Spirit Sisters - the podcast

We’re gathering around the virtual hearth this month with bestselling Australian author Mary-Lou Stephens. Mary-Lou and I first connected when I was researching my 2014 book, Love Never Dies. Since then, she’s published four bestselling novels, including her latest, The Hobart Hotel. In this gorgeous dual timeline novel, Mary-Lou takes readers across continents - including to Uruguay, the country...

This month on the Spirit Sisters podcast, Carlos Vivas joins us to share the compelling story of his near-death experience and the life changes that followed. Swimming at Panama City Beach in 2015, Carlos was caught in a rip current, before eventually praying for help. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle … We also hear about the spiritually transformative experience that followed the...

My guest this month on the Spirit Sisters podcast is Rachel Stewart, co-founder of the Instagram page @for11_together, a space that has become a refuge for people navigating grief, love, and ongoing connection with a late loved one. Like many of the women I’ve had the privilege of speaking with on this podcast, Rachel's motherhood didn’t end with her daughter Kenadie’s passing, it changed form. Ra...

Welcome to the Spirit Sisters Podcast, where we gather around the virtual hearth to share our life journeys and the spiritual encounters that shape us. My guest today is Dr. Adam Rizvi—a critical care physician whose personal journey with grief opened the door to experiences his scientific training couldn’t explain. Adam shares many of these astounding moments at the bedside of patients in his bea...

Thank you for tuning into the Spirit Sisters podcast, where we gather around the virtual hearth to share sacred stories about our spiritual and life journeys. Today, I’m honoured to welcome a very special guest: spiritual teacher and best-selling author Panache Desai. Panache is known worldwide for his heart-centered wisdom and his gift for guiding people back to the truth of who they really are....

In this episode, I’m honoured to speak with Whitney, a Spirit Sisters listener from Colorado who shares her heart-wrenching journey of grief following the loss of her son, Sam, 23, to cannabis-induced psychosis. She reflects on the emotional complexities of grief and her experiences of spirit communication that provide comfort (to Whitney, each sign is “like a hug”). Whitney discusses her advocacy...

Welcome to the final episode of the Spirit Sisters podcast for 2025! I’ve been saving this conversation for this moment, as it’s such an uplifting reminder, at the close of yet another challenging year, that there’s much more to life than we can understand from our earthly perspective. My guest is Philip Hasheider, a farmer and family man who’s had a remarkable near-death experience (NDE). Our dis...

Welcome back to Spirit Sisters! If you’re new to the channel, thank you for joining the family. In this bonus episode of the Spirit Sisters podcast, I interview Noela McBlane, a seasoned Australian psychic medium with 60 years of experience in helping others connect with lost loved ones and navigate their grief. We discuss Noela's early encounters with the spirit world, including her childhood vis...

Welcome back to Spirit Sisters! If you’re new to the channel, thank you for joining the family. Before I launch into our episode, I share a special announcement about my new creation – the Reconnect & Create app, which is available now at studio.com/karina. My app is designed to support my fellow spirit sisters on the midlife journey to reconnect with their spirituality and creative passions....

Thank you for joining me around the virtual hearth today for a special Halloween episode. The veil is thin this week, friends, in the lead up to All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween. Perhaps you know that what we call Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which celebrates the end of summer on November 1 and the Celtic New Year. In the Celtic tradition, departed loved ones we...

Welcome to the Spirit Sisters Podcast. In this bonus episode, we’re diving into an exploration of life’s sacred journeys, inspired by the magic of the Camino de Santiago. I have the honour of welcoming my dear friend, Simon Keenan, a passionate soul and visionary who embodies the spirit of service and healing in the enchanted forests of Galicia, Spain, where he co-created the enchanting sanctuary...

Welcome to Spirit Sisters! This month, I explore personal transformation and mystical experiences with astrologer Luke Bayley, a Certified Practicing Astrologer and CEO of Astrocollege/International Academy of Astrology. We dive into his journey from skepticism to self-discovery in astrology, enriched by his encounters with spirit guides and psychic phenomena. Luke is a wonderful storyteller. He s...

Welcome to Spirit Sisters! This month, my guest is Katische Haberfield. Katische is a spirit releasement therapist and spiritual regression therapist, which means she identifies ghosts who are present in a client’s past-life regression, finds out how they are linked to her client and supports them to cross over. This is a robust and fascinating conversation touching on a range of topics, including...

Welcome to Spirit Sisters! This month, my guest is Elli Milan, an artist based in Florida. Elli shares her harrowing near-death experience at age 15, which ignited her calling as an artist, and eventually her mission to inspire other artists. Today, Elli paints sublime artworks often set underwater and imbued with an otherworldly light. As the founder of the Milan Art Institute, Elli empowers arti...

I’m so happy to be back with the Spirit Sisters podcast! In this episode, I share a personal story about my own journey of grief over the last few years, and how I’m taking solace in creative projects. These include relaunching this podcast, writing my novel, and sharing (for the first time), spiritual writings on my Substack page, Words Along the Way (find out more at this link ).   This week, An...

I’m so happy you can join me around the virtual hearth today for an insight into the astonishing gifts of one of the 20th century’s greatest psychic mediums. I'm reading from Sunrise: A Book of Knowledge and Comfort for the Bereaved by White Eagle, first published in 1958. It’s the introduction by psychic-medium Grace Cooke, who from the 1930s onward channelled the spiritual teacher known as White...

I have the great pleasure of sharing a sweet and moving festive-season story with you today, a true story penned by my friend and past guest, Danielle, who calls it “a Christmas story with a twist”. This is a story about heavenly intervention and synchronicity... Before I read it out, I’d like to wish you and your loved ones a joyful and restful Christmas and a peaceful new year. May peace dawn on...

Happy Halloween, friends! Welcome to the first episode of the new storytelling format of the Spirit Sisters podcast that I recently announced. In honour of Halloween, or Samhain, as it’s known in the Celtic tradition, we’re gathering around the virtual hearth today to listen to four true-life spooky-season stories listeners have sent in. Do you have a story about the unexplained, or a spiritual ex...

Karina Machado shares news about a fresh direction for the Spirit Sisters podcast, and extends an invitation to you. All of us are going through personal challenges and experiencing the reverberating grief of the horror and violence being inflicted on innocent people in world conflicts. Let’s carve out a little corner of the internet where we can all take shelter around the glow of the story heart...

Hi friends, it’s lovely to be back with you after such a long time, thanks for joining us around the virtual hearth today to warm yourself with a story.   I’ve been working on my novel, integrating my 2023 Camino, and completing a second, shorter Camino in May this year. This time we started from the beautiful Spanish city of Leon. I’ll share more in an upcoming episode about the return to the Cam...

You’re listening to Spirit Sisters, I’m your host Karina Machado. I’m thrilled to be back with you all. I promised that I’d be popping in with powerful conversations that I hand pick, and here’s one. Today, I’m introducing Ben Medhurst. Ben is a husband, dad and tradesman who lives in Queensland. He also happens to be a full-body channel for a discarnate collective who share profound wisdom throug...

Tune in for my conversation with Queensland-based artist Lynda Deans, whose profound spiritual experience at Uluru three years ago inspired her to begin creating unique and extraordinary art. Lynda, who describes the experience at Uluru as “a birthing”, has always been in touch with the mystical dimension of life. In our conversation, Lynda shares about many spiritual encounters and moments of syn...

As some of you may know, I had a life-changing experience in June and early July of this year. I walked the Camino de Santiago – the Way of St James – an ancient pilgrimage across Spain. On the full moon morning of July 4, I arrived at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of the beautiful, mist-shrouded Galicia region, which, as you’re about to hear, stole my heart. With her rich h...

You’re listening to Spirit Sisters. I’m your host, Karina Machado. As always, I’m delighted that you’re joining me around the virtual fireside today. And we have quite the story for you to warm yourself by tonight. I was on the train this morning, Spanish guitar playing softly in my earbuds, thinking about what to say in the introduction to this very special episode. This week, I welcome my dear f...

Karina Machado welcomes psychic-medium Debbie Malone to the podcast. Debbie and I have known each other for many years – I first told her story in my 2009 book Spirit Sisters, and she made another appearance in the follow-up, Where Spirits Dwell. As an internationally acclaimed psychic medium, author, psychic detective and spiritual teacher, Debbie has spent the last 30 years assisting police depa...