In the Mist - Spooked LIVE

The hallowed halls of an Airbnb house a spirit that can only be seen through sprinkles, spritzes, and sparkles… of air freshener. Snap’s Queen of Comedy, Jen Kober, returns with a story only she could tell. Plus, Glynn shares a story about a close personal witch. The episode contains strong language, sensitive listeners please be advised. These stories were told at Spooked https://www.kqed.org/spooked LIVE! We have a West Coast tour this year in Oakland https://www.kqed.org/event/5611, Los Angeles https://laist.com/events/spooked-2025, and Seattle https://www.stgpresents.org/events/spooked-live/! Join us in September and October! Cross over. Get your tix + listen to Spooked on any podcast platform. Thanks, Jen, for sharing your story with us! For all things Jen -- and to see her live on tour -- check outher website https://www.jenkober.com/. Original music performed live by Doug Stuart and Brijean Murphy. Mixed by Miles Lassi. Artwork by Teo Ducot. Special thanks to Ryan Davis, Sarah Rose Leonard, Jon Cohn, Rebecca Stumme, Kristen Payne, and the LA Orpheum Team. Season 16 - Episode 34 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

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• 0:48Glynn Washington?

  1,000 shoppers are each going to win $1,000 in Shop Cash, just in time for the holidays. Get something for the people on your list. And yes, you're allowed to put your own name on there. Enter to win the $1 million Shop Cash giveaway from now until November 1st. Just go to shop.com. There are so many ways to win. That's shop.com. Shopping designed around you. No purchase necessary. Restrictions apply. Official rules available at shop.com. Okay, okay, it's almost, almost gift-giving time. And because gift-giving time is cold outside time, it's want-to-stay-by-a-fire time.

• 1:31Glynn Washington?

  I like giving something cozy. And nobody, but nobody does cozy like Quince. What's better than one for them and one for me? Or you? Like my Quince Organic Gauze Dream Quilt Set, paired with the Brush Cotton Sheet Set that I got for me, that I got for them, for me? Put it together, you've got cozy squared. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Snap Judgment.

• 2:16Glynn Washington?

  It's the best way to support the show.

• 2:23Glynn Washington?

  Okay, so backstage at the hallowed halls of LA's haunted Orpheum Theater, over 2,000 spooksters have gathered, waiting on the other side of that curtain, preparing to summon the shadow for Spook Live. They think they're gonna get one thing, but friends, y'all about to get something else entirely. I am so excited. A woman who is royalty to this Snap Judgment Enterprise, rolled out the red carpet, she's about to step on the spook stage. No, I will never be able to predict the next word out of her mouth, but I promise, I guarantee, you're gonna love the ride. Now, this story does contain explicit language.

• 3:08Glynn Washington?

  A dear friend of mine, Snap fan, Jen Pober.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  I just have to say, I didn't know who was on this show. And when you show up to a gig, and there's a CNN correspondent there,

• 3:40Speaker 01

  I was already spooked.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  This can't be good.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  I don't like spooky things. I hate to be scared. I have been in a dressing room in the bowels of this building, listening to music. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. I don't like to be scared. Even as a kid, I didn't ever like scary movies. I'm not really Nightmare on Elm Street, I'm more Ghostbusters.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Though I do watch a lot of Dateline. Yeah. Like those slasher kind of movies, that blood and guts? I can't take that. Uh-uh. Fictionalized horror terrifies me. But actual people dying? I fall asleep to that shit. That's...

• 4:59Speaker 01

  But I've never liked scary movies. I remember at a slumber party when I was eight years old, Betsy Rodriguez got us all into a circle. And she started all that "light as a feather, stiff as a board", "Bloody Mary, Ouija, voodoo, schmedoodle".

• 5:21Speaker 01

  I don't care for that. It scares me. Uh-uh. Anytime that would start, I would just go to sleep.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  I would often wake up with my hands in bowls of warm water.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  If you know, you know. If not, we'll move on.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  I never understood it though. Like, "Fine, make me pee. It's your sheet."

• 5:52Speaker 01

  It was hard to handle those scary movies. I just couldn't do it. Side note: I don't like scary movies so much that when the movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was popular, I was doing a one-woman show at that time that I wanted to title "I Know What You Ate Last Summer". I thought it would be funny. And then I was gonna parody some scene from the movie. So I sat down to watch the movie. Five minutes in, I shut that shit off and changed the name of my one-woman show to "Indiana Jen and the Temple of Food".

• 6:32Speaker 01

  I love Indiana Jones, it's the ringtone on my cell phone. So I didn't know what to do, y'all. How am I gonna tell a spooky story when I don't like to be spooked? So I called Glenn, I was like, "Dude, I don't know what to do." Glenn says, "Jen, it doesn't have to be blood and guts kinda scary. Haven't you ever just been spooked?" I was like, "Ooh, dude." You mean like the time my dog, who is really my grandmother reincarnated, sat at the end of my bed telling me about the presence of extraterrestrials in the greater Los Angeles area?

• 7:15Speaker 01

  All night long, she just kept being like, "I'm telling you, Jennifer, there are space aliens on Wilshire."

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Glenn was like, "That's not quite it."

• 7:30Speaker 01

  I said, "Ooh, what about the time we held a séance for a dead squirrel in Paducah, Kentucky with a voodoo priestess?"

• 7:39Speaker 01

  Closer? I got it! What about the time me and my buddy Jeff D. cleared a haunted Airbnb of a ghost that looked like ZZ Top? Glenn said, "Jackpot."

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Here's what you gotta know about my buddy Jeff D. Jeff D. looks like the brother I never had. But he's more like the sister I never wanted. He looks just like me and he is very, very, very gay. He loves Rock Hudson and Judy Garland and Leslie Jordan. I often refer to him as the ghost of homosexuals past.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  We've known each other since college, and he opens for me all over the country, so we travel together a lot. So one weekend, what had happened was, we found ourselves playing at the Stardome Comedy Club in Hoover, Alabama, right outside of Birmingham. I don't mean to brag, but they have two Walmarts.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  One of them has a brand-new Arby's inside of it.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  So naturally, we had our shows on the weekend, so we had gotten there on Tuesday. We were gonna spend a few days in an Airbnb there in Alabama, and get our laundry done, and catch up on our TV shows. This is road life glamour.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  So we get an Airbnb. The homeowner meets us at the address. It's a little bit outside of the city limits, but it's a big ol' house. We get there, and the owner meets us. Her name is Celeste.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  And I can't tell if Celeste is a hick or a hippie.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  She's wearing a tie-dye t-shirt. Hippie. But with overalls. Hick.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  She has long gray hair. Hippie. But it's in Willie Nelson braids. Hick.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  She's got her dog with her. Hick. But it's a golden doodle named Bailey.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  Hippie. Y'all, it's like Hee-Haw meets Woodstock.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Or for you millennials, Miley Cyrus.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  I can't tell what's going on with this woman. But she and the dog start showing us around the place. She shows us the washer and the dryer. She's got some environmentally friendly detergent there for us to use. Thank you, Celeste. Then she shows us the bedrooms. And the dog keeps sniffing around the door. She says, "Oh, that's the equipment closet."

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Equipment? Uh huh, uh, life vests, oars, rackets, that sort of thing, for sports.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  I don't know what about looking at Jeff and I would have made her think to show us the sporting equipment.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  But I figured it was just part of the tour.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  And then, then she says, "Uh, oh, and be careful. There's spirits in the house, but they're mostly friendly."

• 12:03Speaker 01

  And she laughs, gets into her Subaru Forester,

• 12:10Speaker 01

  and drives away as Jolene blares in the distance.

• 12:28Glynn Washington?

  Oh, there is more Jen Colbert from Snap Judgment Returns. Stay tuned.

• 12:35Speaker 02

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• 13:20Speaker 02

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• 13:40Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the In the Mist episode. We return at once to Jen Kober onstage for Spooked Live.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  So there I am, left with my laundry. Jeff goes to his room. He says he's gonna watch a movie. I'm gonna get my first load started. I'm separating things there. And Celeste has installed one of those air freshener, the pssst. Right? And it's on top of the refrigerator, which I thought was precarious placement for air freshener, but, you know, maybe Celeste likes her smell good at eye level. I don't know. I'm not trying to judge anybody, but...

• 14:40Speaker 01

  And the first couple of times it's scared, the pfft, it just comes out of nowhere. So I keep separating my laundry and then I remember, y'all, I had put a Yoohoo in the fridge when we first got there. But I can't find the light, she had shown me the light switches, the lights were on dimmers, right? Finally, the lights come up, I get the lights to come up. And y'all, there's crystals all over this room. And there's a crystal ball in the middle of the room.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  And at first, I'm like, let's play Peewee's Big Adventure in the basement. So I'm getting distracted, I have laundry to do. So I dim the lights back down and I go to the refrigerator to get my Yoohoo out. And when I open the fridge and the light of the refrigerator comes on, as I grab it and it closes, the pfft happens, and I see the outline of a fella. A tall, white fella. So I do wanna...

• 16:02Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't know any, but I have moves. Though, to be honest, just doing that, I'm a little out of breath. Then I start thinking to myself, this is ridiculous, sending me a male ghost. This is bullshit. I am, I am a short-haired woman.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  If you wanna scare me, son, you best bring your A-game. You know what I'm saying? I've been chased by murderers on The Purge. I had bloodthirsty demons trying to eat me on American Horror Story. Droids shooting at me on The Mandalore. You think you gonna come in here, you tall, skinny ZZ Top, and just scare the hell out of me?

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Damn straight he did. I was scared shitless. I didn't...

• 17:01Speaker 01

  I just did my... I just did the southern thing and acted like it didn't happen and, uh...

• 17:09Speaker 01

  Kept folding my laundry.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  And a few minutes later, the...

• 17:18Speaker 01

  And I see him again. And I felt something near my shoulder. Like, his beard. Like, just... Y'all, I freaked out. I go running into Jeff D's room, and I tap him on the shoulder and he screams. Right? He loses it. I was like, "Oh, my God, what were you watching?" He was like, "Still Magnolias."

• 17:45Speaker 01

  Shelby was just drinking her juice when you came in.

• 17:55Speaker 01

  So I explained to him. I said, "Dude, every time the thing on top of the refrigerator goes "psst," I see a ghost that looks like ZZ Top."

• 18:04Speaker 01

  So Jeff gets up out of his bed, goes to the kitchen, grabs the thing off the refrigerator and smashes it to the floor.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  He says, "There! I've solved the ghost problem." I said, "You didn't solve the ghost problem, you moron. You just took away the only way I could see it."

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Apparently, you gotta shoot particles at the ghost so you can see it.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  Jeff says, "This is just like poltergeist, girl." "We're gonna have to confront this ghost and usher it out of a portal."

• 18:51Speaker 01

  A portal?

• 18:54Speaker 01

  Like a door? Are you saying we gotta get it out the door? Because earlier, I had seen it run out the door, but it didn't run out the door. It ran through the door. That's how I knew it was a ghost!

• 19:09Speaker 01

  He says, "Come on, you can do it." And then he starts dancing. I said, "What the hell are you doing?" He said, "I'm ushering."

• 19:26Speaker 01

  So the only thing we can do is arm ourselves

• 19:33Speaker 01

  with things from the sporting equipment closet.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  I'm not confronting a ghost in my jammies.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  And gay people love costumes. We love costumes. So, uh, we're each wearing a bright orange life vest and a batting helmet.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Jeff has the little holders for beer cans and straws hanging off of it. He has an oar in one hand and a bat in the other. I'm holding, what I later came to find out, was a pickleball racket

• 20:12Speaker 01

  and my cellphone. And Jeff bravely says, "I'll go outside and check the perimeter of the house." And I'm like, "We're in Alabama.

• 20:27Speaker 01

  What the hell does perimeter mean?"

• 20:31Speaker 01

  He says, "I'm gonna check the outside." I said, "What if we lose power or something?" He says, "Don't worry. Even if we lose power, your cellphone will still work. If you see anything, call me." "I can't see anything, fool. You took away the only way I could pssst with the thing at the seeing it."

• 20:52Speaker 01

  So I realize I need something if I'm gonna see the ghost to spray at it. And the only thing I have with me is a can of bacon-flavored spray cheese.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  I had meant to buy the American cheese flavor, but somehow bought a bacon-flavored can, so I was not as attached to it as I would normally be. So I was willing to spray some at the ghost in order to see its outline.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  So there I am, pickleball racket in one hand, bacon spray cheese in the other.

• 21:35Speaker 01

  And I see it. I see the shadow of ZZ Top.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  And I call out to him.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  "You have no place here!

• 21:49Speaker 01

  And I have spray cheese!" And I start to spray the cheese at where I think he is, over and over. And I can see the form lunge towards me, which makes me back the hell up. I'm not...

• 22:13Speaker 01

  So I back up, but there's spray cheese on the floor. And just then, my cellphone rings.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  It's Jeff and he says, "I don't see dead people."

• 22:37Speaker 01

  I was like, "I got him right here." "I'm spraying the cheese. "I'm gonna usher him to the door."

• 22:49Speaker 01

  "I spray more cheese." "I lunge again." "And now I'm headed towards him." "When all of a sudden, the spray cheese gets the best of me." "I flip. "I go up six feet in the air." "I come down. "The crystal ball follows me." "I take down the curtains with me." "I hit the ground and I wake up inside the TV."

• 23:22Speaker 01

  I'm kidding, look at this guy.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  He's like, "Is she serious right now?"

• 23:30Speaker 01

  I don't know, I don't know what happened once I hit my head. But I hit my head and I woke up the next day to Celeste opening the door,

• 23:44Speaker 01

  to the scene that lay before her.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  Curtains down,

• 23:52Speaker 01

  crystal ball shattered, spray cheese everywhere.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Jeff and I still wearing life vests.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  I am still gripping a pickleball racket for dear life. And the dog is licking spray cheese off of everything.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  And Celeste just looks at me and says, "What happened?"

• 24:22Speaker 01

  I said, "Girl,

• 24:25Speaker 01

  "we seen ZZ Top."

• 24:30Speaker 01

  "He was here. "I think he had a message for us." And that's when the dog said, "Did he mention the aliens on Wilshire?"

• 24:54Glynn Washington?

  More Spooked Live when we return. Stay tuned.

• 25:15Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment. My name is Kev Washington. And right now, a special story from Spooked Live from yours truly, Spooked.

• 25:54Glynn Washington?

  As a kid, I loved going to my grandmother's church. There's singing, there's dancing, and if you're lucky, somebody's gonna kiss the Holy Ghost. It's fabulous. My parents' church, not a lot of music, no dance and no Holy Ghost. I don't dig it as much. At my granny's church, my grandmother, she wins the unofficial old lady church contest

• 26:35Glynn Washington?

  each and every week with the biggest, most outrageous hat on her head that you ever did see. If you sit behind my grandmother, you ain't gonna see jack. Nothing. And you better not say nothing neither. She'll give you one of these here. Huh?

• 26:59Glynn Washington?

  At the church, we go back to my grandmother's place.

• 27:05Glynn Washington?

  And usually, there's already a line. Because my grandmother's special. People come from miles around to seek her advice.

• 27:19Glynn Washington?

  And because I am her second favorite grandchild,

• 27:25Glynn Washington?

  I'm special too.

• 27:28Glynn Washington?

  After Granny gives her relax on, after she has a glass of lemonade, after she gives me that look, I have a job. My job as a little kid is to go out to the sidewalk and escort a grown person

• 27:54Glynn Washington?

  up the porch,

• 27:57Glynn Washington?

  in the living room, through the kitchen,

• 28:02Glynn Washington?

  back out to the stoop.

• 28:05Glynn Washington?

  My grandmother waits.

• 28:08Glynn Washington?

  See,

• 28:11Glynn Washington?

  if the doctors run out of options,

• 28:16Glynn Washington?

  if your preacher's got no answers, if you have nowhere else left to turn, the last place people go

• 28:26Glynn Washington?

  is my grandmother.

• 28:29Glynn Washington?

  And on this day, the woman, she says, "Mrs., Mrs." They always call her either Mrs. or ma'am. "Mrs., my man done left me." "Huh." "I know your man. You should thank your lucky stars."

• 28:52Glynn Washington?

  No, Mrs. Sometimes he just runs with the wrong crowd. He is the wrong crowd. Mrs., I need him back home. I need him back with me. Well, you bring a picture like I told you? Yes.

• 29:09Glynn Washington?

  She takes this picture out of her billfold.

• 29:14Glynn Washington?

  My grandmother snatches it up. She takes a match and lights it on fire.

• 29:22Glynn Washington?

  She collects the ash in this square of aluminum foil. And then she adds a dash of High John the Conqueror oil and a pinch of Queen Elizabeth root. Boy, what'd I do that for?

• 29:43Glynn Washington?

  Uh, the oil for the power, the root for the heart. That's my baby grand boy, right there.

• 29:53Glynn Washington?

  She ties it off with twine and hands it back to the woman.

• 30:00Glynn Washington?

  Put that under his pillow. He'll be back in three days. But don't blame me for what happened after that.

• 30:08Glynn Washington?

  Thank you, Mrs. Thank you, Mrs. I go back out, and this time, I get this big fella. He's in this work suit. He's got boots on. I take him back. Ma'am, ma'am, my partner's stealing money out the till.

• 30:29Glynn Washington?

  Did you bring a dollar from the register? Yes.

• 30:32Glynn Washington?

  He hands it over, and she sets it down in front of her. Boy, go get me some of those sweet potatoes off the stove.

• 30:43Glynn Washington?

  I put it on the fine china. I bring it out to her, and she sets it on top of the dollar. She pours whiskey on top of that, and she pushes it like she's having company for dinner.

• 31:02Glynn Washington?

  She closes her eyes, listens, listens.

• 31:13Glynn Washington?

  Your partner, your partner's going on a long trip.

• 31:19Glynn Washington?

  He won't be bad. Thank you, Mrs. Thank you.

• 31:25Glynn Washington?

  I go back out and I see this skinny man, tall, and he's got this blue suit on. He goes to shake my hand. I don't want to shake his hand. I lead him back through the house and he's looking all around. Take him back to my grandmother and I know I have to watch him. To watch him close around my granny. Instead of sitting down, he's looking everywhere. Standing up really, really close next to my grandmother. And then finally, he bends down and he whispers in her ear.

• 32:13Glynn Washington?

  She looks up at him. "I'm sorry, I can't help you today."

• 32:21Glynn Washington?

  And it, it looks like, like he's just been barely holding it together.

• 32:30Glynn Washington?

  And when she says that, he can't do it anymore. He goes boneless. "Please, please ma'am, please, I'm sorry, please.

• 32:45Glynn Washington?

  I can't do anything for you." I take him back out and he's pale. His eyes blank.

• 33:01Glynn Washington?

  I take this grown man outside of our house. And when I close the door, he said, "Let me just go talk to her one more time. Let me just explain something to her." "Uh, granny says she can't help you.

• 33:18Glynn Washington?

  Granny says she can't help you."

• 33:21Glynn Washington?

  He walks to the sidewalk,

• 33:26Glynn Washington?

  turns around, spits.

• 33:35Glynn Washington?

  Witch!

• 33:41Glynn Washington?

  They often use that word.

• 33:44Glynn Washington?

  The one she can't help.

• 33:48Glynn Washington?

  And the one she can.

• 33:53Glynn Washington?

  She sets me to work later on with a feather duster, dusting that place, and um, she has these candles that I've seen since I was tiny, tiny. The Apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of them, their faces turned upwards toward glory. And I'm dusting them, and I notice for the first time that there's some other candles behind these ones.

• 34:26Glynn Washington?

  And they've got faces I've never seen before. And instead of looking up, they're looking straight ahead. Some of them are holding weapons, others are holding herbs. They've got color on their face. Granny? Granny, who this?

• 34:46Glynn Washington?

  Aw, baby.

• 34:49Glynn Washington?

  Jesus is love, but you know.

• 34:53Glynn Washington?

  Jesus works for free. Jesus give you everything you want, but Jesus takes his sweet time.

• 35:04Glynn Washington?

  These here, they come quick in a hurry. But baby, you got to pay.

• 35:14Glynn Washington?

  Later, I'm at church, my parents' church, next to Pops. And the preacher's building up a head of steam. Brethren? Brethren, some of y'all think we playing games here. Some of y'all think you gonna have it both ways.

• 35:34Glynn Washington?

  You think you're gonna have your, your Ouija boards and your tarot cards. And you're gonna come into God's church and sit down like you ain't done nothing with the devil.

• 35:46Glynn Washington?

  Well, I got some news for you.

• 35:49Glynn Washington?

  I got some news for you right now. Lord don't appreciate it. The Lord sees, the Lord knows, and you say, preacher, preacher, ain't you going too far? Ain't you saying things that aren't so?

• 36:04Glynn Washington?

  Well, brethren,

• 36:06Glynn Washington?

  I speak for the Lord. I speak for the Lord, because I know the Lord's book, and I want you to know it too. Turn, if you will,

• 36:16Glynn Washington?

  to Exodus 22:18. Pops is quick on the draw, he knows his Bible. I want to read it real slow, so you just can hear it in the back.

• 36:29Glynn Washington?

  "That shall not suffer

• 36:34Glynn Washington?

  a witch to live."

• 36:43Glynn Washington?

  You hear me?

• 36:49Glynn Washington?

  Pops looks at me like, "I told you so."

• 37:00Glynn Washington?

  I can barely breathe.

• 37:06Glynn Washington?

  When I next see my grandmother,

• 37:10Glynn Washington?

  I just ask her,

• 37:14Glynn Washington?

  "Granny,

• 37:17Glynn Washington?

  are you a witch?"

• 37:20Glynn Washington?

  She looks me a long time. "Ain't no such things as witches." Well, Mama and Daddy say, your Mama and Daddy say a lot of things.

• 37:33Glynn Washington?

  But you gotta understand something. Boy, you are far too young to have secrets, but you gotta keep some secrets. You see, you can't tell everybody everything you see. You can't tell everybody everything you know. You understand me?

• 37:52Glynn Washington?

  Boy, you understand me?

• 37:55Glynn Washington?

  Yes.

• 38:00Glynn Washington?

  When I go to sleep,

• 38:03Glynn Washington?

  folks don't know I hear him arguing with my auntie. "'Cause he's my boy, that's why."

• 38:11Glynn Washington?

  I know what they arguing about.

• 38:15Glynn Washington?

  I'm husking corn with my... At Granny's. I got me some more questions.

• 38:24Glynn Washington?

  Granny?

• 38:27Glynn Washington?

  Granny?

• 38:32Glynn Washington?

  Why didn't you help that man?

• 38:36Glynn Washington?

  "Boy, you saw it plain as I do. You no good, why didn't I help that man?"

• 38:44Glynn Washington?

  Nah, I didn't see... Tell me what you saw. I didn't see... Tell me what you saw.

• 38:56Glynn Washington?

  I wasn't supposed to see what I saw.

• 39:01Glynn Washington?

  You better tell me.

• 39:12Glynn Washington?

  I saw a monster.

• 39:17Glynn Washington?

  Foulin' him.

• 39:21Glynn Washington?

  Eating him.

• 39:27Glynn Washington?

  And I wanted to tell me, "No, you're wrong.

• 39:33Glynn Washington?

  That's not what you saw."

• 39:37Glynn Washington?

  Instead, she nods.

• 39:41Glynn Washington?

  "But Granny?

• 39:45Glynn Washington?

  Granny, why couldn't you help him?"

• 39:48Glynn Washington?

  And... For the first time ever,

• 39:55Glynn Washington?

  she looks... Small.

• 40:01Glynn Washington?

  Tired. Shrunkin'.

• 40:07Glynn Washington?

  I don't know what that man did or who he did it to, baby.

• 40:16Glynn Washington?

  But some things you can't fix.

• 40:25Glynn Washington?

  It's a beautiful summer morning.

• 40:33Glynn Washington?

  And my parents tell me, "Pack it up. Gonna move away to the deep country, 200 miles away."

• 40:45Glynn Washington?

  And it makes me sad. It makes me sad, and I tell them, I say,

• 40:53Glynn Washington?

  "You know, um, I love you.

• 40:58Glynn Washington?

  And I'm gonna miss you."

• 41:05Glynn Washington?

  "Boy, you coming with us."

• 41:14Glynn Washington?

  And I think, huh, that don't make no kind of sense. I don't think, I don't think Granny gonna want me to move to the country 200 mi- Granny ain't coming.

• 41:29Glynn Washington?

  You is.

• 41:32Glynn Washington?

  And I do.

• 41:35Glynn Washington?

  I move to the middle of nowhere, Michigan.

• 41:40Glynn Washington?

  And don't get to see Granny much. Don't get to hear the songs, don't get to hear the stories.

• 41:52Glynn Washington?

  One night, I go to bed.

• 41:56Glynn Washington?

  And then, right at the foot of my bed, I see my granny sitting there. "Boy, how you doing?" "I'm good." "You talk to the plants like I told you?" "Yes, sir." "If I talk to the plants, ask them, they do for you." "Mm-hmm." She tells me stories about the coyote, about the fox, about the moon. She tells me that certain things skip a generation.

• 42:28Glynn Washington?

  She tells me that sometimes you gotta look deep, deep inside to find out what's out there. Uh-huh. I said, so Granny said, "Well, well, I got to go now." "Where you going?" "Got a couple more stops to make." "All right." "Okay, then."

• 42:52Glynn Washington?

  In the morning,

• 42:56Glynn Washington?

  I sit on the side of the bed,

• 43:00Glynn Washington?

  weeping.

• 43:05Glynn Washington?

  My father comes in, in the dark,

• 43:10Glynn Washington?

  and he tells me that he got a call from my auntie. In the middle of the night,

• 43:18Glynn Washington?

  my grandmother 200 miles away,

• 43:21Glynn Washington?

  she passed away.

• 43:25Glynn Washington?

  I tell him,

• 43:29Glynn Washington?

  "I know."

• 43:34Glynn Washington?

  And the look, the shock, of horror, when I say it, I know I've made a big mistake. She told me a million times, "Never tell what you know,

• 43:52Glynn Washington?

  what you understand." And I know what he's thinking.

• 44:01Glynn Washington?

  He's thinking Exodus 22:18.

• 44:07Glynn Washington?

  I think maybe he's right.

• 44:11Glynn Washington?

  He didn't ask for this.

• 44:15Glynn Washington?

  Kid who

• 44:18Glynn Washington?

  talks to things that couldn't be there.

• 44:25Glynn Washington?

  Chases after bumps in the night.

• 44:33Glynn Washington?

  There's only one person,

• 44:38Glynn Washington?

  one person I could speak to,

• 44:43Glynn Washington?

  one person I could tell the truth.

• 44:53Glynn Washington?

  You can tell that sometimes...

• 45:00Glynn Washington?

  Sometimes I see monsters.

• 45:08Glynn Washington?

  And, uh...

• 45:11Glynn Washington?

  He's backing away.

• 45:15Glynn Washington?

  Towards the door.

• 45:21Glynn Washington?

  And I know he's gonna walk out.

• 45:27Glynn Washington?

  But instead, he stops.

• 45:33Glynn Washington?

  He pulls himself up, he walks over to me. He bends down, eye level.

• 45:44Glynn Washington?

  Boy.

• 45:48Glynn Washington?

  You know, the stuff you talk to your granny about.

• 45:55Glynn Washington?

  You could talk to me.

• 46:02Glynn Washington?

  And this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

• 46:07Glynn Washington?

  In my life.

• 46:10Glynn Washington?

  But...

• 46:14Glynn Washington?

  I appreciate it.

• 46:18Glynn Washington?

  I appreciate it because...

• 46:22Glynn Washington?

  It feels like... Like he's bending. A little bit.

• 46:30Glynn Washington?

  Like to say...

• 46:34Glynn Washington?

  "I have to walk this way, I have to walk my path, but I understand."

• 46:43Glynn Washington?

  "I understand a little bit."

• 46:50Glynn Washington?

  "That you're gonna have to walk yours."

• 47:25Glynn Washington?

  Big, big, big, big thanks to the LAS team for welcoming Spooked. John Cohn, Rebecca Stumme, Kristen Payne, the Orpheum team. What a beautiful theater. Ryan Davis and Sarah Rose Leonard at KQED. Big thanks.

• 47:45Glynn Washington?

  Jen Colbert, Jen Colbert. Jen is always doing something awesome. Comedy, TV. She's often on tour. You can find a link to all things Jen in our show notes. The original live score was done by Doug Stewart and for Gene Murphy. Recording was mixed by Miles Lassie.

• 48:16Glynn Washington?

  Now, did you go on a cruise ship and have a life-changing supernatural experience? Of course you didn't. That would be absurd. If it happens anywhere else, I would sure love to know about it. Spooked at snapjudgment.org, because there's nothing better than a spooked story from a spooked listener. Spooked at snapjudgment.org. Now, Spooked emerges in the dark of night from the underground crypts at K3D Studios. Don't seek to find the way in, lest the way in seeks to find you. Spooked is brought to you by the team that uses the Ghostbuster movies as instructional videos, except of course for Mark Ristich.

• 48:59Glynn Washington?

  You can scream at him till your horse, he's still trying to cross streams. There's Davy Kim, Zoe Fergno, Eric Yanez, Elliot Lightfoot, Marissa Dodge, Taylor Decot, Miles Lassie, and Doug Stewart. And I want to thank the LAS team for welcoming Spooked, John Kohn, Rebecca Stume, Kristen Payne, the Orpheum team, what a beautiful theater, Ryan Davis and Sarah Rose Leonard at KQED. We've got the special incantation from Spook Legal. It reads that no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. Take that!

• 49:44Glynn Washington?

  And team Spooked, the union representative producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association for Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIL Local 51. The Spook theme song is by Pat Massey Miller, on News in Washington. And they say the Shadowlands are scary.

• 50:05Glynn Washington?

  And I'm gonna guess that's true. I'm gonna guess as well that the Lands of Shadow are other things. That they are beautiful, curious, compelling, horrifying, even funny. Really? You might ask me, bold claim, based on what? I'll tell you what it's based on. It's based on the idea that it is us, and us is it. Wherever we go, there we are. Run as far as you want. Cross as many planes of existence as you wish. Wherever we are, it is as well. And as a reminder of this fundamental tenet, one thing I like to tell the kids

• 50:51Glynn Washington?

  is to never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever, never, never, never, never, ever turn out.

• 51:00Glynn Washington?

  The Lights

• 51:31Glynn Washington?

  The Lights