Real or metaphorical, every family is haunted by their own ghosts – hear these stories in ‘Family Ghosts’

Society & Culture May 27, 2022
Listen to ‘Family Ghosts’

All families have their ghosts, whether real or entirely metaphorical. That’s what “Family Ghosts” has taught us. On this podcast, family secrets are laid bare for all to hear, tales woven masterfully throughout each and every single episode.

Sam Dingman, winner of “The Moth’s” Grand Slam competition, hosts this podcast that is so much more than ghost stories (although there are plenty of supernatural stories to be heard here). This is a podcast about how we are all formed by our family’s collection of mysteries, myths, and secrets, and how uncovering them can help us better understand each other.

“Family Ghosts” has been delighting audiences since 2017. What began as just a seven-part series that year now contains over 60 incredible episodes. Start this podcast in any order, with the average episode running around 40 minutes a piece. Regardless of where you start, you’ll find yourself burning through the entire catalogue of “Family Ghosts.”

Part family history, part genealogical archaeology, and part family legends, this podcast features real family secrets from the family members who discovered them. From jewel-smuggling grandmothers to uncles with shocking double lives to a family history of divorces that leaves one man feeling doomed in every relationship, stories on “Family Ghosts” vary far and wide in topic, but never in quality.

Each tale is just as compelling as the last. Hear stories from people tracking down long lost fathers and siblings, the painful history nearly every family in the small community of Africatown in Mobile, Alabama shares, and the story of a thief that haunted a family for 25 years.

Hear a happily married man reconcile with his family’s tradition of divorce or a woman try to figure out why her whole family let her grandfather lie about his past. Every episode involves people questioning the stories their families told, following the clues they left behind and discovering truths about themselves they never knew they needed.

Fans of podcasts like “The Moth” and “This American Life” will find this podcast to be the perfect addition to their queue.

Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but always deeply moving, “Family Ghosts” tells the stories of the light found in darkness. No matter how painful the history or shocking the revelation, these stories all boil down to discovering true identities and repairing family relationships. While most of these tales aren’t actual ghost stories, this podcast shows us that ghosts can come in many different forms.

Listen to ‘Family Ghosts’

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