In the premiere of House Beautiful’s new limited series Dark House, co-hosts (and editors) Alyssa Fiorentino and Hadley Mendelsohn introduce listeners to the show, and to themselves, sharing the personal ghost stories from their childhood homes that still keep them up at night. Hung up on questions about how and why certain homes become haunted, the co-hosts chat with their first guest, Tok Thompson, Ph.D., folklorist, and professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California (29:41). With years of experience studying ghosts and their origin stories from around the world, Professor Thompson joins Alyssa and Hadley to discuss the root of human fascination with haunted houses and the paranormal, and the important role ghost stories play in our culture. Ultimately, they arrive at another question that will linger throughout the series: What are ghosts trying to tell us? Listen to find out.

CONTRIBUTORS

Host/Producer: Alyssa Fiorentino

Host/Producer: Hadley Mendelsohn

Producer: May Tsehay

Sound Engineer: Josh Caldwell

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