The Witch Podcast is a popular audio show produced by the BBC. It centers around the theme of witches and explores various aspects of witchcraft, history, and culture. The podcast features interviews with experts in the field, as well as personal stories and experiences shared by individuals who identify as witches. The hosts delve into topics such as spells, divination, herbal medicine, and the societal perception of witches throughout history. One of the key strengths of the Witch Podcast is its emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. The show acknowledges that witchcraft is not a monolithic practice but varies across different cultures and traditions.
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Witch BBC Radio 4
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries - from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
- 23 MAY 2023
India Rakusen finds out what it means to call yourself a witch today.
- 29 MAY 2023
1. The Spark in the Fire
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
We find out what it means to call yourself a witch today. India joins a Beltane ritual in Nottingham, where two sisters tell us what it means to them and when they first knew they were witches. They talk about the infamous "teen-witch" phase and explore why that sense of magic we have as children so often fades away. And how we might start to get it back.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- 29 MAY 2023
2. Natural Magic
India Rakusen finds out what it means to call yourself a witch today.
In episode 2, we explore ancient connections between the natural world around us and the idea of magic and examine why witches today are so drawn to the wild.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- 29 MAY 2023
3. The Witches Well
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
In Scotland, a campaign is underway for an official pardon for the women burned as witches centuries ago. India heads to Edinburgh to discuss the deeply embedded misconceptions that still surround the witch hunts.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- 29 MAY 2023
4. Enchanted Lands
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
A witch has been created in the Thames Valley to protect a family from eviction. India explores the surprising historical relationship between the figure of the witch and the right to land.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- 29 MAY 2023
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
What is magic? In this episode India speaks to witches and scientists to try and untangle the meaning and the real-world impact of magic. From hexes to chants, what lies behind the power of a spell?
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Tatum Swithenbank
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
Witch BBC Radio 4
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries - from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
- MAY 23, 2023
India Rakusen finds out what it means to call yourself a witch today.
- MAY 29, 2023
1. The Spark in the Fire
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
We find out what it means to call yourself a witch today. India joins a Beltane ritual in Nottingham, where two sisters tell us what it means to them and when they first knew they were witches. They talk about the infamous "teen-witch" phase and explore why that sense of magic we have as children so often fades away. And how we might start to get it back.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- MAY 29, 2023
2. Natural Magic
India Rakusen finds out what it means to call yourself a witch today.
In episode 2, we explore ancient connections between the natural world around us and the idea of magic and examine why witches today are so drawn to the wild.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- MAY 29, 2023
3. The Witches Well
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
In Scotland, a campaign is underway for an official pardon for the women burned as witches centuries ago. India heads to Edinburgh to discuss the deeply embedded misconceptions that still surround the witch hunts.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- MAY 29, 2023
4. Enchanted Lands
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
A witch has been created in the Thames Valley to protect a family from eviction. India explores the surprising historical relationship between the figure of the witch and the right to land.
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
- MAY 29, 2023
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop culture-driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
What is magic? In this episode India speaks to witches and scientists to try and untangle the meaning and the real-world impact of magic. From hexes to chants, what lies behind the power of a spell?
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Tatum Swithenbank
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
The week in audio: Witch; Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried; History’s Secret Heroes – review
India Rakusen, host of the excellent 28ish Days Later, which looked at the process of menstruation day by day, is back on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Once again, she’s chatting lady stuff. Be scared, chaps! Yeah, you’d better be: because Rakusen is talking about – and to – witches.
I’ve heard the first three episodes of Witch, and the ones Rakusen encounters are a long way from claw-fingered, black-robed pointy hats. Instead, they’re normal-ish young women who’ve simply continued the spells and incantations of childhood. One burns unwanted bills and invitations in a May Day ritual. Another talks Rakusen through her teas (“That’s very poisonous! It’s nightshade; don’t even open the jar”). A wicca follower mentions they schedule their projects according to the waxing and waning of the moon. Everyone’s having a lovely time.
But life wasn’t always so good for a witch. In Edinburgh, Claire Mitchell KC is leading a campaign for the city to acknowledge that 2,500 innocent people – mostly women – were accused, tortured and killed for witchcraft from the 1560s onwards. We hear about the 1486 Malleus Maleficarum – the Hammer of the Witches – a madly sexist, initially ridiculed text that gradually gained respect and somehow got entwined with the papal bull of 1484, so that killing witches appeared to be church-approved. Then there’s Daemonologie, written in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland, later James I of England. His wife and daughter had been endangered in a storm at sea and he blamed witches. Historian Ronald Hutton says that, actually, when it came to witch-killing, the UK divided along Anglo-Saxon/Celtic lines: Wales and the Scottish Highlands on one side, England and the lowlands on the other. The Celts believed in fairies and so thought witches were OK; the Anglo-Saxons, influenced by Germany, did not.
Surprise! At the centre of this tale is a deeply flawed individual who makes others believe he’s some sort of messiah
As you can tell, there’s a lot of highly interesting research in this series. Prepare to have your cynical mind expanded. It helps that Rakusen is an excellent presenter. Her scripts are a delight: beautifully written and delivered. You sense that she really hopes that she too is a witch. An understandable desire: who hasn’t wanted the ability to point a finger at an enemy and turn them into a toad? The non-magic world has a way of wearing women down. I’ll be happy if Rakusen turns out witchy; but I hope that even if she does, she continues to weave her audio magic.
Here’s another Spellcaster: the title of Wondery’s new schaden-fraud series. And, yes, I mean schaden-fraud: it’s my label for that subset of true crime podcasts in which a charismatic huckster convinces crowds to part with their money, proceeds to soar to the top by riding those billions, and then… crashes. Think The Dropout, about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, or The Missing Crypto Queen, about Ruja Ignatova. These podcasts have a tendency to end up as Netflix series.
Spellcaster is about crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. Which, let’s face it, is an amazing name for a crypto bro. A fried banker. Or, given the American pronunciation of Fried, a freed banker. Either way, a money guy without the usual restraints. Anyway, just over a year ago, Bankman-Fried was seen as the future of crypto-currency. He had two companies: FTX (a crypto exchange platform) and Alameda Research (a crypto trading company). The ridiculous profits they made were, said Bankman-Fried, to be invested into ethical projects. For – lo! – he was making money to save the world.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried speaking at a Senate hearing in Washington, DC last year. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller is our host, and she’s a good one: not only an excellent journalist but someone with a proper “in” to the story. Via a bachelorette party she gets to know Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s sometime girlfriend and head of Alameda Research. Miller interviews her and feels that something is off…
Crypto is not something I’m interested in. (It really does remind me of dark magic: it only works if you believe it does.) But Miller, along with fellow reporters Max Chafkin and Annie Massa, is wise enough to make this podcast a story about people, rather than witchy money. And – surprise! – at the centre of this tale is a deeply flawed individual who makes others believe he’s some sort of messiah. Honestly, if I were a financial adviser, I’d make every one of my clients listen to a schaden-fraud podcast series before opening their wallet. Everyone would be richer – though we’d have fewer excellent stories such as this one to enjoy.
Speaking of brilliant stories, Helena Bonham Carter has one about a fascinating spy. In History’s Secret Heroes, she turns her script-reading skills to good effect, recounting tales of derring-do from the second world war. Written by the clever historian and author Alex von Tunzelmann, these stories are true and fabulous. First up is Virginia Hall, a posh American who moved to Izmir, where she managed to blow her own foot off in a shooting accident. To save her life, her left leg was amputated below the knee. This, as you might surmise, was a turning point in Hall’s life. But instead of taking it easy, she resolved to live adventurously and ended up as a spy in Vichy France, masterminding the breakout of prisoners in a more efficient, less soil-down-trousers Great Escape.
Bonham Carter is a lovely reader, fruity and upbeat, propelling the story along without showboating. If the rest of the episodes are as fun as this one, it will be a thoroughly enjoyable series.
Explore more on these topics- Radio
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The show acknowledges that witchcraft is not a monolithic practice but varies across different cultures and traditions. It takes care to highlight the experiences of witches from marginalized communities, challenging stereotypes and misconceptions. The production quality of the podcast is also commendable.
It is professionally edited with crisp audio and engaging storytelling techniques. The hosts narrate the episodes in a conversational and accessible manner, making the content enjoyable and easy to understand for both avid practitioners and newcomers to the subject. The Witch Podcast not only serves as a source of education but also fosters a sense of community. It encourages listeners to submit their own stories and questions, fostering a dialogue between the hosts and the audience. This interactive approach allows for a deeper exploration of the subject matter and enriches the overall listening experience. Overall, the Witch Podcast is a captivating and informative show that delves into the fascinating world of witchcraft. Its commitment to diversity, high production quality, and interactive nature make it an excellent choice for anyone interested in learning more about witches and their practices..
Reviews for "Witchcraft and Feminism: A Intersectional Perspective on the BBC Podcast"
1. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I was really excited to hear about the "Witch Podcast" on BBC, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The content seemed to lack depth and didn't provide any new or interesting information about witchcraft. The concepts discussed were very basic, and it felt more like a beginner's guide rather than an in-depth exploration of the topic. Overall, I found it to be quite repetitive and didn't offer anything new to the table.
2. Mark - 1/5 stars - This "Witch Podcast" from the BBC was a huge disappointment for me. The host's voice was monotonous and made it difficult to stay engaged. Additionally, the production quality was subpar, with poor sound editing and unappealing background music. The information provided was bland and lacked any real substance, leaving me wanting more from the episodes. I would not recommend this podcast to anyone looking for an interesting and well-produced show on witchcraft.
3. Emily - 2/5 stars - As someone who has been practicing witchcraft for many years, I was excited to listen to the "Witch Podcast" on the BBC. However, I found the content to be very basic and lacking in depth. It felt like a watered-down version of witchcraft, catering more towards beginners. The host's approach to the topics seemed superficial and lacked the nuance and complexity that I was expecting. Overall, it fell short of my expectations and left me wanting more substantive discussions on witchcraft practices and history.
4. Michael - 1/5 stars - I tried giving the "Witch Podcast" on the BBC a chance, but it just didn't capture my interest. The host seemed to be more focused on personal anecdotes than providing informative content. It felt like listening to a friend casually chat about witchcraft without providing any valuable insights or real educational value. The lack of structure and depth in the episodes made it difficult for me to stay engaged, and I did not find it enjoyable or informative.