Sapphire Sandalo

Sapphire Sandalo is a podcaster, artist, and paranormal expert in Los Angeles. She created Something Scary and went off on her own to make Stories with Sapphire. Follow her on Twitter here. If you have a supernatural experience you'd like to share, email Sapphire at StoriesWithSapphire@gmail.com.

How does your family and your family's history play an important role in the show?
Stories With Sapphire is a celebration of supernatural experiences from all around the world, particularly in the Philippines, where my family is from. The stories that my grandpa told me when I was younger were what started my obsession with the paranormal. He had encountered manananggals, kapres, aswangs, and more. And when I learned that other members of my family had similar encounters, I became hooked. These stories are part of my family history and culture. I feel like every family has their own set of unexplainable stories that gets passed down, and that’s the spirit I like to capture with the stories I tell.

You are also an animator. How does your artwork play into your podcast work? Do you think other visual artists could have podcasts?
The first podcast I created was Something Scary, which was a spinoff of a web series I was making with the same name, where I told ghost stories and added animation. The network my show was a part of wanted to get into podcasts, and at the time I was hesitant about it because I didn’t see how it translated – the animation was the main appeal of the show, and a podcast would eliminate that. But I ended up falling in love with audio storytelling! So when I left the show back in October 2019, I decided that my next project would be a podcast to start, and then eventually I’d like to incorporate animation into the show in the future. But for now, I include my artwork in the show by creating unique thumbnails for each episode.

I absolutely believe visual artists should make podcasts! A lot of animators like to listen to them while working, so artists should make shows that they themselves would like to listen to.

What have you learned about yourself making Stories with Sapphire? What have you learned about people?
I haven’t been doing Stories With Sapphire for that long, and I don’t want to sound dramatic…but it’s changed my life. One of my goals with this show was to feature plenty of Filipino guests, and that has included some healers and mediums. These women are the real deal. Their connection to the spirit world is so inspiring, and makes me proud to be a Filipino American, knowing that these practices and traditions run in my blood. I actually talk about my experience with one of the healers, Lyn Pacificar, in my 6th episode titled The Spirits Of Our Ancestors. 

Another nice side effect from doing this show is that I’ve grown closer to my mom, and subsequently Filipino culture. I usually text her when I need something translated to or from Filipino in my show, and she always asks relatives for their stories to see if they want to be on the podcast, it’s pretty cute. I’ve also learned Baybayin, the pre-colonial Filipino written language, and include it in my episode thumbnails. This podcast is documenting my own spiritual and cultural explorations in real-time, and I’m enjoying every second of it.

Women are constantly being criticized for their voices on podcasts. What is your relationship to yours? 
What a great question. Back in college was the first time I was introduced to vocal fry and tone, from a voice development class I took on a whim. Before that, it hadn’t really occurred to me that there was a “proper” way to speak. And ever since that class, I have become hyper aware of my voice. And I do get a lot of compliments on my voice when I do podcasts or voiceover, but that’s because I am actively trying not to sound like myself, if that makes sense. In everyday life I am very much a Californian; I say “like” every two seconds, my pitch is very high, and my sentences come up at the end like a question. But in the sound booth, my voice is much deeper and smoother. I hate this belief that women should change the way they speak to be taken more seriously, and it makes me feel conflicted knowing that doing so has worked out beneficially for me.

What is your biggest goal for Stories with Sapphire? Why did you make it?
From podcasts to TV to movies, paranormal content is endless. But even then, rarely are they hosted or led by women, let alone women of color. And on top of that, they tend to regurgitate the same stories and ideas. Representation in media is incredibly important to me, in fact I teach a college course about it. Of course I’m super biased about this, but the Philippines has some of the most incredible folklore, mythology, and traditions, and so I’ve made it my mission to put a spotlight on these stories, and hopefully one day create an animated TV series or film featuring them. I created Stories With Sapphire because I not only want more cultural diversity in the paranormal community, but also more thoughtful paranormal content, not just creepy monsters and jump scares.    

What do you say to people who don't believe in ghosts?
Plenty of people will go their whole lives without a single supernatural experience, and a lot of supernatural experiences can be debunked, so I don’t expect everyone to become a believer. But because I was raised in a home where the paranormal was normalized, it was never questioned whether or not the spirit world is real. And this is part of why I share the stories that I do, because when people think of ghosts they usually think of the transparent apparitions dressed in white like we see in movies, but the spirit world is a lot more complex than that. Spirits can interact with us in many different ways like dreams, synchronicities, or our intuition. So for me, the question isn’t really about believing in ghosts or not. The question is, would you even know a spirit is communicating with you if it did?

Thanks, Sapphire!