Listen With The Lights On

Latest Episodes:

The Horseman Of Leeds Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, we bring you another terrifying tale from the heart of New York’s Hudson Valley. Master Storyteller Jonathan Kruk joins us again with a story of ghosts, a haunting and the horrors of indentured servitude in Colonial times.

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The Hauntings Of West Hall Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Visit any college or university campus in the world, and you’re likely to find at least one tale of a ghostly presence amid the hallowed halls. West Hall is the oldest building at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. And it’s also the most haunted.

West Hall was built in 1869, as the Troy Hospital. Operated by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, the hospital would take in anyone in need of care. In 1923 it became a Catholic high school. And in 1953, it was incorporated into the RPI campus, where it now houses the school’s arts and humanities programs.

Students and faculty have reported many ghost sightings and strange happenings there over the years. Its supernatural street cred is so robust that it’s even mentioned on West Hall’s Wikipedia page. One of its most notable ghosts is Nurse Betsy, a nun thought to have cared for patients in the late 1800s. In this episode of Listen With The Lights On, we visit West Hall, where we talk to Paul Nooney of RPI’s Office of the First Year Experience and Albany lore expert Maeve McEneny. Together, they lead The Original Albany Ghost Tour, and regularly take folks on ghost tours of the RPI campus.

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The Ghost Of Jackson’s Gardens Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

A moonlit garden on the grounds of Union College in Schenectady plays host to one of the oldest ghost tales in the country. Forbidden love. Blind, murderous rage. And a lost soul. We explore the tragic tale of Alice Van Der Veer in this episode of Listen with the Lights On.

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The Cherry Tree Deer Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Symbols of nature takes various forms in the myths and legends around the world. But some of them… have common themes. Today Master storyteller Jonathan Kruk joins us as we explore one of the most common ones in a tale from the Catskills in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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Unidentified Flying Objects Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Are UFOs and alien encounters the stuff of science fiction, or are we really not alone out there in the universe?

On this episode of Listen with the Lights On, we visit a UFO Conference in Kingston, New York, where a few dedicated individuals are devoted to unearthing the truth behind this popular modern lore.

Unidentified flying objects have fascinated humans for centuries. We didn’t have an official name for them until about 1953, when the US Air Force coined the term UFO.

By the Air Force’s initial definition, a UFO is “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.”

A.k.a., a flying saucer.

The Mutual UFO Network, the largest privately funded research center, says it received over 8,000 reports of sightings in 2014. MUFON and another reporting body, the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) each claim to receive as much as a thousand reports per month.

New York’s Hudson Valley has been known as a hotbed of UFO activity—a famous series of sightings took place in the skies over the region in the 1980s. Unsolved Mysteries dedicated an episode to them in 1992.

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The Tobogganing Ghost Of Montreal Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

While there are common threads in lore throughout the world, nearly every country and culture has its own distinct tales. In the United Kingdom for example, many stories revolve around mystical creatures in the rolling hills and mists that are characteristic of the landscape. In the United States, we talk a lot about Bigfoot, who allegedly roams our forests and mountains.

In Canada, snow and winter imagery play a large role in legends there. On this episode of Listen with the Lights On, we explore a French Canadian tale from Montreal.

As you enter the campus of McGill University in the heart of Montreal, you see students mingling about buildings that display a mix of modern and gothic architecture. But beyond the bustle of a busy campus, looming on the horizon, is the voluminous Mount Royal. The city’s namesake. And the setting for one of Montreal’s most haunting tales.

Donovan King leads Haunted Montreal ghost tours, and authors the Haunted Montreal blog, where he shares scary stories from around L’Ile de Montreal. He shares the legend of Simon McTavish—a tale he says is one of the creepiest ghost stories in Canada.

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The Deyo House Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

In the late 1600s, a group of French protestant families—Huguenots, as they were known—settled in New York’s Hudson Valley. Looking for religious freedom—they were heavily persecuted in their French Catholic homeland—they built small stone houses and formed a community in and around what is now the town of New Paltz.

More than 200 years later, the descendants of those Huguenot families worked to preserve the homes and legends, which are still toured and told on the street today. The modern Huguenot Street is a busy thoroughfare, lined by shops, restaurants and the historic Huguenot homes. It has a rich history, and it is considered to be very haunted.

AJ Shenkman is the historian of Historic Huguenot Street, the organization that manages the 10-acre National Historic Landmark District. He’s also a high school history teacher and the author of Wicked Ulster County: Tales of Desperadoes, Gangs & More. He joins us now with stories of the Deyo House on Huguenot Street.

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The Shadows Of Griffintown Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

What lurks in the shadows in Griffintown, Montreal?

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Something Scary At The Museum Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Ever wonder what lives in the cavernous storage rooms of a museum? Crates of artifacts, mixed with mummified remains and taxidermy? Or is there something even spookier?

We visit the “Something Scary” exhibit at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield Massachusetts in this episode of Listen with the Lights On to unearth a few creepy delights.

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