From the wellsprings of psychology and psychiatry: Tales of sex, scandal, and madness. Through the animal magnetism of Franz Mesmer and the politicised uses of the concept of charisma, taking in the power of Odin, beyond orgasmic energy into ectoplasm, queer sex, imaginary toxins, and made up hallucinogens; our adventurers embark on a sacred quest to overcome hangovers and cynicism, finding more politics in modern mythical substances than they expected, more fun than they hoped for, and a mildly satisfying finale. 

 

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A Brief History of Menstrual Blood Myths 

 

Benjamin Franklin and the Glass Armonica 

 

Adagio for Glass Harmonica - Mozart. Played by Dennis James 

 

Mesmer’s 1780 proposal for a controlled trial to test his method of treatment using ‘Animal Magnetism’. - Donaldson IML (2005) 

 

The origins of modern clinical research - Stuart A Green (2002) 

 

The first modern psychology study - Sadie F. Dingfelder (2010) 

 

Progress of animal magnetism in New England - Charles Poyen (1837) 

 

Conducting the Vital Fluid: The Politics and Poetics of Mesmerism in the 1790s - Tim Fulford (2004) 

 

Title Page to Illustrations of Madness by John Haslam (1810)

 

House passes bill to help diplomats, officials hit with Havana Syndrome - Josh Lederman for NBC (2021) 

 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - ST Coleridge (1834) 

 

Against The New Vitalism - Josie Sparrow in The New Socialist (2019) 

 

Comradio | 29 - Mythology, Part II: And I Don't Want to Myth a Thing feat. Sarah Stein Lubrano 

 

Wobbly Vitalism - Jeffrey Scott Brown (2018) 

 

Comradio | 65 - Renewable Elegy feat. E.E. Jones 

 

Reichenbach Falls 

 

Comradio | 52 - The Illuminazis feat. We Don't Talk About the Weather 

 

Sex on the Brain - Mark Pilkington for The Guardian (2005) 

 

Comradio | 69 - Left Get It On feat. Justin Hancock 

 

Comradio | 84 - Machine Politics feat. Thomas Heasman-Hunt 

 

Photographs from a séance with Eva Carrière 

 

Comradio | 71 - I'll Never Cross a Wicket Line feat. Hazel Potter & Tom Williams 

 

Spirited Sexuality: Sex, Marriage, and Victorian Spiritualism - Marlene Tromp (2003) 

 

Photo of Boji 

 

Istanbul’s local dog framed over poop on train