Drag queen paranormal investigator and author Monique Toosoon joins Splintered Spirits for a wild dive into ghosts, hauntings, and high‑camp horror. From legendary haunted locations like The Conjuring House, Wilson Castle, and historic asylums to sold‑out overnight ghost hunts, Monique shares how investigating in full drag as “the ghost-ess with the mostest” turns her into a powerful trigger object that supercharges spirit communication and EVPs. Gary and John explore what spirits are, queer visibility in the paranormal field, and how glamour, energy, and $20K of ghost‑hunting equipment transform a traditional ghost hunt into a live paranormal experience. Fans of haunted locations, real‑life ghost stories, paranormal investigation, drag, and horror will find plenty to latch onto in this conversation.

Links to Monique and her latest book can be found in the linktree in our bio.

Author, witch, and medium Melissa St. Hilaire joins Splintered Spirits for a live deep dive into real signs from the afterlife, everyday magic, and what it truly means to live as an “American Witch.” She shares how spirits communicate, the most misunderstood “signs” people receive, and how her work as a psychic, spellcaster, and animal communicator helps bridge the gap between the living and the dead. All of it circles back to our favorite big question: What are Spirits?

Links to Melissa and her book can be found in the linktree in our bio.

On this episode of Splintered Spirits, we’re crossing over into the Realm of Darkness.

Our guests are the duo behind one of the most atmospheric, boots-on-the-ground shows in the paranormal true crime space: producer, writer, and investigator Ashley Moreno and filmmaker, investigator, and storyteller Nate Cogar. Together, they’ve built Realm of Darkness and The Dark Travel Chronicles into a journey through haunted locations, unsolved histories, and the lingering echoes of lives cut short, blending meticulous research with firsthand encounters in some of the most unsettling places you can visit.

In this conversation, we’re digging into how Ashley and Nate got pulled into the paranormal, how they balance true crime with the ethics of real-world tragedy, and what it actually takes to chase ghosts and dark history across the country with cameras rolling. We’ll talk investigations that changed them, locations they’ll never forget, and how their work has reshaped what they think spirits might be.

https://www.youtube.com/@RealmOfDarkness04

In this episode of Splintered Spirits, we’re joined by Lauren Hellekson, the mind behind Lauren Haunts (laurenhaunts.com), a paranormal investigator, equipment builder, author, and physics student who lives at the intersection of curiosity and skepticism.

Lauren approaches the paranormal from an angle we don’t often see. She designs and builds her own investigative gear, grounding her work in concepts like electromagnetism, static fields, and energy theory, while still leaving room for the unknown. With a background that blends hands-on electronics, spiritual inquiry, and formal studies in physics and astronomy, she challenges how ghost hunting is usually done and asks harder questions about what we’re really measuring when we say a place is haunted.

We talk about custom-built paranormal equipment, the role of science in investigating unexplained phenomena, common mistakes investigators make, and how belief, bias, and environment can influence results. Lauren also shares what drew her into this work, how her academic studies have reshaped her thinking, and what she believes the future of paranormal research could look like if curiosity and rigor finally meet in the middle.

Whether you’re a skeptic, a believer, or somewhere in between, this conversation digs into the gray area where data ends and mystery begins.

Subscribe, follow, and join the conversation as we continue trying to understand what ghosts might actually be, fractured memories, energy, or something we haven’t named yet.

What if you could hear a voice and see its color? What if a single touch revealed someone’s soul?

In this live episode of Splintered Spirits, we’re joined by The Blue Bodhi, known to her followers as The Godmother of Magic. A shamanic medium, aura artist, and spiritual advisor with over 600K followers on TikTok, Bodhi has a rare neurological condition called synesthesia that allows her to see sound, touch, and even letters as color. She uses this gift to read the layers of a person’s aura and reveal what lives beneath the surface.

After surviving two near-death experiences at nineteen and later being diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy, Bodhi began connecting ancient spiritual traditions with modern neuroscience, exploring why seers, shamans, and oracles throughout history shared similar neurological traits.

She’s drawn aura portraits for celebrities like Dustin Diamond, Ray Park, and Vinnie Appice, hosts twice-weekly live Reiki healing sessions for thousands around the world, and runs the Black Horse Project, a spiritual initiative designed to help people feel safe at night.

Let’s Dive into the Conversation.

Amber Copeland from hauntedatx.com, a haunted tour guide in Austin, TX, joins the pod and shares some of her ghostly evidence. Gary and John catch up and talk about what's to come in 2026. And Gary has a new theory on what spirits may be.

In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary sits down with Matthew Botsford, whose life changed forever in 1992 when a stray bullet struck him in the head. His heart stopped. Doctors fought to save him. But while his body lay in a coma, Matthew says his consciousness went somewhere else… and it was not peaceful.

Matthew describes a realm of darkness, agony, and malevolent entities, a place he believes was “hell,” and the profound moment something reached into that darkness and pulled him out. We explore what he experienced, what he believes spirits truly are, whether these realms are psychological, spiritual, or something we don’t yet understand, and how it reshaped his entire life.

Whether you’re skeptical, spiritual, fascinated, or unsettled, this conversation forces you to confront a question we ask every week: What are spirits… really?

Happy New Year, Splintered Spirits Society! On this episode Gary talks about everything he's learned in 2025 and what's to come for Splintered Spirits on 2026!