Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Harv the Hammer” Harvey Carignan Pt. 1
Episode Date: October 18, 2021After developing a reputation in the armed forces as a hulking, scowling figure with abnormally strong hands, Harvey Carignan was stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, where his first hyper-violent murder i...n 1948 stunned locals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised.
This episode includes discussions of sexual assault, rape, violence, and murder that some people
might find upsetting and offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13.
On a slow, sunny September morning, Anchorage was on the cusp of autumn.
It was just before lunchtime at a tavern in the Alaskan city, and a few regulars trickled in,
noticing the yellowing leaves dropping languidly from the trees in the field nearby.
Unfortunately, the familiar calm was shattered when the tavern door burst open.
A woman staggered in, covered in blood.
Her name was Dorcas Callan, and she looked terrified.
Dorcas made her way to the center of the tavern, where she supported her weight on a barstool.
For a moment, she didn't speak, though all eyes were on her.
She couldn't find the words to explain what had just happened to her, or the strength to open her mouth.
She simply stared straight ahead, unable to focus on the room around her.
All she was able to focus on was him, the man who'd attacked her just feet away from the tavern.
He'd forced himself on top of her, pinning her down with strong hands.
Those terrible, huge hands, his abnormal strength.
That was what she thought about as she fought to catch her breath.
And that face.
It was an image she knew she would never be able to forget.
Then a sudden, hopeful thought occurred to Dorcas Callan.
She would never be able to forget his face.
And that was a powerful weapon.
Hi, I'm Greg Poulson.
This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast.
Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.
Today we'll meet Harvey Carrenian.
a man known for his excessive strength, his disarming intellect, and the violent murders of half a dozen women.
I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.
Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.
Today we'll cover Harvey's deeply unsettled childhood and fraught adolescents.
Then we'll see his first violent outbursts that leave one woman dead and another yearning for justice.
Next time, we'll watch as Harvey gets to.
it's a second chance at life
and follow his terrifying string of murders
across multiple state lines.
We've got all that and more coming up.
Stay with us.
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Safety and stability in childhood are sometimes taken for granted by those fortunate enough to have them.
But not everyone has a place they can call home, where they feel loved and secure.
Not everyone has people and places they can trust.
And even for those who do, every now and then,
something can happen to make even the most familiar streets and sidewalks feel brand-new.
new and newly unsafe. Then we don't know who we can trust at all.
From the start, Harvey Karen Yin's family life offered little in the way of stability.
He was born in 1927 in Fargo, North Dakota, and his mother was around 17 when she gave birth
to him. Even back then, that was young.
Moreover, it seems she had very little support as her life as a mother began.
If you looked at the Karen Yin family portrait, Harvey's father was nowhere to be found.
All young Harvey had heard about the man was that his father had been a medical intern.
While supposedly brilliant, the man had wanted little to do with being a dad,
and as far as we can tell, played no role in his son's life.
If Harvey had any questions about his dad, it seems likely he wouldn't have been able to find them.
Harvey's family probably didn't like to talk about his absent father,
because he'd never married Harvey's mom. Back then, having a baby outside of marriage
meant the child was considered illegitimate, something that was highly stigmatized.
As such, it was a shame Harvey carried through his life.
Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.
As a reminder, she is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist,
but we have done a lot of research for this show.
Thanks, Greg.
Research has linked children born outside of marriage to instances of neglect and abuse,
which can lead to what's known as frozen,
watchfulness. According to researchers, it's difficult to tell what a frozen watchful child thinks about
the world around them because their facial expression doesn't change. But it's not because
they're withdrawn or unengaged. Those same children are apparently hyper aware of everything
going on around them. They just don't show it on their face. Harby's lack of effect was off-putting
to some people, and he didn't have a lot of friends. Though his life started out rather lonely,
that changed when he was just a few years old.
That's when he met another young boy named Paul,
and the two became fast friends.
Paul wore the same clothes Harvey did.
He played with his toys.
They did everything together.
The fact that Paul didn't exist outside of Harvey's mind
didn't bother either of them.
They had each other,
and that was what mattered.
Though he was only imaginary,
Paul offered Harvey the feeling of safety and stability
that friendship can bring.
and these sensations were ones he'd never known before.
As a single parent, it's possible Harvey's young mother was overworked trying to provide for her small family,
and according to Harvey, he didn't feel an outpouring of maternal love.
That's what made Paul such a comfort to him in those early years.
Around the time Paul showed up, Harvey's family moved near Baku, North Dakota.
Then the family got bigger by two.
when Harvey was around four years old, his mother married, and soon had another son, with someone
who wasn't Harvey's father. But unlike his dad, this new guy stuck around. And while his relationship
with his stepfather wasn't close, Harvey took what he could get. Still, he probably
steeled himself to be let down by this new father figure, the same way his own father abandoned him.
And while his stepfather never actually did abandon the family, Harvey, it seems, had already
internalized a distrust of people who should love you. But Paul was someone Harvey could love and
trust completely. He had few, if any other people in his life he could say that about,
especially beyond his family. Even when he started school, Harvey's peers wanted little to do with
him. Other kids looked at Harvey and saw an easy target. He was a skinny, undersized boy with weird
habits. When his face wasn't twitching from nerves, his expression was usually blank. He never smiled.
Given how cruel kids can be, it's hardly surprising that they found Harvey both unnerving and upsetting.
In addition to his lifelong facial twitch, Harvey suffered from what is known as Korea. This illness
manifests in uncontrollable spasms throughout the body. Sometimes it has psychosomatic or psychological
underpinnings. So the Karenian family's history of psychosis might have had something to do with it.
But as we mentioned, young children aren't known for their tact.
As such, Harvey's bouts of Korea were often met with teasing from his classmates,
or at the very least, discomfort and distance.
In short, Harvey seemed out of step with the kids around him.
He was never able to develop or thrive like his peers, physically or emotionally.
He was, however, a strong reader, far out matching the average kid in that area.
And if you think about it, that makes sense.
kids with fewer friends often retreat into the worlds of books.
It was quite clear to Harvey's teachers that he possessed an exceptional intellectual ability,
but that was hardly enough to help set things right for the boy.
He exhibited some disturbing and off-putting behavior
that may have been an early sign that something was wrong,
though Harvey claimed that none of it was his fault.
To hear Harvey tell it, his imaginary friend Paul had been a bit of a bad influence from the start.
and when Harvey's behavior turned delinquent, he blamed it on Paul, who he said it was always
egging on his worst tendencies.
Before Harvey was five, some painters came to work on the Carrion House in Baku.
According to the young boy, his mischievous friend dared him to throw dirt all over
the painter's handiwork, so that's just what he did.
Obviously, the painters and Harvey's parents were furious.
Paul, on the other hand, was apparently very pleased with the whole affair, and his was the
opinion Harvey cared about most. As time moved on, Paul's influence over Harvey led to worse and
worse behavior, from the offensive to just plain illegal. Before long, young Harvey was stealing.
Sometimes he just stole small things that no one noticed had gone missing, but other times
he stole things as big as a bicycle. However, not all of Harvey's behavioral quirks were things he
or Paul could control. He was also a chronic bedwetter. The medical term for this,
is aneuryses, and sometimes there's a psychological explanation behind it.
A study published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology in 2007 concludes that stressful life
events and unstable family circumstances can promote aneurysis. Children who might be more
prone to bedwetting are those that regularly experience things like social anxiety, behavioral
problems, bullying, and antisocial tendencies. All of these applied directly to Harvey. Of course,
and eurysis can't be correlated with what came later in Harvey's life, but it was an indication
that something deeper was moving through his young mind, like a shark swimming and hunting.
However, sometimes it seemed to Harvey as if bedwetting was the least of his problems,
and another problem in particular would change Harvey's life forever.
Either before or after his stepfather came into the picture, his mother hired a babysitter
to watch over Harvey. We don't know her name, whether she came one time or regularly. All we have
is one troubling story from Harvey. According to Harvey's account, the babysitter got a little
too close. One day she pulled him close to her chest, right up against her breasts. In his
words, she rubbed herself all over him. According to Harvey, this alleged sexual assault ripped
through him. He felt a confusing mix of emotions. His parents were raising him, Roman, and he were raising him
Roman Catholic, so he understood that the babysitter's actions were inherently sinful, even if he
didn't know they were illegal. He also couldn't work out what he'd done to deserve such a
confusing violation. But that wasn't all. It's possible that at the same time as he was confused
by the incident, Harvey also found the attention sexually stimulating, so he would have been working hard
to repress this combination of moral confusion and sexual frustration. Of course, repressing those
kinds of feelings is almost always a recipe for disaster. In Harvey's case, it left him feeling angry
most of the time. And as his life progressed, that anger only grew. Eventually, he knew he would
have to do something about it. Up next, Harvey's childhood becomes even more unstable. So Harvey gets violent.
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Now back to the story.
By the time he was 10 years old in 1937, Harvey Karinian was frustrated and angry.
His babysitter had allegedly sexually assaulted him, and no one had done anything to stop it.
The problem was Harvey likely felt like he had no one to talk to about what was happening to him.
In older men, a failure to report sexual abuse might be a resuburned.
of the stigma survivors face when they come forward.
It's possible this came to play here.
But the fact of the matter was,
Harvey had no real friends,
and no one in his family who he truly loved and trusted.
As a result, Harvey felt isolated and alone,
and to make matters worse,
he experienced profound rages
that created even more distance with the people closest to him.
Harvey's rages made him both verbally and physically violent.
Harvey later said that although he didn't speak often,
when he did, it was, quote, vituperative and mean.
He said, when someone did not give me the attention I thought I deserved,
I'd reach out and slap them, either with words or my hands.
That was my way of making sure they didn't ignore me,
treat me as if I didn't exist.
If they didn't or couldn't love me, I made sure they hated me.
Eventually, Harvey's frustrated mother was unable to keep up with the needs of her troubled
and troublesome son.
So in 1937, she sent 10-year-old.
old Harvey about nine miles away to live with his aunt and uncle in Cavalier, North Dakota.
Although Harvey reportedly enjoyed his time in Cavalier, his aunt and uncle didn't appreciate his
presence. Their nephew's behavioral issues made having him in their home more of a chore than
they'd anticipated, especially considering the bedwetting. So not too long after he moved in,
they asked him to leave again. Harvey's next stop in what would become a revolving door of family
residences was with his grandmother in Williams, Minnesota, over 130 miles away.
But for much the same reasons, Harvey didn't last at his grandmas either, so she sent him to her
other daughter's house, also in Williams. Apparently, Harvey didn't like it there very much,
and soon he ran away and headed home to his mom's, back to yet another home where he felt unwanted.
By 1939, Harvey had nowhere to go, and his own mother wanted absolutely.
nothing to do with him. Seemingly out of options, she felt like the only place left to
center son was somewhere more regimented and strict. So just two months after Harvey moved back in
with his mother, stepfather, and younger brother, he moved again, this time to reform school.
The time he spent in the North Dakota training school in the city of Mandan was traumatic for Harvey,
in ways that fundamentally affected the rest of his life. By his own account, Harvey
wasn't safe from sexual abuse, even at reform school. There, he claimed a female teacher
took sadistic pleasure in assaulting him, much like his babysitter had years before. According to
him, this teacher exchanged pornographic notes with him, called him names, and was verbally
and physically abusive. It seemed that predatory women haunted Harvey wherever he went.
At 14, he left the reform school for a few months to work on a farm, and claimed that the
Farmer's wife seduced him, only to then accuse him of raping her daughter.
Given that Harvey's accounts of sexual abuse are all his own, it's difficult to know exactly what
happened in each instance, or whether they happened at all. Without both sides of the story
or evidence to back him up, it's hard to be sure how much we can trust his claims. But in the
absence of conflicting reports, we'll keep telling his version of events. Just keep in mind that
Harvey might not be a reliable narrator.
If we take Harvey at his word, these experiences must have had a catastrophic effect on Harvey's already fragile psyche.
He was learning to see women as an embodiment of evil, and the power that they held over him was unbearable.
But these incidents also left Harvey feeling aroused, which was a kind of excitement he hadn't really experienced before.
So while he was learning to despise women, he was also coming to realize that they offered him something he needed.
In much of his work, renowned psychoanalyst Eric Erickson discusses the stages of a person's social and emotional development from childhood to adulthood.
During adolescence, he says, young people seek to establish their identities and find out who they are.
According to Erickson, forming a negative identity that goes against a young person's expected roles and values can arrest their social and emotional growth.
During this crucial period, young people are also discovering and determining lifelong ideas about the function of intimacy.
In this case, Harvey felt helpless in the face of his repeated sexual abuse and thought there was nothing he could do about it.
He was powerless against the actions of the women calling the shots in his life.
But as for his feelings towards those same women, that lust, that blood lust, he began to realize that there was definitely something he could do about that.
During his time in reform school, Harvey was a walking contradiction because he was known
as both a bully and a victim.
He continued to respond violently to any perceived slight against him, including insulting
or slapping people he felt didn't like him enough.
Hearing that, it might not surprise you to learn that teenage Harvey had no friends, but
it wasn't just his aggressive behavior that turned his peers away.
For some reason, despite his violent nature, those same kids also seemed to be
to find him pathetic, and they let him know it.
It's likely that Harvey's small size, shy nature, and physical ticks made him an easy target
for some of the school's larger, louder bullies.
Eventually, the harassment got so bad that he was given his own room to separate him
from his tormentors.
Though this helped, he was still singled out and teased.
And the worst part?
He didn't even have his imaginary friend, Paul, who had vanished as soon as Harvey started
at the North Dakota Training School.
Now, for the first time in his life, he was truly all alone.
According to a 2004 study published in developmental psychology,
having imaginary friends can be a healthy and normative experience for children,
and it can typically be around the end of childhood that the imaginary friend fades out of the young person's life.
In other words, it was at a completely normal stage in Harvey's social and emotional development that Paul went away.
But he didn't know that.
All he knew was that now he had no one left on his side.
Later in his life, Harvey claimed to hear other voices in his head,
but after setting foot on the grounds of the Reform School,
he never saw or heard the voice of his childhood best friend ever again.
So Harvey didn't do any better in reform school than out of it.
But despite the numerous troubles he had all his life, Harvey finally reached adulthood.
In 1946, he graduated from the North Dakota Training School at 18.
Now he was free to live a life he could call his own,
free from the neglect and instability he'd known with his family,
free from the adolescent harassment of his peers.
He'd finally grown out of his bedwetting habit,
just as he'd grown from a scrawny kid
into a young adult standing lofty and broad-shouldered
at six feet two inches tall and nearly 200 pounds.
Harvey had survived the alleged sexual assaults inflicted on him
by women in positions of power, and at last he had escaped the rigid routines of reform school.
Now he had the power to make his own decisions, to finally live his own life without anyone
telling him what to do. So faced with a life that was finally all his own and wanting to make
the most of his newfound freedom, Harvey Karinian joined the U.S. Army. Surprisingly, Harvey fit
in fairly well in the armed forces. Now physically massive, he emanated a dark, powerful energy,
It was also well known that his huge hands were preternaturally strong.
His hairline had receded early, but he looked rather youthful.
However, his default facial expression was a glare, and he still never smiled.
Just like in his youth, he still had his temper, which often turned violent.
All the same, Harvey flourished, and by 1948, the 21-year-old was moved out of North Dakota
and stationed in Anchorage, Alaska.
During his childhood, Harvey may have come to resent how often he'd been forced to move from place to place,
but now he was an adult, and it's possible he found this relocation exciting.
No one knew him in Anchorage, and he was looking forward to meeting some new people,
maybe finally making some friends.
Specifically, he was eager to meet women.
On July 31, 1949, Harvey noticed 57-year-old Laura Showalter alone near a small park in Anchorage.
It was technically nightfall around 9 p.m., but it wasn't yet dark out.
About a month into the Alaskan summertime, the sun was still perched in the sky,
throwing long shadows across Harvey's face as he approached Laura.
We're not sure exactly what happened next.
Perhaps Harvey tried to strike up a conversation.
Maybe the two exchanged social niceties.
Maybe not.
Whatever was happening, Harvey had to act fast to avoid any possible interruptions.
There was no telling when someone might walk by and ruin everything.
So he made his move.
With a sudden flash of his fist, he yanked at Laura's hair, grabbing onto a chunk of it.
Quickly winding a few locks around his fingers, he dragged it to a grassy spot in the park.
He came to a stop just slightly away from the street, somewhat shielded from the view of anyone passing by.
Feeling better about this relative privacy, Harvey tore Laura's clothes off and attempted to rape her,
until all of a sudden, Laura started to fight back.
She struggled against his weight trying to push him off her, but he was too hefty and strong.
So in response, Harvey clenched his two boulder-like fists and started swinging.
When Laura's body was discovered in that park the next morning, no one knew who she was.
A man stumbled upon the crime scene while walking to work.
When he realized what he was looking at, he recoiled in horror.
The sheer amount of bruising and swelling across Laura's purple face completely obscured her identity.
The poor woman looked barely human.
Even if someone had seen her before, she was unrecognizable now.
As it happened, the man who discovered Laura's body had actually seen her once before,
one night before, to be precise.
On his walk home, he'd seen a man and woman in the park,
and from what he could see, it looked like they were having sex.
He didn't get a good look at them, though. Harvey had angrily shouted at him to move on.
Now as he looked down at Laura's body, he knew that he might have been the only witness to a horrific crime.
Realizing he had important information, the man went to the police and was able to describe a couple of Harvey's physical characteristics.
That meant that when Anchorage news outlets reported Laura's murder, they were able to give a description of her killer.
Anchorage audiences tuning into these broadcasts were stunned and scared.
Laura's murder was a hyper-violent killing, and it had come out of nowhere.
It seemed to make things more horrifying when Laura's autopsy revealed that the only bludgeoning weapon used on her
was nothing more than human hands.
Human hands with abnormal strength.
Hearing these broadcasts in his own home, Harvey likely recognized himself in their descriptions of the killer.
But the details were vague enough that it could have been any young, muscular white man,
so he probably didn't worry too much.
However, it's likely that he enjoyed hearing about the fruits of his labor.
With Laura Showalter's murder,
22-year-old Harvey had Anchorage terrified, especially the women.
The locals weren't used to this sort of violence,
but Harvey Carignan didn't care about their fear.
He was just getting started.
Coming up, Harvey finds his next victim.
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to enter. Now back to the story. In July of 1949, 22-year-old Harvey Carignan brutally murdered 57-year-old
Laura Showalter. The slaying sent shockwaves through Anchorage, Alaska, but Harvey wasn't done,
and his desires for women began to feel insatiable. So by the end of that summer, he was
ready for another round. On the morning of Friday, September 16th, 1949,
Harvey stumbled out of an Anchorage Tavern not far from the park where he'd murdered Laura.
It wasn't even lunchtime yet, but he was drunk.
The sharp smell of alcohol radiated off him.
Outside the tavern, his eye fell on a young woman standing nearby, Dorkas Kalim.
He saw her glance at his soldier's uniform and began to walk towards her.
As he lumbered closer, the expression on Dorkas' face changed.
While she had probably taken comfort in his uniform, his aggressive step,
and obvious drunkenness made her uneasy.
She gave him a slight smile,
pursed her lips, and then quickly looked away.
Standing close to her,
Harvey asked Dorcas to take a ride with him in his car.
As politely as she could, she refused.
So he asked her again, and again she rejected the offer.
Frustrated, Harvey threw out his hands and grabbed her.
She struggled and the two fought.
Then their momentum caused both of them
to topple into a ditch beside the tavern.
Concealed there and crushing her down with his fists, Harvey attempted to rape Dorcas.
But suddenly, the young woman managed to pull herself out of his grip.
Arms shaking, she hoisted herself out of the ditch and away from Harvey's grasping hands.
He continued to snatch at her, but she dodged away and fled into the tavern her attacker had just left.
Dorkas stood there in the safety of the building, covered in bruises and soaked in her own blood.
The horrified staff and customers called emergency services and gathered around her.
For a moment, Dorkas couldn't speak.
The shock of what happened seemed to have stutter into silence.
But then she started talking.
Dorkas reported her assault to local police right away.
She told them everything she could remember,
describing an enormous man, a soldier, in his early 20s,
with receding brown hair and a dimpled chin.
Within hours, police identified five men who fit the bill.
One of them was Harvey Carignan.
The five men were brought into the station and lined up in front of Dorcas.
She singled Harvey out immediately, and she wasn't the only one who found his face unforgettable.
Police had noticed quite a few physical similarities between Harvey and the man seen with Laura Showalter just before her murder.
Plus, both attacks shared distinct signatures.
An attempted sexual assault out in the open, one just happened to be followed by murder.
Because of the potential link between the cases, police quickly brought the witness to Laura's
murder back into the station. They showed him the same five men they'd put in front of Dorcas.
He picked Harvey too.
That same day, police arrested and charged him with the attempted rape of Dorcas Callan.
And right there in the Anchorage City jail, Harvey confessed to exactly what he was charged with.
but he refused to talk about Laura Showalter's murder, at least at first.
A few days later, Harvey explained to his interrogators that he was keeping mum to avoid a first-degree murder charge,
which he knew carried the death penalty. However, after a visit with a Catholic priest,
Harvey changed his mind. He confessed to Laura Showalter's murder.
It seems the state was confident in the murder case and didn't bother taking the attempted rape charge to trial.
The following winter, 22-year-old Harvey was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to hang.
That should have been the end of Harvey's story, but the American legal system is a complex thing.
For four months, Harvey was held in the Anchorage jail awaiting the hangman's news.
Then he was moved to Seward Alaska, where he stood for another 10 months.
Psychologists and lawyers around the world have argued that death row syndrome, or the psychological effects of living,
living on death row can make prisoners delusional, suicidal, or violently insane.
While Harvey was on death row, he might have felt a number of these things, and with
his family history of psychosis, some of his symptoms may have gotten worse.
The Supreme Court ruled that Harvey's civil rights had been violated during the process
of his detention.
The court claimed that due process had been ignored, and even suggested that Harvey's confession
to Laura Showalter's murder might have been coerced by police.
police.
So the conviction was overturned, the death sentence was reversed, and Harvey Karinian was given
a second chance at life.
There was just one thing standing in his way.
After his murder conviction was overturned, Alaskan prosecutors swooped in to bring Harvey
to trial for the assault and rape of Dorcas Callan.
He was swiftly convicted and sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
After a few months in prison in Alaska and Washington State, Harvey was transferred to the infamous
Alcatraz.
There his cooperation and deferential behavior earned him what is known as Good Time.
As a result, he served only nine years of that 15-year sentence.
So finally, in April of 1960, Harvey was paroled and allowed to go free.
As he walked out of the prison and into the sunlight, 32-year-old Harvey probably felt like he had
a new lease on life. Maybe he couldn't help but picture the noose he had escaped. Maybe he
imagined it empty, dangling uselessly in the dark, lonely room where he should have died
almost a decade earlier. It all could have happened so differently. Everything could have been
different, but here he was. Society had had its chance to stop him, and he had overcome it all.
It was an exhilarating thought, and a hot surge coursed through his veins,
His shoulders, his huge hands.
He was invincible.
He was alive and he was free.
Now his story and his life's work could really begin.
Thanks again for tuning it to serial killers.
We'll be back soon with part two of Harvey Karendian's story when he becomes a true serial killer.
Among the many sources we used, we found Anne rules the want ad killer, extremely useful to our
research. You can find more episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify
originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a
killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive
producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Carrie Murphy with
production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This
episode of Serial Killers was written by Emily Duggan, with
writing assistance by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Adriana Romero, and research by Brian Petrus.
Serial killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson.
Hi, I'm Shelby Scott, host of Mediums, a new Spotify original from Parcast.
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It'll be a fascinating journey, so be sure to follow my new podcast mediums, free and only on Spotify.
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