LOS ANGELES — UFOs, ancient curses, possession, ghosts and creepy ephemera are topics usually relegated to the fringe corners of the internet, but one podcast is gaining traction with young listeners by taking these otherworldly events seriously.The ‘This American Life’ of ghost stories is captivating Gen Z© Jack Wagner“Otherworld” is a podcast in which people who have had supernatural experiences tell their stories firsthand. Dubbed by fans as the “paranormal This American Life,” the host, Jack Wagner, a 34-year-old director in Los Angeles, conducts in-depth interviews and investigations to uncover the mysteries presented in each episode.Say goodbye to debt: 0% interest until 2024AdCompareCardsThe show has struck a chord online and is poised to become the breakout podcast of the Halloween season. In its first weeks it racked up more than 1,400 five-star reviews and entered the top Top 30 on Spotify and iTunes charts. The show has become a cult phenomenon in young online communities. Meme accounts post about the show’s episodes and fans gather on apps including Discord to discuss the stories. In one Discord server, high-schoolers and college students debated theories about the episodes.It is praised by influencers including the founder of the Birds Aren’t Real movement, Peter McIndoe, and Jason Stewart, co-host of the hit podcast, How Long Gone.“Jack has been a master of finding the humor and intrigue in seemingly lifeless parts of our life,” Stewart said.“Otherworld” comes at a time when surveys show young people have lost faith in legacy institutions and are increasingly seeking escape into the supernatural and spiritual. Signs of this shift can be felt across the internet: Conspiracy theories are on the rise, Catholicism is having a renaissance, witchcraft and “manifesting” are popular on TikTok, and people across the political spectrum have embraced more mystical belief systems.
Americans’ belief in ghosts has been on the rise since 2015, according to a poll by YouGov, a research and analytics firm, and paranormal beliefs are becoming common, with 59 percent of women and 52 percent of men expressing a belief in haunted places, according to a 2019 survey by Chapman University. Even the U.S. government has refused to rule out the existence of aliens after making footage of unidentified flying objects public.
“Spirituality and energies and all that stuff is mainstream now,” said Evan Ramroth, 22, a college student in Rhode Island who listens to “Otherworld.” “It’s a big thing in my age demographic and the subject matter of the podcast goes hand and hand with it. I think young people are more prone to looking at things with an open mind. We’re caught in this world where if you look at things through a realistic lens, they look pretty bleak.”
“I’ve never been known as a paranormal person,” Wagner said.