The real and imaginative adventures of Dennis Spielman

Category: Real Page 57 of 155

Old El Reno Jail - photo by Dennis Spielman

Dark Concerns in El Reno

Sam and Geoff travel to El Reno – not for their onion burgers, but to meet with paranormal investigator and author Tanya Mccoy-Womack. At Iron Tree Coffee, Tanya talks about El Reno’s history, ghost stories, and local cryptids.

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Route 66 Sculpture in El Reno - photo by Dennis Spielman
Route 66 Sculpture in El Reno – photo by Dennis Spielman

Tales Unveiled is a production of The Show Starts Now Studios and is produced by me, Dennis Spielman. The voice of Sam Saxton is Dennis Spielman. The voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot is Jeff Provine.

We would like to thank our guest, Tanya Mccoy-Womack, for sharing stories with us and Iron Tree Coffee for hosting the interview session.

For more El Reno stories, check out Tanya’s book, Haunted El Reno

If you love what we’re doing, want us to keep being artist owned and patron supported, click here. In return, you get bonus content, including early access to my various shows!

Behind the Scenes Commentary (Spoilers)

Jeff had worked with Tanya on the Haunted Oklahoma City and Haunted Guthrie books and knew she would be great to have on the show. It was perfect timing for Tanya as her Haunted El Reno had been recently released. We talked about several of the stories in the book.

Although it wasn’t worked into the podcast, after Tanya took us to the old jail, we went and saw the hotel she talked about in the podcast. We didn’t go in or anything. We just wanted to see what it looked like real fast before we left town. I had been filming all day that day at the Oklahoma State Fair for Uncovering Oklahoma and Jeff had been working as well.

After our interview with Tanya, Jeff and I came up with the story plot of the Professor being concerned about his contacts in wake of Wendall’s murder, which we used for this episode and our Shawnee one.

I’ll have to back to El Reno at some point for Uncovering Oklahoma.

Get Your Spooks on Route 66 – From Arcadia to Chandler

In hopes of raising the professor’s spirits, Sam and Geoff leave Oklahoma City to travel east along Route 66 to collect ghost stories. Along the way, they make pit stops, like in Arcadia to find why the Round Barn isn’t haunted. In Chandler, they learn about Route 66 from artist and author Jerry McClanahan and hear ghost stories at Route 66 Interpretive Center with Susan Pordos and the Manvel Avenue Coffee Co with Steven Conway. On the way back, they visit with Dawn Shelton of the Luther Register News for some hometown spooky stories.

Subscribe to new episodes of Tales Unveiled via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere you enjoy podcasts.


Tales Unveiled is a production of The Show Starts Now Studios and is produced by me, Dennis Spielman. The voice of Sam Saxton is Dennis Spielman. The voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot is Jeff Provine.

We would like to thank our guests for sharing their stories with us: Steven Conway, Susan Pordos, Jerry McClanahan, and Dawn Shelton.

If you love what we’re doing, want us to keep being artist owned and patron supported, click here. In return, you get bonus content, including early access to other shows I make!

Behind the Scenes Commentary (Spoilers)

I’ve been wanting to hit up Route 66 to just find whatever stories we could uncover. We’ve had mixed luck with asking people on the spot for ghost stories in the past, but more often than not, we would find stories we wouldn’t have been able to find otherwise such as we did in Medicine Park.

We managed to get some great seldomtold stories in Chandler and I’m super happy with how well our day went. It took a while before we hit that jackpot. As a back-up, I did reach out to Dawn Shelton, who I had recently meet at a restaurant opening in Oklahoma City. We worked all this into the story.

I liked the use of the Professor’s logs in this episode. To me, it was a great story telling device to make the episode different from other in the series. I enjoy breaking up the episode formula to keep the show fresh. Jeff and I are thinking we’ll do it again next season, but instead of log numbers, we’ll do log times so it’s easier to keep track of our progress.

The first draft of the episode had no Sam narrations. I was going back and forth on including some. I sent Jeff the draft and he suggested I put some in to explain what was going on with the professor logs, the back story with Luther, and a comment on the professor’s mood. I included the teaser about El Reno since we had recorded that episode and knew our story plans.

In our El Reno episode, we do continue the Route 66 theme since the road does run through the town. We plan to do more about the highway.

The Collective Kitchens and Cocktails

Guest host, Jabee, interviews all ten of the premiere restaurant concepts at the Oklahoma City food hall, The Collective, in the Midtown district. We visit with Black Cat, Cafe D’Lasie, Local-Homa, Oh Baby, Okie Pokie, Press Waffle Co, Shaka, The Flying Pig, The Fried Taco, and Theo’s Doughnuts.

This episode took several trips to complete. Jabee and I managed to get all but two of the restaurants interviewed in one day. I went there various times collecting b-roll here and there, including getting some last-minute pick-up shots to complete the story. Featuring 10 different places was quite a challenge.

I got some ideas for how I can do things differently for the next food hall episode. Hope you enjoyed this video!

Eerie Edmond

After receiving a concerning voicemail from Detective James, Geoff and Sam meet up to learn some grave news. Then the two visit Edmond with Marnie Vinge of the Eerie Okie podcast who takes them to Silver Leaf Gems where they are introduced to Stephanie Carel for ghost stories about Edmond.


Tales Unveiled is a production of The Show Starts Now Studios and is produced by me, Dennis Spielman. The voice of Sam Saxton is Dennis Spielman. The voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot is Jeff Provine.

We would like to thank our guests for sharing their stories with us: Marnie Vinge of Eerie Okie; and Stephanie Carel.

This episode also featured the voice talents of Kristy Boone as Detective Valerie James.

Also a special thanks to Commonplace Books in Oklahoma City for hosting the detective meeting scene and Cafe Evoke for the Eerie Okie meeting.


Subscribe to new episodes of Tales Unveiled via Apple PodcastsGoogle PlaySpotifyStitcher, or right here at the Tales Unveiled website.

If you love what we’re doing, want us to keep being artist owned and patron supported, click here. In return, you can get bonus content, including early access to all my various shows!

Zero-Proof Cocktails with Bevographer

I explored Oklahoma City’s emerging zero-proof cocktail scene with Chris and Miranda Hodge, a.k.a. The Bevographer. Miranda interviewed Gabbi Lee at The Daley, stopped by Barkeep Supply for a drink, then headed to Ponyboy to talk with Alex Larrea, and made a final visit Jake Holt at Ludivine. We also discussed the difference between zero-proof cocktails and mocktails and did a taste test of the drinks.

This was such a fun collaboration and a great topic that needs to be shared. I hope this video inspires other bars to add some zero-proof drinks to their menu. It’s a great option for those who wish to be sober and patronize a business while out with a group of people.

If you want a deeper dive into the philosophy of zero-proof cocktails with the bar managers, my patron supporters can watch the full-length interview sessions. Uncut, the three interviews totaled over 20-minutes – and that didn’t include the taste tests or any of the location introductions. I’m proud of how well the final edit turned out.

I hope you enjoy this episode! I’m pushing for more collaboration episodes, so stay turned!

Page 57 of 155

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