This Is My Circus

Stefanie Navarro & Meredith Hill

Welcome to This Is My Circus—the podcast for everyone who is pop culture junkies, true crime lovers, and bookworms who thrive in chaos. 🎪🎙️ Hosted by Stefanie Navarro and Meredith Hill, we bring you hilarious, unfiltered conversations about the madness of parenting, the latest in pop culture, gripping true crime, AITA, and our latest book obsessions. Think of it as your weekly escape, where sarcasm is a love language, and no topic is off-limits. If you've ever:✅ Hidden in the bathroom just to get some peace ✨✅ Spent way too much time on true crime Reddit threads 🔍✅ Had a book hangover from binge-reading all night 📚✅ Screamed at reality TV like the drama is your personal business 🍿 …then congratulations, you’ve found your people! 🎧 New episodes drop every Thursday – Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 💬 COMING SOON:  JOIN The Circus Crew for bonus content, bloopers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes chaos! 👉 www.thisismycircuspodcast.com 🔥 Follow us on social: @thisismycircuspodcast

  1. 18h ago

    🎪 DNA Tests, Secret Families & Shocking Inheritance Drama | Family Secrets & True Stories

    Send us Fan Mail What would you do if a DNA test revealed your husband was actually your cousin? 😳 Welcome to Family Secrets Week on This Is My Circus, where we're kicking off November with shocking family discoveries, hidden relatives, double lives, and the kind of Thanksgiving drama that makes you want to grab your plate and quietly leave. This week, Stefanie and Meredith are diving into some seriously unbelievable real-life family secrets. We're talking about a married couple who discovered they were related after TEN YEARS of marriage, a grandfather who somehow managed to maintain FOUR separate marriages, and a missing-child mystery where DNA testing uncovered an entirely different identity. Because apparently some people have family trees, and others have entire forests full of secrets. 🌳😂 And Meredith? Well, she might have a little royal blood running through her veins thanks to a Scottish ancestor who helped a fugitive prince escape. Naturally, we're choosing to believe she's royalty now. Then we're playing Pass the Potatoes, Kitchen Conversation, or Blow Up Thanksgiving, where we decide whether some family secrets deserve to stay buried or whether it's time to ruin everyone's holiday. Grandma's famous homemade pie is actually store-bought? A secret sibling shows up at Thanksgiving dinner? Your family has a group chat WITHOUT YOU?! Oh, we're going to need more than mashed potatoes to get through this. 💰 AM I THE A-HOLE? FAMILY INHERITANCE EDITION Imagine inheriting a fortune from your grandmother, only to discover she left your father and brother absolutely NOTHING. And just when you think it's about money, a secret letter reveals something that could change everything your family thought they knew. Would you share the inheritance, expose the family secret, or take your money and run? 📚 BOOK CLUB: THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS BY LISA JEWELL We're also reviewing The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell, a psychological thriller packed with family secrets, a mysterious inheritance, cult-like control, and a wealthy London mansion hiding a horrifying past. When Libby Jones inherits a multimillion-pound home on her 25th birthday, she has no idea what she's about to uncover. Three dead adults. Missing children. A baby left behind. And that's just the beginning. We're breaking down the twists, the characters, the ending, and whether this book deserves a spot on your reading list. ⚠️ BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD! Our book club discussion includes major plot reveals. The novel also contains disturbing themes, including abuse and sexual violence. So grab your coffee, pour some wine, or start peeling those Thanksgiving potatoes, because we're digging into the family secrets nobody wants brought up at the dinner table. Because every family has secrets. Some just need their own Netflix documentary. 🎪😂 ⭐ Love This Is My Circus? Follow us on Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star review! We're incredibly thankful for every single one of you. 🍽️ COMING NEXT WEEK: Dinner, Drama & Murder! We're talking terrible relatives, holiday resentment, and people who probably shouldn't be invited to Thanksgiving. Plus, we're reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.

  2. Oct 27

    🎪 Bloody Mary, Killer Clowns & Lies Our Parents Told Us | Urban Legends, Halloween Horror & '90s Nostalgia

    Send us Fan Mail Remember when we were terrified of Bloody Mary, convinced someone was hiding in our backseat, and thought turning on the dome light would get our parents arrested? 😂🎃 Welcome to our Halloween finale, where we're taking a trip back to the '80s and '90s—a magical time when our parents let us roam the neighborhood until dark but had us convinced swallowing gum would ruin our lives for the next seven years. This week, we're revisiting the urban legends, creepy sleepover games, Halloween myths, and completely unhinged childhood warnings that somehow traumatized an entire generation. We're talking Bloody Mary, Candyman, Ouija boards, Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board, killer clowns, and those terrifying chain letters that threatened to ruin your life if you didn't forward them to ten people. And seriously, why were we voluntarily trying to summon demons at sleepovers?! Then we're getting into the things our parents told us that we believed WAY longer than we should have. From razor blades in Halloween candy to the dangers of swimming after eating, we're starting to think our childhoods were one giant misinformation campaign. We've also got a Halloween-themed Am I the A-Hole? involving an uncle, some terrifying scarecrow stories, and two very traumatized toddlers. Because apparently some people don't understand the difference between a fun ghost story and creating a lifelong fear of cornfields. Plus, we're reviewing the documentary Killer Legends, which explores the disturbing true-crime stories that may have inspired some of America's most famous urban legends. And somehow, between all the childhood nostalgia and creepy stories, we end up sharing some genuinely spooky personal experiences involving possible ghostly visitors, haunted houses, and family members who may not have completely left us. Come for the urban legends. Stay for the childhood trauma, questionable parenting, and two grown women who still aren't entirely comfortable turning on the car's dome light. 😂 🎃 Happy Halloween from This Is My Circus! 📚 Coming next week: We're kicking off November with Family Secrets Week and reading The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. Because nothing says Thanksgiving season quite like dysfunctional families and deeply buried secrets. ⭐ Love our circus? Follow the podcast and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts! We promise not to send you a cursed chain letter if you forget. Probably. 🎪

  3. Oct 20

    🎪 Witches, Hexes & Cursed Objects: Would You Bring Annabelle Home? | Salem Witch Trials, Haunted Dolls & Spooky Lore

    Send us Fan Mail Apparently, you can hire a witch on Etsy now. And we're just wondering... what's the refund policy on a failed hex? 🔮😂 Spooky Month continues, and this week we're diving into witches, hexes, curses, and haunted objects that absolutely do NOT need to come home with us. We're talking about the Salem witch trials, the infamous Bell Witch haunting, the supposed Kennedy family curse, and the real-life Annabelle doll. Plus, modern-day witchcraft, WitchTok, and the fact that people are apparently hiring witches for everything from wedding weather to getting a new job. Because why manifest a promotion when you can apparently add it to your Etsy cart? Then we're playing “How Much to Make It Your Problem?” 💰 Would you keep Annabelle in your house for $100,000? Hang a supposedly cursed painting above your couch? Wear the Hope Diamond? Or give Robert the Doll his own little chair in your living room? Everyone has a price. Apparently, ours are wildly inconsistent. We've also got a witchy Am I the A-Hole? involving a girlfriend, some questionable herbal teas, and a boyfriend who's had just about enough of being spiritually Febrezed. And finally, we're reviewing the 1990 movie The Witches. Was this childhood classic actually meant for children? Because those terrifying faces and mouse transformations have us questioning some parenting decisions from the '90s. Witches, curses, creepy dolls, questionable decisions, and enough sarcasm to get us both executed in Salem. Welcome back to This Is My Spooky Circus! 🎪🧙‍♀️ 🎧 Next week: Urban legends! We're reviewing Killer Legends on Prime Video. ⭐ Follow This Is My Circus on Apple Podcasts and leave us a five-star review. We'd hate to have to hire an Etsy witch to convince you. 😂

  4. Oct 6

    **🎪 Vampires Were Real?! Vlad the Impaler, Vampire Panic & the Bodies They Dug Back Up | Spooky History & Lore**

    Send us Fan Mail Spooky Month has officially entered the circus. 🧛‍♀️🎪 And we're kicking it off with VAMPIRES—but not just the hot, broody, morally questionable kind we apparently have a weakness for. We're going back to a time when entire communities genuinely believed the dead were crawling out of their graves and draining the life out of their families. And their solution? Dig up the body and see what it's been up to. Obviously. We're talking the bizarre connection between tuberculosis and the New England vampire panic, the very real story of Mercy Brown, why bodies were dug up, staked, rearranged and occasionally had their organs burned...and then we get to Vlad the Impaler, aka the terrifying real-life inspiration connected to the Dracula legend. But don't worry. We eventually leave the corpses behind and tackle the truly important vampire question: Would you let them bite you? 😂 Damon Salvatore? Klaus? Edward Cullen? Angel? Spike? Apparently Stefanie and Meredith have a type when choosing their hypothetical vampire situations. Plus, we've got a vampire-adjacent AITA, a wild TikTok vampire story, and our review of The Curse of the Highgate Vampire—which we can summarize in two words: DON'T. WATCH. IT. Seriously. We suffered so you don't have to. 🧛‍♂️ Vampire history, spooky lore, questionable decisions, hot fictional men and two women who absolutely cannot stay on topic. Welcome to Spooky Scary Circus Month. 🎃🎪 ⭐ Follow This Is My Circus and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts! Next week: Don't Go Into the Woods 🌲👀

  5. Sep 29

    🎪 Death of the Pastor’s Wife: Part 2 & 3 Mica Tried to Get Out—Then Everything Changed | Abuse, Stalking & True Crime Breakdown

    Send us Fan Mail Last week we told you this story was going to get darker. We weren't kidding. This week, we're finishing Netflix's Death of the Pastor’s Wife, and we're getting into Episodes Two and Three as Mica Miller begins trying to take her life back. She's recognizing the relationship for what it is. She's documenting everything. She's filing police reports. She's trying to become financially independent. She's changing phone numbers, moving from place to place, seeking legal help, and eventually filing for divorce. But the more Mica tries to get away, the more disturbing the allegations become. We're talking about stalking, tracking devices, razor blades in tires, intimate photos posted online, repeated psychiatric holds, financial control, alleged sexual abuse, religious manipulation and Mica's growing fear that she may actually be in danger. Then, on April 25, 2024, JP is served divorce papers. Two days later, Mica is dead. And this is where we have A LOT of questions. We walk through the timeline of Mica's final day, the 911 call, the evidence investigators found, JP's behavior immediately following her death, the growing #JusticeForMica movement, and the details that made this case explode across social media. We also get into the FBI investigation, what Mica's attorney had already collected, the federal charges that eventually followed—and why this case has sparked a much bigger conversation about coercive control, stalking, domestic abuse, and just how difficult it can be for someone to actually get out. This was a heavy one, but it's also an important one. ⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses suicide, domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking, sexual abuse, religious trauma, psychiatric hospitalization and other disturbing subject matter. 🎧 This concludes our Death of the Pastor’s Wife documentary breakdown. And next week? 👻 SPOOKY MONTH BEGINS. We've actually planned ahead for October, which honestly may be the most shocking development we've covered yet. 😂🎪 ⭐ Follow This Is My Circus and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. At Episode 102, we're clearly never going to stop asking.

  6. Sep 22

    🎪 Death of the Pastor’s Wife: We Covered the Mica Miller Case—Now Netflix Has Questions | True Crime Documentary Breakdown

    Send us Fan Mail We talked about the Mica Miller case when it was unfolding in real time. Now Netflix has released Death of the Pastor’s Wife—and we're going back in. This week we're covering Episode One, “A Note From Your Pastor,” and Stefanie has been WAITING for this one. 👀 The documentary takes us back to the beginning: Mica's deep connection to her faith, meeting Pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller when she was just 13, becoming increasingly involved in his church, and the relationship that would eventually change the course of her life. From the outside, Mica and JP eventually appeared to be a powerful Christian couple leading a thriving Myrtle Beach church. Behind closed doors? A very different story begins to emerge. We're talking about the allegations surrounding their relationship, the enormous power imbalance, Mica's mental health treatment, the people around her who began noticing red flags, and the disturbing behavior described by her friends and family. And because Stefanie grew up deeply involved in church herself, this documentary hits differently. We're also having a bigger conversation about religious authority, forgiveness, trust, and how easy it can be to explain away red flags when someone is viewed as a “man of God.” Then Episode One ends with a text that takes things to an entirely different level: “I'm on my way and I'm armed.” And we're just getting started. ⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses suicide, coercive control, alleged domestic abuse, sexual coercion, mental health, religious trauma, stalking and harassment. 🎧 This is Part One of our Death of the Pastor’s Wife breakdown. We'll continue with Episode Two next week. If you remember when we originally talked about the Mica Miller case, welcome back down the rabbit hole. If this is your first time hearing the story... buckle up. 🎪 ⭐ Follow This Is My Circus and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Seriously. We're still asking. 😂

  7. Sep 15

    🎪 Episode 100: 100 Episodes of Bad Decisions, Rabbit Holes & Oversharing

    Send us Fan Mail WE MADE IT TO 100 EPISODES. 🎉🎪 One hundred episodes of questionable book choices, weird internet stories, conspiracy theories, true crime rabbit holes, AITA debates, documentaries, oversharing our personal lives, and repeatedly asking, “Wait... is this actually real?” And somehow, y'all kept listening. 😂 For Episode 100, we're doing something a little different and looking back at the evolution of This Is My Circus. From the early days when we were just two moms giggling our way through recording and thought we were starting a fun little podcast, to realizing we may have actually been documenting our slow descent into insanity. We're answering rapid-fire questions, handing out our own podcast superlatives, revisiting the stories we STILL think about, debating our best and worst book choices, remembering our favorite rabbit holes, and discussing some of the moments that probably should've been edited out. We also pulled the numbers, and this little circus has officially reached: 🎧 6,011 downloads 🌎 93 countries 📍 949 cities 🎪 100 episodes of absolute nonsense We talk about how much the podcast has changed, how much we've changed, what this show has meant to both of us through some pretty major life changes, and where we think we'll be when Episode 200 rolls around. Spoiler: Stefanie still thinks we're going to be famous. Meredith is slightly more grounded. 😂 And before we wrap up, we're giving you a sneak peek at next week's documentary episode. We're heading back to a case we covered while it was unfolding: the Mica Miller case, now the subject of Netflix's The Death of the Pastor's Wife. We're going back to what we knew then, what we know now, and what the documentary reveals. To every single person who has listened, shared an episode, sent us a message, laughed with us, or stuck around through all 100 episodes: THANK YOU. Seriously. We love you guys. Here's to the next 100. 🥂🎪 And because apparently asking 47 times during the episode wasn't enough... ⭐ LEAVE US A REVIEW. 😂 Welcome to This Is My Circus. Episode freaking 100. We did it.

5
out of 5
17 Ratings

About

Welcome to This Is My Circus—the podcast for everyone who is pop culture junkies, true crime lovers, and bookworms who thrive in chaos. 🎪🎙️ Hosted by Stefanie Navarro and Meredith Hill, we bring you hilarious, unfiltered conversations about the madness of parenting, the latest in pop culture, gripping true crime, AITA, and our latest book obsessions. Think of it as your weekly escape, where sarcasm is a love language, and no topic is off-limits. If you've ever:✅ Hidden in the bathroom just to get some peace ✨✅ Spent way too much time on true crime Reddit threads 🔍✅ Had a book hangover from binge-reading all night 📚✅ Screamed at reality TV like the drama is your personal business 🍿 …then congratulations, you’ve found your people! 🎧 New episodes drop every Thursday – Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 💬 COMING SOON:  JOIN The Circus Crew for bonus content, bloopers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes chaos! 👉 www.thisismycircuspodcast.com 🔥 Follow us on social: @thisismycircuspodcast