Small Town Whispers is a storytelling podcast where history and the paranormal meet under the glow of the porchlight. Season One, Watseka Wonder, explores the chilling 19th-century case of possession and exorcism that haunted my hometown of Watseka, Illinois. I first discovered the story as a twelve-year-old when I read the book Watseka: America's Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and Exorcism by David St. Clair. Now, I return to share those haunting pages alongside small-town legends, ghost stories, and folklore submitted by listeners like you.
Publisher
Bethany Yucuis Borden
Category
history · religion & spirituality · society & culture
We'd love to hear from you! The Watseka Wonder has always lived in a strange space between documented history, Illinois folklore, and the kind of paranormal story you swear you only hear in one town. For our season one finale, I read the epilogue from David St. Clair’s book and finally step past the “what happened” into “what happened next” for Lurancy Vennum, the Roff family, and the wider community that couldn’t stop watching. Some of the locations still exist today, and the fact that the R...
5 Jun 2026
Hello, Goodbye
We'd love to hear from you! Water is not supposed to burn, and yet that’s exactly where this story goes. We pick up the final excerpt from Watseka, America’s Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and Exorcism, and it turns into one of the most intense seance scenes I’ve ever read. Then the narrative cuts to Hickory Street, where Lavinia Durst hears someone inside her home. After that, I switch gears into Porchlight Whispers with guest Billy Lewis, a filmmaker who built Scare Network, ...
29 May 2026
The Unforsaken Chair
We'd love to hear from you! A seance isn’t supposed to turn physical, but this one does. We’re back inside the Roff Home circle for the second part of the seance being held by Mary/Lurancy. Then the porch light clicks on in Wilmington, North Carolina, and my guest Sarah, a true Wilmington native, walks us through the haunted locations she’s convinced still hold energy. We talk about the USO building on Orange Street and the way a historic theater space can feel “loud” after traged. Fro...
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
9 ratings
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