AI Summary
5 min read“I bit a bite of batter, but the batter bit me back.” That is how Glynn Washington opens a recent episode of Spooked, the podcast he hosts and created. It is a silly, playful line, and he delivers it with obvious delight. But Washington is not a poet, he insists—he is someone who gets to have fun with sounds and words, and he loves the show for that. The deeper point, however, is that Spooked is not really about jump scares or slasher films. Washington himself hates those. The show is about something else entirely: giving people a place to tell the stories they cannot tell anywhere else.
The real purpose of a ghost story
Washington grew up in an apocalyptic white supremacist cult in rural Michigan, part of the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. He was a true believer as a child, sleeping in his shoes so he could jump up instantly when Jesus returned. When he eventually left, he felt tricked, angry, and stupid. He moved to Japan, then to Malaysia, then to the San Francisco Bay Area. Along the way, he noticed something: every religious and cultural tradition he encountered contained some of the best people who have ever lived—and some of the worst. Belief itself, he concluded, is not the demarcation line between good and bad. What you do is.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:55) **Host Introduction & The Central Question** - Chris Duffy introduces the spooky season and his personal aversion to being scared, framing the episode around why people seek out scary stories despite the fear.
- 2 (02:26) **The "Spooked" Premise** - A clip from the very first episode of *Spooked* (2017) sets the atmospheric tone, inviting listeners to question reality and the feeling of being watched.
- 3 (05:36) **The Origin of "Spooked"** - Glynn explains that *Spooked* began as a simple Halloween episode of *Snap Judgment* that unexpectedly became the most popular annual show.
- 4 (07:27) **The Argument for Scaring Ourselves** - Chris confesses his extreme fear of scary movies, and Glynn reveals he shares the same aversion to "junk scares," reframing *Spooked* as a real-life *Twilight Zone* rather than a slasher film.
- 5 (10:59) **The "License" to Tell the Truth** - Glynn argues that the ghost story format acts as a shield, giving people permission to share their most profound and vulnerable truths without fear of judgment.
- 6 (12:53) **Holding Two Contradictory Ideas** - The conversation explores the power of cognitive dissonance, where listeners can be skeptical of the facts of a story while simultaneously believing the storyteller is not lying.
- 7 (13:37) **The Primacy of Narrative Over Fact** - Glynn explains his philosophy that how a person processes and tells their story is more important than the objective facts, as we are creatures who think and are moved by stories.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
How does someone who claims having zero tolerance on watching scary movies come to host a podcast on supernatural stories? That’s the question Chris asked Glynn Washington, host of the podcast Snap Judgment and his new show, Spooked. Glynn shares how he grew up in a cult and later moved to Japan. He also talks about the traits in great storytellers and recounts paranormal stories.
Featured guest
- Follow Glynn Washington on Instagram
- Listen to Snap Judgment and Spooked
Connect with the team
- Follow Chris on Instagram and at chrisduffycomedy.com
- Buy Chris’ book, Humor Me
- Watch How to Be a Better Human videos on YouTube at TEDPods
- Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok
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