From enslavement to Emancipation to independence, the Afro-Caribbean community sought protection, healing, and justice from Obeah men and women, but when Obeah became a tool for resistance, it was outlawed, breaking the chain of transmission from one generation to the next. Could Obeah aid decolonization in the twenty-first century, and can its traditions be recovered?

Let's face it: most of the time, witches get a bad rap. Some witches, however, are famous gift-givers, protectors, healers, and liberators. In this episode, you'll travel from the first century to the twenty-first and meet La Befana, Arima, Aradia, and many of the other good witches of Italy. Who doesn't need a bit of magic now and again?

When Martin Luther throws down the gauntlet, what's a good Jesuit to do? In this episode, our story spans the lives of three men, two continents, and one hundred years as we explore Counter-Reformation Europe's most influential witch-hunting manual: Martín del Río's Magical Investigations.

What’s in a hand? If you’re a believer in chiromancy, everything. In this episode, we encounter Oscar Wilde, Carl Jung, and even Adolf Hitler, as we explore the history of palm reading in modern Europe.

At the end of the sixteenth century, five sisters accuse their neighbors of witchcraft. In this episode, we examine the case against the witches of Warboys. How did a group of children gain the power to destroy an entire family, and could it happen again?

“It is not himself but his crimes that I hate.” You don't become pope in the fourteenth century without making a few enemies. In this episode, we explore the life, death, and posthumous witchcraft trial of Pope Boniface VIII. When church and state collide, who can stand?

In 1920 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle presented to the world five photographs, declared to be genuine and featuring, unmistakably, fairies. How did the Cottingley fairies become one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century, and why do so many of us want to believe?

In the Golden Age of Islam, one twelfth-century philosopher seeks to reconcile pagan philosophy with the Quran. In this episode, we explore The Hidden Secret of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. When polytheism meets the Abrahamic tradition, where is truth?

Danger more savage than any wild beast lurks in the woods. In this special Halloween episode and season two finale, werewolves face trial in sixteenth-century France against the backdrop of the Wars of Religion. In a world where violence knows no bounds, who are the real monsters?

When women owe their ultimate obedience to men, who will avenge their broken hearts? In this episode, women in ancient Rome take matters into their own hands when their husbands’ attentions wander a little too far.

At the turn of the century, modern invention meets the most primal fear. Welcome to Ipswich, where the last trial for witchcraft in the United States is about to get underway.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Sherlock Holmes' creator wants to believe. In this episode we meet mentalists, mesmerists, and mediums, the Fox sisters, and even Harry Houdini as we explore the origins of Spiritualism and the life and occult studies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Charlemagne's descendant, King Lothar II, is unhappy. He wants to crown his mistress queen, but, well... there's the small matter of his wife. In the scandalous divorce case that follows and Bishop Hincmar of Reims' critical reaction, morality, mayhem, and magic play starring roles. Is witchcraft to blame for the king's distress?

From a Mesopotamian spirit to Adam’s first wife to demonic royalty, Lilith has a long and storied past. Today's episode explores the evolution of Lilith from obscure demon to feminist icon. What do you do with a woman who refuses to lie down?

In the midst of the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins has given himself a new title: Witchfinder General, and King Charles I isn't the only one losing his head. In a country divided against itself, who can stand?

A play, an opera, a film, three witches... and Benito Mussolini. Today, we examine why three twentieth-century works, Hans Wiers-Jenssen's Anne Pedersdotter, Ottorino Respighi's La Fiamma, and Carl Theodore Dreyer's Day of Wrath, were inspired by the life and witch trials of Anne Pedersdotter and why they all got her story so, so wrong.

On April 7, 1590 Anne Pedersdotter / Pedersdatter was burned for witchcraft in the city of Bergen, Norway. Remarkably, this was not the first time Anne had been tried for witchcraft. How did the wife of a prominent Lutheran clergyman find herself the defendant in multiple witch trials? In this episode, the first of a two-part series, we look to the Protestant Reformation for answers.

Heinrich Kramer has a problem: the powers that be don’t believe in witches. He plans to change that. In this episode we examine the author of the Malleus Maleficarum, the most influential witch-hunting manual in Europe. Kramer was essential in the creation and promotion of the early modern witch, but did he invent her, or did he just borrow her?

Plagues! Fires! Floods! Welcome to 2020 B.C. Thankfully, exorcists, amulets, and incantations abound in ancient Mesopotamia. In this episode we explore magic and medicine in some of the oldest surviving texts in the world. When the gods themselves attack, who can save us?

A man’s wife has run away, but everyone knows where she is: living with the priest who enchanted her. In this episode our host digs deep into her own archival research to bring you four cases of seduction by magic in one fourteenth-century Italian city. Why were priests and women so likely to be accused of using magic in late medieval Europe, and who could resist their charms?