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The California Report Magazine

Can We Really Speak to the Dead? Even for a Skeptic, Hope Creeps In

KQED News Staff
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An aged box with the words 'Ouija: Mystifying Oracle' on it, with an image of hands on a planchette. A black and white cat is gingerly sniffing the side of the box.
The box containing Jon Brooks' Ouija board, which sat unused for 27 years until recently. In 1995, the board was used to contact the spirit of a friend's great grandmother. Maybe... (Also pictured—Jon Brooks' cat, Zoey.) (Courtesy of Jon Brooks)

Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.

Did I Actually Contact a Dead Person? A Science Editor in Search of His Mother’s Ghost

This Halloween weekend, we enter the realm of the unknown, and bring you a ghost story produced in collaboration with the Bay Curious podcast. Jon Brooks is a reporter and former KQED science editor who lives in the world of evidence, facts and data. But many years ago, Jon witnessed something inexplicable, something that just couldn’t be squared with reality. A recent personal tragedy has prompted him to run that story over and over again in his mind. We join Jon on a journey to make sense of it all.

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