Episode #187- What Bewitched Salem? (Part I)

For centuries the western Norse colony of Vinland was known only to scholars of the Icelandic Sagas. But in the 19th century the work of a few Scandinavian historians helped revive interest in these previously obscure tales. When the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn published ...  Show more

The only literary sources we have about the Viking settlements west of Greenland come from the Icelandic Sagas. The only problem is that the Sagas can be totally off-the-wall. Corpses reanimate and speak prophecies, giant-eyed doppelgängers vanish into thin air, and one-legged cr ...  Show more

In 1692 in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, two young girls started acting very strangely. The girls suffered from uncontrollable fits, bouts of incoherence, and odd outbursts including barking and choking sounds. A physician summoned to examine them concluded that the o ...  Show more

Can a psychological illness become contagious? Many experts believe that in rare cases a phenomenon known as a "mass psychogenic illness" can break out in a population. Can this strange quirk of group psychology help us understand the Salem Witch Crisis of 1692? The community had ...  Show more

When two girls fell ill in January 1692, no one suspected the affliction would lead to one of the most infamous events in American history. The Puritans of Salem Village believed the Devil had attacked their community and they would stop at nothing to find the witches who were Sa ...  Show more

For more than two centuries, between the late 1400s and early 1700s, a terror of witches gripped Europe. From Scotland to Spain, thousands of people were accused, tortured and executed. But as the hysteria faded in Europe, it crossed the Atlantic. In 1692, in New England, it took ...  Show more