A Delightfully Spooky Season with Special Guest Laura Alston

Queer Longing

This week we had the absolute pleasure of being joined by friend of the pod, historian extraordinaire and dabbler of the occult, Laura Alston. Laura joins us as a ghost enthusiast to talk all things spooky this season in our very special Halloween episode. We chat about our own experiences with ghosts and Laura takes us through some of the different explanations for those spooky sensations we all experience. Mostly, Laura helps to remind us that most ghosts don’t want to cause harm and we can learn a thing or two about life and what lies beyond it by approaching the veil between worlds. We talk queer ghost stories and Laura reads us the history of the ladies of Llangollen from stunning book, ‘Queer Hauntings’ by Ken Summers. We discuss the phenomenon of Halloween often being described as Gay Christmas and the dangerous notion of queerness being displayed as otherness. Plus, we get a sneak peek into the world of Laura’s pendulum and the importance of channelling your own energy to garner answers to questions in your life. We also have time to cover the latest adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ from Netflix, with it’s notorious queer coding of Mrs. Danvers and the true gay icon of the film- Rebecca’s bedroom. Tracks of the Week: Dusty Springfield, Spooky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7QzxYAjgNc&ab_channel=nicholasmark Black Sabbath, Mr Crowley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0RE230PlX4&ab_channel=OzzyOsbourne-Topic Rocky Horror Picture Show, Toucha Toucha Touch Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNACNewvhq0&ab_channel=KristineKristensen Happy Halloween huns! Remember to have a chat with some spiritual pals this week, dress as queer as poss and keep spookin’! xoxo