Therésa: Hello, my angels or devils, demons, mortals, reanimated ectoplasm, however
Therésa: you identify. Welcome back to another episode of Haunting.
Therésa: We're running into a little problem here at Haunting HQ
Therésa: that I'm not entirely unfamiliar with. We're generating too much
Therésa: at revenue. We're not sure how to spend it. All
Therésa: material goods are of no use to me here, hence
Therésa: the reworking of my entire brand. So we're in a
Therésa: little bit of a "financial pickle," as my dad's tax
Therésa: fraud attorney used to put it, different sides of the
Therésa: same coin, though we're flush, whereas he was basically doing
Therésa: dishes for the IRS.
Therésa: AnyWho, I had the idea to donate our proceeds to charity.
Len: (mumbles)
Therésa: Okay? Len and I had the idea to donate our
Therésa: proceeds to charity. Len pitched the American Cancer Society, but
Therésa: I was thinking Camp Conflict, which is a summer program
Therésa: I funded Maine where we manufacture safe adverse experiences for
Therésa: privileged teens so they have something to write their college
Therésa: essays about. It's helped a lot of deserving kids get
Therésa: into bottom tier ivys.
Therésa: So while Naomi prepares the oversized check, we'll meet James
Therésa: from Philadelphia, who guides a ghost tour through the city
Therésa: where he and his group - Honestly, you can probably guess.
Story A: I work with Stephen DeMarco, another ghost tour guide. He's
Story A: my de facto mentor. Stephen's telling me this story. He
Story A: had three college girls. They had booked the extended tour.
Story A: One of them screams, "He disappeared! You didn't see that?
Story A: He disappeared! You were just talking to him, and now
Story A: he's gone." They're scared to death because they just watched
Story A: a man disappear in front of him. Spirits are here.
Story A: I don't know why, but they're here, and I'm all
Story A: for skepticism, but there are many things that can't be explained.
Story A: My name is James. I am a ghost tour guide
Story A: in Philadelphia, and we encountered a ghost on our ghost tour.
Story A: I give extended ghost tours in Philadelphia. It's about an
Story A: hour tour and they're eight different stops, all from the
Story A: colonial period. There's a lot of history to it. We
Story A: don't do flim flammory. We don't set up bluetooth speakers
Story A: that play scary music. We don't have actors pop out.
Story A: It's just me doing historical lessons and telling them about hauntings.
Story A: Sometimes I use gadgets on the tour. I used to
Story A: bring like an EMF detector or a spirit box, just
Story A: to see if they'd do anything, you know, shake it
Story A: up a little bit. One night, I'm talking about Alexander Hamilton.
Story A: All of a sudden, the spirit box goes off and
Story A: they point, they go, "look the thing turned red." And
Story A: I've found that I've been able to convince, I wouldn't
Story A: say hardcore skeptics by any means, but people who didn't
Story A: believe it and just kind of wanted to see what
Story A: the tour was about.
Story A: It was October 2021, right before the season really ramped up,
Story A: as we were heading deeper into the month towards Halloween.
Story A: It was brisk. It was a very small group they
Story A: had booked the extended tour. There was an older woman
Story A: in her late forties to early fifties. I'll just call
Story A: her Ma. She was tall and thin, kind of reminded
Story A: me of Allison Janney. She was nice enough, she really wanted
Story A: to be there. This was for her. Her daughter, who
Story A: was a woman about my age in her mid to
Story A: late thirties, blonde, a bit shorter. She didn't want to be there,
Story A: and that's okay, like she had no interest, but she
Story A: wasn't disrespectful. And then there was a youngest girl. She
Story A: was a teenager.
Story A: They were visiting from Washington, and they got the Philadelphia experience,
Story A: which is you're trying to cross the street and someone
Story A: nearly runs you over, and then that car who tries
Story A: to run you over yells at you. Welcome to Philadelphia,
Story A: was kind of all I could say.
Story A: I'm checking them in and I'm trying to confirm the
Story A: extended tour, and then Ma leans in then whispers in
Story A: my ear, "You know, I'm a clairvoyant. I can see
Story A: spirits around us." Okay, this was unprompted. I'm just kind
Story A: of trying to get all of this done at this point,
Story A: and I have stuff I have to say. I have
Story A: things I have to get through. But they were actually
Story A: very nice, especially Ma, who really wanted to be there.
Story A: I get through this standard tour and I'm continuing with
Story A: the extended tour. I go the extra mile. I bring
Story A: out some equipment. Maybe it works, maybe we hear something
Story A: on the spirit box. Sometimes we don't, and I move on
Story A: and I try to make it interesting one way or
Story A: the other. The middle one, the daughter, was on her
Story A: phone the entire time. She wasn't interested. This wasn't her
Story A: cup of tea. As my gear was going off and
Story A: I got more into the ghost stuff, the teenage daughter
Story A: kind of warmed up to it. She kind of started
Story A: to ask questions. She kind of started to want to
Story A: know about experiences that had happened to me. Part of
Story A: being a tour guide is personal experience. They want to
Story A: know what we've seen, what we've experienced. I show people
Story A: some orbs in pictures I've taken of a certain locations.
Story A: I talk about times the EMF point a bit nuts,
Story A: when the spirit box had a full conversation with me.
Story A: I always work that in. We're walking down Fourth Street,
Story A: Philadelphia towards Spruce. Those are very old buildings, and if
Story A: the streets are empty, which they just happen to be,
Story A: there's a lot of echoes, there's a lot of footsteps.
Story A: Some footsteps maybe people walking behind us and some not.
Story A: Basically I'm listening for anything, but it looked like just
Story A: your average night on Fourth Street. As I'm walking with
Story A: my lantern in hand, Ma leans in and she says, "You know,
Story A: there's a man following us." The thing I thought was
Story A: someone's jumped on. I've had homeless people try to jump on.
Story A: I've had people just visiting locations try to jump on.
Story A: Immediately I turn around, you know, I look for him.
Story A: I don't see anyone. It's just the three and myself.
Story A: And she says, "He is wearing jogging attire, he is
Story A: bleeding from his forehead and his nose is broken. He
Story A: died some time ago. His name is John, and he's
Story A: just checking on us." All this is unprompted. Now, I
Story A: approach this with skepticism. P.T. Barnum said, if they believe something,
Story A: let them believe it. And that's a paraphrase.
Story A: The thing I noticed about the daughter and the teenage daughter,
Story A: neither one of them seems surprised, and they weren't shocked.
Story A: They just sort of were like, oh well here it
Story A: is like very matter of factly. So I said, I
Story A: hope John enjoys the rest of the tour.
Story A: When I got into the Philadelphia market, Stephen was the
Story A: only one they're giving tours as such. He was my trainer,
Story A: he was my de facto mentor, so to speak.
Story A: My name is Steve, and I am a ghost tour
Story A: guide in the city of Philadelphia. Now I gotta go
Story A: forward a bit to when we're starting an Atlantic City ghost tour.
Story A: You know, they were doing a test run and they
Story A: wanted me to see how it would look, and you know,
Story A: give my own two cents about it. So I went there.
Story A: We're doing a practice and it's me giving Steven a tour.
Story A: This time, we complete the tour and we're walking back
Story A: down the board walk. I asked, Hey, has anything ever
Story A: happened to you on the tour, like, do you have
Story A: a personal experience? Stephen then goes into his story.
Story A: It happened in 2021. I had three young girls in
Story A: the early twenties walking with me. I just finished up
Story A: the standard tour and I had an extended tour. We're
Story A: on Third and Pine Street. It's kind of like the
Story A: older part of Philadelphia. At night they got street lamps
Story A: on and on that intersection, it can't get a little noisy.
Story A: I was just wrapping up the tour and this guy
Story A: crossing the street came over.He appeared to be in his
Story A: mid twenties. He looked like he was jogging through the
Story A: city because he had jogging shorts on and he was sweaty. Initially,
Story A: I thought he may have just been like running and
Story A: it was just kind of crossing paths. But what was
Story A: so off putting about him was that as he got closer,
Story A: I noticed a big bloody gash on his forehead and
Story A: it looked like there was blood running down his face.
Story A: My first reaction was, I thought that this guy got
Story A: into a fight. And then he said, "Oh, don't mind me,
Story A: I'm just looking in." It was very casual. Who says that,
Story A: you know? It just was weird, and so my gut
Story A: reaction was that this guy was like looking for trouble. Basically,
Story A: I just said, "Oh, I'm sorry, this is a private tour.
Story A: We love you to have you on the next tour,
Story A: you know, please check us out. And all he said, and
Story A: he shook his head, was "Oh don't mind me, I'm
Story A: just looking in." I'm thinking to myself, if he's on drugs
Story A: or anything like that, because he didn't seem all there.
Story A: So for a three second I turned to the three
Story A: girls and they're looking at the guy, and I turned
Story A: back and he vanishes. Boom. He was just gone. I
Story A: look back, and you could tell the girls were kind
Story A: of shocked. As I was telling him the story, James
Story A: interrupted me and said, wait a minute, that kind of
Story A: sounds like something that happened to me too.
Story A: I turned to him, I said, "Guess what, Stephen, his
Story A: name is John, and he's just looking in on the tour."
Story A: Stephen freaks out at this point, he goes, what are
Story A: you talking about? And I tell him the wholeMa story.
Story A: I see he's visibly freaked out. He goes, "No, you're lying."
Story A: He's like, well, how could that have happened? "Did the
Story A: college girls maybe posted on Reddit and the woman in
Story A: Washington maybe?" But I'm like, Stephen, "What you're trying to
Story A: give me as a skeptical explanation makes less sense than
Story A: us having a shared paranormal experience."
Story A: What do I think about John? I think that he
Story A: likes to just come back, and I think he really
Story A: does like the tour, So I guess we're doing a
Story A: good enough job.
Therésa: Mortals kill me. You saw a ghost on the ghost
Therésa: tour and we're shocked. Surely we expected at least the possibility,
Therésa: But I get it, I once did sponsored content for
Therésa: Glowgarden's Advanced retinoid eye treatment. And yes, even though I
Therésa: was hawking it, I did not expect it to tighten
Therésa: my under eyes so well, and at a pretty affordable
Therésa: price point too.
Therésa: Don't worry, that wasn't an ad. Glow Garden ended our
Therésa: partnership after the surveillance footage from that food court bathroom
Therésa: got leaked. They dropped the charges though, But if anyone
Therésa: from corporate is listening and wants to get back in
Therésa: the Therésa business, just email Len at Huntingthepodcast at gmail
Therésa: dot com. I don't really have under eyes anymore, but
Therésa: I still love the gesture. I digress. Point is we're
Therésa: allowed to be skeptics, but in my opinion, a supernatural
Therésa: experience is like falling in love. It comes when you
Therésa: least expect it.
Therésa: Right, right, right, or you chase after it obsessively, look
Therésa: for signs where there are none, finally find it, only
Therésa: to realize maybe this was a huge mistake, and then
Therésa: pay a lawyer to help make it go away. What
Therésa: about you, Len, Were you ever in love?
Len: (mumbles)
Therésa: You met your wife at a Kenny Chesney concert, that
Therésa: really checks out. Naomi? Hate to break it to you,
Therésa: but Phi-Delts Champagne and Shackles probably isn't love. You're right,
Therésa: not for me to judge. Hey, how about this, everyone
Therésa: sound off in the comments and tell us either where
Therésa: you saw your first ghost or where you met your
Therésa: first love, and later I'll try to guess which one
Therésa: it was.
Therésa: Anyway, so on one side of the spectrum we have James,
Therésa: who's looking for ghosts but doesn't always find them, and
Therésa: on the other side we have Miranda, who's never looking
Therésa: but they always seem to find her.
Story B: I just got hit with this bad, scary, terror. It
Story B: was just like, ugh, I gotta go. I gotta get out .
Story B: That's the only car there. It's raining, it's nasty, it's
Story B: pulled out, and I look over across from me. All
Story B: the plumps are empty, but there's a light. It's just
Story B: flickering above the plump directly across from me. And I
Story B: was like, nope, I gotta go.
Story B: My name's Miranda. I'm kind of like that kid from
Story B: the Sixth Sense, except I don't see dead people, I
Story B: feel them.
Story B: I lived in Columbus, Georgia in college, and it's known
Story B: for being a haunted city. There were battlefields and battles
Story B: there during the Civil War, so it's you know, the
Story B: stereotypical old timey ghosts that hang out there. I lived
Story B: in a one hundred and two year old house, and I would
Story B: notice things from time to time. I felt presences. It
Story B: wasn't one thing that I felt constantly each time it's
Story B: a little different.
Story B: Sometimes you walk into a room and that room would
Story B: be ice cold, you could see your breath, and it's summer.
Story B: Some days my dogs would get all spoofed, and my
Story B: dog was growling at me. She wasn't staring at me.
Story B: It was like she was staring behind me and just
Story B: like looking through me, growling, which is particularly spooky. And then
Story B: I had this one really awful experience.
Story B: I was getting ready to go somewhere and I'm doing
Story B: my hair and I hear this bang. They'd been doing
Story B: work near my house, so I just figured, Okay, it's
Story B: like seven pm., why are they still doing in construction? Just like bang, bang, bang.
Story B: It kept getting louder and closer, so loud you can
Story B: feel the vibration. It sounded like it was on my
Story B: roof just.
Story B: And I was trying to ignore it blow during my hair.
Story B: And then I heard my side door.
Story B: Open and footsteps.
Story B: It sounded like something ran from my side door through
Story B: my kitchen. Oh god, oh no, someone's in my house.
Story B: I just immediately freaked out, threw a blow dryer down,
Story B: didn't have on shoes.
Story B: I was like, I'm.
Story B: Getting out of here right now. It's all like someone
Story B: just broke in my house. So I go to run
Story B: out the front door, and the chain lock was locked.
Story B: I'd never locked that chain lock in my whole life.
Story B: I was like, oh god, oh god.
Story B: I threw it a front door.
Story B: I ran out, got in my car, and I drove
Story B: two blocks away and I called the cops. They came
Story B: and they checked out my house. No signs of forced entry,
Story B: nothing was touched. I was just scared out of my mind.
Story B: I definitely sensed something. It was a really bad feeling.
Story B: Most times whatever I'm sensing is not very ominous, but
Story B: this one was terror. I feel like it wants to
Story B: kill me or hurt me. I don't want to be here,
Story B: like it was really scary.
Story B: I had a friend in college and he said, oh,
Story B: your house is a portal for spirits. So he came
Story B: over and he brought some salt. He sprinkled it around
Story B: like my door frames and burned some sage and said
Story B: some stuff. I lived in that house for three years
Story B: and I didn't have any problems after that.
Story B: I worked in a trauma center. We had six trauma
Story B: base and trauma four was the biggest room, so that's
Story B: where all patients that were in the worst shape would
Story B: go because there's gonna be like twenty people in the
Story B: room trying to save lives as quickly as possible.
Story B: And in trauma four the lights would do this thing where
Story B: they would flicker, and a lot of people died in
Story B: frauma four. When the light would flicker, then they sayto
Story B: my coworkers, I'd be like, "oh, oh, guys, they're here.
Story B: Looks like whoever's coming trauma four is gonna die."
Story B: They all me like spooky, Miranda, like stop it, that's weird.
Story B: Like I'm just letting you know that I send it.
Story B: I'm not trying to be spooky. I'm just letting you
Story B: know they're here.
Story B: Every time I've sent something or seen that flickering light,
Story B: it's either somebody's gonna die.
Story B: Or somebody just die.
Story B: Even if I'm alone with the patient and they're about
Story B: to die, it feels like it's more than just me
Story B: and that one person there.
Story B: It feels like there's something else there.
Story B: Thank God, I.
Story B: Can't see whatever I'm sensing. If I could see it,
Story B: I would lose it. It already creeps me out one
Story B: hundred percent of the time. Every time.
Story B: I've seen people live that should have died, and I've
Story B: seen people die that should have lived, and there's not
Story B: a lot of.
Story B: Rhyme or reason.
Story B: One that I specifically remember was really bad. This person's young,
Story B: they have no health problems, but I have just like
Story B: an overwhelmingly bad feeling. And I said, something's wrong. They're
Story B: gonna die, and they're like, oh no. Their oxygen's saturation
Story B: was really good. It was like ninety nine percent the
Story B: best you can get to the hundred. And they're like,
Story B: it's fine, and I was like, it's not fine. And
Story B: then the lights flickered and they did end up dying.
Story B: There's a lot of lights in the room, but the
Story B: one flickering in the trouba room was the one that's
Story B: right over the patient bed. I have happened in ambulances
Story B: where the lights have flickered but I don't know it's landing,
Story B: just like, oh, something else is here. We had someone
Story B: that had been shot a bunch of times that was
Story B: already a losing battle. It was just too much. But
Story B: I definitely since that one too. There's always one light
Story B: right over the patient, and that's the one flickering. I
Story B: mean sure from a scientific sampoy the light flicker maybe.
Story B: Just bad wiring, but it's kind of coincidental and it's
Story B: only at certain times.
Story B: But I have noticed it in the trauma bay, I
Story B: noticed it in the ambulance, and then most recently, I.
Story B: Noticed it at the gas station. It was kind of
Story B: cold and rainy, and I was running late to work.
Story B: I don't have enough gasket to work, okay, So I
Story B: stopped at the gas station. I don't normally go to,
Story B: oh my gas, and all of a sudden, I got
Story B: this overwhelmingly bad feeling, just like a punch you and
Story B: you're kind of bad feeling. The first thing I did,
Story B: of course, was just look around, is somebody here? There's
Story B: nobody there, nothing going on, no other cars but mine,
Story B: and all the pumps are empty. But there's a light
Story B: above the pump directly across from me, flickering. I was like, nope,
Story B: I gotta leave, and.
Story B: I got out of their fronto.
Story B: It was just such a weird, bad feeling, and I
Story B: haven't felt a feeling that weird or overwhelmingly bad sense,
Story B: whatever it was, it felt.
Story B: Like someone was murdered there.
Story B: The next morning, I was getting ready for work and
Story B: I googled it and.
Story B: I with one hundred percent freaked out.
Story B: A few years back, a man's pumping gas at that
Story B: gas station and in the broad daylight, some guy in
Story B: a scream mask gets out and goes to rob the guy.
Story B: The guy but the pump was like.
Story B: Okay, well here's myself take a goat, and the guy
Story B: in the screen mask just shot him dead. Anyway, the
Story B: guy that was Killba's pretty young name was Kenneth. One
Story B: hundred percent think for that was him being like, get
Story B: out of this place. It's bad, it's dangerous. This gift
Story B: that I have, I don't want it, honestly, it's creepy
Story B: and I wish they would just leave me alone.
Therésa: Oh I hear you, Miranda, but I'd give anything to
Therésa: run into someone like you, or even better, that freaky
Therésa: little kid from the sixth sense who could actually see
Therésa: dead people. Do you know how frustrating it is to
Therésa: not be perceived? I haven't gone this unnoticed since before
Therésa: my first nose job. It's almost like if it weren't
Therésa: for this podcast, that would just be no one drifting
Therésa: through the inbetween mustering all my strength to fiddle a
Therésa: light here and there. And for what the rest of eternity?
Therésa: But let's get into the comments, huh! Reminder, the game
Therésa: is first ghost spotting or first love! Okay, dog park. Easy,
Therésa: first love. My grandparents' attic. Hopefully first ghost. The bar
Therésa: at the Standard Hotel. Love. The bar at the Culver Hotel,
Therésa: ghost obvi. My high school. Hmmm, could go either way.
Therésa: I'm gonna say love. McDonald's play place. Ooh, ghost. Love
Therésa: Shack Fancy sample sale. Huh. Ghost, probably me. Backstage at
Therésa: a B52s concert. Ghost. Open secret, the B52s are all ghosts.
Therésa: Okay, Well, I think that's a good one to end on.
Therésa: I've got to get to a meeting with my caseworker, Sharon.
Therésa: I don't want to jinx it, but I've been feeling
Therésa: pretty good about my unfinished business lately, so don't be
Therésa: shocked if there's no new episode next week. Just know
Therésa: if I'm not here, I'll be vibing behind the pearly gates.
Len: (mumbles)
Therésa: kay, Okay, if you're a loved one has a supernatural
Therésa: experience to share, reach out to Len at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com and
Therésa: you can be featured on a future episode. Happy Len?
Therésa: (mumbles)
Therésa: Okay, love you all Haunting fam, Kisses kisses, see you next
Therésa: time or not wish me luck.
Credits: If you have a Haunting story to share, please email
Credits: us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com. Haunting is a production of Glass Podcasts and
Credits: partnership with iHeartPodcasts.
Credits: Haunting was created and executive produced by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning,
Credits: Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkus. It is hosted by Lauren
Credits: Lampkez as her character Therésa.
Credits: Haunting is directed by Aleah Welsh and produced by Trey Morgan.
Credits: It is written by Aleah Welsh, with additional writing by
Credits: Nancy Glass, Trey Morgan, Ben Fetterman, and Kristin Melchiorre. Additional production
Credits: support by Todd Ganz. Additional voice acting by Trey Morgan
Credits: as the character producer Len Walker.
Credits: Editing and sound designed by Matt Delvecchio with additional editing
Credits: by Nico Aruoca, mixed and mastered by Dave Saia.
Credits: Operations and production support by Kristin Melchiorre. Haunting's theme and original
Credits: compositions were composed by Oliver Banes and Dorry Macaulay of Noiser
Credits: Music Library, provided by Mibe Music. Special thanks to Speakeasy
Credits: Sound Studios in Burbank, California.
Credits: Follow us on social media by searching for Glass Podcasts
Credits: or by visiting glasspodcasts.com. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts
Credits: and Glass Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
Credits: wherever you get your podcasts.