Local podcast explores Minnesota's most haunted places year-round

[SPOOKY MUSIC] NINA MOINI: [LAUGHS] On Halloween, it's said the veil between the spirit world and the living world is at its thinnest, and spirits come alive. And in Minnesota, there are plenty of haunts where ghosts are said to be lurking. A local podcast is dedicated to exploring Minnesota's spookiest places, and not just on Halloween, but year-round. The podcast is called The Grim Cities, and its hosts, Madeline Ramirez and Dan Laschansky, join me in the studio now. Thank you both so much for being here. I'm so excited to have you.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yes, thank you. Very excited.

NINA MOINI: I really enjoyed the podcast. I listened to one of your episodes today. I love the chemistry that you both have. You're besties. You came in similar colors in your outfits.

DAN LASCHANSKY: We did.

[LAUGHTER]

NINA MOINI: Didn't even try to coordinate. You're in your fifth season, so you've had some time to build this relationship on the pod. I wonder, Madeline, how did you all get started on this?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yeah, well, we had actually been friends for years before we realized we share this love of scary stories and horror movies. And during the pandemic we thought, well, why don't we just start a podcast as a creative outlet and as a way to keep in touch with our friends and family? As we kept going, it eventually just turned into this opportunity to use scary stories, ghost stories, urban legends, and folklore to explore history both locally and nationally.

NINA MOINI: And I'm so sorry, Madeline. It's not "Mad-uh-lynn." I apologize for that.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Oh, that's OK. [LAUGHS]

NINA MOINI: I wonder too, Dan, how do you choose the types of stories that you want to get into on the pod?

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah, so actually, Madeline is the one who does most of the research. I've taken on a few episodes myself. But really, how we come up with the topics is we think about areas in our state that we don't know much about, and that we ourselves want to learn more about. Because really, this podcast, we use it as a way to explore history through the lens of a paranormal, spooky, true crime sort of way. And so it really is just our curiosity that gets us to be like, what do we want to learn about?

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Do you ever go to places together? Where has this taken you?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yeah, so we are just starting to actually go to certain places and explore them on our own. We did a couple weeks ago. And then we also have had some first-hand accounts from Dan's own family.

NINA MOINI: Ooh.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: One of my favorite topics that we've covered so far was, Dan owns a family cabin out in Hutchinson--

DAN LASCHANSKY: Litchfield.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Litchfield, I'm sorry. Litchfield, Minnesota. And so he explored the history behind that area. It used to be a resort, and his cabin itself is haunted.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah, and it was really cool. We got the opportunity to sit down and talk with my aunt and get her perspective-- she's been going there her whole life-- and get her perspective on experiences she's had, and the history. Obviously, she's been around longer. She knows a lot more about the history of our cabin. And yeah, we found out some creepy things about it. There's actually an old Native American body that's buried underneath our cabin.

NINA MOINI: Oh, my. Oh, wow.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: I mean, there are so many things too that-- places that you can go and places people don't know about. And I wonder, are you trying to convince people, Madeline, that these places are haunted? Or is it the fun of it all? How much of it do you all believe? Because Dan's like, oh, yeah, my house is haunted, yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

How deep does that belief go?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yeah, I would say that we both consider ourselves healthy skeptics. While I haven't necessarily had an experience myself, I believe others when they say that they have. As well as, when we get together and we tell these stories and we think about the history behind it, it's fun to suspend all logic for a little while, just in the name of, I guess, adrenaline rushes and getting a little bit scared, especially during this time of year.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Absolutely. And I would also add on to that, I don't think we're necessarily trying to convince anybody. We're going and trying to figure this out ourselves as the episode is going on, so we're experiencing the episode with the audience as we go. So especially me, I don't know a lot of the background as Madeline's telling me it. So it's not even a matter of trying to convince people. It's, do I believe in this? What about this story is really sticking out to me? What do I think is real and what's not real? And so being able to try to figure that out in real time is cool.

NINA MOINI: Go ahead.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, well put. And one thing I wanted to add is at the same time, whether or not it is haunted and there are ghosts there, you can't deny it. The history that has happened in these places does have an impact that still you can see today.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, yeah. I wonder, were you surprised, Madeline, at just how many places there are?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: I was. I mean, I was honestly a little bit worried that we would run out of different places to explore in Minnesota after, I don't know, the first two seasons or so. But new things just keep popping up, whether it's the city hall in downtown Minneapolis or if it's your neighbor's house and what was there once before. You just don't until you dig a little deeper.

NINA MOINI: So are you getting tips, Dan, or how do you keep it going?

DAN LASCHANSKY: Well, one thing I was also going to say is I get questions from friends, family, coworkers, the same sort of thing. They're like, how do you still have content? And it's funny, every once in a while we'll be at a bookshop and we'll find a book about paranormal activity in Minnesota. And so there's just so much content that we still have yet to unearth.

NINA MOINI: So cool.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yeah, and we sometimes explore outside of Minnesota. So for example, last year we explored how spiritualism, the 19th-century Victorian movement, actually played a role in shaping women's rights movement and suffrage. Yeah, women's suffrage.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So it's just the history that's around it too, and even the way that it impacts the culture of an area. People are like, oh, it's the such-and-such house, or it's the, you know, and it just adds to the fun of it. I'm wondering what is in store, Dan, for season five?

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah. So season five, we actually started doing this last year where we're having an overarching theme for the whole season. As Madeline just touched on, last season was spiritualism and the implications around that. And this year we are, since it's our fifth anniversary episode we thought about, what is the traditional five-year anniversary thing that people do? And I don't know if you're familiar, but sometimes people do-- there's different materials for each--

NINA MOINI: Oh, sure.

DAN LASCHANSKY: --anniversary, and the fifth year is wood. And so we're taking that theme of wood and we're doing scary things that come out of the woods. Forest, things that are made out of wood. Yeah.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: So the wendigo, Bigfoot, some haunted objects.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: OK, so the theme is wood and woods this year. Madeline, what does this do for you? Why do you love doing this? It's year five. You're getting to do this with your best friend. I'm assuming you guys do other things too and have other jobs and things too, but I mean, what do you love the most about doing this?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Honestly, just hanging out with Dan. It's honestly the best.

DAN LASCHANSKY: I agree.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And then what do you love most about when people listen and take something away? What do you love about their reactions? And I'll start with you, Dan.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yeah. Well, first and foremost, it's super rewarding because we put a lot of work into this podcast, and we are not trying to make it a huge thing. We just do it because we love it. And so just having people get excited and come up to us afterwards and tell us the stories and say, this was so cool-- the rewarding aspect of that is what I love the most.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and Madeline, is there a reaction that you've gotten from anybody that's been a favorite?

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Oh, I mean, if anybody listens and says, hey, listened and it was great, I'm always pleased by that. I'm always really happy to hear that somebody learned something new from it, or didn't think about a certain perspective as well. For example, talking about spiritualism and women's rights wouldn't be something that I would have necessarily put together at the time. And then in general, Dan and I try to be our most authentic self. So when people listen and enjoy, we take that as a compliment at a personal level.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Absolutely. Well said.

NINA MOINI: All right, you guys, thank you so much for stopping by Minnesota Now. Really appreciate your time. Congratulations on season five of The Grim Cities.

DAN LASCHANSKY: Yes, thank you so much for having us.

MADELINE RAMIREZ: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: You're very welcome. That's Madeline Ramirez and Dan Laschansky, both cohosts of The Grim Cities. It's a podcast about all things haunted in Minnesota, and you can find them wherever you get your podcasts.