Podcast Episodes
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Episode 61
The macabre feelings stirred by waxwork figures go far beyond their use in horror films, back to the Terror of the French Revolution, and beyond to t…
5 years, 1 month ago
A Christmas Ghost Story
Episode 60
Four our third year, we embrace the old tradition of seasonal ghost-storytelling. This year Mrs. Karswell reads for us a tale written by Edmund Gill …
5 years, 2 months ago
Terrible Tales for Terrible Tots
Episode 59
Books of cautionary stories for children were a popular Christmas gift in Victorian times. These tales of misbehaving children and the tragic conseq…
5 years, 2 months ago
The Hellish Harlequin: Phantom Hordes to Father Christmas
Episode 58
Harlequin is an enigmatic figure with roots in dark folklore of France, specifically that of the Wild Hunt (Chasse Sauvage) a nocturnal procession of…
5 years, 3 months ago
Witchcraft in Southern Italy
Episode 57
In southern Italy, belief in witchcraft has a long history, much of it centering on the town of Benevento, about 30 miles east of Naples.
From a 142…
5 years, 3 months ago
Halloween Bonus
Episode 57
As a short holiday bonus, we’re offering this special episode examining some obscure aspects of Halloween as manifested in our lives today. Forgotten…
5 years, 4 months ago
Spook Shows
Episode 56
Midnight Spook Shows featured stage illusions borrowing from techniques used in fraudulent seances alongside vaudeville-style comedy and burlesque. P…
5 years, 4 months ago
The Gibbet, Hanged in Chains
Illustration from 1832 broadsheet “Execution of James Cook, and Hung in Chains at Le’ster for the Horrid Murder of Mr. Paas.”
The gibbet was a hangin…
5 years, 4 months ago
Marvelous and Rare
Episode 54
We’re doing something different this time out.
Bone and Sickle is taking off the rest of September to allow time for Mr. Ridenour’s research and Mrs.…
5 years, 5 months ago
Gallows Lore
Episode 53
We examine the lore of the gallows, focusing on the British Isles, encountering hangmen as figures straddling history and myth, strange histories and…
5 years, 6 months ago