Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

in and around Chicagoland with the late Richard Crow.

And for hours, they lamented about the ghostly hauntings of places like Graceland Cemetery, Bachelor's Grove, as well as Archer Avenue, Resurrection Mary, Montrose Point, the old lockup at the storied Maxwell Street police station, and so much more.

And a Halloween tradition we started nearly 15 years ago is with our guest tonight, Ursula Bielski.

Now a cultural and intellectual historian, folklorist, and parapsychologist, Ursula has been writing and lecturing about the world's supernatural folklore and the paranormal for more than three decades.

Welcome to Life Automated, the show where we explore what it means to live, work, and make decisions in a world increasingly shaped by machines.

[birds chirping] Every spring and fall during migration season, I head to Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary here in Chicago.

It's this gorgeous strip of dunes and hedges and grasses hugging the side of Lake Michigan, a waypoint for hundreds of species of birds, and it's hugely popular with birders, a lot of whom, I've noticed, walk through the sanctuary with their phones out.

They are almost certainly doing something related to birding, using popular apps like Merlin or eBird to ID bird calls or add to their own life lists.