At a time of year when, according to some cultures, the worlds of the living and the dead come a little closer together, a historian joins us to explain how vampire stories arose from eastern European legends of the "undead." Then Irish writer Fintan O'Toole describes the role of the supernatural in Celtic traditions and in more recent Irish literature. And listeners describe eerie encounters they've experienced while traveling in Europe.

• Jacob Mikanowski, author of "Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land" (Pantheon)
• Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole, author of "We Don't Know Ourselves" (Liveright)

• Jacob Mikanowski is the author of "Goodbye Eastern Europe."
• Jacob spoke about his book "Goodbye Eastern Europe" on Travel with Rick Steves program #746a in August 2026, and about "Eastern European Folklore" on program #767 in September 2024.
• Fintan O'Toole has been called "Ireland's leading public intellectual" by his colleagues at the Irish Times.  He has taught at Princeton University as a visiting lecturer in Irish Letters.
• Fintan is the author of "A History of Ireland in 100 Objects," and his latest title is "We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland." He spoke about these topics on Travel with Rick Steves program #737 in December 2023, and on program #747 in March 2020. Fintan also described growing up in 1960s Dublin on program #785 in March 2025.
• Caller Ann from Illinois e-mailed us one of the photos she took in Prague, where the unexplained images she mentions appeared. The first version is the photo, as she took it. In the second version, Ann outlines what she sees as two "ghost" images in it. She notes, "See a faint face on the one on the right." In the third version, Ann zooms in on the image.
• Rick provides a walking tour and map of Père Lachaise Cemetery in his free Paris audio tours. He spoke with the curator of the cemetery on last week's show.