldn't know. I think I think people know. But if you're not a soap opera

1:18 person, maybe you wouldn't know. So it's a daytime soap opera. So daytime soap operas are wacky. Can I say the vibes? Yeah, steal your sister's husband, evil twin, yeah, things like that. Exactly, exact surprise baby. It's not who you thought it was. They switch it up a few times before the baby's born. Like every time you think someone is dead, they're never ever ever ever. They come back, and then they might almost die again. But they're not dead. They come back. It's just very like back and forth, back and forth, like craziest thing possible to the next craziest thing possible. That's sort of the writing challenge of a soap opera. And as you can guess, that's very camp. And wacky, and I think very fun.

1:25 And if you're in the mood for that, then it's great. And to me, Verity has elements of that, where it's like kind of some of the craziest things you think could happen are going to happen. Like it's just back and forth, leaves you guessing, and you're supposed to be surprised. You're supposed to be like, "Oh my God, Marlene's still alive. This is from Days of Alive, you know, whatever. So, and I was like, so as I sat down to watch the Verity movie, I was like, I hope they like get the assignment. I hope they understand that like this should be a little bit wacky in like a I'm sitting down to watch a movie soap opera type way.

1:31 That's what I'm wanting out of this, and I felt like they nailed the assignment. In my opinion, like it was fun and it took you on a ride, and it it has more spooky vibes than Days of Our Lives. It's you know in this like modern house that's meant to be like almost like a Bond villain looking, and so you're trying to figure out throughout the book if Verity's a good guy or bad guy.

1:35 Elsie It's like a horrible house in my opinion, like I like it. Like it put me on edge, those stone bathtubs. Emma I think you're supposed to be on edge a little bit. And I just really liked it. I thought all the performances were great. I thought it was really fun. There is a lot of so it's about a writer. If you don't know, Verity is a writer. She writes books that are thrillers that are always from the point of view of the villain, so that's sort of the vibe. So they kind of do a lot of like showing the text of a book with like kind of a voiceover over it, and I feel like that was the right move for this movie. But it was kind of like a little bit of a cheesy choice. But I still felt like it made a lot of sense for this movie, and it was fun.

1:44 Elsie There was like a million times when the screen was just showing like words, yeah, like like she's writing, yeah, where she's typing up a new chapter, like kind of like in a documentary where you feel like they ran out of filler footage. Emma Right. Elsie Like had that going on. Emma Yeah. Elsie Okay, well, I I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree. I am, but I'm glad that you sincerely loved it.

1:56 I loved the book more. I thought the book was fun. I thought the book was more enjoyable.and the movie, I was kind of bored, but I did think the unhinged parts were super fun. Emma Yeah, I always think it's cute when they put the author in. They have a little. Oh yeah, she had a camera, and so that was fun. I like leaned over to my husband. I was like, "That's calling over, and he was like, "Oh, so oh yeah, yeah. So it's just fun. It was fun. I feel like if you're a fan of the book, you'll probably like this. I think the book's a little better, but I tend to think that I don't really think that's like a diss to the movie. I think that's just books and movies are different. Yeah, but I loved already. Okay,

2:04 well, wonderful. Elsie Okay, so we have 10 listener submitted ghost stories. We get these every year. I think our podcast started in 2019. We so we've at least done this five or six times, yeah, right. And one year, I know there was two weeks of it because we got so many. You can go back and listen. It's a tradition, yeah. If you wanted to search our archives, you could definitely find all the the ghost stories. This is one of our favorite traditions of the year, though. So, yes, let's get into it.

2:11 Emma This one is from Hannah. She says, "Here's my ghost story. It happened in 2011 and is the only time I've seen a ghost. Right after college, I went on tour with a children's theater, which consisted of me and a partner packing up a little red truck with an entire show, driving to a town on Sunday, auditioning local children and casting up to 75 of them, putting on the show in a week, and then driving to the next town.

2:16 Whoa! Cool job, and that sounds hard. Elsie That sounds like an old-timey TV show. Like you don't see very much of that. Emma Yeah, that's interesting. Elsie That is. Emma I just want to hear more about that. Okay, we were in New Mexico, and this week we were being housed in a very old hotel across from the theater, when we checked in, as we were lugging our suitcases up the stairs, there is no elevator, so it was literally so old. The people joked about watching out for ghosts. On the second night, I snapped awake at like two a.m. and saw a dark figure of a man in a tall hat at the end of my bed. It didn't have the detail of something real, it was more like a shadow. I pulled the covers over my head, squeezed my eyes shut, and willed it away, and didn't say anything to

2:30 anyone about it the whole week. As we were driving out of town that Sunday, I finally told my tour partner, "I know this so crazy, but I think I saw a ghost in the hotel. And she said, "Wait, when I saw a ghost too? And we realized that we had both had an experience on the same night at the same time.

2:33 She tried to talk to it. She was much braver than me. Neither of us wanted to scare the other one, so we didn't say anything. We were screaming in our truck as we drove out of town. Yeah, that's pretty good. Elsie The only thing better than a ghost is a ghost wearing a top. Pat, so love true five stars. Thank you, Hannah. This next one is from Jennifer. It says, "This story takes place in the early 2000s. I was active in 4-H and was fortunate to have been able to travel to many places throughout the country with the organization, one of our trips was called American Spirit, where youth would travel in a group with chaperones to a number of historical destinations on the East Coast, including Gettysburg,

2:42 Pennsylvania. Emma Oh yeah! Elsie While in Gettysburg, we hit many of the sightseeing spots as a group during the day, and then in the evening, we had a few options available to us. A small group, maybe five or six of us, decided to take the haunted tour. Oh my gosh! I think this is going to be a real ghost on a ghost tour, which that never happens. That's like what you want.

2:50 Emma If I was a ghost, I feel like I would be like, "Hey, where's the ghost tour? I should go there, these are people wanting to see, here we go. Elsie I know. Emma Let's deliver in the afterlife. Elsie If I went on a ghost tour, I would have zero expectations. Emma I'd be like, I'm going to hear about ghosts. They're going to show me stuff.

3:01 Elsie Okay, okay. Decided to take the haunted tour that was offered. It was about supper time that the tour took place. We toured a few places that had been known to have activity, but unfortunately, nothing presented itself to us during the tour. While on the tour, the guide mentioned that one of the battlefields was a few blocks away, and that it was a nice place to visit, especially in the evening to see the sunset.

3:06 After the tour, we decided to walk to the battlefield site. It was an open field with a plaque that described the battle that took place. We stood by the fence that ran the perimeter of the field, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something white. It looked like a Civil War era tent. Then I briefly saw a cannon and a few men walking in the field. This is really intense. Just a little crazy. I'm I'm loving. Okay, a few of the other kids that were talking stopped, and then someone asked, "Did anyone else see that? All five or six of us saw it, but it happened so fast that we all questioned what we saw. Had I been alone, I would have talked myself out of seeing anything, but having that validation that they all saw it too was

3:13 enough for me to remember it clearly. This was a good 20 plus years ago, but I still think about the experience frequently. Love that those are like the professional performer ghosts. I feel like they are like taking their. Emma Civil War ghost, yeah, yeah, man, yeah, that's fun. I'll tell you though, if I was a ghost and I got trapped in a soldier outfit for all of eternity, I'd be really disappointed, wouldn't you? Be like, please let me die in my pajamas. Please let me die in my pajamas. You know, here's my unhinged be comfy.

3:20 Elsie So what if it was the ghost. You know how there's like these performer people that go out on the weekends reenactments. They're like Renaissance people, but they do this for little kids. Yeah. What if it was ghost of those people, and that was their dream. Emma They died kind of recently. Elsie Because they enjoy the work. No, that's my theory.

3:28 Emma So they're kind of in their own heaven, where they get to do their passion forever. Yeah, I like that for them. Elsie And they get like an extra layer of credibility because now they're dead. Emma Now I'm just thinking about what is heaven to me, because it's like, oh, you get to do your your war reenactment that you love doing. You're doing that for me. Oh my gosh, I think I'd just be trapped in a library, bookstore ghost. Yeah, bookstore ghost for sure. Just in some kind of library reading forever.

3:37 Elsie Yeah, remember that romance bookstore where they never unlocked the door? Oh yes, could haunt that. I think about that all the time. I'm just waiting for a day where I have time to drive back. Emma Our next ghost story is from Amy. I need to predecess this story by saying that I really don't know how I feel about ghosts and their legitimacy, but this story, no pun intended. Haunts me to this day. I like it.

3:43 Thank you, Lizzie. Listen, I'm not sure what I saw, but I'll just tell you what I saw. Yeah, I like it a little bit. Mulder here, where you're like definitely saw this thing, but also I don't know. Don't blame me. Okay, about 15 years ago or so, I was attending a gala with a friend at an estate that had been recently undergoing renovation to bring it back to life. The mansion itself has a storied past, as the owner built the mansion for his wife, who tragically passed away six weeks after moving in, and her husband passed away shortly thereafter. Oh, that is so sad! What a bummer you made this whole present. That's sad. All right. The estate then served as a Catholic seminary and boarding school as a state prison, and

3:50 then was simply abandoned for many years before being brought back to life. Boarding school to prison. I'd like to see a little more of this building now. Elsie I'm curious what it looks like too. Emma Okay, at the gala, the party goers were allowed and encouraged. Wander the house and go through the rooms. At the end of the main hallway was the room built for Agnes, the original owner's wife who passed away. I, not being one for believing in ghosts anyway, grabbed the phone device that rang the maids downstairs and talked into the device, kind of making fun of the entire story and saying something like, "Maids, I'm not feeling well. Please come up, much to the chagrin of my friend that was in attendance with me. She absolutely believed in ghosts and was completely spooked out wandering

4:01 the rooms and halls. I laughed, hung up the phone device, and continued our tour of the home. Shortly after leaving the house and saying our goodbyes at the exit, I suddenly lost my voice and the ability to talk. I could only squeak out my words. I hadn't been sick. I had no cold, no laryngitis, nothing to explain my sudden loss of voice. My friend immediately was like, "The ghost took your voice because you made fun of her. I didn't regain my ability of speaking until the next day. We still talk about this incident and how a ghost stole my voice. Well, that's fun.

4:07 Elsie I mean, love. Emma lI also really like the dynamic of these two friends. Yeah, how one's like na na na na, and the other one's like oh, there's definitely ghosts, and I'm super scared. Take this seriously. Yeah, the ghost got your voice. I love it. These two sound fun. Elsie Okay, our next story is from Maddie. She says this is her personal ghost story. We love a firsthand.

4:15 Okay, I live in a small colonial era city on the East Coast. Many of the homes here were built in the 1700s and 1800s and are full of historic charm. Picture a mix of gray stone and red brick mansions and townhouses, old paned glass everywhere, and huge trees that have been growing for decades, etc. Okay, Maddie, I think you could write a novel.

4:19 Emma Love it. Elsie Let's keep going. You've set the scene beautifully. Emma I'm interested. Elsie When my husband and I first moved here, we started renting a quirky little carriage house built between two of these old mansions. It was extremely small and full of charm because it was built in the 1980s by Hazel Dell Brown, who was once called the most famous mid-century interior designer you've probably never heard of. She linked an article here, so we'll have to find that later. Yeah, that's cool. Uh huh. I think you would love her signature designs, so I highly recommend looking her up. Okay, the name is Hazel Dell Brown. That's cool. We found out later that Hazel passed away in our house, but we're pretty

4:32 sure her spirit did not leave before we even moved in. The previous tenant told us that she had once seen an older woman walking up the stairs in the house before disappearing. Yummy! On the first night we slept in the house, the TV turned on in the middle of the night, volume at full blast around three a.m.

4:35 Ah, that's that's a that's unsettling. Yeah, yeah. The remote was across the room on the dresser, and no other electricity was impacted. We just turned off the TV and pretended that it was normal and went back to sleep. Then a few weeks later, I was out of town and my husband was home alone. He woke up thinking that an earthquake was happening. Having just moved back to the East Coast from Los Angeles, it took him a moment to fully wake up and realize that nothing in the house was moving, but the bed was violently shaking. And again, this was right around three a.m. Okay, this is a good one.

4:41 Okay, we put a lot of love and care into making the house nice, painting the walls, cleaning it thoroughly and decorating our space, we truly believe that the scariest stuff stopped happening because Hazel was happy that we were respecting her home, and because we were being good house guests, so to speak. We lived in the house for two years or so, and almost every night, if we were watching TV or reading in the living room before bed, we would hear creaking steps like someone was walking up the stairs at 9 p.m. sharp. We could just look at each other, knowing that it was Hazel putting herself to bed.

4:47 Finally, the landlord let us know that they were selling the house and we had to move out. They coordinated all their showings for one day from morning to night, all day visitors were tramping through the house with their shoes on, not respecting Hazel's space. How do I know? Because that night the TV turned on again at three a.m. sharp. It only happened twice the entire time we lived in the home, so we felt like Hazel was scolding us for letting all those people into her home. When we moved out, we said goodbye to Hazel. It felt it felt rude not to acknowledge our extremely talented roommate. That's a cute one. It seems like she's like harmless, but she's like letting you know her opinion. So I don't know.

4:54 Emma Shaking the bed violently. That's that's quite scary. Didn't harm anyone, but like that's pretty scary. Turning on the TV, I'm like, okay. Elsie Shaking the bed is way worse. Emma Shaking the bed is very scary. Elsie Yeah. Emma And sort of unmistakable in a way. I feel like TV, you can kind of be like, oh, the electronics are weird. I don't know, you know. But a bed shaking, I'm like, what would cause that other than a ghost or an earthquake? That's kind of hard to explain away. True.

5:07 Elsie Yeah, you can't explain it at all. Emma I don't know what you would other than an earthquake, which wasn't happening, obviously. So, all right, cool. This next one is from Mara. We bought our very old Philadelphia row home while I was pregnant with my first daughter. Row homes typically have a set of stairs on one side that pass the middle room upstairs. Hmm, I didn't know that. The middle room is usually small, and for us was a perfect nursery.

5:14 So I spent a lot of time sitting in a rocking chair in that room in the months leading up to and immediately after my daughter's birth. I would constantly feel like I would see something on the steps out of the corner of my eye, but nothing else ever happened to warrant any thoughts beyond it being weird. I do think newborn babies-that's a real time where, like, your mind's-you're tired and you're up at weird hours.

5:19 Elsie True. Emma So it's a real like that'd be a good time to get haunted, honestly, because then you're like, oh, it's probably nothing. I'm just tired, and you know, I thought I heard the baby, but yeah. Fast forward a few years, and I'm pregnant with my second daughter, and my older one is now getting a big girl room. At first, she loved it, but after a little while, she would say she was scared of her room. It's not fair; her sister gets the safe room with the baby, and other things to that effect. Yeah, I kind of chalked it up to her being a super sensitive kid, and maybe some jealousy of her baby sister, and also just kind of toddler word syntax mix-ups. Fast forward again a couple years, and little sister is still in the nursery,

5:29 but learned to climb out of her crib. So we need some time to figure out a bed situation for her. So I got one of those crib tent things so that she couldn't climb out. Crib tent things. Why am I just now hearing of this? Googling that after this is over. Oh my gosh, I need one of those. I told her that she has the tent to keep her safe, and without missing a beat, my two and a half year old says, "Mama, the baby comes up the stairs to keep me safe. I was telling my next door neighbor about this whole safe baby thing because I know she loves spooky stuff. Her house is a mirror image of ours, and our stairs share a wall.

5:35 We were pregnant with our first together, and her son and my daughter's room share a wall. When I told her about it, her jaw dropped, and she said that her son also talks about baby ghosts that live on the steps in their house. So we seemingly have some sort of benevolent baby ghost that loves the stairs floating between our houses. Fun.

5:39 Elsie That's fun. I love it. Emma That is. Kids always see ghosts. I know it's always the kids that see it. Elsie It makes sense. It makes sense. Okay, this next one is from Cara. A few years ago, on a dark and quiet night, I was getting ready for bed at my boyfriend's house. I had been a bit frustrated trying to fall asleep lately, as my mind had been playing tricks on me. I kept seeing something that I knew wasn't there, or should I say, someone. Neither a believer or a non-believer, I figured this was a ghost I was seeing that would surely respect my privacy and human needs, such as going to sleep or going to the bathroom! Exclamation point! I guess when people pass, they lose their manners on the toilet. It felt like

5:50 I was just being imaginative, but I swear a darkly shrouded figure was trying to reach me through the door. Since I was left unharmed, I figured friendly ghost or something like this can't hurt me. I met a peaceful sleep, content with the knowledge that my imagination was just running amok. Days pass. I keep imagining the same figure. I become familiar with it, noticing more features each day. A tall man with dark brunette hair and fair skin. Oh my God! It's Edward Cullen. I'm so happy. This is my dream.

5:55 Okay. Me and my imagination or haunted spirit continue life as is until one night that confirmed to me that it wasn't just my imagination. On this rainy night, I'm sitting passenger side as my boyfriend Thomas drives up, pulling us to a stoplight. I notice that Thomas looks concerned and shakes his head as if he's doubting or trying to get rid of a thought. What's wrong? I ask curiously. He looks nervous to mention anything at first, until sighing, and explains to me, "I thought I saw something. A man was walking weird, wearing all white on the side of the road, but I don't see him anymore. I nod. This makes sense to me because I've been seeing that exact same man. Explaining to him my clingy spirit, he

6:02 doesn't share the same nonchalant attitude that I do. I don't think he means any harm, but how long is he going to stick around, and why me? It wasn't long before I got my answers. Dum dum dum. Yes, this is attention build. Good job, Kara. Okay, a week or so passes. I'm sitting on a wood dining table. My mother is making another one of her health smoothies in the kitchen. The man in the corner is just kind of hovering over me. So is he going into multiple houses? Because she's saying like boyfriend's house, and then she's saying her mother. Like that makes me think he's like because you don't really hear a lot of moving between like multiple locations.

6:09 Emma Yeah, you don't. Elsie Okay, ignoring them both, I continue doing my nails. In the corner of my eye, I see the exact same look that Thomas had on his face that other night on my mother's face. That's so weird, she said abruptly. What is I say? It sounds ridiculous, but I swear I thought I saw a man standing next to you. I nod and ask, was he tall? Dark hair? Pale skinned? Chest that shone like diamonds?

6:16 Emma Just kidding. She didn't say that part. I'm making an Edward call. Elsie We're just given a visualization. We're just adding to Kara's story. Okay, looking around, she confirms my assumption and asks how I know this. I explain that he's kind of been following me around, and I'm not sure why. I also tell her that Thomas saw him too. Immediately, she says that we need to do a tarot reading and find out what he wants.

6:23 Emma Health movies tarot readings. Her mom seems interesting. Elsie I know, I know. Like this is this is an interesting person. Great. I roll my eyes, but agree. I've been wondering what he wants and why he's following a young girl around. After the tarot reading, I feel certain that he means no harm. The cards told me that he died in a war. He had a pregnant wife that he had to leave at home, so he didn't get to see her for that last time, and he never got to meet the baby.

6:30 What tarot cards could tell you that? Emma I must be reading him wrong because I've never gotten this kind of information. Elsie Okay, I couldn't be sure, but the cards seem to tell me he either thought I was his wife or his child. Oh, so with this information, I knew that I had to make a connection with him. Speaking clearly and firmly, I tell him I am so sorry how life worked out for you, but I am not your wife and I am not your daughter, and I know that you don't mean me harm, but you must leave. And from that moment on, I never saw him again. But lately, I started seeing something out of the corner of my eye. It must just be my imagination, though. She left us on a cliffhanger there. Beautiful job, Kara. That was a masterpiece.

6:40 Soar is wide open for the sequel. Emma This next one's from Alexia. Here's a 1990s era ghost story for you. We never get the 90s. I like the 90s ghosts are up to. She says, "I grew up on the outskirts of Austin and would visit my grandmother every other weekend throughout my childhood. When I was one, my maternal grandfather passed away. A few years after he passed, at this point, I had two other siblings on my dad's side. We would be playing at my grandmother's house where he lived before he passed, and there was a middle landing on the stairs that would make a sharp turn before going upstairs. For many years and on many occasions, we would see the silhouette of a man in a cowboy hat-the exact outfit my grandfather wore to his shows-on

6:49 the wall of the landing before going upstairs. Everyone who knew my grandfather or had seen any photo of him knew he always had his cowboy hat on. It was part of his signature look as a musician and made him very much who he was. He was always a peaceful presence in the house, and nothing that ever scared us. It even made us feel protected in a way. At this point, we were three to five years old and would resume playing with little thought on the figure. That went on for a few years before my grandmother moved. As adults now, I always think that was just a dream that we made up as kids, kind of like an imaginary friend. But my sister Casey and I will find ourselves reminiscing and having the same memory of the peaceful, if not cozy, shadow of our grandfather watching us grow up until the

6:57 house was sold. It was nice to know that, in a way, he saw our family grow in this way for a few years. Aw, that was just a sweet one. Yeah, just get to watch your grandkids keep growing. Love it. That's really sweet one. Elsie Our next one is from Karina. This happened to my sister-in-law and her two kids. The three of them-a six-month-old baby girl and a 10-year-old boy-moved into an old house furnished on the outskirts of town. It's the Canadian Forest Mountain area. They moved in, and weird stuff started happening right away. Her son would hear. Screams from his mom run into her room, and she would be soundly sleeping. The spookiest was that my niece was sleeping in her crib, and the baby monitor turned on

7:06 motion censored, and her rattle baby toy that my sister used to distract her when she was being changed was making the shaking noise. I love that. That's nice. It's the details, you know. Okay, my sister went in, and the rattle was not on the changing table, but in the middle of the floor, and the baby was still sleeping soundly in the crib. They would hear knocking, always in threes. Okay, coming from somewhere in the house, like the storage room under the stairs. After exploring, they found an old mirror. That's where they think the knocking had been coming from. They lasted a month, and then they found a new place. Okay, that is not very long. This must have been like very frightening. That's

7:13 emergency mode. Emma Yeah. Elsie Owner moved back in, thinking that they were full of it, and lo and behold, the house was put up for sale within the month. Neighbors talked to my sister, saying that they often heard talking in the yard in the middle of the night, like a little boy talking to himself. Beautiful story. Love. Very creepy.

7:20 Emma Very very creepy. I liked it. The owner was like, "All right, all right, all right, you guys are being crazy, and then Musin's like, never mind, got to get out of here. This is a ghost house now. Okay, this next one is from Vic. In the mid '90s, when I first started dating my husband, his parents bought a modern house at the end of the street of old Victorian houses. This is in the UK. They bought this particular house, because it had a very large yard with a high wall around it and a big electric gate, which they needed for their transport business. They used to transport people on group outings or to the airport or on business visits, that kind of thing. Okay, my husband and his brother still lived at home with their

7:28 parents, and they were in their late teens. The boys always used to complain that the house had a strange vibe, which it did, and would say that you could see tall shadows moving around in the dark outside in the yard. The dogs would also bark at nothing through the patio doors, but were too scared to go out. Who? Nobody could get into the yard because it was fully secured, so there really was nobody there. We all teenagers had strange experiences in the house, seeing something move out of the corner of your eye or feeling like you were not alone in a room. Most of all, though, my husband's brother often said he would wake in the night to see a little boy with blonde hair stood in his bedroom.

7:35 His parents fobbed it off because he used to have vivid dreams and sleepwalk when he was a kid, so they said it was probably just his imagination. The strange thing is that my mother-in-law is the most woo-woo woman I've ever met. She believes in everything supernatural, but here she would say that she didn't see, hear, or feel anything strange. This was very odd to us because we were all skeptics and really felt uncomfortable there. Yet she denied it. Interesting. It was odd. A few years passed, and my husband's parents sold the transport business and therefore also moved house. Just before they moved, when they were all having dinner there together, my mother-in-law told us something she had

7:42 known about the house for years. One day she had been driving a group of old local ladies, and they were asking her where she lived. She told them the street name, and that it was the new house at the end of the old houses. The ladies then started saying to each other, "Oh, do you remember when the Chapel of Rest used to be there? Oh, oh. Then they told her that in the early 1900s, where the house was built, there used to be a chapel of rest. The funeral directors would take the coffins from there on a horse-drawn carriage to church. The horses were big black ones who used to live in stables at the site, which explains the tall shadows moving around outside. The thing that really shocked us, though, was

7:49 that the lady said a little blonde boy used to walk in the procession in front of the horses, my mother-in-law had kept that to herself because she didn't want to freak us out even more than we already were. I was so glad when they moved to a new house, which had no creepy vibes or strange things happening. This mother-in-law is quite an odd character. Yeah, she's woo-woo. She believes in everything. She knows about the chapel of rest, and yet she's like kind of low key denying it as everyone else starts seeing ghosts. I feel like I can be selectively woo woo.

7:55 Elsie I get it. Like some days you're like astrology is everything to me. Some days you're like I don't believe in it anymore. I don't care. The stars are random, so you know maybe she just wasn't in the mood. I don't know. Got too real. She was like, "You know what? I don't know about that. All right. This next story is from Caitlin. The house that my grandma was born in and grew up in, in in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is still in my dad's family. It's a shared vacation space. This house and many of the houses in the region were built by copper mining companies and sold to their employees. My first ghost experience there came when I was in grade school. I can't remember the exact age, but my brother and

8:03 I were playing some sort of game on the living room floor. There was a small bedroom just off the living room, and I either glanced into the bedroom or something caught my eye. Sitting on a wood chair was a white, ghostly figure just sitting and looking straight ahead, but not at me. It slowly turned its head, looking at me and my brother, and then it was essentially gone. We freaked out. I've asked my brother about it several times, and he doesn't remember it, which is so annoying. My husband and I were up there a few years ago, sleeping upstairs. And one night, I woke up and felt like there was a presence in the room. I could see a black figure at the end of the bed. It wasn't threatening, but it just felt weird, and

8:10 I couldn't really move. I just stared at it while trying to figure out what it was, and then eventually fell back asleep. That's my girl. You just can't do anything. You just fall back asleep. What can you do? Go to sleep. That's what I always do. When I was little, my mom once woke up and found me sleepwalking, just standing there at the window in this exact same room. She rightfully freaked out because I was on the second floor, and now even more current. Last fall, my husband and I went up for a short trip. We didn't stay in the house; it was already winterized. But we went to hang out there for a few hours. I'd been thinking about these ghost experiences a lot, and when I stepped into the little bedroom where I

8:17 first saw the ghost when I was younger, it wasn't quite golden hour, but the light in the bedroom was pretty and glowy. I was admiring it and the cool shadows on the wall. This sounds so cliche, but I said in my head, "I know you're here. I know there's something. Give me a sign. Maybe five seconds later, the door to the kitchen that goes into the mudroom moved and made a little creaking sound. It was already half open, but it moved a few inches. I mean, come on! Then we stopped by the cemetery that's down the road. So she was like ghost hunting a little bit, and I, I'm honored. Why not? I'm honored. Why not?

8:23 Okay, then we stopped by the cemetery that's down the road where many of my relatives are buried. My husband took Polaroid pictures of my grandparents' headstones. Oh my God! You came prepared. I'm giving like five stars, gold stars. Okay, grandparents' headstone and my great grandparents' headstone, my grandma's parents that lived inside the house as well. Once they were developed, there was this weird flare on the one of my great grandparents' headstone, but not on the other. So I think that maybe one of them is my ghost. Then that night at the Airbnb we had rented, I woke up to the same black figure at the end of my bed again. It wasn't threatening; it just felt weird, and I couldn't really

8:30 move. I told my husband all about it later, and he jokingly said, "Great, you brought it with us. Love it. I don't know. Thank you for that one. Emma He was participating with the Polaroids. Elsie He was participating. I mean, what a good idea to bring your Polaroid camera! Emma I know I want to get a Polaroid again, or maybe an Instax. I feel like Polaroid-you can't hardly find the film anymore. Okay, that was all our ghost stories for the year.

8:39 Elsie Wait, really? It's over. Emma Okay, we still have a Halloween hot take. Elsie Yeah. Okay. My favorite. I'm gonna have to go this year with sitting on the toilet and the ghost reaches through the Edward Cullen ghost reaches through the door and tries to grab you. That that's pretty good. What about you?

8:47 Emma I liked the shaking bed. The shaking bed was scary. I also kind of liked the grandpa with the cowboy hat who's just kind of like watching his grandkids grow up. Something about the one feels very real to me. I'm like, yeah. What would you do if you were a ghost? Elsie Yeah, our grandpa was a cowboy too.

8:53 Emma He was. Elsie He didn't wear a cowboy hat, at least not indoors. Emma No, he was just outside in the fields. Elsie Yeah, yeah. Loved the stories. Thank you to everyone who submitted. We'll keep doing it every year. It's one of our favorite traditions. Emma We love it. We love it. Elsie Okay, we have a Halloween hot take from Angeline. Do you want to do it?

9:06 Emma You want me? Yeah, sure. Angeline says, "Scary Halloween decorations should not be out until a few days before Halloween. I'm talking gory horror-related things, not giant skeletons. There are so many kids and me who are scared of this stuff, and they we have to see it against our will. Yeah, there was a house near me years ago with a giant dissected skeletal life size figure in an upside down crucifixion on their garage, lit with red lights. Why? Wow, your neighbors! Wow, it was so creepy. I would drive home a different way at night for the whole month. They were also down the street from an elementary school, and another house has a few mannequins by the row that they dress up for every season. And

9:14 for Halloween, they depict the classic horse slasher icons, bloody weapons, and all. I think that stuff should be for Halloween or parties only, not a month-long celebration. I don't care how early you put fall stuff out for fun Halloween decor, but sometimes it's too much. Elsie Okay, Angeline, I think your take is fine. I I get it, but I will say, okay, my opinion is that you should follow the culture of your own neighborhood. Yeah. So some neighborhoods, and you should also know what kind of neighborhood you're moving into. So I specifically picked the most Halloween neighborhood in our city because that is my value system, and that is what is important to me. And I want to live around the skeletons and the ghouls and stuff, and actually, not very many people do scary

9:23 things. And there's never been anything that scared my kids, so I I don't even know if I like the spirit Halloween, like the the figures that like kind of make noise when you walk past them that have a motion sensor. I can understand why those are like scary to people because they can kind of like give you a little jump scare on your walk. So yeah, I think I agree a little bit, but I also think that if your whole neighborhood does it, it's just fair game, and you're just being a part of the culture, and it is fun. So I could go either way.

9:29 Emma Yeah, I kind of feel on the fence because I will say I have a kid who's a little bit like scared. Like I would never take my kids into Spirit Halloween. It just would not be a fit for them. They're not ready for that. No, no, no, no, no, no. And I personally like kind of silly Halloween. I don't really like gory, scary Halloween. That's my own personal vibe too. But I think you know your own home, your own yard. You should get to do what you want, so I'm kind of like, well, I think people, if they want to do gory slasher stuff, I think that's kind of their right. I guess is what I what I feel. I also say, so you know, for littler kids, a lot of times they won't see that stuff at night anyway because my kids go to bed around 730, so

9:37 they're just we're just not out on walks when it's dark very much. So that kind of works out because me personally, if I was out on a walk and like I would get scared. I am that kind of person where I'd be like ah if like some kind of thing makes a noise and I'm out and it's dark. But kids, I feel like eh they're probably in bed or they're already at home, and so it's it's not really that big of a deal. It's not gonna, you know, but it does make me sad that she had to drive a different way for a whole month. And I mean, that did sound that does sound pretty severe. This upside down crucifixion Elsie An upside down crucifix is kind of extreme.

9:45 Emma It's pretty out there. Elsie Yeah, near our kids' school, someone has you know the character Michael. I think is his name? The mask. Yeah. So one of someone has one of those like in their window, and I love it because it always gets me. But it's like not like it makes me look, but I'm not like scared. I'm just like, oh, that's funny.

9:51 Emma Yeah. Elsie And my kids are blind, so they can't see that far anyway, and so they wouldn't. Nothing's gonna scare them. Yeah, nothing's gonna scare them unless it makes a noise. Anyway, yeah, I do have compassion. Yesterday, I actually did a poll on my Instagram. Like, do you all want to see my Halloween my or my sorry my horror movie list or not? Because so many people complain. Because I do understand it's like a hot or cold thing, and it was the saddest percentage. It was like 65% yes, and I was like, ah, like that's like I'm probably still gonna put like one, but like I feel for people because I know some people just don't like it, and it's just like a thing that like you know is yeah.

10:01 Emma I think that's fine though because I mean I don't really like horror films, but I still like talking to people about their interests, yeah. Like I know that a lot of people don't like sex on the page romance novels. You think it stopped me from talking about them? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But I don't decorate my yard with you know, yeah. I don't know what that would be.

10:06 Elsie Yeah. Okay, so this next one is a hot take. Emma We have two hot takes. Elsie Oh, we have a double. Yeah, we have a two for this one. Okay, this one is from Chelsea. It says, "So my hot take is, we should boo people who mention there's a big twist at the end when somebody says, 'Okay, I won't give any spoilers, but there's a big twist at the end, that is a spoiler, and it riles me up. It applies to books, movies, anything. I don't want to know anything. I never anticipate spoilers. I don't read waiting for a gotcha. It makes it so much more exciting when it catches me off guard. I don't see it coming. I don't like it when I'm waiting for the shoe to. Because somebody warned me about a twist.

10:17 Okay, Chelsea, I am gonna say I disagree with this one. Yeah, just because. Okay, I, I let me see my reason. Because if we're talking mysteries and thrillers, which is the categories where there's most often a twist, it's kind of like there's kind of always a twist. Yeah, like it's like it's a part of the genre. You know, it would be more of a spoiler if you said there's no big twist. Yeah, I'd be like, what? I was expecting that. And even in in any other type of book, like adding twist is just so common at the end.

10:22 Like that, I just don't think it should mean anything. I think, I mean, I don't know, but I also will agree that I don't like it when people give me. I love to go in blind, and I don't like to hear anything. So I relate with that. But I think that the idea that knowing there's a twist, especially if you're watching or reading a thriller or mystery, I think, is like who cares?

10:26 Emma Right, right. Yeah. Also, say here's so I have two things on this. One, big twist is kind of subjective because I have had friends and family members before tell me, "Oh, there's this big twist, and then I watched the movie they were talking about, and I was like what? Elsie You can't identify the twist.

10:32 Emma I don't know what the twist was. Me too. Yeah, me too. So I think it can be kind of subjective. So to me, when someone says, "Oh, there's a big twist, I kind of just take it as like, "Oh, you think there's a big twist? We'll see what I think. Like I don't really even think it's a spoiler because I'm like, I don't know what you think that means. Truly, that might mean nothing at all. So it's just a nothing statement. It's just what you felt, and that's great. You can tell me what you felt. I don't care. So there's that, and then the other thing I'll say is I am big on statute of limitations on spoilers because here's the thing: what sometimes gets on my nerves is now and again there'll be a friend who's like, "Oh, don't tell me I

10:40 haven't read that yet or I haven't seen that yet, but the movie's been out for six months or four years, or the book is gone, girl. Yeah, or the book is like this was came out when we were kids. You know, just something where I'm like, listen, listen, you've got to let people talk about stuff at a certain point. Okay, if a book just came out this month and you're like, oh, I didn't get a chance to read it yet, you know, I think that's fair. And I, by the way, I think I give a longer books get the longest runway, movies get less, so on and so forth. Because it's like, how long does it take you to consume it? And I'm like, a movie takes one evening. A book is going to take a week, two weeks, a month, depending how much time you

10:47 have in your life to read or listen, whatever. So I, you know, I give it a little more time. But at a certain point, I'm like, hey, spoilers are on you. Okay, if you really want to consume something, you've got to get on it. Otherwise, the world is going to be full of spoilers, and that's no longer the world's fault. It's your fault, and I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

10:51 Elsie Yeah, that's true. This year, I started a new rule that I'm reading my anticipated books like the week they come out every time because of this very reason. So you can also do that. Like if you decide it's that important. Like I just don't like. I finished Hollywood ending. I was like, I don't want to hear one single part. Like I don't hear one opinion. I don't want to. You know what I mean? And it's like it's not on them. It's on me that I like. I so I read it really fast to make sure that I got to have my own moment without anyone else's bullshit, right?

10:58 Emma And that you know what I mean. And I think that that's really relatable. But anyway, yeah, everything. Yeah, I think we all have our own like level on how much it ruins things for us if people tell us any kind of spoiler or their even their opinion. Like my husband didn't want to hear what the Verity Rotten Tomatoes was after seeing it? He was like, "Oh, oh, don't tell me. Meanwhile, I was like, "Oh, definitely tell me. And you told me I want to say with like 30% or something, and I was like, "All right, and I didn't know what that meant because there's movies I love that get like 20, 30% and there's movies I hate that you know. So I'm like, it doesn't mean anything to me. I guess to me, I'm like I don't care what

11:06 someone else thought. I have to decide for myself, and I guess other people don't feel that as much. I'm not sure, so the spoilers can really ruin it. I also kind of don't care about endings. I kind of am very like, give me the bride because I don't know. I guess part of it is I'm a romance fan, and so I like know they're going to get together in some way, but I'm like, show me the ride, make me make me not believe for a second, bring that on, and like you can't really ruin it for me. I already know what's going to happen, but I want to know how you're going to get me there because to me that's the interesting part.

11:12 But I don't know. Everybody's different, and that's sort of its own genre. So whatever. Elsie Okay, well that was fun. We're gonna pass it now to a joke or a fact with Nova. Hey Nova, what do you have for us this week? Nova A meditation. Elsie Well, what kind of meditation? Nova Trick or treating meditation.

11:22 Elsie Okay, I'm excited. I love it. Closing my eyes. Nova As everybody knows, we do the breathings before we start our meditations. Okay, you walk out of your room when it is 730 in the morning. You are so excited because today is Halloween. You get your costume out, make sure you have everything. You make sure you have all your decorations, check them one by one, and your mom and dad make breakfast pancakes with extra toppings, all your favorites. Then you go and you stand outside and look at your house. It has the best decorations of all.

11:30 You're loving it when you think things couldn't get better, and then you have lunch with your family. Then you play for a while till it's time to go. At about that time, your family's taking pictures. Then, as you guys get ready, putting on your costumes, getting dressed, you go outside and take a few more pictures, then you go set off, and trick or treat. After a few houses of getting good candy, jumbo chocolate bars, and bubble gum, and all of your favorite candies. You finally go back around seven to go eat dinner, get your favorite meal with some of your family members who were also going trick or treating. Then you go and you find more houses to trick or treat at. The next one's your favorite. It has

11:37 such good Halloween decorations. It's a haunted house themed, and you love it. You get candy from that place, your favorite candy of all. Then you come back home, get into bed, and you think that was the best day ever. I can't wait for tomorrow when I can check out my candy and pick out what pieces I want to eat. That's the end of the meditation. Take two more deep breaths. Now open your eyes, get used to whatever lights are on, and think, what is your favorite part of Halloween?

11:42 Elsie That was beautiful. I'm just gonna tell you that was a 10 out of 10, and I think everyone is going to agree. Give me a high five. All right, all right. We'll see you next week. Nova Bye. Elsie Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week where we talk about Thanksgiving and cozy fall home.