Haunted Childhood Homes w/ Mara Wilson
Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore
Multitude
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2022
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re joined by Mara Wilson, who regales us with her experiences growing up in a haunted house, living the “gothic valley” life, and what would be scarier to meet: a ghost or an alien?
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of misogyny, aircraft accident, earthquakes, parent death, illness, body horror, mental illness, murder, blood, animal death, and the Civil War.
Guest
Mara Wilson, known for her childhood roles in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda, is a writer and actor living in Los Angeles. Recently, she has appeared on Welcome to Night Vale, Broad City and Bojack Horseman. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Elle, McSweeney’s, Reductress, and many other outlets. She also publishes a newsletter of her writing with Substack, 'Shan't We Tell the Vicar?' Mara's first book, Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame is available from Penguin Random House. Recently, Mara voiced Tania de Batz in the audiobook One For All, a gender-swapped version of the Three Musketeers by Lillie Lainoff.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Games and Feelings.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out the Queer Movie Podcast - a queer movie watch party hosted by Rowan Ellis and Jazza John. Join them as they research and rate their way through the queer film canon, one genre at a time. Search for Queer Movie Podcast in your podcast app to subscribe today!
Sponsors
- Wildgrain is the first bake-from-frozen box for artisanal bread. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box - PLUS free Croissants in every box - when you go to Wildgrain.com/Spirits to start your subscription.
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- Blueland creates everyday eco-friendly cleaning productions that save you money and space, without any plastic waste. Get 20% off your first order when you go to blueland.com/spirits.
Find Us Online
If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The |
| 0:07.0 | The Welcome to Spirits podcast, a boosy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda. |
| 0:38.4 | And I'm Julia. |
| 0:41.0 | And this is episode 302. |
| 0:45.6 | We're so excited and honored to be joined by the faceless old woman who lives in your house herself. |
| 0:46.6 | It's Mara Wilson. |
| 0:47.7 | Mara, how are you? |
| 0:48.8 | I'm doing very well. |
| 0:49.3 | Thank you. |
| 0:49.7 | Thank you. |
| 0:50.6 | Happy to be here. |
| 0:55.5 | We're very excited. I really had to acknowledge the, you know, iconic role elephant in the room that our listeners will definitely know you from. So you're also a writer, an actor, a podcaster, |
| 1:00.8 | extraordinaire. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's funny. |
| 1:05.0 | I feel like I never really know what people will know me from. Sometimes it's Matilda, |
| 1:10.6 | sometimes it's Night Vale. Sometimes it's even |
| 1:13.0 | Mrs. Doubtfire, which surprises me because I was five at the time. So I kind of love that also because |
| 1:18.8 | I don't know what people are going to know me from. And it's fun. It's fun to see what they do. |
| 1:23.5 | Yeah, absolutely. I know Amanda and I recently recorded an episode of a fellow podcast, which is called The Queer Movie Podcast. And we did an episode which was just like media that made you queer. And Amanda was like, so Matilda, you know. |
| 1:37.6 | That is, that is something I hear a lot. I mean, for me, I was kind of a late bloomer. I think I always mention Queen Latifah doing |
| 1:46.7 | when you're good to Mama in Chicago that that was very formative for me. With the fan dance, yes. |
| 1:54.2 | Yeah, with a fan dance and she's in that like boostier and it cuts between her being like the matron, |
| 1:59.7 | but also her being like, it's it's fantastic it's |
... |
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