Listening tips: Ghosts and hauntings

Thereโ€™s something deeply satisfying about listening to ghost stories on a dark, rainy evening. The suspense, the thrill, the fear of the unknownโ€ฆ Regardless of whether you take them seriously or see them as a form of entertainment, ghost stories have been around for a very long time, trigerring something primordial in the human psyche.

In this post, Iโ€™ll share with you some of my favourite podcasts on the subject of ghosts and hauntings (as in real-life experiences, not the literary genre of ghost stories). From whispered accounts of haunted houses to chilling explorations of folklore and paranormal investigations, these shows invite us to lean in and believeโ€”if only for a momentโ€”that the veil between worlds is much thinner than we might think.


Hosted by Danny Robins, this BBC Radio 4 programme is an absolute must. While it also covers other supernatural / paranormal phenomena, such as the UFOs, ghosts feature prominently. Each episode consists of an interview with a witness to an uncanny experience, followed by comments from experts in the field – one of them on Team Believer, the other on Team Skeptic. At the moment of writing, there are close to 100 episodes available, including a recent release of Cold Case episodes, exploring famous and still unexplained mysteries from the earlier centuries.


Jim Haroldโ€™s The Paranormal Podcast is one of the longest-running shows dedicated to the supernatural, featuring interviews with leading voices on ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, and unexplained phenomena. Since 2005, Harold has built a loyal audience by blending guests, folklore, and chilling accounts into a weekly exploration of the unknown. With over 900 episodes available, youโ€™ll have plenty of listening material!ย 


Similar in scope and concept, Otherworldโ€”hosted by Jack Wagnerโ€”presents detailed witness accounts, typically unfolding like a documentary-style investigation, designed to make listeners feel like theyโ€™re part of the story. Episodes last from anywhere between a couple of minutes to hour-long features, some of them serialised over several episodes.


This podcast series is rather different, in that it explores the religion of contemporary American spiritualism, from its roots in the 19th century (ever heard of the Fox sisters?) to whatever remains of the once thriving spiritual and social reform movement. The host, Jamie Loftus, guides us through this fascinating history and introduces us to a present-day community of practicing spiritualists.


And if youโ€™re not at all familiar with the history of the spiritualist movement, Season 2 of the Unobscured podcast is a great resource. Presented by veteran podcaster Aaron Mahnke and including interviews with prominent researchers and historians, this series is a wonderful addition to his other very popular podcast, Lore.ย 


There are many more podcasts out there on this (and related) topics, not all of them of great quality. If you have any additional tips and recommendations, do post them in the comments section below!


Iโ€™m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia. ย 

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