Hidden behind a plain residential gate in Paris, unmarked on most maps and open only a few hours a day, Picpus Cemetery holds a silence unlike any other. Beneath its unassuming garden lie more than 1,300 victims of the Reign of Terror — and above them, nearly two centuries of unbroken prayer.

In this episode of The Grim — a podcast exploring cemetery history, dark history, and the stories the dead leave behind — we open the gates of Manzanar Cemetery, part of the Manzanar National Historic Site near Independence, California. Set against the stark backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, this windswept burial ground stands on the grounds of one of America's most sobering WWII Japanese American internment camps, where more than 10,000 people were forcibly incarcerated during World War II.

Step through the iron gates of Staglieno Cemetery, one of Europe's largest and most extraordinary burial grounds, nestled on a hillside above the Ligurian port city of Genoa, Italy. Stretching across more than a square kilometer, Staglieno is no ordinary resting place — it is an open-air museum of marble, grief, and artistry, where some of Italy's most gifted sculptors transformed mourning into breathtaking stone.

Grim Mourning and Welcome to The Grim. This week, Kristin opens the gate on one of the most haunted and heartbreaking places in the world — Japan's Aokigahara Forest. Known as the Sea of Trees, this dense wilderness sprawls across 13.5 square miles at the base of Mount Fuji, less than 100 miles from Tokyo. Aokigahara is a place of extraordinary beauty — and extraordinary grief.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 at 988lifeline.org. If you're outside the US, please reach out to a local crisis line or a trusted person in your life. You don't have to carry this alone.

Where the dead are remembered, and the earth still burns. Beneath the quiet rows of Odd Fellows Cemetery in Centralia, Pennsylvania, a fire has been burning since 1962 — and it shows no sign of stopping. In this episode of The Grim, we open the gate on one of America's most unsettling burial grounds: an active cemetery inside a ghost town, maintained by a church miles away, visited by families who no longer have a home to return to.

In this episode of The Grim, Kristin opens the gates to Down Cathedral Graveyard in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland — a hilltop burial ground sacred since the Bronze Age, where centuries of pilgrimage, legend, and quiet reverence converge on a single unadorned stone.

One of the oldest continuously sacred sites in Ireland, Down Cathedral Graveyard sits atop a hill that has drawn the faithful for thousands of years — long before any cathedral stood along its crest.

In this episode of The Grim, Kristin opens the gates to Plainfield Cemetery in Plainfield, Wisconsin—a modest Midwestern burial ground rooted in pioneer history, where the quiet rows of headstones conceal one of the most disturbing legacies in American true crime. Home to the earliest settlers of rural Wisconsin, the cemetery is perhaps best known today as the final resting place of Ed Gein—a body snatcher who robbed the very graves he now lies among, buried unmarked between his mother and brother in the family plot.

In this episode of The Grim, Kristin opens the gates to Old Church Cemetery in Cobh, Ireland—a hillside burial ground stretching back to Ireland's Celtic past, where maritime catastrophe, extraordinary lives, and restless spirits converge above one of the world's great natural harbours.

Descend into Black Hope Cemetery in Crosby, Texas, where an entire post-Civil War freedom colony was swallowed by fire, forgotten by history, and buried beneath a modern subdivision — and where the dead refused to stay silent.

Descend into African Cemetery No. 2 in Lexington, Kentucky, where the first Kentucky Derby winner rests in unmarked ground alongside Civil War heroes, Buffalo Soldiers, and the grooms and trainers who built America's thoroughbred empire.

Join host Kristin as The Grim descends into Gettysburg National Cemetery—where blood-soaked earth birthed America's first monument to mass death. This episode unveils the horror behind the Battle of Gettysburg: over 50,000 souls torn apart in three days of slaughter, obsolete tactics meeting modern killing machines, and fields transformed into open graves before national cemeteries existed to contain the carnage.

Join host Kristin as The Grim explores African American Burial Grounds and Enslaved Persons Cemeteries throughout the United States—sacred spaces erased by time, neglect, and systemic racism. This episode uncovers the heartbreaking truth behind America's lost burial grounds: nearly 4 million enslaved people by 1860, yet their final resting places remain largely undocumented, paved over, or forgotten.

Descend into the moss-draped grounds of St. Philip's in Charleston, South Carolina, where the nation's oldest Anglican congregation has buried its dead since 1681. Host Kristin explores a city built atop graves, uncovering the Revolutionary War heroes, Vice Presidents, and enslaved protectors whose legacies—and spirits—refuse to stay buried.

Descend into the haunting history of St. James Cemetery Liverpool, a Victorian burial ground where 57,000 souls lie beneath what is now called a public park. In this episode of The Grim podcast, host Kristin explores one of England's most controversial cemeteries—a place meant to solve Liverpool's burial crisis that instead became a symbol of neglect and desecration.

In this episode of The Grim, Kristin opens the gates to Kensal Green Cemetery in London, England—the first and original of the city's Magnificent Seven, where innovation, artistry, and royal rebellion lie beneath seventy-two acres of leaning stones. Built to relieve London's overcrowded parish graveyards, Kensal Green now faces its own crisis: caught between preservation and the relentless demands of a city desperate for space, forcing the question of whether the living and the dead can truly coexist.

n this episode of The Grim, Kristin opens the gates to Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia—a place where tragedy, memory, and history converge. Best known as the final resting place of 121 Titanic victims, Fairview offers a tangible encounter with sorrow: rows of granite markers transform distant history into something immediate and haunting. From the meticulous recovery work of John Henry Barnstead to the long-unidentified Unknown Child, the cemetery preserves lives lost at sea with dignity and care.

Descend into reflection as The Grim closes the gates on 2025, a year that saw this niche podcast defy brutal industry statistics—where 47% of shows never reach episode three and only 8.5% make it to 50 episodes. Host Kristin marks episode 73 with gratitude, looking back at the cemeteries that fascinated her most and the stories that asked to be told, while acknowledging the listeners who made survival possible in a landscape littered with abandoned feeds and forgotten voices

Descend beneath the marble floors of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, where Gothic spires pierce the winter skyline above Fifth Avenue and Christmas lights glow against ancient stone, while twenty archbishops and cardinals rest in eternal vigil below the high altar. Host Kristin guides listeners through the crypts of America's most iconic cathedral during the season when millions gather for Midnight Mass above—unaware of the voices that linger below.

Explore the snow-covered grounds of Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, where Gothic towers stand sentinel over 350 acres of American ambition, tragedy, and memory. Host Kristin guides listeners through Chicago's first private cemetery, founded in 1859 on the city's highest natural elevation, uncovering the lost Victorian tradition of Christmas festivities among the graves and the spirits that linger in the winter twilight.

Step into the snow-covered grounds of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, where America's greatest literary minds rest among the pines. In this episode, host Kristin guides you through the historic 119-acre rural cemetery, uncovering the surprising winter connections between graveyards, ghosts, and the holiday season—from Victorian Christmas traditions to the dark December tales that shaped American literature.