Haunted Southern history, told with patience.
Southern Gothic is a story-driven tour through Southern hauntings and the history that made them linger. Episodes move from West Virginia coal country to Asheville and Memphis, treating ghost lore as a doorway into grief, rumor, place, and memory.
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Southern Gothic is a narrative folklore show about the American South and the uneasy stories attached to its roads, haunted places, rivers, and mountain towns. It moves slowly enough to let places gather weight. A West Virginia story begins with winding roads outside Logan and the region’s deep connection to coal. An Asheville episode opens around Edwin Wiley Grove, clean mountain air, family loss, and the origins of a grand hotel before the ghost story takes hold. In Memphis, an old mansion at 683 South 5th Street becomes the setting for Pink Lizzie, Clara, hidden valuables, a seance, and a family grievance that seems to cross into the supernatural. The show likes that kind of hinge. History comes first, then rumor presses against it. Some episodes lean toward classic hauntings, including the Pink Lady of Grove Park Inn and the ghost aboard the James T. Staples. Others reach into local legend and pageantry, such as José Gaspar and Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. Listener tales broaden the frame without changing the tone. The register is conversational and Southern, but the editorial backbone is research-minded. Names, places, dates, and old accounts matter here. So do atmosphere and dread. Southern Gothic does not treat a ghost as the whole story; it treats the ghost as the part of the story that survived in public memory. That approach gives the show more range than a simple scare anthology. It can hold tragedy, architecture, illness, family lore, maritime mystery, and spiritualism in the same episode. The mood is eerie rather than sensational. It suits listeners who like haunted history with a regional pulse and enough context to make the legend feel lived-in. It also works for true-crime-adjacent audiences who prefer historical mystery and folklore to graphic detail. Southern Gothic’s appeal is the way it lets the South feel both specific and unsettled, with every beautiful landscape carrying a second story after dark.
Made for: Best suited to listeners who like ghost stories rooted in local history, haunted places, regional folklore, and unresolved mystery. It also fits fans of spooky storytelling who prefer atmosphere and context over graphic shock.
What sets it apart: Southern Gothic stands apart by treating hauntings as historical artifacts, tying apparitions and legends to documented places, family losses, tourism lore, and regional memory. The tone is eerie but measured, with the South itself acting as the recurring character.
Step into the world of the unknown and unravel the dark history, and infamous legends of the American South. Join us as we journey into the heart of this rich and fascinating region, uncovering its ghostly stories, haunted places, and eeriest tales through captivating storytelling, in-depth historical research, and an immersive audio soundscape. From the Bell Witch of Tennessee to the haunted Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the ghostly tales of the Myrtles Plantation, the Curse of Lake Lanier and beyond, get ready for an unforgettable experience that brings history to life and uncovers the truth behind classic tales of the paranormal.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Memphis mansion, a schoolgirl's seance, and a disputed property claim shape this Southern ghost story.
Southern Gothic opens in 1972, as a dilapidated nineteenth-century Memphis mansion is being dismantled. The story turns to Clara, a young girl said to have met a spirit named Lizzie.
A possible missing-child reunion becomes a careful study of grief, memory, and contested recognition.
The Boy Named Bobby Dunbar treats a possible homecoming as something more fragile than a solved mystery. After Percy encounters a boy in Mississippi who may be his long-lost son, the episode follows the uneasy split in newspaper accounts of Mrs.
An oracle deck guides Southern Gothic toward Memphis artistry, sacred ground, and an unplanned paranormal investigation.
Southern Gothic turns an artist's oracle deck into a way of reading the show's symbols, from the hurricane lamb and sassafras to a mojo ba. The conversation with Stacy, a Memphis artist and creator of the Southern Gothic Oracle, opens into a vivid account of leaving dinner to…
Movie reactions with personal rhythm.
Two movies, beers, and lived-in chemistry.
Street mythology in mixtape form.
Philosophy for the haunted bookshelf.
This episode recounts the 1912 disappearance of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar from a Louisiana fishing trip.
This episode is a promotional segment for Southern Gothic merchandise and Akila sunglasses, not a substantive discussion of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
This episode recounts the execution of Confederate Captain Henry Veers, the only person executed for war crimes related to the Andersonville Prison during the Civil War.
This episode tells the story of the legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones and his heroic final train wreck.
Brandon interviews Stacey Williams-Ng, an artist from Memphis who created the Southern Gothic Oracle deck.
Southern Gothic traces the Annie Whipple legend to the Russell Houston Mansion, now the Louisville Bourbon Inn.
Southern Gothic examines José Gaspar and the Tampa Bay Gasparilla tradition, from a pirate legend involving Spain’s crown jewels to a modern festival with hundreds of thousands of participants.
An exploration of haunted love motels in Japan with insights from the Supernatural Japan podcast.
This episode is a promotional segment for the podcast Supernatural Japan and a sponsor ad for Ritual Zero Proof.
A podcast episode that blends a promotion for non-alcoholic spirits with a teaser for a show about local weirdness and ghost stories in Biggleswade.
Southern Gothic host Brandon Schechsneider examines the 1932 murder of Mamie Thurman, whose body was found near 22 Mine Road in Logan County, West Virginia.
Southern Gothic examines the Pink Lady legend at Asheville's Grove Park Inn, a resort built by E.W.
Southern Gothic reconstructs the 1871 Brinkley Female College haunting in Memphis, where Clara Robertson reported seeing a dead girl named Lizzie Davey in a pink dress.
Southern Gothic examines the history and folklore of Rocky Hill Castle, a mansion near Courtland, Alabama, built by James Edmund Saunders beginning in 1858.
Southern Gothic host Brandon Schech-Snyder traces the real Margaret Garner, who escaped Kentucky with seven relatives on January 27, 1856, and who inspired Toni Morrison's 1987 novel 'Beloved.' The episode follows the family's 16-mile trek, their ice crossing near Covington, and the posse that reached Elijah Kite's Cincinnati home by about 8 a.m.
A promotional episode introducing a new podcast 'Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong' and a sponsor Ritual Zero Proof non-alcoholic spirits.