Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - Everyone & The Supernatural

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

Comedian Mo Rocca considers buying a lighthouse and Emma goes ghost hunting.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, everyone. I'm Emma Choi, and welcome to Everyone and Their Mom, a weekly show from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. This week, we're talking about a snazzy piece of real estate with Wait, Wait panelist, comedian, and someone who should definitely be pulled on stage during a Bruce Springsteen concert. It's Mo Rocca. Hey, Mo. Hi, Emma. Oh, my gosh. Now I'm just channeling Courtney Cox, right? That's who got pulled on stage. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, well, here's a story I have to tell you about, okay?

So the U.S. government recently put a lighthouse up for sale. And the only catch? The buyer is responsible for all the upkeep. First of all, Mo, I think we can all agree that lighthouses are sick, right? They're basically snitches on the ocean. They got this bright ass light and at least 99% of them are haunted by a vengeful ghost, right? Totally. Anyways, so this specific lighthouse is called the Hopper Island Lighthouse. And Mo, this place has everything.

And by everything, I mean nothing. It doesn't have any fresh water, electricity, gas, or sewer system. And there's not even a place to dock your boat. You have to like hoist yourself out of the water like an absolute animal. It's crazy. And even more, this ocean paradise is located what the military has officially named, quote unquote, a danger zone because it's near an area where the military practices detonating bombs. It's literally explosive. Okay, I'm from Maryland and I don't remember any bombing. You know, lighthouses are supposed to be sort of calm and peaceful and desolate. This sounds like a pretty dramatic environment. Yeah, totally. Anyways, Mo, should Robert Pattinson and William Dafoe have kissed in

the movie The Lighthouse? Should they have kissed in it? Did you see the movie? I didn't see it. I didn't see it. I'm so behind on my Lighthouse movies. I do remember. Yeah. I mean, to me, it felt a little too much with all due respect, like Tom Hanks with that soccer ball. So, yeah. So I'm all in favor of them doing everything they could have done to light up that lighthouse. Oh, excellent wordplay, my friend. Okay. This lighthouse is like the Quentin Tarantino of lighthouses.

It's crazy. And, you know, one man's death trap is another person's $192,000 because, yeah, Mil, you guessed it. Someone ended up buying this puppy for way more than it was listed for, specifically $192,000. Which, you know, that just goes to show that it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that really matters. As long as the inside is packed with asbestos and lead paint, which this one is. Oh my god, it gets better. I mean, just all the time. I know. So Mo, I constantly dream of being a lighthouse keeper. Do you? You know, I kind of do because I know that I would get sick of it pretty quickly, especially if there were no pirates coming around to warn people about. But I think that I could really use the solace. I think it's between that and a monastery. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I feel like, you know, there's this idea

of like, what if I run away from my nine to five and throw on a chunky sweater and sip my tea in a lighthouse by the sea? Would that finally make me happy? I mean, it would make me happy as long as there was a strong Wi-Fi signal. Totally. And, you know, and where do you get your food? I mean, I guess you can sort of troll for a lobster from up there. I think you just sort of, but I would definitely need somebody with me. I mean, if it came with a concierge, I'd buy it. Oh, absolutely. So Lighthouse Core, the idea of, you know, ocean-side bliss. I feel like this concept of lighthouse, eat, pray, love is like really – there's so much romance behind the idea of a lighthouse.

Are you a romantic person? Like do you romanticize this kind of stuff? I find it more romantic if it were a lighthouse that seemed very romantic or very remote, excuse me, but was in fact, you know, a few hundred yards away from a major metropolis. And I'm also not great with dank environments. dank environments. So, you know, I guess if there was an outlet for a dehumidifier, I could be better with it. It's like glamping, but for lighthouses,

like a Nancy Meyers lighthouse at the Booker counter space. A Nancy Meyers lighthouse is a brilliant idea. And Meryl Streep is there in a cashmere wrap, you know? Completely. Oh, completely. I need a pashmina with my lighthouse before I can move in. No, lighthouses are for sure haunted, right? Yes, you want a ghost with your lighthouse. Or at least you want the Gorton's Fisherman to swing by every now and then. Sure, sure, yeah. What kind of ghost would you prefer in your lighthouse? Well, I suppose a ghost that sings sea shanties. I think you kind of want that, but that's sort of a given. Yeah. I feel like I would want like a gal pal ghost, you know, and like together it's like it's like

Broad City, but one of us is dead and we're in a lighthouse, you know. But is she like a 19th century gal pal? Oh, absolutely. You know, I gossip, she gossips. I ask her about what a terminology is. She asked me what our cell phones, we learn from each other. You know, I love that. New England has a bunch of spooky lighthouses. I would love to live in a spooky lighthouse for like a month and play pranks on the local villagers that they think a ghost is living inside of the lighthouse you know trick out everyone what a performance art project right there totally absolutely like that show sleep no more one of these shows right

maybe that's what should be done with a lighthouse and then people will come hipsters will come and stay for hours at a time yeah we should team up mo i'll be the one making the weird sounds and you can be the guy in the village spreading the rumors. Yes. Have you guys heard that thing at midnight? Sounds like a woman wailing. I would happily be the hype man for it. So Mo and I clearly love the idea of lighthouses,

but we just had to know, what are these guys like in real life? Hello. Hi, Jeremy. Hi, Emma. Will you introduce yourself to us? Sure. I'm Jeremy D'Entremont. I am a lighthouse guy. I've been doing lighthouse stuff for nearly 40 years.

I'm the historian for both the American Lighthouse Foundation and the U.S. Lighthouse Society. And a ghost hunter and a podcast host. Jeremy, you do it all. I mean, you're basically the Whoopi Goldberg of lighthouses. Well, I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you. So I want to ask you in your professional base of knowledge, are all lightkeepers hot or is it just Robert Pattinson?

I'm going to say, yeah, all lighthouse keepers are hot. Let me ask you something. It's kind of wild, but we have a theory that all lighthouses are haunted. Is that true? Well, you know, the people who lived at this lighthouse when they were resident keepers, those keepers and family members were so devoted to the place. And you had some keepers at some of these lighthouses who were there for 20, 30, 40 years living at them. My feeling is whether or not you believe there are ghosts or however you want to describe it,

I believe that the spirits of the keepers are with us one way or another, figuratively or literally. But it may be literally. And there has certainly been some evidence. Yeah. What evidence have you found? Well, again, I've been involved with Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse here in Newcastle, New Hampshire for more than 20 years now. And I'm one of many people actually who's had experiences there. In my personal case, it was a voice I heard in the tower that had no easy explanation. That's so cool.

Oh, my God. I would love to see if it would talk to me because I want to meet a lighthouse keeper so bad. And if he's dead, even better. Well, maybe that could be arranged. Maybe we can get you over there. Oh, I would love to. Well, Jeremy, what do you think? We can put our money where our mouths are.

I'll bring a friend. You show yourself. And we visit a creepy little lighthouse together. I think that sounds like an excellent idea. And you're going to love it. I was totally down to go see this lighthouse. But first, I had to assemble a team. Ghost team, assemble!

Jeremy Donchermont, the expert. An absolute lighthouse fiend. Jeremy knows the Portsmouth Lighthouse like the back of his hand. He'll be our guide, and here's a perk. I can definitely outrun him in a malevolent ghost chase situation. Ava Salzman, the scholar. Ava knows the most about ghosts out of everyone I know. Also, she's my friend and probably won't make fun of me if I get scared.

Wilder Fleming, the engineer. Wilder's bringing all the equipment we need to hunt them ghosts. Also, he's tall, which is always useful. And of course, there's me, Emma Choi, aka NPR's sweetheart, aka NPR's bad boy, aka Pete Hersey gal, aka the tolerant of lactose, the Choi that was chosen, the hostess with the mostest. Wait, what were we talking about? Once the team met up, we hopped into my 2005 black Acura that my dad used to drive and pulled up to the Portsmouth Lighthouse on a beautiful fall day. The leaves were orange, the water was a perfect blue, and the lighthouse shone with its white paint.

But as we drove up to park next to the lighthouse, I couldn't help but wonder, was there something more nefarious hiding under that white lead paint? Sounds like a flock of Canada geese going over us here. Hi Jeremy, thanks so much for having us here. Hi Emma, it's great to have you here. Nice to see you. This is my friend Ava. Hi Ava. Hi, it's great to meet you. Nice to meet you. Yeah, Ava knows a lot about ghosts and stuff, so I thought I'd bring her along. Excellent. Look for a certain captain. Yeah, he has been known to show up. Okay. Oh, whoa. Are you crazy? Oh my god, A He looks crazy up here.

This lighthouse is pretty short as lighthouses go. You know, you have some that are up to like 200 feet tall. It's a short king. Ours is only 48 feet. 44 stairs. Wow. So this room we're in now at the top of the stairs is called the watch room. Because in some lighthouses, a keeper would actually be here overnight keeping watch on the light to

make sure the light didn't go up. Is this where you heard the ghost last time? Yes it is. This very moment I am standing precisely like I was the time I heard the ghost right in the same place and leaning on the ladder just like I am now. So I'm leaning against this ladder that goes up to the lantern room here, which is where the light is. And what happened was, and I'm going to say this was, I think it was 2007. So it was a while ago. I was giving a tour one afternoon, an afternoon much like this afternoon. I was talking to a young couple right here. And as I'm telling them some of the history of the lighthouse, suddenly in the middle of me talking, I heard, hello.

But when I heard that hello, I stopped talking, and I leaned over and I looked there. There was nobody there. So I said to the couple, did you hear something? The guy said, yeah, I heard a man say hello. His wife didn't hear anything. What was that? I heard something down there you hear that noise listen to that wind howling I heard something down there I think it was probably the door moving I might not have secured it as well as it could have been with the wind blowing it couldn't really move it easily I'm surprised I

actually feel like nervous okay I don't know like it, it feels like, you know, when someone's, your back is turned and there's someone across the room looking at you. I get that feeling sometimes here. Not always. Sometimes I come in here and I say, well, there's nobody here today. Sometimes I feel there's something going on. But usually, especially if I'm here at night when I leave, I usually say goodnight to the captain. But anyway, yeah, he's our usual suspect.

There's other theories, you know. We can't say for sure what's going on. But Joshua Card, the longtime keeper here, is our number one suspect in a lot of these cases. Okay, so we're looking for Captain Card, the man who ran this lighthouse for decades. And we wanted to see if he would talk to us. Okay, so we made a homemade pendulum here with my shoelace and my dorm key. And there's a keychain on my dorm key that is a bottle opener, so we can crap open some cold ones after this. So can you walk us through how this is supposed to work?

Sure. The first thing normally a researcher would do is kind of steady the first kind of steady the pendulum. And then I'm going to ask what is a yes and see what the pendulum does. Well that was immediate. Oh wow. It's going side to side very clearly. Yeah it is. Okay, so that's a yes. What is a no? This is kind of up and down for me like... It's a little more diagonal too. It's kind of going towards my leg in a way. And what is a maybe? That's a circle. It's a counterclockwise circle. That's a big motion.

Your hand is perfectly still. I think so. Okay, so let me ask you ask a question so four of us are here we have if there's somebody here would like to communicate with us we'd like to communicate with you so is there somebody here? That's a yes. Are you a man? As you understand it to be. That's a yes.

Yep, that's definitely a yes. Were you a keeper of the lighthouse? Another yes. Okay. Wow, the movement is so strong. And your hand is moving at all. That's really cool. Can you ask if it likes big butts? You cannot lie.

Hey, if it heard me, it's going towards a yes. Do you think Game of Thrones should have ended differently? Is that a yes. Do you think Game of Thrones should have ended differently? Is that a yes? That's a pretty strong yes. Would you want Timothee Chalamet? What do we think

that is? Fine, he doesn't know. Aesthetically, would you want a gorgeous, frail, white boy with beautiful hair? Yeah. Yeah, me too, buddy. That's a yes. Will you allow a safe passage out of the lighthouse?

That was a yes. Yeah, that's a yes. You have to think about that a little bit. Yeah, it's like... Are we your favorite people who has ever visited this lighthouse? That was a yes. Yeah, that's a yes. You have to think about that a little bit. Yeah, it was like, hmm. Are we your favorite people who has ever visited this lighthouse? That's cold. Let it be noted, it completely stopped.

Well, in that case, goodbye. Bye. Bye. And here's the spookiest part of the podcast. The credits. This show was brought to you by Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. This episode was produced by Haley Fager and Oja Lopez, with help from Wilder Fleming, Blythe Robertson, Lillian King, Sophie Hernandez-Semioni-Diz, and Captain Card's allegedly hot girlfriend. Our supervising producer is Kelly Wessinger,

and our true meaning of Christmas is Mike Danforth. Once again, Lorna White, thank you for helping us make our ghost sound even ghostlier. Thank you to ghost researcher, artist, and my friend, Ava Salzman, for being the most awesome ghost hunter I know. Do you love this lighthouse? And thank you to Jeremy Dondremont for being the lighthouse of men, tall with cool hat. Do you like us being here talking to you? Jeremy has his own podcast all about lighthouses. Listen to Lighthearted at uslhs.org.

houses. Listen to Lighthearted at uslhs.org. Thank you to my co-host, comedian, WaitWaitPanelist, and someone who I'm petitioning to play Fanny Bryce next on Broadway. It's Mo Rocca. That's a good point. Don't forget to catch the new season of his podcast, Mobituaries.

I'm Emma Choi, and you can find me at WaitWaitMPR, and living in a dorm room that hasn't been lived in for years and definitely is haunted with the spirit of an old nerd. Oh! This is MPR.