Tell Me A Ghost Story

Latest Episodes:

True Ghost Stories: A Childhood Ghost in Cleveland and Mysterious Drumming in Haunted Woods with Nikki and Yamari Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

This is one of the original Tell Me A Ghost Story calls from the early days of the show. Short, raw, and exactly where it all started. These calls were later incorporated into a longer compilation episode with full host commentary if you want the complete experience.

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode has two true ghost stories that both follow the same quiet arc. Something appears. You try to explain it away. And then it does something that makes explaining it away impossible.

Nikki from Cleveland calls in with a real ghost encounter that began in childhood and followed her all the way into adulthood. As a child, she was visited by a ghostly figure in her dreams and in her waking hours, the kind of presence that blurs the line between sleeping and conscious experience in a way that is particularly difficult to dismiss. As an adult, Nikki became a skeptic. She had reasons to doubt what she had seen as a child, and she leaned into those reasons for years. Then something dark appeared in her home, and the skepticism stopped. The prickling sensation on the back of her neck that she describes, that specific physical signal that something is behind you before you have any conscious evidence of it, is one of the most consistently reported paranormal experiences across cultures and one of the hardest to attribute to imagination alone.

Then Yamari returns to Tell Me A Ghost Story with her second call, this time taking us into the wilderness on a hiking trip with her family that became something else entirely. Deep in the mountains, they began hearing drumming. Not distant. Not ambiguous. Drumming that echoed through the trees with no visible source and no explanation that the landscape offered up. The local legend connected to those woods involves a woman who lost her husband and whose spirit is said to still be moving through the trees searching for him. Whether that legend explains what Yamari and her family heard or whether the drumming has its own answer that the legend only partially captures is something this episode does not resolve. It does not need to. The drumming was real. They all heard it. That is enough.

Two real callers. Two true ghost stories about what finds you when you are not looking for it, in a childhood bedroom in Cleveland and on a mountain trail in haunted woods. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tellmeaghoststory.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to share your story.

You might end up on the show.

Support us with official merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newmanmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, catch us on YouTube at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @tellmeaghoststory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and follow along on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tellmeaghoststorypodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: The Mysterious Babysitter Who Watched Over David After His Near Death Experience in Connecticut Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

This is one of the original Tell Me A Ghost Story calls from the early days of the show. Short, raw, and exactly where it all started. This call was later incorporated into a longer compilation episode with full host commentary, if you want the complete experience.

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode belongs entirely to David, who called in with a true ghost story from his childhood in Connecticut that has stayed with me since the first time I heard it. It starts with a near-death experience. It ends with a question about the woman who appeared after it that David has never been able to answer.

David had an early brush with death as a child. What followed in the wake of that experience was the appearance of a woman he came to think of as his babysitter. She watched over him. She was there when he looked for her and sometimes when he did not. She caused a specific kind of distress in his siblings that she did not seem to cause in David himself, which is one of the details that makes this story genuinely difficult to categorize. Whatever she was, she did not treat everyone in that house the same way.

The relationship between near-death experiences and subsequent paranormal encounters is one of the most consistently documented phenomena in supernatural research. People who have come close to death report seeing, hearing, and being visited by presences that were not accessible to them before at a rate that researchers across both the medical and paranormal fields have struggled to explain away. David's babysitter appeared after his brush with death and never entirely left. Whether she was a guardian, a spirit attached to him specifically, or something with intentions that were never fully revealed is a question this episode raises and deliberately leaves open.

What was her true purpose? Why did she linger? Why did his siblings fear her when David himself did not? One caller. One true ghost story from a Connecticut childhood that begins with almost dying and ends with a woman in the shadows who would not leave. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: A Teen Ouija Board Encounter and a Presence at the Witching Hour with Yamari and Lia Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode has two true ghost stories that both involve the specific terror of something showing up in the night that you did not invite and cannot explain. One caller opened a door deliberately. One had a door opened for her without any warning at all.

Yamari calls in with a real paranormal encounter that starts exactly the way every horror movie about teenagers and Ouija boards starts, because those movies exist for a reason. A group of teens. A Ouija board. The specific combination of curiosity and bravado that makes young people try things that older people have learned not to. What happened to Yamari when that board was opened is not a movie, though. It is a real ghost encounter that she has carried with her ever since and that she describes with the kind of detail that only comes from something you actually lived through rather than something you watched on a screen.

Ouija boards have one of the most documented paranormal histories of any object in American supernatural culture. What makes Yamari's story sit differently from the standard teen Ouija board narrative is what came through and what it wanted, details that the episode delivers far better than any description could.

Then Lia calls in with a haunting experience that required no board, no ritual, and no deliberate invitation of any kind. She woke up at the witching hour, that specific window around 3 AM that appears in paranormal accounts across cultures and centuries with a consistency that researchers find difficult to attribute to coincidence, and she was not alone in her room. Whatever was there with Lia had not been summoned. It had simply arrived. And it was standing there waiting when she opened her eyes.

Two real callers. Two true ghost stories about what finds you in the dark, whether you go looking for it or not. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: A Spirit Appears in a Baptism Photo in Appalachian Kentucky Jan 09, 2024

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode belongs entirely to Beth from Kentucky, who called in with a true ghost story rooted so deeply in the landscape and culture of Appalachia that it could not have come from anywhere else. This is a story about a baptism, a whole town gathered at the water, and something that showed up in the photographs that nobody had invited.

Doug's baptism was a community event, the way baptisms tend to be in small Appalachian towns. Everyone came. The whole town turned out to witness it, which means there were a lot of eyes on that water and a lot of cameras capturing the moment. When the photographs were developed, something was in them that had not been visible to any of those eyes when the pictures were taken. Something that had apparently decided to attend as well.

Eerie photographs documenting paranormal phenomena have appeared throughout Appalachian history in numbers that researchers find difficult to dismiss as coincidence or photographic error. The region has one of the richest and most distinctive supernatural traditions in American folk culture, shaped by centuries of Scots-Irish spiritual belief, Cherokee and other Indigenous traditions, and an isolation that allowed those belief systems to develop on their own terms without being smoothed out by outside influence. When something shows up in a photograph in Appalachia, the community tends to know exactly what it is looking at, and Beth's town was no different.

Everyone came to Doug's baptism. Everyone and everything. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: Poltergeist Activity in a Haunted New York City Hotel Jan 02, 2024

Show notes

Hey it's Michelle, and this early episode belongs entirely to Artemis, who called in with a true ghost story about what happened when he checked into a New York City hotel looking for a break from everyday life and found himself sharing the building with something that had no interest in letting him rest.

Artemis was not looking for a paranormal experience. He was looking for a quiet room, a comfortable bed, and a few days away from everything. What he got instead was a hotel full of dead people who apparently had not received the memo that he was there to relax.

The activity Artemis experienced falls squarely into the category of poltergeist phenomena, the specific and well documented class of paranormal activity characterized by objects moving, sounds with no physical source, and a general sense that something in the environment is actively and deliberately making itself known. Poltergeist cases are among the most studied in paranormal research precisely because they tend to leave physical evidence and multiple witnesses, and what Artemis encountered in her New York City hotel room had both.

New York City has one of the richest and most layered paranormal histories of any city in the world, which makes sense when you consider how many people have lived and died within its geography over four centuries of documented history. Hotels in particular tend to accumulate that history in concentrated form. People arrive. People leave. Not always in the order you would expect.

Artemis went looking for a break. He found a real ghost encounter instead. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Bonus: Michelle's Favorites of 2023 — A Thank You from Your DJ of Doom Dec 26, 2023

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and what a year. Tell Me A Ghost Story launched in 2023, and the response from listeners was more than I ever expected or dared to hope for. I started this show because I believed that real people had real ghost stories worth hearing, and you proved me right from the very beginning. I am so grateful.

Before we head into 2024, I wanted to look back at three calls from the first season that I have not been able to stop thinking about. Hector from New Mexico and his mysterious scratches appeared at 3:33 AM. Yvonne from the Philippines and the dark figure that chased her up the stairs. And Tyler from Ohio, and the man in the black suit who appeared in his ICU and then simply was not there anymore.

If you have not heard any of these calls yet, they are all in the archive, and they are worth going back for. If you have heard them already, I hope this bonus episode is a chance to sit with them one more time before we move forward.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for calling in. Thank you for believing the callers who trusted us with their stories. I believe them too. I believe you. Keep the calls coming in 2024.

Your DJ of Doom,

Michelle

Favorites this year

3:33 by Hector, New Mexico

Dark Figure by Yvonne, Philippines

The man in the black suit, Tyler, Ohio

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: Something Was Killing the Pets and a Ghost Roommate Named Daisy Dec 19, 2023

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode has two true ghost stories that approach the paranormal from completely different angles. One is deeply unsettling. One is almost comforting. Both of them are real.

Roc calls in about his little sister's imaginary best friend. We all know how that goes on this show. Children who see things adults cannot, who speak to presences that have no physical form, who describe their invisible companions with a specificity and consistency that is hard to write off as imagination. Roc's sister had a friend that no one else could see, and around the time this friend appeared, something else started happening in the house. The pets began dying. One after another with no clear medical explanation. The connection between the invisible friend and what was happening to the animals is something Roc has never been able to fully explain and has never been able to entirely dismiss.

Then Carlo calls in with a ghost story that takes an unexpected turn toward the genuinely useful. His roommate, Daisy, gives him advice. She tells him things. She seems to have opinions about how he is living his life, and she communicates them clearly enough that Carlo has learned to listen. The detail that makes Daisy's story different from a standard haunting is that Carlo is not afraid of her. He has come to think of her as a presence that is looking out for him rather than threatening him. Daisy is a ghost roommate in the most literal sense, and Carlo has made his peace with that arrangement.

Two real callers. Two true ghost stories about the invisible companions we share our spaces with and what happens when we pay attention to them. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: Yvonne Returns to Finish Her Ghost Sister Story in Part Two Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and this one is personal. Not just for Yvonne. For me too.

Yvonne has been one of the most beloved callers in Tell Me A Ghost Story history. She has called in from the Philippines across multiple episodes, sharing real ghost encounters that range from terrifying to heartbreaking, a shadowy figure that chased her up the stairs, a doppelganger wearing her mother's face, and the ghost of her sister whose presence she has felt continuing long after her sister's death. This episode is the second half of that sister story, and Yvonne brings it home in a way that I was not entirely prepared for.

Part two of My Ghost Sister is where Yvonne shares what her sister's ongoing presence has meant to her, what it has looked like, what it has felt like, and what she believes it means about what happens after we die. This is not a terrifying ghost story in the traditional sense. It is something quieter and more profound than that. It is a true ghost story about love that refuses to end and a bond between sisters that apparently does not recognize the difference between the living and the dead.

This may have been Yvonne's last call to the show. I hope it was not. Either way, I am grateful she trusted us with this story, and I am grateful to every listener who has followed her calls from the beginning. You are the reason this show exists, and this episode is proof of what it can be at its best.

One returning caller. One true ghost story about grief, love, and a sister who never really left. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: Nellie Sees a Woman in White and the 400 Year Old Legend of Kunigunda of Orlamunde Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode is one of my favorites in the entire archive because it does something most paranormal podcast episodes never attempt. It connects a real ghost encounter happening right now in a real person's dining room to a documented legend that is almost four hundred years old. Nellie called in and sent me down a rabbit hole I am still thinking about.

Nellie is back. If you have been following her story across the early episodes of this show, you already know her haunted childhood home has been revealing itself one room at a time. The kitchen. The bathroom. The bedroom. Now the dining room. Nellie spotted a Woman in White standing there, a figure so specific in its appearance and its energy that it sent her looking for answers about what exactly a Woman in White is and where the legend comes from.

Here is what I found. The first documented tale of a Woman in White spirit in Western culture appeared in Germany in 1625, making this one of the oldest recorded ghost archetypes in European paranormal history. The figure appears across dozens of cultures under different names, but the details are remarkably consistent across all of them. White clothing. Female. Tied to grief, betrayal, or a violent and unresolved death. Seen most often in or near places she was connected to in life.

The most famous specific figure associated with the legend is Kunigunda of Orlamunde, a noblewoman whose story involves love, loss, and an act so terrible that her spirit has reportedly never found rest. Kunigunda's legend has persisted for centuries across Germany and Central Europe, and researchers have connected her story to Woman in White sightings reported long after her death. Whether Nellie's dining room visitor is Kunigunda specifically or simply another manifestation of one of history's oldest and most persistent supernatural archetypes is a question this episode does not answer. That is the point.

One returning caller. One true ghost story that reaches four hundred years into European paranormal history. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tellmeaghoststory.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to share your story.

You might end up on the show.

Support us with official merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newmanmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, catch us on YouTube at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @tellmeaghoststory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and follow along on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tellmeaghoststorypodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

True Ghost Stories: A Paranormal Encounter in the ICU and the Mist at Turnbull Canyon Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

Hey it's Michelle, and this early episode has two real ghost encounters from two completely different worlds that share one thing in common. Multiple witnesses. In both of these true ghost stories the person calling was not alone when it happened, and that is the detail that makes them impossible to dismiss.

Tyler from Ohio was an ICU nurse, and if you have ever wondered whether the paranormal shows up in hospital settings, the answer, based on what nurses and doctors report privately, is yes, more than most people realize. Tyler calls in with his own real ghost encounter involving a man in a black suit who appeared in the ICU in a way that had no clinical explanation. The man was there. And then he was not. Tyler has spent a career in rooms where people cross over, and this was different from anything else he had witnessed in that building.

Natalia from Norwalk calls in with a haunting experience at Turnbull Canyon, one of the most documented paranormal locations in Southern California. Turnbull Canyon has a history that runs deep and dark, connected to a plane crash, a psychiatric hospital, and decades of reported supernatural activity that has drawn investigators and skeptics alike for generations. Natalia and her friend saw something moving in the mist that night that stopped them cold. Then a police officer on the scene saw it too. When the witness is a cop with no reason to report a paranormal encounter and every reason not to, it changes the nature of the story entirely.

Two real callers. Two true ghost stories with multiple witnesses. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.

You might end up on the show.

Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.

Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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