Wherever we might be in the world, we find that folklore will always take on very specific regional variations: any area will have both its own unique stories and versions of other tales which have been shaped by local knowledge or events.

In the UK, where the country is divided into counties, records vary very much from place to place. The country of Lincolnshire has some fascinating folklore and yet, historically, it has been quite overlooked in terms of collecting and recording these stories.

A new project, based at Nottingham Trent University, seeks to redress the perceived imbalance. On this episode of the podcast, creator and host Mark Norman is joined by Dr Anna Milon and Dr Rory Waterman to discuss the folklore of Lincolnshire and The Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project.

You can visit the project website at https://lincolnshirefolktalesproject.com/

To support The Folklore Podcast and help us to keep going, as well as getting access to extra member content, please consider joining our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In this episode of the Folklore Podcast we explore the psychology of trauma and its intersection with alleged paranormal phenomena, with guests Bill and Jaci Kousoulas.

For some, paranormal occurrences can be a precursor to later trauma, either on a personal level or on a larger scale. For others, trauma may act as a catalyst from paranormal events and they find after suffering a personal loss or other tragedy that they become susceptible to what we might term supernatural happenings. But what is the psychology between this intersection of trauma and the paranormal?

We explore the answer to this question with particular focus on the tragedy of the Point Pleasant Bridge collapse and its connection to the Mothman sightings.

To support The Folklore Podcast and access extra content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

The image of the fox appears in many cultures as a trickster figure, but in Asian folklore there are some subtle differences. The Chinese fox is a symbol of intelligence, and has the ability to shapeshift for example.

Exploring the folklore of the Asian countries, with particular reference to foxes, in this episode creator and host of the podcast Mark Norman is joined by New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo. Yangsze's novel 'The Ghost Bride' was serisalised and broadcast as a Netflix original series and her latest work 'The Fox Wife' draws on the Asin fox folklore that we explore.

Find Yangsze online at https://yschoo.com/

To support The Folklore Podcast in all of its work and access additional content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In the field of Gothic literature, from the Penny Dreadful and Chapbook through the Penny Bloods and novels. whether it a classic like Bronte or something less well known, there are many ways in which the female characters may as monstrous.

We explore the landscape of 'mad', murderous and shape-shifting women with Gothic scholar Dr Nicole C. Dittmer, author of 'Monstrous Women and Ecofeminism in the Victorian Gothic'.

After listening to this episode, seek out Story 4 of 'Stories from the Hearth', our storytelling show, in your podcast feed for a reading of 'The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains' narrated by Nicole.

To support our work creating free folklore-related content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast