The NoSleep Podcast Presents… Conversations with Ghosts

Summary

The NoSleep Podcast Presents: Conversations with Ghosts

Episode: Faded Spirit
Date: November 19, 2025
Host: Mal Fleming (snippet narrated by Cummings)

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Overview

This episode features a haunting cross-promotion of the new audio drama Conversations with Ghosts. In “Faded Spirit,” Mal Fleming converses with a forgotten spirit in Greybriar Cemetery—a ghost so old it no longer remembers its name, life, or why it lingers. The episode explores themes of memory, legacy, identity, and the liminality between histories lost and preserved. Storytelling weaves horror with melancholy, blending urban legend, faded history, and the poetic sadness of the unknowable.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Conversations with Ghosts

• Cummings introduces the new show, highlighting its blend of horror, nostalgia, history, and loss (00:01).
• Premise: Each episode is a dialogue with a different spirit, focusing on what anchors them to the world.

2. Encountering the Faded Spirit

• Mal Fleming begins his conversation by attempting to establish the ghost’s identity—asking about name, memories, and cause of death (01:37).
• The spirit, confused and repetitive (“the tide comes and the tide goes”), reveals their profound amnesia and detachment from former self (01:47–02:15).

3. The Struggle to Remember

• Ghost hesitates about being named, fearing it will mold them into someone they were not:

  “Perhaps if you name me incorrectly, you will influence me into being someone I was not so as to fit the name. Like water filling a vessel. Better to have no name at all.” (Unnamed Ghost, 02:46)

• Mal gently probes for memories; the spirit likens recalling their past to holding water—a fleeting impossibility (03:21).

4. The Nature of Fading and Oblivion

• The ghost expresses apprehension about truly passing on, influenced by a mysterious “something” that whispers promises of oblivion:

  “Something whispers to me about oblivion... Something tells me to let go, to take the hand of the thing. But I think the thing is lying.” (Unnamed Ghost, 05:23–05:50)

• The idea of a “door made of onyx” as a barrier to passing is introduced—a key metaphysical motif (06:52).
• Caldwell, a previous intermediary, is referenced—his notes are cryptic and unhelpful for Mal (04:06, 07:55).

5. Language, Identity, and the Power of Names

• The ghost and Mal discuss language, gender, and the evolution of identity across death and memory (09:01–10:29).
• Notable rumination on the importance and insignificance of names:

  “Sometimes I think they are the most important things in the world. And sometimes I think they do not matter at all.” (Unnamed Ghost, 08:44)

6. Grasping at History: Place, Trapping, and Memory

• Mal and the spirit theorize about the ghost’s origin—possibly Dutch or English, perhaps a beaver trapper from New York’s early days (10:36–14:50).
• The spirit describes a vivid trapping scene:

  “And the beavers would come out in the winter... The traps were heavy and their legs were destroyed. And then they would drown... And then the skinning would begin. The hats are so warm, though the height of fashion. All the rich men in Europe had to have one.” (Unnamed Ghost, 13:05–14:00)

• Ghost wavers between owning the memory and questioning if it’s even theirs.

7. The Meaning of Stories and the Weight of History

• Reflections on the historical myth of Manhattan’s “sale” for $24 and how repetition creates history, not necessarily truth (15:13–15:45).

  “If a story is repeated enough times, that makes it... If not truth, it makes it history.” (Unnamed Ghost, 15:23)

• The ghost continually references water, tides, and being washed up—conflating themes of migration, erasure, and transformation (16:14–17:06).

8. Philosophical Reflections on Memory, Identity, and Letting Go

• Mal emphasizes the immutable influence of the past, while the ghost wonders if freedom lies in forgetting.
• The spirit asks if they should embrace a new existence, cleansed of history, or if their past is truly inescapable (17:06–18:58).
• The ghost is hopeful yet skeptical that echoing glimmers of memory (like the trapping story) might suffice for passage.

9. The Onyx Door and Passage

• The episode culminates with Mal offering the spirit a name—an act both intimate and ineffable. The ghost requests Mal whisper the name privately, suggesting that a new identity, even briefly bestowed, can become a “skeleton key” for transcendence (20:23–21:02).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Identity & Naming:

  “Like water filling a vessel. Better to have no name at all.” (Unnamed Ghost, 02:46)

• On Memory’s Ephemerality:

  “It's like trying to hold water in your hand.” (Unnamed Ghost, 03:21)

• On the Fear of Oblivion:

  “But there's something in his voice, something wrong. A skull is always smiling, mouth slimming.” (Unnamed Ghost, 05:56)

• On History and Storytelling:

  “Once you say a word enough, it becomes a new name. Manahatta became Manhattan, became New York. All for $24. It's history.” (Unnamed Ghost, 15:37)

• The Onyx Door:

  “I keep trying but it is a door. A door made of onyx that I cannot open. It needs something, a key...” (Unnamed Ghost, 06:52)

• The Healing Potential of Stories:

  “Can hold onto it along with some other flotsam and use it as a skeleton key to open a door made of onyx.” (Unnamed Ghost, 19:16)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01–01:36: Cummings introduces the show and synopsis
• 01:37–03:14: Mal meets the faded spirit; identity and memory loss
• 05:19–06:39: The ghost discusses fears of oblivion and a sinister “something”
• 10:56–14:50: The spirit recalls scenes of fur trapping; questions of memory’s truth
• 15:13–15:45: Meditations on historical myth and the power of repeated stories
• 16:14–17:06: Water metaphors, beginnings, and the loss of identity
• 20:23–21:02: Mal offers the spirit a name, enabling the passage

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Tone and Atmosphere

The episode is meditative, eerie, and profoundly melancholic. The ghost’s voice is wistful, floating between confusion and longing. Mal is empathetic and tentative, never forcing enlightenment but gently guiding, invested in the dignity of each story. History, myth, and emotion bleed together, blurring the boundary between haunting and healing.

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Summary

Faded Spirit exemplifies Conversations with Ghosts’ ability to marry ghost story chills with the heartbreak of forgotten history. Through the spectral interview, the show interrogates the power of stories, the cost of lost memory, and the profound challenge of truly passing on—a perfect morsel of horror for fans of the reflective and the uncanny.

Transcript

[Narrator (Cummings)]

Hey, folks, Cummings here. You know, excellent audio dramas are made and deserve to be heard. That's why we're sharing a creepy new podcast with you that we think you'll really like. Conversations with Ghosts. It's the newest audio drama from the creators of Archive 81, and it's all about loss, history and the things we leave behind. Oh, and ghosts. Don't forget the ghosts. The podcast follows Mausoleum Mal Fleming as he tries to convince the spirits of Greybriar Cemetery to pass on. Each episode is, as the title says, a conversation with a different ghost, and Mal learns about each ghost's life, death, legacy and what's tying them to this reality. It's a mix of horror and wistfulness and little known history. And if you're a fan of our sleepless scares, we think you'll enjoy it. This episode, Faded Spirit Involves, involves Mal Fleming trying to help a ghost who's been at the cemetery so long they've forgotten who they even were to begin with. So take a listen and if you like it, find Conversations with Ghosts wherever you get your podcasts. The first six episodes are already in the feed and there's a new episode every Wednesday. So without further ado, take a listen to Conversations with Ghosts.

[Mal Fleming]

My name is Mal Fleming. I am here to assist in your passage. Can you remember your name and the circumstances of your death?

[Unnamed Ghost]

The tide comes and the tide goes. And the tide comes and the tide goes. The city was once two cities, and it is a city of water and tides ever changing and ever moving. Are you aware of that, Mal Fleming?

[Mal Fleming]

I.

[Unnamed Ghost]

No, I don't think I can remember my name and the circumstances of my death, Mal Fleming. And are you aware that the tide goes and the tide comes and this city was once two cities?

[Mal Fleming]

If you're referring to the fact that Brooklyn and New York used to be separate entities, then yes, I'm aware of that. Does the tide bear any relation to. Were you a fishmonger, perhaps, or.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I am not sure. Should I be?

[Mal Fleming]

Is there a name you would like me to call you for the purposes of this conversation?

[Unnamed Ghost]

Does it matter?

[Mal Fleming]

I don't have to use a name if you would prefer.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Perhaps if you name me incorrectly, you will influence me into being someone I was not so as to fit the name. Like water filling a vessel. Better to have no name at all.

[Mal Fleming]

Then I won't use a name. Now, is there anything you can tell me that would help in identifying you? Any memories that come to mind? Perhaps a loved one or an occupation? Even a date? Anything could be helpful.

[Unnamed Ghost]

You are correct. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mal Fleming]

Nothing at all comes to mind.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Of course. Things come, but they go ever so quickly. It's like trying to hold water in your hand.

[Mal Fleming]

Well, if a memory does come, please let me know. It could be helpful.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Yes, I will. I would like to be of help. At one point, I remember. I think I remember. I remember remembering that I wanted to live here forever. That it was a pleasant way to live or die. But you are trying to get me to pass on why I will fade completely soon.

[Mal Fleming]

Caldwell's notes, they. They say it's a bad idea to let a ghost fade away. He didn't say why.

[Unnamed Ghost]

But you are new. Ever so new. Perhaps you will learn more about us in time. Caldwell did. But he was here for a very long while and he has not left yet. And who knows how much longer you will have, Mal Fleming. Anyone can die at any time and then their story ends and all that is left is epilogue.

[Mal Fleming]

Working here does hammer that point home.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Does working here frighten you, Mal Fleming?

[Mal Fleming]

I. Strangely, no. If you had told me a few. Well, weeks ago that this. That this would be what I was doing, I would be either incredulous or terrified. But I do find the work fascinating. I don't think anything I've learned could be properly cited in a paper, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

[Unnamed Ghost]

What a lovely thing to say, Mal Fleming. Though perhaps you should be a bit more frightened.

[Mal Fleming]

Why do you say that?

[Unnamed Ghost]

I forget.

[Mal Fleming]

Would you like to fade away completely? Is that.

[Unnamed Ghost]

No.

[Mal Fleming]

Why not? The notes were.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Something whispers to me about oblivion, about the things I might find there. Something talks of peace, of tranquility, of a black pool, of letting my bones erode like stones in the ocean. Something tells me to let go, to take the hand of the thing. But I think the thing is lying. Something tells me such things. But there's something in his voice, something wrong. A skull is always smiling, mouth slimming.

[Mal Fleming]

And who tells you these things?

[Unnamed Ghost]

Something who tells me that my name is known. Was. Will be. I do not know something's name, though. I do not. At times I think that the something is within me. And at times I think it is coming from outside of me. Borders are so porous. I am so sorry. I want to remember things. I really do. I am trying so hard. Are you angry at me?

[Mal Fleming]

No, it's all right. Would you like to talk more about the something that.

[Unnamed Ghost]

No. I would like to forget it. Most of the time I do.

[Mal Fleming]

Understood. Is there a way that I can assist in your passage?

[Unnamed Ghost]

I keep trying but it is a door. A door made of onyx that I cannot open. It needs something, a key. But I do not know what the key is. Perhaps the key is a memory. Perhaps it is my name. Perhaps I need to be more of myself in order to pass on. But I cannot grasp who I once was. And there's no one in the graveyard old enough to remember. But perhaps you do. Have you discovered something? Is that why you are here?

[Mal Fleming]

Unfortunately, your tombstone is completely worn down. Caldwell's notes are. Well, it would be fair to categorize them as lacking.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Oh, perhaps we can talk to Caldwell then. He is still here. Or did I make a mistake?

[Mal Fleming]

Caldwell died a few months ago.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I did not make a mistake. He is still here. We could talk to him.

[Mal Fleming]

I have tried that. I would love to get more of a sense of, well, my responsibilities. But he has either passed on or he went.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Oh, yes, of course. He will not talk to you. I am sorry. My memory comes and goes.

[Mal Fleming]

Is there a reason why Caldwell won't talk to me?

[Unnamed Ghost]

Do you have any other ideas to make me remember?

[Mal Fleming]

If Caldwell won't.

[Unnamed Ghost]

He will not talk to you. And in a few moments I will forget the reasons why. Caldwell is such an interesting name. It means cold Spring. I am not sure how I know this. Are names important? Sometimes I think they are the most important things in the world. And sometimes I think they do not matter at all. I am so sorry, Mal Fleming. It is best to move on.

[Mal Fleming]

All right. You speak English, so would it be safe to assume that you spoke English during your life?

[Unnamed Ghost]

I. That is a good assumption, but I am not entirely sure it is true. When you are dead, your accent, your language, your way of speaking, it grows and changes. And this is an English graveyard. Mal Fleming. Mal Fleming. The more I say your name, the more solid it becomes, the easier it is for me to remember it. There's so many languages other than English.

[Mal Fleming]

Understood. Given the age and place of burial. I'm going to lean towards English or Dutch. Lenape being a slight.

[Unnamed Ghost]

The name of this city. Names again. Always back to names before it became one. City meant broken land. Brooklyn. That feels too obvious, too.

[Mal Fleming]

Apartment And I'll lean towards Dutch. I recognize that gender is well, but are you. How shall I put this?

[Unnamed Ghost]

Does my voice make me sound like a man or a woman? At this point, I cannot even tell. It seems so. I wonder if that was the first part of me to fall away. The soft parts of my not body dissolving into nothingness. But listen to my voice.

[Mal Fleming]

What do you think I wouldn't want to say. I mean, I don't want to presume.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Then do not presume. I do not think knowing would help me remember. Hmm.

[Mal Fleming]

Do you know if you were buried in Grape Briar originally? Or if your body was moved here? When they founded the cemetery, they moved a fair number of bodies. Mostly famous ones, military heroes, governors. But they also. I think they wanted the cemetery to look old. Even if it wasn't so.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I have spent far more time dead than I have spent alive, Mal Fleming. I wonder if I did not pass on because I felt cheated out of a life. If I wanted to spend more time upon this earth, watching the city grow around me. Or if I was afraid of what might await beyond the door I now cannot open. Perhaps I was. I am some great criminal. A devourer of flesh. My name infamous, even now. But now I find it difficult to even remember the life after my life. The spirits that were my friends, my enemies. The conversations we must have had. Our interactions with the living as limited as they might have been. I do not remember how I came to be at Greybriar Cemetery, Only that I have tarried far too long within its fallow earth.

[Mal Fleming]

You're difficult to see. I keep thinking that I can make a detail out, but no matter how hard I look, it's all like seeing.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Something under the water.

[Mal Fleming]

Yes. Even your smell is faded. Truly, most of the spirits, or at least the few I've encountered, they smell like. Like when a thunderstorm is about to arrive. Petrichor, it's called.

[Unnamed Ghost]

What a lovely name for a feeling. I am quite certain I did not know it until this very moment.

[Mal Fleming]

But you. You barely give off anything.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I am sorry.

[Mal Fleming]

No, no, don't apologize for. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. That was weird of me. I.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Do I smell like iron to you?

[Mal Fleming]

I.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Perhaps a bit like the blood of a small creature. Like blood in the water. The stakes had to be long enough to come above the river so they could be seen. The traps themselves were rusted, jaw like things. A trigger in the center in their waiting mouth. And they would snap so fast and so hard. And they would cut. They were baited with the oil of the beavers themselves, the ones that had already died. Yellow and fetid from the insides. And the beavers would come out in the winter. Only in the winter. And the water was so cold in the winter, the beavers screams sound like a whine. Nothing human about it at all, but piercing all the same. And they did not die quickly. The trap Would only snap on their leg. And they would scream and scream and swim to their den. Blood in the water. But the traps were heavy and their legs were destroyed. And then they would drown and their screams would be quiet. And then one could wait however long one wanted to pick up the corpse. And then the skinning would begin. The hats are so warm, though the height of fashion. All the rich men in Europe had to have one.

[Mal Fleming]

That sounds to me like a memory.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Perhaps Mal Fleming. But it is as if I am in the frigid water looking for the corpse of a small creature. And I am going deeper and deeper. And the water is getting colder and colder. And I cannot find anything. Maybe.

[Mal Fleming]

Do you think that this is who you were? Perhaps how you died?

[Unnamed Ghost]

I think that this is a story that I have heard. I do not know if I heard it from another spirit or if it was a story I told myself.

[Mal Fleming]

You sound connected to the story, if nothing else.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I've heard many stories, even if I do not remember all of them. I am sure I must have heard them. There is a story about New York being sold for $24. Have you heard that story? It was called Manahatta. Then Manahatta became Manhattan, became New York. All for $24.

[Mal Fleming]

It's a myth. Or rather, even if Peter Minuit bought Manhattan island and there's no written record of a transaction. The Lenape concept of land ownership was.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I have heard the story. 60 guilders, $24. A handful of beads. And if a story is repeated enough times, that makes it. If not truth, it makes it history. Once you say a word enough, it becomes a new name. Manahatta became Manhattan, became New York. All for $24. It's history.

[Mal Fleming]

I disagree.

[Unnamed Ghost]

You have not been here long, and I have forgotten more things than you will ever know. Mal, I'm not. I cannot quite remember your last name. I apologize.

[Mal Fleming]

It's all right.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Fleming. There I have it again. Like water flowing through my fingers.

[Mal Fleming]

You continually bring up water.

[Unnamed Ghost]

I do. Perhaps you wake up on a beach, Grit and sand and bird guano in your hair. You cough water out of your lungs. Your clothes are wet and cold and far too heavy. You know you're in a completely new place, outside of the context of everything that has come before. But you have no idea how you know. You have no memory of who you are, who you were. How you wound up on the shore of a new continent. But I wonder, does the past matter in this case? Does memory? Perhaps it is better to walk to this new land as a newly born Creature. Or to simply let the water wash you back to sea. What do you think, Mo Fleming?

[Mal Fleming]

I. I think that the past is important. I don't think that anyone can escape their. Let's call it context, history, your environment. It limits the choices you can make.

[Unnamed Ghost]

And then is it not freeing to throw away your past?

[Mal Fleming]

Perhaps in some cases. But learning from your mistakes from anyway, it's impossible. You can never extricate yourself.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Then you think that something of my past remains within me?

[Mal Fleming]

Yes. Yes, I do. I think there's enough for your passage. And I think that your memory of trapping, I think that was real.

[Unnamed Ghost]

You're very optimistic.

[Mal Fleming]

Perhaps. You know, New Amsterdam was an interesting place. It's usually glossed over in histories of New York. People kind of rush through it so they can get to New York's dawning as a metropolis. But it was fascinating. A commercial enterprise rather than a religious one. Polyglot and diverse from the very beginning. And it was a drunk city, even by the standards of the time. About one out of every five houses brewed beer. I think I might be misremembering the specifics. And a lot of this was the fact that beer was safer than water. But still, I wonder what life would have been like in these. They weren't taverns. Not yet. But in these houses where people got drunk and talked and reminisced. And perhaps after coming back from trapping beavers. Do you remember what that was like?

[Unnamed Ghost]

I remember warmth and smoke and the sound of laughter. But.

[Mal Fleming]

I believe that you were there. Or I am telling you a story in which you were there. And if you believe it, then I.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Can hold onto it along with some other flotsam and use it as a skeleton key to open a door made of onyx.

[Mal Fleming]

That would be the idea. And I'm sorry, but can I ask why is it an onyx door?

[Unnamed Ghost]

It is simply what it is made out of. And then what happens when I enter that onyx door, when I pass on? Do I come into a new place? Wash up on a new continent with nothing but half remembered stories and false names?

[Mal Fleming]

Or everything is returned to you and you become who you once were?

[Unnamed Ghost]

Or perhaps it does not matter and my soul is used up. Rain into the ocean.

[Mal Fleming]

Perhaps.

[Unnamed Ghost]

But it is better than fading away. I think. I hope.

[Mal Fleming]

I think so too.

[Unnamed Ghost]

Good. I would. Would you mind giving me a name so I have something else to hold on to.

[Mal Fleming]

That feels like something you should choose yourself?

[Unnamed Ghost]

No. The only name I can think of is Mal Fleming. And I do not think that would suit me. If you come closer. Whisper it. I want to be the only one to hear it.

[Mal Fleming]

Of course.

[Unnamed Ghost]

That is a very good name. No.

[Mal Fleming]

Name redacted. Passage completed.

[Narrator (Cummings)]

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Conversations with Ghosts. To hear more along with a new episode every Wednesday, subscribe to Conversations with Ghosts wherever you get your podcasts.