The Devil in the Details

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic reviews an FBI report into a community known as "the Finders" accused of being a CIA-fronted satanic cult involved in child abuse and ritual sacrifice. Are the rumors true? Hell no!

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic covers a report, released last year, commissioned by the Minister of Justice for the Netherlands investigating claims of "organized sadistic abuse." The conclusion? Listen to find out!

On the first episode of the new year, the Satanic Skeptic, JD Sword, examines a long-standing urban legend of a "demonic cat" said to stalk the halls of the United States Capitol building.

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic examines a case of alleged Satanic Ritual Abuse that went viral after video interviews between police and children as well as a list of 175 alleged cultists, was leaked online. Ultimately, the children recanted their testimony, confessed their mother and her boyfriend had made it all up and coached them on what to say, and rather than face questioning by police both hoaxers fled the country! But, the story doesn't stop there...

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic examines several plausible candidates for the "true events" which author and showrunner Daria Polatin may have drawn on for inspiration in writing Netflix's latest limited series, "The Devil in Ohio." We're talking a kooky occultnik, a high-profile murder, and a Keystone Cop, all bringing the mass psychogenic illness of the Satanic Panic to poor Toledo, Ohio!

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic investigates a Devil worshipping Neo Nazi group calling themselves the Order of Nine Angles and their ties to the Alt-Right. While a minority among the extremist fringe, the Order of Nine Angles have been linked to several attempted terrorist attacks and actual homicides. Just how dangerous are they?

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic revisits an article he wrote for Skeptical Inquirer back in 2021, investigating a video in the tabloid, The Sun, allegedly showing a ghost manipulating a lamp in the haunted former home of both Katharine Hepburn and Boris Karloff! https://www.the-sun.com/news/1655849/poltergeist-ghost-shakes-lamp-katharine-hepburn-video/

Incensed by an article titled "The Devil Went Down to Texas" in which Director of Content and editor-in-chief at the Foundation for Economic Education, Dan Sanchez, writes that "To Massacre Children is Literally Satanic," The Satanic Skeptic addresses the popular narrative of school shooters as "outcasts" and social rejects and argues why, in fact, massacring children is decidedly un-Satanic!

In 1983, ethnobotanist Wade Davis published The Serpent and the Rainbow- an account of his journeying to Haiti in search of a fabled zombi powder used by Vodou bokors to induce a state of somnambulism. Davis claimed to have obtained samples of the powder, and hypothesized that one of the main ingredients was a deadly neurotoxin known as tetrodotoxin, setting off a firestorm of academic controversy. The Satanic Skeptic examines Davis's claims as well as those of his critics. Is there a scientific basis for zombi folklore, or are they mere superstition?

On this episode, the Satanic Skeptic examines the safety and efficacy of abortifacients- herbs taken to induce miscarriage- as well as a "Woman's DIY Guide" to herbal abortions circulating on social media. While the use and interest of abortifacients is nothing new, the recent threat of the United States Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade has the potential to create conditions whereby more women may turn to these herbs when they no longer have access to adequate medical care. How effective and dangerous are these herbs?