“Not everyone driving down Sunset Blvd. senses the ghosts of Old Hollywood. But to Karina Longworth, a 36-year-old film historian who hosts the podcast You Must Remember This, the era of Bogart and Bacall is as present as TMZ.”

So begins a 9.30 N.Y. Times profile of Longworth and her podcast by Michael Schulman, and that’s all that needs saying. As much as I’ve enjoyed listening to You Must Remember This (the episode about the adventures of young Elizabeth Taylor is one of my favorites along with that six-part series on Charles Manson), I channel ghosts all the time on my lonesome. Because I’m a rapt believer in lingering spirits of all shapes, persuasions and locations. The past is eternally present and vice versa, and if you insist on residing only in the dull and somewhat oppressive glare of the now, you are missing half of the atmosphere. No ghosts = no soul, no echoes, no historical currents, no dimensionallity.