Spooky Season Walking Tour (Encore)

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

College football is back, so Hilton called on me, the Superstition Concierge, to make your fan rituals a reality. Need a room to match your lucky number? We got you. Wanna make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey? Ooh, that smells lucky.

Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition. Even a marching band wake up call at 555 in 55 seconds. Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay.

Kathryn Nicolai (0:34)

Welcome to Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but for fiction.

I'm Kathryn Nicolai. I write and read all the stories you'll hear on the Village of Nothing Much. Audio engineering and sound design is by Bob Wittersheim.

In our show notes, you'll find links to our ad-free premium version, our other shows, and our merch and partner products. Hello, my walking tour buddies. Before we get to today's episode, I feel the need to tell you that I took a very small break this month. I make three different podcasts that all come out weekly, some of them even with bonus episodes. And even though I built an entire media company on the idea of rest, I almost never take a break from delivering you brand new content all the time. And that is mostly because I love it and I love you, and only a little because I still have some therapy to do around people pleasing and unreasonable expectations of myself. So this month, while I did make a lot of fun content for Nothing Much Happens, including two new Halloween specials, one involving special guests Doug the Pug and his sister Dory, I decided to not make any new episodes of Stories from the Village and first this. So our walking tour will be a re-walking tour, but still an awful lot of spooky fun. I'm saying this right now to hold myself accountable to it in the coming year, that I will be taking a few more breaks here and there. We have a lot of new projects coming out, including a new spinoff podcast called Neighbors of Nothing Much and our new app. And if I don't stop myself, I will just type my little fingies to the bone on my adorable whimsical keyboard. So, thanks for listening and for sticking with us while we slash I figure out how to keep the wheels from coming off this wild Nothing Much Happens-averse ride. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Welcome! I am so glad you're here. I know we're just strangers on the internet, but I love knowing that we are about to take a walk together. At least that's the idea of this episode. Once a month, I lead you on a walking tour of some corner of the Village of Nothing Much. And dare I say that tonight's is a very special episode, because it's spooky season. And while we often encounter what we might call ordinary magic in these stories, tonight we'll encounter the regular magical kind, the witchy kind. And hey, that's not for everybody. If it isn't for you, it's cool to skip it. In fact, let's just do a quick recap on this little rule of content consumption in the modern age, because it seems like a lot of folks have forgotten how this works. When you're listening, reading, scrolling, and you run across something that isn't for you, you can just move on to the next thing. You don't need to leave a comment or interact with it in any way. Just go find more of the stuff that is for you. And if you abide in the section of the Venn Diagram where Cozy overlaps with Spooky, well, put your shoes on. Or snuggle up with your favorite blanket and cup of tea. And if you're new here and you're like, what is she talking about? What is this show? It's some feel-good, make-believe, some grown-ups, Mr. Rogers, Cottage Core, especially if that cottage had vintage furniture and small dogs and could maybe sprout legs Baba Yaga style. Did that clear it up? Well, there's lots of episodes to help fill in the blanks, including the place that all of this started, the biggest sleep podcast in the world, My Baby, Nothing Much Happens. Go follow over there too. And just because I think it will both feel better, let's take a deep breath in through the nose.

And sigh through your mouth.

Do that one more time. Inhale and let it out.

Good.

Spooky Season Walking Tour.

I've been looking forward to this walking tour since our very first trip out together. As someone who's built a whole career and village of buddies around the idea of cozy community, I am deep in my bones an autumn. But I am especially an October. I know everyone doesn't feel this way, but to me, there's a direct line from cozy cottage vibes to spooky season. You know, it's like a fire on a cold, dark night. Yes, that's good. But a teeny bit of eerie atmosphere to go with it. Now that's peak experience.