Russ Williams is a Welsh blogger & the author of Where the Folk; A Welsh Folklore Road Trip from Caernarfon, Wales. After readings about the Cŵn Annwn [a mythological pack of otherworldly hunting hounds], we open our conversation on Welsh identity with the preservation of their Celtic language along with tidbits of history and local foods such as the lunch meal of the miners, the Welsh oggie. Jumping into Russ' book on the folkways and lore of Wales we hear about: the macabre horse skull cos...
Jul 02, 2025•1 hr 48 min
Oliver Lavery is an English mythologist, folklorist, traveling professional storyteller, and host of The Story Crow YouTube channel from Wiltshire County, England, the home of Stonehenge. For this summer solstice special, our return guest describes our recent trip to Avebury, Britain's largest Neolithic complex with its stone circles, village-sized henge [ditch], passage graves and giant manmade mound. First we've got to know, who built these mysterious megaliths & ancient earthworks; and fo...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 48 min
Dom Flemons, aka The American Songster, is a Grammy-award winning, founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, as well as a solo Piedmont blues, folk, and old-time musician and historian/scholar of American music residing in Chicago, Illinois. After a reading from the memoir of a 19th-century black cowboy, we begin by hearing how folk music, with a focus on the African American contribution, transformed as it migrated with the people from the rural south to the northern cities. From there w...
Jun 05, 2025•2 hr 9 min
Laura Stotts is a North Carolina photographer, genealogist, and writer known as Diary of Abandonment, dedicated to the lost histories of abandoned houses. We begin with her recent preservation work, a field day chinking a cabin at the world's largest collection of log structures. Then we're in the deep end as Laura shares her moving life story, from her trials of addiction & hopelessness to finding a divine calling & a meaningful connection to God, a journey of healing paved with synchro...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 56 min
Donna La Pré is an esotericist and biodynamic farmer who under the name Tender Flower creates potent perfumes and natural skincare products in her home workshop in Rappahannock County, Virginia. On this highly esoteric exploration of unseen worlds through an Anthroposophic lens, Donna begins by introducing the 19th-century Austrian clairvoyant, Rudolf Steiner & his wisdom path known as Anthroposophy. We deep dive into topics such as: primitive clairvoyance; Christ as the living power of love...
Apr 17, 2025•2 hr 36 min
Phoenix Aurelius is a modern day alchemist & founder of the Phoenix Aurelius Research Center [specializing in spagyric medicine] tucked away in the mountains of Webster County, West Virginia. On this esoteric excursion into the mind of an alchemist, we open on the four dimensions of our multi-dimensional reality: the physical, the astral, the causal, and the spiritual. From there we delve into the history and teachings of Paracelsus, the 16th-century alchemist & physician, exploring topi...
Apr 03, 2025•2 hr 46 min
Dan Wells Ph.D. is a scholar of American religious history, consulting faculty at Duke Divinity School, Methodist pastor, and hunter outdoorsman in Muskingum County, Ohio. On this episode focused on the Christian God & wild snake handling churches of Appalachia, we begin with a haunting story about Dan's ancestors' old home-place. Back-&-forth we share experiences about our Christian upbringings, early skepticisms on the likes of hypocrisy and the problem of evil, followed by Dan's relig...
Mar 21, 2025•2 hr 29 min
William Hess-Martin of Venatic Opus is a writer, hunter, artist and Jungian in Southern Quebec, Canada. On this Jungian walkabout, we explore a handful of the ideas of Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, as they relate to hunting. After Jungian readings about hunting taboos & ritual in native cultures, we begin with musings on Canada, America, Europe, Catholicism and Protestantism all leading to St. Hubert [the patron saint of hunters] for a discussion about the symbology, history and legend of ...
Feb 21, 2025•2 hr 21 min
Dr. Scott Yarbrough, PhD is a professor of English at Charleston Southern University, as well as the host of two literary podcasts, Reading McCarthy & Great American Novel out of Charleston, South Carolina. This episode is dedicated to the hunting novella " The Bear" by America's 20th-century literary master, William Faulkner . After a reading, we begin with Faulkner's biography as Scott describes the major themes within his writing: the southern gothic push back to the over-romanticization ...
Feb 06, 2025•2 hr 1 min
Oliver Lavery is an English mythologist, folklorist, traveling professional storyteller, and host of The Story Crow YouTube channel from Wiltshire County, England. For this Christmas special we focus in on one of the most mysterious Yuletide tales, the anonymous medieval poem of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight. After a reading about a royal deer hunt, Oliver opens on where he lives, amongst countryside & stone circles in south-western England. Giving us a summary of the The Green Knight le...
Dec 19, 2024•2 hr
Mark Norman is an English folklore researcher, author, lecturer and host of The Folklore Podcast in Devon, England. We begin with comparative readings about spectral road dogs in Virginia and in England. Mark tells us a bit about his county, of ship scuttlers & Wistman's Wood. Looking for the oldest written account of ghostly black dogs in the United Kingdom, we hear of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and a wild hunt of demonic hunters. From there we focus in on the lore: the Black Shuck event at ...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 41 min
Dr. Carla Ionescu, PhD is an ancient historian, author, traveling lecturer, Canadian university professor, founder of The Artemis Research Centre and host of The Goddess Project podcast. With hunting seasons upon us, we begin this odyssey into the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis, with the famous myth of the forlorn houndsman, Actaeon. Carla officially introduces Artemis/Diana & explains how Grecian hunters gave her offerings before the hunt, including sweets, animal sacrifices and large c...
Nov 12, 2024•2 hr 26 min
Eileen Budd is a professional Scottish storyteller, the host of the Scottish Folk podcast, and an artist & author in Angus, Scotland. After a Halloween reading about skull broth, Eileen describes where she lives in Scotland and the floods they experienced in last year's Storm Babet. Talk of weather and storms brings up the Gaelic mother goddess, the Cailleach. From these ancestral stories comes a conversation about the diaspora of Scottish people to America aboard "coffin ships" and the supp...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 42 min
Gerald Milnes is a folklorist, fiddler, author, documentary filmmaker, ethnomusicologist, amateur anthropologist and the former Folk Arts Coordinator at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV. He is the book author & documentary filmmaker of Signs, Cures & Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore. After an intro about milk witchery, Gerald talks about his passion-driven life as a self-taught folklorist. From there he lays out the history of the 18th-century migration of German settlers f...
Sep 26, 2024•2 hr 36 min
Brian Jeffrey is a paranormal investigator in Farragut, Tennessee, who's served in the US Army and as a former Park Ranger. After historical readings about wild men & feral children, we open on Knoxville's urban sprawl. From there we get to the topic at hand, feral people of Appalachia, more specifically, within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: from Brian's adventures searching them out & finding tracks; to rumors of cannibalism; strange tunnels; accounts from an attacked ginseng...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 50 min
Tyler Estep is a local historian, former tobacco farmer & Baptist pastor at the oldest church west of Appalachia, in Adams, Tennessee; home of the infamous Bell Witch! After a reading from a 1904 newspaper that summarizes the Bell Witch mystery, we open on the region's tobacco farming culture. Then we turn to the topic at hand, the Bell Witch. We explore various explanations for the 19th-century hauntings: John Bell & an eccentric neighbor, Kate Batts; The Great Awakening & the demon...
Aug 27, 2024•2 hr 4 min
Bill Hardwig is a Cormacian scholar & associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. This episode is devoted to the early Appalachian Tennessee novels of the late, great, literary master, Cormac McCarthy [best known for No Country for Old Men , All The Pretty Horses, & The Road ]. We begin by defining and discussing the literary genre: the southern gothic. From there we lay out the synopsis & inspiration behind three of Cormac's outstanding sou...
Aug 12, 2024•2 hr 18 min
Doug Elliott is a naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, musician, author, illustrator and something of a living legend in Rutherford County, western North Carolina. After a story about deciphering the secret language of trout, we open on Doug's early career as a 1970's traveling forager. Now, no Doug Elliott conversation would be right without a 101 on groundhog-ology ranging from how to make groundhog shoelaces to understanding the medicinal properties of groundhog grease. The natural next step f...
Jul 30, 2024•1 hr 39 min
Luke Manget is an author, historian, and assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. After a reading from an 1870’s newspaper about a strange race of beings known as “saugers,” we dive straight into the significance of ginseng on the American frontier [1780’s], specifically in southern Appalachia: Va, WV, NC. We get into such topics as: the commons vs private property; old world mandrake folklore; & deterring poachers with traps. Luke then desc...
Jul 16, 2024•1 hr 51 min
Bobby Baranowski is a past life practitioner, author & former professional musician residing in Asheville, North Carolina. We begin this metaphysical trek in the mountains of "Sedona East" with its many vortexes; then dive headlong into Bobby's Asheville Past Lives Project in which he practices a non-hypnotic past life regression method called The Awareness Techniques. He walks us through the steps and speaks to one's emotional responses as the key to validate the imagery. Bobby shares his o...
Jul 02, 2024•2 hr 28 min
Eric "Mubita" Sheppard is a U.S. Air Force veteran, family historian, and the visionary founder of Mubita LLC in Williamsburg, Virginia. We open on Eric's early life in Baltimore and the events that led up to his spiritual genealogy quest, one in which he was guided to the slave narrative of an ancestor unbeknownst to him, Moses Grandy. Born into slavery in North Carolina, we hear of Moses' life [1786-1843]: working the canals in The Great Dismal Swamp; the nightmarish death of his brother; crue...
Jun 06, 2024•1 hr 58 min
William Balderson is the Director of Living History & Historic Trades at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] in Virginia. After readings from John Smith's accounts about Pocahontas, the local fauna & corn planting, our guest describes his singular life path as a career living historian. From there Willie illustrates the events leading up to the Jamestown expedition including the infamous Roanoke Lost Colony. On this deep dive, we learn of John Smith's life as a mercenary & sl...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 43 min
David Givens is the Director of Archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] on the James River in the Tidewater region of Virginia. After a nightmarish reading of the trials of the early Jamestown colonists, we start at the beginning of an archaeological quest to find the lost 1607 fort; the first permanent English settlement in America, where the worlds of the English Empire & Powhatan Confederacy clashed, and the legends of John Smith & Pocahontas were born. After descri...
Apr 25, 2024•2 hr 10 min
Sissel Morken Gullord is a Scandinavian musician and singer living on a farm in Biri, Norway. We begin this enchanting musical episode by heading up to the saeter - the summer mountain farm - to hear the instruments, songs, and herding calls of the bygone milkmaids and shepherds, starting with the bukkehorn [goat horn]. Sissel describes how they're made and how livestock reacts to both the horn and a whimsical style of calling called kulning [or hujing in Norwegian]. We hear the blasting of a lu...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 38 min
Mike Smith is the former superintendent of Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, as well as an artifact & fossil enthusiast and traditional bow hunter, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We begin with his time at Droop Mountain, metal detecting under old oak trees and recounting the regional Civil War history. He tells of park visitors' many ghost experiences and significant archeological finds, such as three boys stumbling upon a Confederate rifle in the steep woods. We turn the pages of...
Mar 07, 2024•2 hr 16 min
Kevin Malcomb is a beekeeper, former coon-hunter, welder, and mechanic in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. After a reading about the old frontier profession of the bee hunter, Kevin describes both his own & old time methods of Appalachian beekeeping: traditional "bee gum" hives; keeping ants out; catching feral swarms with a shotgun; how to hunt for wild bee trees from water sources; bee trapping; hive threats such as warm winters, mites, hornets, insecticides, & wax moths. We move on t...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 56 min
Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. In Part II of our Edgar Allan Poe podcast, we begin with an archival recording of "The Black Cat." Then we pick back up where we left off, with "the imp of the perverse” and exploring the psychology of the criminal mind through his villainous characters. After describing a prophetic scene about shipwreck & cannibalism from Poe's only novel, Chris explains the literary genres beyond horror that...
Feb 01, 2024•1 hr 41 min
Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. After a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tale of The Ragged Mountains," we hear part I of Chris' interview on Poe's life, opening on the most poetic topic in the world, the death of a beautiful woman. From there, we get biographical with Poe's upbringing: The Great Dismal Swamp; boyhood on the James River; Charlottesville's Ragged Mountains; the museum's courtyard garden; his wealthy foster family ...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 40 min
For this holiday special we begin with a traditional English Christmas feast as described by a family friend, highlighting a strange historical black dessert called a plum pudding or simply a Christmas pudding. Being topped with a holly sprig, we then learn the origins of some ancient plant-lore. But the meat of this sumptuous episode is a reading from a deeply mysterious and haunting, 14th-century Arthurian legend that takes place at a Christmas feast; one rudely interrupted by an axe-wielding ...
Dec 22, 2023•56 min
Rasmus Boström is a professional hunter & outdoor gear ambassador in Älvdalen, Sweden. After readings about Scandinavian bear hunting folklore & shape-shifting in the Old Norse sagas, we learn about a regional language & the area's hunting culture. From there it's hunting history with wolf-posse laws & bear spears. Rasmus then describes the Swedish brown bear & taking part in scat-gathering studies. After some background information about the modern bear hunt with hounds, he ...
Dec 08, 2023•1 hr 48 min
