Episode 6: I’m Just a Teenage Cultist, Baby
How does a victim of a school shooting become accused of masterminding the whole thing in the name of Satan? When Justin Sledge was 17, a friend of his opened fire at their high school, killing two pe...
24 Nov 202546min
Episode 5: The Devil in Delaney
As women increasingly spoke out about the abuse they suffered under the patriarchy, many still struggled to be heard. And the new field of recovered memory therapy became a vehicle for both legitimizi...
17 Nov 202553min
A second helping from Satan: Arab Spring, Satanic Summer
In this bonus episode, we look at some impacts of satanic hysteria outside of North America. We hear from Cherine Amr, the founder of the Egyptian metal band Massive Scar Era, who was accused of being...
13 Nov 202536min
Episode 4: Bad Times, Good TV
How did the Satanic Panic take hold? Whitney Phillips, a professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, guides us through the labyrinth of media and motifs that laid the groundwork for the Satan...
10 Nov 202547min
Episode 3: Moral (Panic) Entrepreneurship
Mary de Young had always been interested in deviants and deviance. As a social-psychologist, she studied “behavior that broke the rules,” and whether the worst parts of a person’s behavior were innate...
3 Nov 202544min
A second helping from Satan: A closer look at Michelle Remembers
Canadian director Sean Horlor’s film, Satan Wants You (2023), is a deep dive into the book "Michelle Remembers.” In this bonus episode, he talks to Sarah about the process of making that film and what...
30 Okt 202546min
Episode 2: Marylyn Remembers
Michelle Remembers is the 1980 “biographical” book that brought the idea of Satanic cults into the mainstream. In it, Michelle Smith documents years of alleged Satanic ritual abuse and the man who hel...
27 Okt 202544min
Episode 1: Did Swayze Start the Fire?
In 1988, a young arts educator drove into a small town in Kentucky with a camera and a directive to teach photography to school kids. But she never got a chance. Instead, a full blown hysteria connect...
20 Okt 202538min
