Revenants on the Redway with Dr Steph Lay

Revenants on the Redway with Dr Steph Lay

Author: Icy Sedgwick May 27, 2026 Duration: 59:38

Dr Steph Lay is a folk horror writer, psychologist and researcher, gathering and sharing local stories of the unexplained for a project investigating whether the new city of Milton Keynes might be more haunted than anyone realises. Behind the scenes, she works with Peter Laws on the popular YouTube channel Into the Fog, curating the true experiences sent in by viewers and creating atmospheric artwork to bring the stories to life. Overall, her work brings together stories, psychology and the paranormal, exploring not only why strange experiences unsettle us, but why they matter.

In this chat, we talk about Steph's Revenants on the Redway project, the beauty of collecting supernatural experiences, why places don't need to be old to be haunted, and the attraction of parapsychology.

Find Steph's blog: https://cityofsecrets.blog/

Check out Dr Ciarán O'Keeffe's parapsychology school: https://theschoolofparapsychology.company.site/

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595

Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick

Find the Fabulous Folklore Bookshop, Icy's social media links, and other useful bits at: http://icysedgwick.com/start-here


Each week, Fabulous Folklore with Icy offers a compact, fifteen-minute dive into the strange and storied shadows of our world’s traditions. Host Icy Sedgwick, a writer steeped in fantasy and Gothic horror, brings a storyteller’s eye to the material, weaving together tales of local legends, deep-rooted superstitions, and ancient myths. The podcast moves beyond simple retellings to consider the cultural soil from which these stories grew-why people believed what they did, how these narratives functioned in society, and the peculiar, often unsettling details that make them endure. You’ll hear about the oddities and occult practices that textbooks often overlook, all delivered with a blend of curiosity and a slight chill. It’s a consistently engaging exploration for anyone fascinated by the weird corners of history and human belief, a weekly reminder that our world is far more mysterious than it seems. Sedgwick’s background ensures the tales are told with both authority and a palpable sense of wonder, making each short episode a perfect gateway into a larger, fabulously folkloric universe. This isn’t just a catalog of curiosities; it’s an invitation to look at the familiar landscapes around us and imagine the layers of story hidden just beneath the surface, all packed into a brief, compelling listen that easily fits into a daily routine.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Podcast Episodes
How does 'Poltergeist' draw on actual poltergeist accounts? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
Poltergeist marked Hollywood's big-budget engagement with the ghost film in 1982. Produced by Stephen Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, it took the haunted house film and mashed it together with the family adventure…
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Duration: 1:27:38
S.A. Lawless is an herbalist, gardener, forager, mycophile, outdoor educator, and published author and illustrator, with a long-held fascination with folklore and witchcraft, currently living in rural Ontario, Canada. Sh…
Poltergeists: Noisy Ghosts or Household Spirits? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:16
This episode of Fabulous Folklore begins with a reading of the Poltergeist entry from my new book, Ghostlore, before we explore the problem with poltergeists - how do you define one?! From deciding what phenomena to incl…
White Ladies, Ghost Nuns & Spectral Children in Haunted Madrid [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:50
People have lived in the Madrid area since prehistoric times. Occupied by Romans, Moors, and then the Spanish, it has quite the history. Over 6.8 million people live in Madrid. That's less than Paris and London but more…
Murder Ballads and Dark Folk Music with Katy Horan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:12
In this chat, I'm talking to illustrator Katy Horan about murder ballads, discussing what they are, how they work within folk music, how contemporary musicians have tried to reclaim the tradition, and the issues with exa…
The Venetian Legend of the Carvings of Castello [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:25
If you head away from the hustle and bustle of the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), you’ll head into the stranger, more magical part of Venice. It’s in the tangle of narrow streets and courts that you enter the realm…
Dublin Ghost Stories of Phantom Dogs and Mysterious Figures [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:40
Dublin is a beautiful city that straddles the River Liffey, famous as the home of Guinness and the National Leprechaun Museum. What you might not expect from the Irish capital is a series of Dublin ghost stories. Though…
Folk Traditions and Strange Sights in Florence [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:54
Florence was founded in the 1st century BCE as a Roman military outpost, although it came to prominence as a centre of commerce and the arts in the 14th to 16th centuries CE. The Florentine method of speech even became t…
Witches in Devon and Witchcraft Trials in Theatre with Tracey Norman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:53
Tracey has written fiction for as long as she can remember, covering a variety of genres and subjects. Her first stage play WITCH, a historical drama based on original English witch trial transcripts, premiered in 2016 a…