Devil's Trap: A Supernatural Podcast

It's Season 13, Episode 21, Beat the Devil. We travel to Apocalypse World as we near the end of the season and ask, "What happens when you starve a lot of vampires?" Liz talks about another strange vampire creature, the manananggal.

Research Links

• Manananggal - Wikipedia
• Manananggal: The Winged Night Hag of the Philippines - OldFolklore.com
• Manananggal: The Winged Half-Woman of Philippine Folklore
• Manananggal: The Night-Splitting Witch of Philippine Folklore
• Exploring the Myth of the Manananggal in Folklore
• Aswang - Wikipedia

We are slicing our way through Season 13, Episode 20, "Unfinished Business." Diana and Liz break down the Gabriel-Loki conflict, Norse mythology lore, and whatever is happening in Apocalypse World with Meth-head Kevin Tran.

Research Links

• Fenrir: The Monstrous Wolf of Norse Legend | Ancient Origins
• The Six Children Of Loki - NorseMythologist
• Sleipnir: The Eight-Legged Horse of Norse Mythology

We are talking about Season 13, Episode 19, "Funeralia." We are happy to have a Rowena-focused episode, not so much about Nahomi's return. For lore, we talk about the 15th-century accused necromancer witches Margery Jourdemayne and Duchess Eleanor Cobham.

Research Links

• Eleanor Cobham: The Duchess and her Downfall – Susan Higginbotham
• Royal Sorceress: The Chilling Trial and Punishment of Duchess Eleanor Cobham | The Vintage News
• The trial of Eleanor Cobham: an episode in the fall of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester in: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Volume 51 Issue 2 (1969)
• Sorcery and Court and Manor: Margery Jourdemayne, the witch of Eye next Westminster

We are breaking down Season 13, Episode 18, "Bring Em Back Alive." Which I just got as I was typing this, could also be about bringing back a beloved character, aka Charlie, to the show, or maybe Gabriel's resurrection? We discuss the meaning of "vade retro satana" and talk about some of the latest news in exorcisms.

Research Links

• Of_Exorcisms_and_Certain_Supplications
• Vade_retro_satana#cite_note-14
• Exorcist priest Michael Maginot warns of demons at Region church
• Catholic exorcisms are real—and they have an ancient history | National Geographic
• Cover story: Exorcism - Revised rite

The thing about Season 13, Episode 17, The Thing, is that there are a lot of things to talk about. That sentence is infuriating to AI grammar bots and middle-school English teachers. We wade through so many tentacles to find out what happens in the Rhode Island Men of Letters Chapter-house. Lore talks about the first UFO cult, the Seekers, led by Dorothy Matin.

Research Links

• When prophecy fails by Festinger, Leon, 1919-1989
• How Psychologists Studied a Cult Expecting the Arrival of a UFO and Formulated the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance - SFG Media

It's the crossover episode nobody knew they needed but were so glad to have: Supernatural, Season 13, Episode 16, Scoobynatural. We break down the episode, including hidden Easter eggs. Diana and Liz also compare the episode to the original 1970 Scooby-Doo story it riffs on, unpacking what changed, what got darker, and why the crossover makes so much sense for Supernatural. They dig into the guest voice cast too, including returning Scooby legends.

It's Supernatural Season 13, Episode 15: A Most Holy Man, and we have another heist, but this time it's noir and holy. It's a furta sacra! Find out what that means when Liz dives into the lore behind stolen holy relics, including the theft of the holy prepuce! Not the holy prepuce!

Research Links

• How Jesus' foreskin became one of Christianity's most-coveted relics — and then disappeared | CBC Radio
• 8 Tales of Body Parts Belonging to Jesus - Listverse
• The Holy Foreskin: The Story of Christianity's Strangest Relic - Medievalists.net
• Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Christian Relics That Are Still Missing
• The Very Holy and Very Lost Foreskin of Jesus Christ
• Holy Foreskin! A Brief History of Stolen Catholic Relics
• Relic of St Carlo Acutis stolen from parish days after canonisation
• Thieves Return Relic of Precious Blood of Jesus Stolen From Medieval French Church – EWTN Great Britain
• When Monks Went Undercover to Steal Relics - JSTOR Daily

Who in Season 14, Episode 13 has Good Intentions? It certainly isn't Zachariah or Michael, but maybe the writers who kept us upbeat even as the episode did some dark things. We also ponder what exactly the angel bombs are, why Donatello doesn't use a dipping sauce, and will the real Gog and Magog will please stand up.

Research Links

• Gog - Britannica
• Gog and Magog - Wikipedia
• Gogmagog (giant) - Wikipedia

We're here to talk about Supernatural Season 13, Episode 13: Devil's Bargain. For Donatello, interpreting tablets ain't no bigger thing than a chicken wing. We try to figure out why grace sucking is so icky. In honor of Sister Jo, Liz tells the story of Sister Aimee McPherson, an early media celebrity faith healer.

Research Links

• Faith and Healing · Divine Hands: Aimee Semple McPherson and Faith Healing · Alternative Healing in Los Angeles
• Aimee Semple McPhersonâ•Žs Pentecostalism, Darwinism, Eugenics, the Disenfranchised, and the Scopes Monkey Trial
• "Between the refrigerator and the wildfire": Aimee Semple McPherson, pentecostalism, and the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (1). - Free Online Library
• McPherson On Trial | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
• The mysterious disappearance of a celebrity preacher - BBC News
• The Incredible Disappearing Evangelist

We break down Season 13, Episode 12: Various and Sundry Villains. We cheer the return of Rowena but have mixed feelings about the Plum sisters. Liz tells the story of the 17th-century witchcraft trial of the Pendle Witches.

Research Links

• The Pendle Witches: 12 Disturbing Details About the Notorious 17th Century Witch Trials
• What Were the Pendle Witch Trials? | History Hit
• The Pendle Witches: How a Nine-Year-Old Girl Sentenced Her Family to Death
• Lancashire Witch Trials | Lancaster Castle : Lancaster Castle
• The Pendle Witch Trials 1612: Surprising Truths | H&C
• The Pendle Witch Conspiracy: The True Story Behind England’s Most Notorious Witch Trials: The 1612 Witch Trials, and How Law, Fear and Power Condemned the Pendle Accused
• Pendle Witch Trials: Were the Accused Really Guilty?
• The Lancashire witches : histories and stories : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
• The Pendle Witches: 12 Disturbing Details About the Notorious 17th Century Witch Trials
• The witch trial that made legal history - BBC News
• How The Samlesbury Witches Escaped The Hangman's Noose | Spooky Isles
• ALICE NUTTER: Lancashire's first social worker? - Northern Life Magazine
• BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Europe's last witch-hunt