319: And the Call Was Coming from the Basement This American Life

This American Life

10.31.2008 Originally aired 10.27.2006 Click to Enlarge 30-second Promo Full Episode Buy CD   Email to a Friend   Permalink

319: And the Call Was Coming from the Basement For Halloween, scary stories that are all true. Kidnappings, zombie raccoons, haunted houses—real haunted houses!—and things that go "EEEEK!!!" in the night. Plus, a new story by David Sedaris, in which he walks among the dead. Prologue. Host Ira Glass and Albert Donnay read a true ghost story that appeared in a medical journal in 1921. After a "Mrs H" and her family moved into an old rambling house, strange apparitions started appearing...until her brother-in-law figured out the real cause of the ghostly presences. (6 minutes) Act One. The Hills Have Eyes. Some of the scariest stories happen when fluffy, innocent creatures turn murderously evil. This American Life producer Alex Blumberg tells one such story, about a raccoon gone bad. (11 minutes) Song: "Evil," 45 Grave Act Two. The Hitcher. Writer Bill Eville and his brother are picked up late at night on the side of the road...and not taken to their destination. (9 minutes) Act Three. And the Call Was Coming from...the Listeners! Weeks ago, we set up a special 800 number for listeners to call with their true-life scary stories. Over five hundred people called. We hear a sample. The scariest stories we got all had one thing in common. (9 minutes) Act Four. Graveyard Shift. One Halloween, David Sedaris decided to skip all the fake monsters and ghosts and zombies and visit the real thing: dead people. In a morgue. (14 minutes) Song: "The Boogie Monster," Gnarls Barkley