Before we get into this week's episode, we need to give you a little bit of context to some horror that we experienced this week.

This episode was recorded shortly before a devastating fire affected Laurel's hometown of Walhalla, South Carolina. We had just spent the afternoon talking about the place she loves so much: the history, the people, the stories, the folklore, and her family that has been tied to this little corner of the mountains for generations.

We had absolutely no idea what was coming.

So, before the episode starts, Laurel recorded a short introduction to explain what happened and why this episode feels a little different now.

And then, we went right back to being us.

This week starts with Laurel having a bone to pick with herself, because somehow she still hasn't seen Practical Magic 2. We talk about music festivals, family, new TV shows…

But eventually, we make our way home.

Laurel takes us on a little trip through Walhalla, South Carolina, and talks about why this tiny mountain town means so much to her. We get into her family's connection to the area, the German settlers who helped establish Walhalla, Cherokee history, local legends, and some of the folklore that has been passed down around here.

There's Issaqueena Falls. There's Stumphouse Tunnel. There are dead railroad workers, an unfinished hole through a mountain, blue cheese, and a whole lot of Appalachian storytelling.

And underneath all of it is something a little more personal: what it means to grow up somewhere and eventually realize that the place you've always thought of as home is actually part of your story.

• A little life catch-up and our usual inability to stay on one subject

• Laurel's ongoing Practical Magic 2 crisis

• Music festivals, family time, and the things keeping us busy

• Laurel's Appalachian roots and why the mountains are such a huge part of who she is

• The history of Walhalla, South Carolina

• Laurel's family connection to the early German settlement

• The legend of Issaqueena and the folklore surrounding the area

• Stumphouse Mountain and the unfinished railroad tunnel

• The very unexpected history of Clemson blue cheese

• Why old stories and local legends are worth holding onto

• Family names, cemeteries, old roads, and the feeling of coming home

• And finally…Laurel's murder of crows and their very specific food requests

One of the things we love about folklore is that it doesn't have to be completely true to matter.

Some stories are documented. Some are legends. Some have been told so many times that nobody really knows where the original story ended and the embellishments began.

But somebody remembered them.

Somebody told them to their kids. Then their kids told somebody else. And eventually, they became part of the place itself.

For Laurel, this episode is about more than just Walhalla's history. It's about the mountains she grew up around, the people whose names she's heard her whole life, the property where her family built their lives, and all those little pieces that you don't necessarily appreciate when you're young because they're just…home.

Then one day you realize that the old church you've driven past a thousand times is part of your family's history. The cemetery isn't just a cemetery. The mountain isn't just a mountain. And the roads you've driven so many times that you don't even think about them anymore are carrying generations of stories.

That's the kind of stuff we wanted to talk about this week.

We want to hear your hometown stories.

Do you have a weird local legend? A family story that may or may not be true? A place that everyone who grew up there knows about, but nobody outside your town has ever heard of?

And if you're from Walhalla, Mountain Rest, the Upstate, or anywhere around here and you have a story we missed, please tell Laurel because she will absolutely want to know.

Because there's always another story.

Come hang out with us beyond the podcast!

🌐 Website: www.doomanddaisiespod.com 📘 Facebook: Doom & Daisies Podcast 📸 Instagram: doomanddaisiespod 🎵 TikTok: doom.and.daisies ▶️ YouTube: Doom & Daisies

Our full video episodes premiere every Saturday at 12:00 PM on YouTube!

Thank you for listening, laughing with us, and for getting weird with us.

And if you're listening to this one from somewhere far away, we hope you'll hang out with us for a little while and let Laurel show you why this little corner of the mountains means so damn much to her.

After a week and a half away, we're back…and apparently we had to cram approximately an entire year's worth of life into two weeks.

Valerie survived five straight days of Dragon Con in Atlanta with the kids, approximately 75,000 nerds, a broken cosplay shoe, and enough photos to fill an entire hard drive. Laurel, meanwhile, did what Laurel does best: went to work, decorated for Halloween, watched approximately every single second of the Lindsay Clancy trial, and continued with her very serious Heated Rivalry problem.

So, naturally, we had A LOT to talk about.

• Valerie's first Dragon Con with the kids, including cosplay, photo shoots, D&D, ribbon trading, and the magical existence of cosplay medics
• The joys of being an introvert surrounded by 75,000 people
• Laurel attempting to understand what exactly happens at a five-day nerd convention
• Why conventions apparently have a little bit of everything: including things Laurel actually knows about
• The latest developments following the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, the jury's 11–1 split, and what could happen next
• Double jeopardy, manifest necessity, and Kevin Reddington's next legal fight
• The emotional weirdness of following a trial for weeks and suddenly having…nothing to watch
• Laurel and her continuous love and appreciation for Michael C. Hall, Dexter, Six Feet Under, Broadway, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• The never ending Heated Rivalry obsession
• Valerie's writing, imposter syndrome, and the fear that someone is going to accuse her of using AI
• A little reminder that sometimes you just have to keep making the things you love

This episode also falls on September 11, so we take a moment to remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001, the families who were forever changed, and the sense of unity so many people remember from that time.

Whatever your beliefs, politics, or personal feelings are, some moments deserve a pause.

Take a breath. Hug your people. Be grateful for the people you love. And remember the lives that were lost.

Are you a convention person?

Could you survive five days at Dragon Con, or would you simply perish on the sidewalk?

Have you ever needed a cosplay medic?

Are you following the Lindsay Clancy case, and what do you think happens next?

And, most importantly…

Have you watched Heated Rivalry yet?

Because Laurel has. Repeatedly. At this point, you all may need to intervene.

Thank you all so much for giving us a little grace while we took a week away. Sometimes life gets chaotic, and we would rather take a breath than sit down and record something we're not proud of.

We're back, we're caffeinated, we're apparently still arguing about everything. We have really missed you guys.

Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and we'll see you next week

Come hang out with us between episodes, see behind the scenes content, join the conversations, and keep up with everything we've got planned. Like, follow, subscribe, rate, review, share, and tell your friends about us. Every listen means more than you probably realize, and we're incredibly grateful that you're spending a little piece of your week with us.

Website: www.doomanddaisiespod.com Facebook: Doom & Daisies Podcast Instagram: @doomanddaisiespod TikTok: @doom.and.daisies YouTube: @doomanddaisiespod

Our full video episodes will premiere every Saturday at 12:00PM, so if you've ever wanted to watch our reactions, questionable facial expressions, and the chaos that doesn't always make the audio edit…that's where you'll find it.

Until next time…

Keep your doom cute, and your daisies suspicious.

We're going dark this week, Doom Blooms!

We realized that we needed a break and decided to give ourselves the grace of taking off for Labor Day. This is just a message from Valerie about it, giving a little more explanation.

Take a breath, y'all, take a break, and rest. We'll be back with a regular episode next week!

We got hate comments. We got invasive spiders. We got courtroom chaos. We got fandoms putting down their differences to collectively agree that something is terrible. And somehow, we still found time to talk about birthdays, kittens, Practical Magic, and a baby bike.

Also, it's our lucky episode thirteen!

So…yeah. This…this one is a lot.

• Our first hate comments: We officially welcomed ourselves to the internet by discovering our first batch of hateful TikTok comments, most of which were aimed at Laurel. Naturally, Valerie immediately requested names and addresses.

• Remembering Marsha P. Johnson: We celebrate Marsha P. Johnson on her birthday and talk about her role in the Stonewall era, her activism, STAR, her commitment to helping vulnerable LGBTQ+ people, and the complicated circumstances surrounding her death. More importantly, we talk about remembering her as a whole person, not just a historical icon.

• Sixteen & fifteen: Valerie's Middle Kid turns 16, Baby turns 15, and somehow this means Valerie is officially old. There are birthday presents, music festivals, and one very important AirTag discussion.

• A new stove and an army of spiders: Laurel's stove decided to betray her, and apparently her home has now become prime real estate for Joro spiders. There are approximately eleventy billion of them.

• Meet Ludvig: Laurel introduces us to the extremely respectful spider who lives in her shower and apparently understands boundaries better than most humans.

• Loki, Hades, and the spider situation: Laurel has questions. Valerie has theories. The gods are apparently working on it. Slowly.

• The great living room rearrangement: Laurel continues her lifelong quest to make her house feel exactly right while simultaneously refusing to buy a smaller kitchen table because she's cheap.

• Kitten chaos: There's a new tiny gray tabby in Laurel's house, and she is adorable, ridiculous, and not even three months old.

• Seasonal depression isn't just a winter thing: We talk about how much the weather affects our moods, why summer has officially betrayed Laurel, and why fall feels like a completely different personality.

• The dark is not invited: Laurel explains why darkness is one of her biggest fears and, naturally, we immediately wander into Appalachian folklore.

• The Lindsay Clancy trial: We catch up on the latest developments, including the defense resting, expert testimony, courtroom objections, credibility battles, and the dramatic moment that led to a request for a mistrial. We also talk about what may happen next as the case heads toward closing arguments and jury deliberation.

• "Responsible adults doing irresponsible things": We may have accidentally created our new workplace motto.

• The Great Fandom Truce of 2026: Invincible, Dragon Ball Z, My Little Pony, and apparently every other corner of fandom have temporarily joined forces against one common enemy: Lesbian Space Princess.

• Practical Magic 2: The countdown is on, and Laurel is already planning around midnight margaritas.

• The Witch's Brew controversy: Laurel has opinions about this year's version, and Valerie is apparently happy to accept the leftovers.

Some days are just hard.

Sometimes one person has a bad brain day, sometimes the other person carries the conversation, sometimes the internet cuts out seventeen times, and sometimes you spend an entire episode talking about spiders.

And that's okay.

We don't always have to show up perfectly. Sometimes showing up as we are: tired, distracted, overwhelmed, ridiculous, or just having a weird day…is enough.

Thank you for showing up with us.

And please, go have a sweet treat.

What would your reaction be to finding 20+ giant spiders around your house?

Would you let a tiny shower spider live peacefully in the corner?

And most importantly… which fandom would you recruit for the Great Fandom Truce of 2026?

Come hang out with us between episodes, see behind the scenes content, join the conversations, and keep up with everything we've got planned. Like, follow, subscribe, rate, review, share, and tell your friends about us. Every listen means more than you probably realize, and we're incredibly grateful that you're spending a little piece of your week with us.

Website: www.doomanddaisiespod.com

Facebook: Doom & Daisies Podcast

Instagram: @doomanddaisiespod

TikTok: @doom.and.daisies

YouTube: @doomanddaisiespod

*Our full video episodes will premiere every Saturday at 12:00PM, so if you've ever wanted to watch our reactions, questionable facial expressions, and the chaos that doesn't always make the audio edit…that's where you'll find it.

Until next time…

Keep your doom cute, and your daisies suspicious.

This week, we talk about life updates, including Laurel's take on a traffic ticket she received and how she plans to defend it, Valerie's experience last week with cops on a major highway, and animals that make their way into our hearts.

Valerie tells Laurel about the "Baby Bike Discourse" started by a TikTok user (@hellodimeji) when his son requested to have his own bike and how it's taken over her FYP over the last few months, which takes some unexpected twists along the way.

Additionally, Laurel talks about what move-in time is like working in a college town and about public perception of people and their bodies, particularly those who do not fit societies standards of "appropriate" and how we, as a whole, should approach such things with more care, understanding, and simply compassion.

Come hang out with us between episodes, see behind the scenes content, join the conversations, and keep up with everything we've got planned.

Website: www.doomanddaisiespod.com

Facebook: Doom & Daisies Podcast

Instagram: @doomanddaisiespod

TikTok: @doom.and.daisies

YouTube: @doomanddaisiespod

*Our full video episodes will premiere every Saturday at 12:00PM, so if you've ever wanted to watch our reactions, questionable facial expressions, and the chaos that doesn't always make the audio edit…that's where you'll find it.

As always, thank you for listening, sharing, rating, reviewing, and spending part of your week with us. We appreciate every single one of you.

This week, we cover a truly impressive range of topics because, as noted, we are *professional* now.

We start with Laurel's work badge reel, which somehow leads us right back into the never ending debate over Ouija boards and planchettes. Are they actually offensive, or have people simply become a little too quick to take offense at things they don't understand? We still don't have an answer, but we certainly have opinions.

Speaking of things that are constantly changing, Valerie's hair makes an appearance in the conversation, too. You genuinely never know what color you're going to get when she shows up, we've just accepted that this is part of the experience.

That conversation eventually turns into something a little more serious: curiosity. As kids, we're constantly told to ask questions, stay curious, and never stop learning. Then we become adults and suddenly there are plenty of situations where asking too many questions gets you a very different response: just listen, don't question it, and move along.

Then we're back with Part Two of our discussion about Lindsay Clancy. We talk about her defense attorney, why we think he's one of the best there is, and why we both remain convinced that Patrick was involved. The entire case is so bizarre, complicated, and disturbing that it's hard to imagine it ever fading from public memory. We have a feeling this is one of those cases people will be talking about for decades.

That opens the door to a much bigger conversation about the way society treats women, the double standards women deal with, and the very complicated discussion surrounding the so called "male loneliness epidemic." It's a conversation with a lot of layers.

Thankfully, we eventually give our brains a break and get into something considerably more fun… baby names. Valerie has been getting a ridiculous amount of entertainment from TikToker Thee Tori Cemone (@tori_cemone) and her series about horribly misspelled baby names, and honestly, she's fantastic. We highly recommend giving her a follow because some of these names are truly works of…something

Thank you so much for hanging out with us this week. If you liked the episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen.

This week, we made a last minute change of plans.

We had originally planned to cover the Nolan Wells case, but with new information continuing to emerge, we decided it deserves the time, research, and care necessary to tell the story responsibly. We'll be bringing you that episode soon.

Instead, this week we take a thoughtful look at the heartbreaking case of Lindsey Clancy. A case that has sparked conversations about postpartum mental health, accountability, family tragedy, and the complexities of public opinion. As always, we approach this subject with compassion for everyone affected while acknowledging that these conversations can be difficult.

On a much lighter note, Gromy makes another appearance (because apparently he's decided he's a permanent co-host now), and we're also excited to finally introduce you to our manager, Grey Gregg.

We are also…officially everywhere!

We're so excited to announce that Doom & Daisies is now live across all of our social media platforms!

Come hang out with us between episodes, see behind the scenes content, join the conversations, and keep up with everything we've got planned.

Website: www.doomanddaisiespod.com

Facebook: Doom & Daisies Podcast

Instagram: @doomanddaisiespod

TikTok: @doom.and.daisies

YouTube: @doomanddaisiespod

Our full video episodes will premiere every Saturday at 12:00PM, so if you've ever wanted to watch our reactions, questionable facial expressions, and the chaos that doesn't always make the audio edit…that's where you'll find it.

As always, thank you for listening, sharing, rating, reviewing, and spending part of your week with us. We appreciate every single one of you.

Resources & References:

Lindsey Clancy Case

● Boston Children's Hospital-Information on postpartum mental health

● Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women's Mental Health

● Postpartum Support International (PSI)

● Official court documents and publicly available filings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

● Public statements released by the Clancy and Cioffi families

Mental Health Resources:

● Postpartum Support International: https://www.postpartum.net

● 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 (U.S. & Canada)

● National Maternal Mental Health Hotline (U.S.): 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262)

● SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

If you or someone you love is struggling with postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis, or any other mental health crisis, please know that help is available. You are not alone.

This week, Laurel and Valerie take center stage for a conversation about Broadway, the arts, and why creativity shouldn't be a luxury reserved for those who can afford it. They discuss the rising costs of theater, concerts, and artistic experiences, the barriers that keep so many people from participating, and why they believe the arts should be accessible to everyone and not just a privileged few.

The conversation turns personal as they reflect on the teachers, mentors, and adults who saw something in them long before they saw it in themselves. Those people watered seeds that had already been planted, encouraging creativity, curiosity, and a lifelong love of storytelling. Laurel and Valerie also reminisce about the very first Broadway shows they ever experienced and the lasting impact those moments had on their lives.

The episode also marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Doom & Daisies. Starting in August, they're diving headfirst into growing the podcast, with renewed focus on their social media, website, YouTube, TikTok, and connecting with listeners in new ways. Expect more behind the scenes content, more community interaction, and plenty of beautifully weird adventures along the way.

Finally, they prepare listeners for next week's episode covering the Nolan Wells case. Laurel and Valerie share their commitment to approaching the story with compassion, care, and respect. Rather than rushing to cover a trending topic, they're taking the time to research thoroughly, speak with others, and educate themselves so they can present the case thoughtfully and responsibly.

This week we have a VERY special guest: Valerie's cat, Gromy! He makes his official podcast debut! Keep an ear out for his tiny little chirp, you really don't want to miss it.

Trigger Warning: This episode includes a discussion about the death of baby birds. If you'd rather skip that part, you can jump from 15:00–21:00.

This week, we're catching up after Laurel's family visit. Her brother and his family came all the way from Colorado, and it was such a nice time together. We swap stories from their visit before getting into one of the sweetest (and saddest) moments of the week.

Laurel shares the story of finding two baby birds that had fallen from their nest and were being attacked by ants. She tried everything to help them, but sadly their injuries were too severe. She talks about how she gave them a gentle goodbye and by placing them in a little leaf boat, covering them with flowers, and sending them down a creek and giving them their final blessing. We like to think they ended up somewhere peaceful, surrounded by wildflowers.

Things lighten up a bit when Laurel tells Valerie about Point Nemo, something she learned about from her son…before that? She had no idea this place even existed. We get into all the wild facts about the most remote place on Earth and Laurel comes to what she feels is the only reasonable conclusion: it has to be an alien headquarters. Valerie is fully on board with Laurel…this time.

Then we head to Hollywood, where Valerie talks about taking the boys to see The Odyssey, why she loved it, and why she thinks it's definitely headed for awards season. That leads into a chat about all the movies we're excited for, including Laurel completely losing it over Practical Magic 2. If you've been listening for a while, you already know Practical Magic isn't just her favorite movie...it's basically her personality and the entire structure of her being.

As always, thanks so much for hanging out with us this week. If you liked the episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen.

We're barely keeping our heads above water over here this week as we talk about what it's been like drowning at work… and the plot twist none of us saw coming: Gregg is officially our new manager. Trust us. We are just as surprised as you are.

Then we head into one of the most controversial true crime cases of all time as we discuss the upcoming A&E Scott Peterson documentary. Scott was undeniably a terrible person, but does that automatically make him a murderer? We break down why this case still has people arguing more than 20 years later and share where we stand after revisiting the evidence.

As if that wasn't enough of a disagreement nightmare, we swoon over the internet's favorite oversized troublemaker, Neil the Seal, and explain why he's become the serotonin boost Laurel and Valerie never knew they needed. We also somehow bring up The Lost Boys musical again???

We are also THRILLED to announce that the sound is finally fixed!

We hope you all had a great week and we are SO glad you're here.

Don't forget to rate, like, and subscribe! We appreciate it more than you could know.