Listen "Hysteria in Salem: Nothing to See Here"
Episode Synopsis
Move along folks, the Salem Witch Trials were the product of hysteria, and that's all you need to know. . . or NOTWe kick off with a midnight ride that would make Paul Revere jealous—except instead of warning about the British, townspeople were frantically summoning help for a girl supposedly being tortured by a witch's specter. But before you roll your eyes and mutter "mass hysteria," consider this: What if the Salem Witch Trials weren't the product of unhinged women with wandering uteruses (yes, that's a real historical medical theory), but rather ordinary people responding to extraordinary fear in disturbingly familiar ways?Join us as we trace witch panics from Springfield to Hartford, uncovering a pattern that's less "crazy town" and more "calculated legal proceedings." We'll explore why dismissing these events as hysteria might be the most dangerous mistake we can make—especially when the same human behaviors that fueled 17th-century witch hunts are alive and well in. Spoiler alert: We're not as evolved as we think we are.Fair warning: Contains references to wandering uteruses, midnight rides, and uncomfortable parallels to contemporary society.Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription ProjectMassachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex MuseumRecords of the Salem Witch-HuntThe Thing About Salem WebsiteThe Thing About Salem YouTubeThe Thing About Salem PatreonThe Thing About Witch Hunts YouTubeThe Thing About Witch Hunts Website
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