Splintered Spirits

What happens in the room when someone takes their last breath? Darnell Lamont Walker would know. By day he's an Emmy-nominated kids' TV writer behind Karma's World and Work It Out Wombats. The rest of the time he's a death doula, sitting with the dying and their families so nobody has to face the end alone. And he does most of it for free. In Darnell's words: "I haven't quite figured out how to ask dying people for money." Gary and John sit down with him to talk about his book Never Can Say Goodbye, hospice, grief, and what being a death doula actually looks like.Then things get weird, in the best way. Darnell describes the energy shift that can pass through a room at the moment of death, and an ayahuasca journey where he met his late grandmother again. He also takes on the big Splintered Spirits question: what are spirits? We get into why men have such a hard time talking about death, whether spirit guides help us through life's transitions, and what a death doula does when a client wasn't a good person.Stay to the very end. Darnell rewrites his own obituary every year, so Gary and John give it a try. One is heartfelt. The other is John's. 👻 (I'm kidding, they're both insane). If you're into the paranormal, the afterlife, end-of-life care, or just the strange side of death, hit play, then like, share, comment and subscribe.

Do ghosts have a message for the living? Paranormal investigator and empath Bianca Pierre-Louis, known as Spooky Melanin Magic ( @spookymelaninmagic  )  joins Gary and John for a ghost-hunting conversation that’s funny, eerie, and eye-opening. From the most haunted places in America to the feelings that follow her home, Bianca shares what it’s really like to sense the spirit world.This episode dives into empaths and psychic intuition, haunted history, paranormal evidence, and the stories that never made it into the history books. Bianca explains how she tells her own emotions apart from the energy of the dead, why some spirits are still trying to be heard, and what keeps drawing her back into the dark.Whether you’re a seasoned ghost hunter, a true believer, or just curious about the paranormal, this one has everything: real hauntings, big laughs, and the question at the heart of every episode, what are spirits? Plus, John and Bianca tease their upcoming investigation together. Grab a seat, Spirit Squad. We’re spirit maxing. @Santaparanormal ​

She sees the dead. She collects haunted dolls. And ten million people can't stop watching.Clairvoyant, actress and paranormal powerhouse Kelsi Davies joins Gary and John to talk about growing up with spirits, the family gift nobody wanted to talk about, and what really happens when she walks into the most haunted places in America. Plus her new Tubi series, a trip through a past life, and the question we ask everyone: what are ghosts?It's funny, it's dark, and it gets a little cosmic.New episode is now everywhere you listen. Watch on YouTube or Spotify, or catch it on Apple and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to like, comment, hype and share!Follow Kelsi everywhere @kelsiidaviess.

John Kruth runs one of the strangest labs in America, and he's got the data to prove it. As executive director of the Rhine Research Center, the oldest continuously operating parapsychology lab in the country, with roots tracing back to a 1930s Duke University basement, Kruth has spent over fifteen years running ESP, psychokinesis, and psychic phenomena through controlled, peer reviewed, double blind experiments. He grew up doing meditation and healing work before he could ride a bike, and a shared childhood dream convinced him early on that something bigger than five senses was going on. This episode is built around one question. Are spirits energy, or are they information?Gary sits down with Kruth to unpack what parapsychologists mean when they say psi, which covers telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and the far edges of human consciousness. Kruth breaks down the Ganzfeld experiment, a sensory deprivation setup involving ping pong balls taped over your eyes, red light, and white noise, then tells a genuinely unsettling story about accidentally leaking his own thoughts into a subject sitting in another room. From there it's biophotons, energy healing, near death experiences, and survival research, plus a real debate over whether ghosts and hauntings are leftover human energy, like John Santa's theory suggests, or something closer to an informational field we're all quietly plugged into.It's a rare chance to hear a working scientist take hauntings, apparitions, and mediumship seriously without checking his skepticism at the door. Kruth compares psychic ability to golf, something anyone can practice but usually needs a natural gift to really excel at, and explains why the Rhine still runs lab studies instead of just chasing ghost stories on camera. If you care about parapsychology, ghost hunting, or just want a smarter conversation about what might survive after we die, don't miss this one.@RhineResearchCenter-ESP @Santaparanormal

Paranormal author and investigator Sam Baltrusis joins Gary and John Santa from @santaparanormal live with a reveal they didn’t see coming. Sam’s distantly related to Lizzie Borden. With his new book, Lizzie Borden and the Family Curse coming out October 13, Sam digs into the Borden family tree and its unsettling ties to other infamous names, including Aileen Wuornos and Marilyn Monroe. He also traces an ancestor whose father was executed on spectral evidence, begging the question whether a family can really carry a curse.The conversation goes deep on the Fall River axe murders. Sam walks through alternate suspects, including William Borden, and the Bertha Manchester murder theory. He also shares what Ryan Murphy's take on the Lizzie Borden story got wrong. From there, the talk turns thoughts on  a different ways ghost hunters should work. Sam, Gary, and John debate going into a haunted location cold versus knowing its history, trade notes with the skeptics, and explain why critical thinking matters.If you love true crime, haunted history, New England ghost stories, or paranormal investigation, this live episode is for you. Sam and John will both be at MASS ParaCon, October 2 to 4, 2026, in Taunton, Massachusetts. Subscribe to Splintered Spirits for weekly conversations with the people chasing the unexplained, and Stay Curious.