The NoSleep Podcast – Season 23, Episode 22 (December 7, 2025)

Overview

In this atmospheric, spine-tingling episode, The NoSleep Podcast delivers five distinct tales of horror, each exploring the breakdown of sense—touch, sound, memory, and trust—against a chilling backdrop. The stories are intertwined by haunting original music and David Cummings' evocative narration, delivering original nightmares about grief manifesting through sound, a cursed film, haunting lullabies, and the epic conclusion to the Goat Valley Campgrounds saga. A running theme for the episode is how unreliable senses and the unknown transform everyday experiences into pure terror.

Main Themes & Segment Breakdown

I. Opening Monologue & Framing (00:05–05:53)

• Host: David Cummings
• Key Points:
  • David humorously describes mysterious swamp flooding in the radio studio, setting a surreal tone ("I'm your soggy host… DC the Swamp Thing").
  • Raises the idea that when senses misfire—or are too acute—horror is the result.
  • Sets up the night’s stories: encounters that call reality and sanity into question.

Notable Quote

"What if our senses start lying to us, making us see, hear, feel, smell or taste things that aren't real, or worse, deliberately meant to disturb us?"
—David Cummings (04:42)

II. Story 1: “The Ringing” by Todd Murgatroyd (05:53–29:00)

• Performer: Jake Benson
• Plot Summary:
  • A grieving man with persistent, invasive tinnitus begins experiencing his late partner’s comforting presence via the pain—but soon, mementos and pain intertwine gruesomely.
  • He becomes obsessed with reliving moments of connection through self-inflicted pain and her belongings.
  • Supernatural forces reveal themselves (her coin, earrings) and send a cryptic, horrifying message: "She is ours now."
  • The haunting builds to a cacophony of pain and madness as the protagonist is left in endless torment, the phrase echoing eternally.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• Tinnitus as supernatural invasion

“The noise was getting closer and my head couldn't take it. Without sounding dramatic, I was sure this was how I was going to die.”
—Jake Benson (08:50)

• Desperate connection through pain

“I took her emergency pound coin and tried to push it in the opening. I know what you're thinking because I think it too. What an absolute psychopath.”
—Jake Benson (20:06)

• Climax: The message

"She is ours now. The ringing started again. It began to change and shift frequency. It wasn't just a ringing. It was screaming. A constant, never ending wail of pain. Didn't take me long to recognize it. It was her."
—Jake Benson (24:14)

III. Story 2: “Haven Noir” by Vil Numenpa (32:05–54:15)

• Performers: Jeff Clement, Alonte Baraket, Atticus Jackson, Ash Millman, David Alt, Sarah Thomas, Jesse Cornett
• Plot Summary:
  • Emmett, a horror reviewer, attempts to critique a film he cannot remember—his memory slipping with every attempt.
  • Watching "Haven Noir" again, the film warps reality as a leprous jester emerges from the TV, infecting his mind.
  • The film's cursed space traps both Emmett and his doppelgänger within an endless loop of horror and grief, unable to escape memory or meaning.
  • The horror is recursive: every attempt to resolve or remember the movie deepens the nightmare.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• The film’s erasure of memory:

“What an odd thing. Thinking of the film felt like trying to grab smoke in your fist.”
—Emmett (35:16)

• The jester emerges:

"The leopard jester stepped out of the TV and sat down on the couch by his side."
—Emmett (41:21)

• The cycle restarts:

“He was soaking wet, but it felt so good to be able to breathe properly. What a movie. Gotta give credit where credit is due. The film certainly had its moments. But critically speaking, he had some issues to address…”
—Emmett (53:14–53:29)

IV. Story 3: “Someone Sings to My Daughter at Night” by Syl (56:30–73:24)

• Performers: Penny Scott Andrews, David Alt, Erica Sanderson, Ash Millman
• Plot Summary:
  • A mother on a business trip is devastated by her daughter's distress in her absence, until alarming events escalate at home: someone (or something) sings lullabies through the baby monitor.
  • Her husband, alone with their daughter Lila, tries and fails to catch the intruder in the act.
  • The mother uncovers an unread email from Lila's late birth mother, Hayley—now deceased—who begs to see her child and “sing to her.”
  • The episode ends in a panic as the singing won’t stop, and the mother races home, unsure if Hayley’s spirit or something else wants her daughter.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• Discovery of the haunting:

“Someone was singing. It was a beautiful voice, sweet and gentle, yet somehow it sent chills stabbing through my spine.”
—Joanne (62:12)

• Revelation:

“She was back singing to Lila. Did she want to take Lila from us? Did she want payback for my failure to help?”
—Joanne (71:27)

V. Story 4: Goat Valley Campgrounds: Season 2, Final Chapter by Bonnie Quinn (74:03–107:17)

• Performers: Large ensemble including Lindsay Russo, Graham Rowett, Peter Lewis
• Plot Summary:
  • Kate, the campground manager, and her nemesis, the Man with No Shadow, are trapped inside the body of a monstrous forest entity.
  • Joined by a long-lost camper, they navigate nightmarish “anatomy”—ribs as corridors, hearts as traps.
  • Themes of guilt, the will to survive (or die), and negotiating truces with literal and metaphorical darkness.
  • Kate ultimately escapes by betraying her enemy at the final moment, earning her freedom from the monster—and earning a bitter peace as new rules are set for the campground.
  • Epilogue: the Man with No Shadow is condemned to permanent imprisonment; family ties and forgiveness are addressed in the aftermath; a new rule is added about not trusting friendly, shadowless men.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• Trapped in the beast:

“This was not a maze. This was the body of the thing in the darkness. I could hardly hope to navigate the veins of my own body and find a way out after all…”
—Kate (77:13)

• Theme of survival and consequence:

“The weak perish. There is no mercy here in the forest.”
—Kate (98:01)

• Final rule:

“Rule number 17: ...end the conversation immediately. He is trying to earn your trust. That was the man with no Shadow and he will never escape.”
—Kate (106:53)

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• “If our senses aren't reliable, or even if they're too acute, that can mean we're in for a disturbing time.”
  —David Cummings (03:56)

• “The sound in your head can only get louder, not closer... there was a distance to it that was changing.”
  —Jake Benson (08:29)

• “It was more of a feeling than a thought. But he wanted to rid himself of the movie and get this review done. And he needed a shower.”
  —Emmett (33:50)

• “Someone’s been singing to our daughter… I ran in every time. There’s no one in there with her.”
  —Man with No Shadow (62:54)

• “You, I do not forgive.”
  —The Thing in the Dark (98:01)

• “No more online DNA tests, no more ancestry, anything. We don't need to be bringing more surprise relatives here that don't know what they're getting into.”
  —Kate (105:01)

Timestamps for Story Segments

• Introduction & Monologue: 00:05–05:53
• Story 1: The Ringing 05:53–29:00
  • Tinnitus turns supernatural; the pain and grief crescendo
• Story 2: Haven Noir 32:05–54:15
  • Reviewer haunted by a recursive, cursed film
• Story 3: Someone Sings to My Daughter at Night 56:30–73:24
  • Haunting lullabies and maternal guilt
• Story 4: Goat Valley Campgrounds, Season Finale 74:03–107:17
  • Survival, betrayal, and new rules in the campground saga

Tone & Style

The episode maintains a dark, unsettling, and introspective tone typical of the NoSleep Podcast. Narration is wry and knowing, with careful escalation from mundane discomfort to existential terror. Each performer’s delivery is immersive, evoking dread, grief, and the uncanny.

Conclusion

Season 23, Episode 22 of The NoSleep Podcast masterfully blends horror sub-genres—grief horror, cursed media, supernatural hauntings, and urban legend survival—in a way that reinforces the fragility of perception and the power of the unknown. Each story is a confrontation with fear's many faces, and the pervasive threat that our senses and reality itself may betray us.

For more sleepless tales, visit NoSleep Podcast.