Beneath the Bells with Deena Taylor
Drift through alleyways, inlets and ancestral memory with Deena Taylor—Navy veteran, podcast host and lifelong Bremerton resident—as she unveils the hidden stories shaping this salt-stained corner of the Pacific Northwest.
Deena, creator of Bremelore, peels back the layers of a maritime town sculpted by shipyards, superstition and the deep pull of Puget Sound. With wit and reverence, she conjures the ghosts, rumors and quiet legends that give Bremerton its soul—challenging what outsiders think they know.
In this episode of Power of Place, we journey from childhood bowling alleys and Navy base neighborhoods to shadowy tunnels beneath the city—some mythical, some real. Deena shares chilling tales passed down by her Irish grandmother and introduces us to “Shrimpy,” a long-forgotten cryptid uncovered in a vintage science fiction zine. She even recounts the true story of a man who raised a lion in his backyard.
We also meet iconic figures who passed through this unlikely harbor—Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, music legend Quincy Jones and even L. Ron Hubbard, whose brief stint in Bremerton left strange echoes of its own.
Part hometown love letter, part ghost-lit walking tour, and part invitation to look again—this episode reveals how the most meaningful places are often the most misunderstood.
Host: Edward Krigsman
Guests: Deena Taylor
Sound Engineering: Daniel Gunther
Recording Studio: Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle
Photography: Travis Lawton
Administration: Mary Mansour
Series music: Theme by Tomo Nakayama as performed Grand Hallway; Additional music by Andrew Weathers and Fox Hunt
We record on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples.
“I always felt slightly out of place in all of my travels. I did not feel like I belonged on that beach in San Diego. I did not feel like I belonged in the city in Washington DC. The place where I felt like I belonged was…where I get to go home and see my family. And that was truly where I felt like I belonged.”
