Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
My recent chat with Jordan E. Petersen on the excellent Gods, Ghosts and UFOs Podcast. Follow them on substack: ggupodcast.substack.com
Note from Jo: In this interview I mention the Stick Man being "the size of a man" but what I actually meant by that was that 'he' was 'man-sized' (as opposed to 'little/tiny-humanoid-sized'). The Stick Man's height was probably closer to my own than a regular sized man (and I am 5ft 2!)
What’s Jo’s Favorite Fairy Sighting?
"This week, Jordan finally gets to ask the host of the singular Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast the most annoying question he can come up with, and she does not disappoint.
Jo Hickey-Hall has been collecting these stories for years. And the one she leads with is hers: a stick being made of literal sticks, running down a beach in Jersey with a gait so strange it made everyone watching laugh. Years later, a man in northeast England describes seeing almost exactly the same thing.
We talk about why these things, these beings, whatever they are, resist being accurately described or depicted. They’re so vivid in the moment, but as soon as you start to try to put words on them, they seem to slip away.
But we’re doing our best. You can come judge for yourself.
Highlights:
Jo Hickey-Hall, folklorist, social historian, host of The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast (also find her at scarlettofthefae.com and preorder her book here)
Nerd Critic
Jo’s favorite fairy sighting
The shadow-cutters
A stick being made of sticks
The Brazilian Ent (a tree trunk that walked, then tried to become a man, and didn’t quite get it right)
The disconnect between perception and description
“I can see it in my head, but it just doesn’t seem to translate into words or drawings”
Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy
Mysterium tremendum and mysterium fascinans
Why one guy runs away and the other is filled with awe
Conditioning, inheritance, and the holding place we make for the uncanny
Orbs in the context of UFOs, fae, and consciousness
Conscious plasma :)
Different witnesses, different filters/stations/signals
How to learn to see auras (try it at a conference with a white screen behind the speaker)
The Genius Loci
Two strangers see the same being in the same place, twenty years apart
“Your daemon is really driving you”
How to actually meet the fae
Picking up litter is an offering
Thresholds: doorways, dawn and dusk, the line where the beach meets the sea, the transitions in your own life
Theosophy and the elemental beings — Blavatsky, Steiner, Paracelsus
The London flat haunted by goblins (near a crossroads, near water)
Are the fae hitching lifts on trains and trucks?
Fairies as emergent phenomena of place (this is what humans are, actually)
Part two maybe? (with Mal (and Tom???))
And in the epilogue…on Gods, Ghosts and UFOs
A disembodied head in a kitchen window
Why you can’t tear down a house to make a haunting go away
How UFOs are seen so often over a Neolithic burial chamber that locals don’t bother to look up anymore
⭐️ JOIN THE MODERN FAIRY SIGHTINGS COMMUNITY ⭐️
patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership
If you're looking for exclusive bonus material, monthly zoom chats with like-minded folks, access to the Discord chat channels, quiet meditation gatherings and meeting other members, join us at:
patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership
S U P P O R T
If you’d prefer to support the Modern Fairy Sightings with a one off donation, you can ‘buy me a coffee’ and I’d be very grateful 🙂
buymeacoffee.com/modfairysight
Or send a one-off donation to PayPal at paypal.me/modernfairysightings/
M E R C H ! M F S P T - S H I R T S ♥️
Sustainably made, organic cotton T-shirts are available at Teemill (ships anywhere in the world)
the-modern-fairy-sightings-podcast.teemill.com/
Warning: These are not fairytales and the content is unsuitable for children. This episode describes a wonderful experience but some episodes may contain details which some may find unsettling or frightening. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.
Podcast intro music: Transmutate by Snowflake (c) copyright 2020 Licensed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Green Man Artwork: Peter Hall Studios
facebook.com/peterhallcomics/
TMFSP is part of SpectreVision Radio
SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.
spectrevisionradio.com
linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial
My recent chat with Jordan E. Petersen on the excellent Gods, Ghosts and UFOs Podcast. Follow them on substack: ggupodcast.substack.com
Note from Jo: In this interview I mention the Stick Man being "the size of a man" but what I actually meant by that was that 'he' was 'man-sized' (as opposed to 'little/tiny-humanoid-sized'). The Stick Man's height was probably closer to my own than a regular sized man (and I am 5ft 2!)
What’s Jo’s Favorite Fairy Sighting?
"This week, Jordan finally gets to ask the host of the singular Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast the most annoying question he can come up with, and she does not disappoint.
Jo Hickey-Hall has been collecting these stories for years. And the one she leads with is hers: a stick being made of literal sticks, running down a beach in Jersey with a gait so strange it made everyone watching laugh. Years later, a man in northeast England describes seeing almost exactly the same thing.
We talk about why these things, these beings, whatever they are, resist being accurately described or depicted. They’re so vivid in the moment, but as soon as you start to try to put words on them, they seem to slip away.
But we’re doing our best. You can come judge for yourself.
Highlights:
Jo Hickey-Hall, folklorist, social historian, host of The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast (also find her at scarlettofthefae.com and preorder her book here)
Nerd Critic
Jo’s favorite fairy sighting
The shadow-cutters
A stick being made of sticks
The Brazilian Ent (a tree trunk that walked, then tried to become a man, and didn’t quite get it right)
The disconnect between perception and description
“I can see it in my head, but it just doesn’t seem to translate into words or drawings”
Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy
Mysterium tremendum and mysterium fascinans
Why one guy runs away and the other is filled with awe
Conditioning, inheritance, and the holding place we make for the uncanny
Orbs in the context of UFOs, fae, and consciousness
Conscious plasma :)
Different witnesses, different filters/stations/signals
How to learn to see auras (try it at a conference with a white screen behind the speaker)
The Genius Loci
Two strangers see the same being in the same place, twenty years apart
“Your daemon is really driving you”
How to actually meet the fae
Picking up litter is an offering
Thresholds: doorways, dawn and dusk, the line where the beach meets the sea, the transitions in your own life
Theosophy and the elemental beings — Blavatsky, Steiner, Paracelsus
The London flat haunted by goblins (near a crossroads, near water)
Are the fae hitching lifts on trains and trucks?
Fairies as emergent phenomena of place (this is what humans are, actually)
Part two maybe? (with Mal (and Tom???))
And in the epilogue…on Gods, Ghosts and UFOs
A disembodied head in a kitchen window
Why you can’t tear down a house to make a haunting go away
How UFOs are seen so often over a Neolithic burial chamber that locals don’t bother to look up anymore
⭐️ JOIN THE MODERN FAIRY SIGHTINGS COMMUNITY ⭐️
patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership
If you're looking for exclusive bonus material, monthly zoom chats with like-minded folks, access to the Discord chat channels, quiet meditation gatherings and meeting other members, join us at:
patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership
S U P P O R T
If you’d prefer to support the Modern Fairy Sightings with a one off donation, you can ‘buy me a coffee’ and I’d be very grateful 🙂
buymeacoffee.com/modfairysight
Or send a one-off donation to PayPal at paypal.me/modernfairysightings/
M E R C H ! M F S P T - S H I R T S ♥️
Sustainably made, organic cotton T-shirts are available at Teemill (ships anywhere in the world)
the-modern-fairy-sightings-podcast.teemill.com/
Warning: These are not fairytales and the content is unsuitable for children. This episode describes a wonderful experience but some episodes may contain details which some may find unsettling or frightening. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.
Podcast intro music: Transmutate by Snowflake (c) copyright 2020 Licensed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Green Man Artwork: Peter Hall Studios
facebook.com/peterhallcomics/
TMFSP is part of SpectreVision Radio
SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.
spectrevisionradio.com
linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial
