Wait - What Do You Do Again?

Media ethics scholar Whitney Phillips has spent nearly 20 years studying the darkest corners of the internet, starting in 2008 when her little brother trolled her into visiting 4chan. In her words, she studies “the hell.”

Meghan and Whitney get into why humans have always told scary stories and what our monsters reveal about us. (The word “monster” comes from the Latin for “to reveal.”) They trace the line from the telegraph and the rise of American spiritualism to today’s algorithm-fed true crime, from the Black Dahlia to the Lindsay Clancy trial, and look at whether Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and online sleuthing on the Golden State Killer case did real good, or just made more content. (Spoiler: both.)

Plus: why most people say they don’t believe in ghosts but have absolutely had a weird feeling in an empty room, the Catholic-to-crystals pipeline, and why an overwhelmed brain keeps finding more monsters.

Why do vampires scare us, attract us, and somehow keep winning us over? For our spooky season series, Meghan DeFord talks with Dr. Karen Winstead, professor of English at The Ohio State University, who teaches courses on vampires and monsters. They cover two centuries of vampire stories, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Twilight, Interview with the Vampire, What We Do in the Shadows, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.

Karen explains why Dracula might not have a vampire in it at all. She also covers how John Polidori’s 1818 novella The Vampyre, written during the same ghost story contest that produced Frankenstein, modeled the first seductive vampire on Lord Byron. And she makes the case that Edward Cullen is the most dangerous vampire in pop culture.

They also get into:

• How Sinners uses vampires and music to explore white supremacy, assimilation, and false allies
• Vampires as metaphors for desire, queerness, outsiders, and our fear of aging
• Energy vampires, from Colin Robinson to the forgotten 1897 novel The Blood of the Vampire
• Why the oldest vampire rule is that you have to invite them in
• What vampire stories teach us about eternity and loneliness, and what we’d do with forever

Plus a reading and watch list for going past the Halloween classics:

Books: Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez, The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl, and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

Movies: Let the Right One In, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Only Lovers Left Alive

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Why was a woman in early modern Scotland twelve times more likely to be accused of witchcraft than a woman in England? How could a dead cow land you in court, and what did the Puritans carry across the Atlantic to Salem? For spooky season, we’re re-releasing one of our favorite conversations ever.

Dr. Mikki Brock is a Professor of History and head of the History Department at Washington and Lee University. She studies witchcraft, demonology, religion, and gender in early modern Scotland. She’s the author of Satan and the Scots and Plagues of the Heart, and she co-edited The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition.

In this episode, we get into:

• How a 1990s Dallas kid raised on Left Behind and WWJD bracelets ended up studying the devil
• The Scottish witch hunts: King James VI, Calvinism, Kirk sessions, and how accusations moved from neighbor disputes to the high court
• How witch trials “proved” guilt through confessions, torture, and witness testimony
• The perfect storm behind the Salem witch trials, plus the book she recommends above all others
• Spiritual warfare and “us vs. them” thinking, from the early Church to the Satanic Panic, QAnon, and Christian nationalism
• Why demonizing a group always leads to dehumanizing them
• The devil in pop culture, from Sabrina and Buffy to Lucifer and South Park, plus Etsy witches and witch-tok
• Why more of her students have believed in ghosts since COVID-19
• Her book, Half-Hangit Maggie: The Remarkable Lives of Margaret Dickson. It tells the story of a woman hanged in Edinburgh in 1724 who sat up in her coffin and lived another 40 years.

🔮 Connect with Dr. Mikki Brock:Washington and Lee faculty page: https://www.wlu.edu/profile/brock-michelle-d

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Wait – What Do You Do Again? is hosted by Meghan DeFord. Connect on Instagram + TikTok: @megdeford | megdeford.com

Why does horror keep putting the danger inside the house: the basement, the attic, the nursery, the baby monitor? Film scholar Dr. Dahlia Schweitzer, professor and chair of Film and Media Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and author of Haunted Homes, joins Meghan DeFord for a spooky season conversation about what haunted house movies reveal about family, gender, race, money, and the American dream.

From Hereditary, The Babadook, Sinister, and The Conjuring to Get Out, Sinners, and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Dahlia breaks down the tropes that show up again and again, and what they say about us.

In this episode:

• Why the home, the place we're supposed to feel safest, is where horror does its best work
• What goes in the basement vs. the attic (repressed trauma vs. preserved memories)
• The "Cassandra effect": why the mom always senses the evil first and the husband asks if she's taken her meds
• How the suburbs and the American dream keep families trapped in haunted houses they can't afford to leave
• Why haunted house movies spiked after the 2008 housing crash
• Race, representation, and why the genre is so white and heteronormative, plus Get Out, The Haunted Mansion, and Spiral
• How technology became the new way evil gets in, from Poltergeist and The Ring to Zoom horror like Host
• The 1997 cult film Office Killer and why it deserves a second look
• Why horror is cathartic, and why studying pop culture matters

Whether you love horror or watch it through your fingers (hi, it's me), you'll never look at a basement door the same way again.

Find Dr. Dahlia Schweitzer: thisisdahlia.com
Her books include Haunted Homes, Going Viral, L.A. Private Eyes, and Office Killer. She's also co-creating a Haunted Homes documentary; reach out through her site if you want to be interviewed.

If this one gave you chills (the good kind), follow the show on Spotify or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, and send it to the friend who still sleeps with the lights on.

Hosted by Meghan DeFord | megdeford.com | @megdeford

What’s haunting you, draining you, or getting scarier the longer you avoid it?

To kick off spooky season, Meghan is turning the haunted house into a life audit. We’re talking ghosts from the past that still get a vote, goals that might need a funeral instead of another plan, energy vampires with way too much access to you, and the things we avoid because we’re afraid of what we’ll find when we finally turn on the light.

Grab a notebook. We’re going room by room.

Insta | TikTok| YouTube: @megdeford

Want to work with Meghan? Learn more about coaching, consulting, workshops, and upcoming events at megdeford.com.

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What if the way we think about concussions, burnout, and even nervous system regulation is too simplistic?

Natasha Wilch is a physiotherapist, entrepreneur, and founder of Symphony Brain Performance, a nationally recognized brain health clinic, as well as the creator of Concussion Nerds, an international education community helping clinicians better understand and treat brain injury.

In this conversation, Natasha breaks down what a concussion actually is, why so much common advice about concussion recovery is outdated, and why treating symptoms without looking at the whole person can miss what’s really going on.

But this conversation goes far beyond concussion care.

We talk about what it actually means to have a regulated nervous system, why “calm” isn’t always the goal, how stress and trauma can show up in leadership, the difference between tools and deeper treatment, and why successful people can sometimes use work and overfunctioning as a coping mechanism.

We get into burnout, boundaries, protecting your capacity, and the calendar question that changed how Natasha thought about her time: How much of your life are you spending helping other people build their dreams instead of building your own?

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re managing stress or simply getting better at functioning through it, this conversation is worth hearing.

Connect with Natasha:Instagram: @natasha.wilchConcussion Nerds: concussionnerds.comWebsite: natasha-wilch.comListen: The Concussion Nerds PodcastClinicians: the Concussion Nerds Fellowship (a 6-month online mentorship program) relaunches October 1.Connect with Meghan:Instagram/TikTok/YouTube: @megdefordmegdeford.com

How do you meditate when your brain won’t stop thinking?

This beginner-friendly introduction to meditation dispels common myths and offers a simple guided meditation for busy minds. Meghan explains what meditation actually is, why you don’t need to empty your mind, and how mindfulness can fit into everyday life (even if you only have two minutes)

The episode ends with a short guided practice featuring mindful breathing, a body scan, awareness of your surroundings, a new-moon intention-setting visualization, and loving-kindness meditation. Perfect for beginners, busy minds, or anyone looking for a simple way to feel more present and grounded.

Merch available at: https://www.megdeford.com/shop

"You don't find your purpose. That's clickbait."

Suneet Bhatt, author of Making Sense of Purpose and creator of the Rutgers course Find and Evolve Your Purpose, is making the case for why purpose isn't a destination, it's a practice.

In this episode, we get into what it actually takes to build a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on paper: the difference between authenticity and performance, why so many high-achieving women carry guilt they've never been taught to put down, and the exact three-part formula for feedback that lands instead of landing badly. Suneet also shares the moment his wife told him the truth he'd been avoiding for years and how that conversation changed everything.

This is a conversation about ambition, self-awareness, and what it really means to evolve instead of just change.

In this episode:

• Why "finding your purpose" is the wrong frame (and what to do instead)
• Authenticity vs. performance, and how to close the gap
• Guilt, shame, and self-forgiveness: what the research actually shows
• How to give feedback that people can actually hear
• Why purpose matters most when life takes a hard turn, not when everything's smooth

Connect with Suneet: makingsenseofpurpose.com

Instagram @suneetonpurpose

LinkedIn: Suneet Bhatt

Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you're listening. And share this episode with a friend! Thanks xx

Is it imposter syndrome or are you just waiting for permission? In this solo episode, host Meghan DeFord breaks down the real difference between imposter syndrome and permission-seeking, why they get treated like the same thing, and why that mix-up keeps high-achieving women stuck.

Meghan opens with a tribute to Dolly Parton, who passed away on August 25th, and looks at how Dolly's life — leaving the Porter Wagoner Show, turning down Elvis Presley's request to record "I Will Always Love You," crossing from country into pop, film, and business — was really a lifelong practice of giving herself permission.

From there, Meghan dives into the research on imposter syndrome (technically the "impostor phenomenon"), starting with Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes' original 1978 study, a 2020 KPMG study of 750 executive women, and a 2024 meta-analysis of over 42,000 people from the Journal of Current Research in Behavioral Sciences. The data is clear: imposter feelings don't resolve with more achievements, more degrees, or more seniority, and the gender gap in imposter feelings hasn't closed in four decades.

But Meghan also pushes back on the "just believe in yourself" narrative, referencing the Harvard Business Review piece "Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome" to unpack how systemic factors — not just internal confidence — shape who feels like they belong in the room.

Then she gets practical: how to tell imposter syndrome apart from permission-seeking, why overworking is often a permission slip you're trying to earn through output, how to spot inherited goals you never actually chose, and a simple exercise to figure out exactly whose permission you've been waiting for and whether they actually have authority over your decision.

Whether you're still circling the decision or you already know exactly what you're building and just need a sharper partner to keep pace, that's what the free 30-minute strategy call is for. We'll get honest about what's actually stalling things and build a real plan, not just more reflection. Book at megdeford.com.

Follow along on Instagram and TikTok, and don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to Wait — What Do You Do Again?

Sources referenced: Clance & Imes (1978); KPMG 2020 study of executive women; Price, Holcomb & Payne (2024) meta-analysis, Journal of Current Research in Behavioral Sciences; Ruchika Tulshyan & Jodi-Ann Burey, "Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome" (Harvard Business Review)

⁠Dolly Parton's America ⁠(Jad Abumrad & Shima Oliaee)

Brooke Kaplan has run seven marathons and is training for her eighth in Berlin this September, while managing Type 1 diabetes on every single mile. For Brooke, that means constantly reading her body mid-run: is she spiking, dropping, fueling too early, too late, running too hot, too cold. Some runs end with her sitting on a curb for twenty minutes, waiting for a low blood sugar to pass before she can take another step.

In this conversation, Brooke, Director of HR Compliance at Worldwide Clinical Trials and a running coach with Team RunRun, talks about what it actually takes to keep showing up when the challenge isn't hypothetical. We get into her Boston qualifier at the Philadelphia Marathon, beating Diplo at his 5K, why she avoided racing for years after her first marathon, and what she tells her own athletes when a training run goes sideways.

We also talk about the discomfort women are taught to avoid, the difference between "I can't" and "I haven't yet," and why Brooke defines failure as data instead of a verdict. You start where you are, you build capacity, and the thing that once felt impossible becomes something you know how to do.

In this episode:

- Managing Type 1 diabetes mid-marathon, real-time blood sugar decisions

- Her Boston qualifier at the Philadelphia Marathon

- Why she quit racing after COVID, and what brought her back

- Coaching first-time marathoners through self-doubt

- Reframing failure: "first attempt in learning"

- Why women underestimate what they're capable of

- Starting small and building capacity for bigger goals

- Berlin Marathon prep and the six World Majors ahead

Connect with Brooke Kaplan on Instagram @Brooke_M_Kaplan, and find her for run coaching through Team RunRun, and on LinkedIn.