I'm Laura Norton, and this is one strange thing,

the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.

Thank you. Do you believe in ghosts?

That's a question that comes up pretty often in our circles, so forgive us if you've already been asked today.

But we find it's a useful litmus test.

Lovers of the strange and unusual tend to fall into a few distinct camps, those who want to

believe, those who think it's all a bit silly.

And then there's those who are absolutely certain because they're sure that they themselves have seen a ghost.

Or perhaps ghosts, plural.

Now mostly these stories are harmless enough.

Perhaps you once saw something strange at your grandmother's house, a rocking chair that

rocked when it shouldn't, or a strange reflection in a mirror, or a famous apparition coming

down the stairs of that old theater where your college drama club put on the yearly

production of Phantom of the Opera.

Those ghost stories, we think, are ultimately all in good fun.

But there are others out there with much darker tales.

Those who believe in ghosts, not because they want to, but because they must.

You can spot those people by the haunted look in their eyes, or perhaps the haunted look

of their houses.

It will come as no surprise when we tell you that the United States is full of more purportedly

haunted houses than we could possibly cover on this podcast, though we'll certainly give it our

best shot. It works to our advantage that these stories tend to follow one of a few tried and true formulas.

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