Unobscured

By iHeartRadio and Grim & Mild

Society & Culture History

What's Unobscured about?

History is full of stories we think we know. They are old and dark, but time has robbed us of perspective and clarity. They've become obscured and misunderstood. Which is why this series exists: to dig deep and shed light on some of history’s darkest moments. To help us better understand where we’ve come from. To make it Unobscured. Each season pairs narrative storytelling from Aaron Mahnke, creator of the hit podcast Lore, with prominent historian interviews.

Season One: The Salem Witch Trials

4.7

6,645 ratings

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LAST EPISODE

3 | Stardom

10.21.2020

Victorian journalists had learned the lesson well: true crime sells. They were investigators, but they were storytellers too. And the story they told was meant to shock middle class London, as much as it was meant to inform. Not a ...

Unobscured episodes:

10.21.2020 3 \| Stardom Victorian journalists had learned the lesson well: true crime sells. They were investigators, but they were storytellers too. And the story they told was meant to shock middle class London, as much as it was meant to inform. Not a ...
10.14.2020 2 \| Rome & Babylon A city divided. It didn’t happen by accident. A century of destroying the old to bring in the new left many without homes. If glossy West London was the city’s pride, the poor pushed to the margins were shamed. All ...
10.07.2020 1 \| Temple Mount Victorian London was the world’s greatest city. But building an industrial empire of steel and treasure comes at a startling human cost. The ancient city’s cults of personality raised heroes and villains for a new era: the Scotland Yard Detective ...
09.30.2020 Trailer: Unobscured Season 3 The deep-dive historical documentary podcast, Unobscured, returns for a dark and bloody 3rd season. Follow along as we take a journey into what many consider to be the most infamous true crime story in history: Jack the Ripper. Season 3 ...
09.01.2020 Introducing: The Hidden Djinn Around the world, and throughout history, billions of people have believed in an entire race of creatures known as the djinn. Ancient, powerful, and hidden from the human eye, djinn lore spans continents and centuries. Join host Rabia Chaudry every ...
08.13.2020 Introducing: American Shadows a Grim & Mild American Shadows is a bi-weekly podcast from iHeartRadio and Aaron Mahnke’s Grim & Mild. The show focuses on the darker stories from American history: the people, places, and things that are hidden and forgotten in the shadows. From better-known tales ...
04.01.2020 Introducing: Strange Arrivals While you wait patiently for us to craft new seasons of Unobscured, dive into a different sort of journey. Introducing Strange Arrivals, a brand new podcast from iHeartRadio, Aaron Mahnke, and host Toby Ball that explores the mysterious events of ...
02.26.2020 20 \| INTERVIEW 8: Molly McGarry Our interview with Molly McGarry, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. To wrap up our exploration of spiritualism, we follow her observations about the power and influence of spiritualism in American life, from past to present.
02.19.2020 19 \| INTERVIEW 7: Cathy Gutierrez Our interview with Cathy Gutierrez, who has served as Professor of Religion at Sweet Briar College and Scholar in Residence at the New York Public Library. We discuss the nuances and historical development of spiritualist theology, as she explores it ...
02.12.2020 18 \| INTERVIEW 6: John Buescher Our interview with John Buescher, co-director of the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals. His dedication to cataloging and preserving spiritualist newspapers give his books on mediums a remarkable command of the people and ideas driving ...
02.05.2020 17 \| INTERVIEW 5: Mary Gabriel Our interview with Mary Gabriel, whose books have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critic's Circle Award. Her biographies of Victoria Woodhull and Karl & Jenny Marx unveil the radical threads running ...
01.29.2020 16 \| INTERVIEW 4: Nancy Rubin Stuart Our interview with Nancy Rubin Stuart, whose award winning biographies of American women include The Reluctant Spiritualist, our guide to the life of Maggie Fox for this season of Unobscured.
01.22.2020 15 \| INTERVIEW 3: Emily Clark Our interview with Emily Clark, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. Her first book, A Luminous Brotherhood, explores spiritualism in New Orleans, giving us a perspective on spiritualism beyond the northeastern hubs of the movement.
01.15.2020 14 \| INTERVIEW 2: Margaret Washington Our interview with Margaret Washington, professor of History and American Studies at Cornell University. Her work on Sojourner Truth's life in the American landscape was invaluable for seeing spiritualism in a broad historical context.
01.08.2020 13 \| INTERVIEW 1: Ann Braude Our interview with Ann Braude, Senior Lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School. Her book, Radical Spirits, was a guiding light for our exploration of the role of spiritualism in American life.
12.18.2019 12 \| There Is No Death Blows fell. Times changed. New voices rose up with answers to the nation’s pressing questions. But through it all, spiritualists worked to create an enduring place for themselves where the spirits could go on speaking.
12.11.2019 11 \| The Sheep and the Ghosts What power did the spirits wield? They had convinced millions of their presence. They had moved mediums into high places. They had crossed oceans and shaken slumbering nations. Now the movement's leading lights saw a world to win.
12.04.2019 10 \| Invisible Hands Seances circled a high stakes table. Spirits were still comforting families, but in cities like New Orleans and New York, they also held to a glowing vision. The future of the nation's laws, and the levers of its economy, were ...
11.27.2019 09 \| Wounds The war was over but the fight to determine the future of the nation continued. And the spirits had much to say. Devastated families cried out for their lost loved ones. Sometimes, the beloved dead answered back.
11.20.2019 08 \| Open Graves As shots rang out and armies crossed the nation, black spiritualists in New Orleans found themselves fighting for their homes against all comers. But most of the nation’s spirit believers were focused on the spirits clamoring around a different residence—Abraham ...
11.13.2019 07 \| Preach the Word The news was grim. Across the south, slave states were withdrawing from the nation. In the north, some spiritualists saw their chance to take their winnings and withdraw from conflict. But others kept their printing presses running. In their pages, ...
11.06.2019 06 \| Restless The child stars of spiritualism were growing up. And facing a whole host of new realities about their world. Were the spirits up to helping their young vessels find love and fight for reform as the storm clouds gathered?
10.30.2019 05 \| Seek and Ye Shall Find The movement continued to swell. It found friends in high places. But everywhere it went, it found entrenched beliefs threatened by this new source of revelation. Finding harmony around a table was one thing. But when mediums met ministers, the ...
10.23.2019 04 \| The Way, The Truth, The Lie Spiritualists weren't the only ones who believed the dead could still be heard. That belief came trailing many stories. And with many aims. Some found a nourishing home. Others found a hunting ground.
10.16.2019 03 \| A Spirit Globe Who could have imagined how quickly their message would cross oceans? Even as they traveled from city to city, the first spiritualists were celebrated by seekers. But an anarchic new faith wasn't met kindly when it faced the authorities of ...
10.09.2019 02 \| Instruments A Harmonial Philosophy was one thing. But Rochester, New York, was about to become the cradle for so much more. The city wanted more than just words. They wanted a demonstration of power.
10.02.2019 01 \| Seer It was all wide open. Great awakenings shattered the old religions. Showmen made spectacles of cutting-edge science. Radicals campaigned for a social revolution. The nation waited with bated breath for a new kind of prophet to take the stage.
09.25.2019 Unobscured - Season 2 - Trailer The critically acclaimed historical documentary series is back with a powerful new season. With insightful research, expert interviews, and Aaron Mahnke's trademark narrative style, the Unobscured team returns for a new season to delve deep into the world of Spiritualism. ...
07.12.2019 Introducing - Noble Blood Your first sneak peek of Noble Blood, a brand new podcast from executive producer Aaron Mahnke and iHeartRadio podcasts. Join author Dana Schwartz on a narrative tour of history's most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and ...
02.06.2019 18 \| INTERVIEW 6: Stacy Schiff Our interview with the Pulitzer prize winning author Stacy Schiff whose 2015 book The Witches was a source for this series.
01.30.2019 17 \| INTERVIEW 5: Jane Kamensky Our interview with Jane Kamensky, professor of American history at Harvard University and author of Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England.
01.24.2019 16 \| INTERVIEW 4: Marilynne K. Roach Our interview with Marilynne K. Roach, author of "Six Women of Salem" and "The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege."
01.16.2019 15 \| INTERVIEW 3: Richard Trask Our interview with Richard B. Trask who has served as Archivist for the Town of Danvers, Massachusetts (old Salem Village) since 1972.
01.09.2019 14 \| INTERVIEW 2: Mary Beth Norton Our interview with Mary Beth Norton, professor of American history at Cornell University and author of In the Devil’s Snare.
01.02.2019 13 \| INTERVIEW 1: Emerson Baker Our interview with Emerson Baker, interim dean and history professor at Salem State University and author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.
12.19.2018 12 \| Making Amends How does a community recover from a tragedy that claims over two dozen lives? How do they even begin to pick up the pieces and make things right again? And when it's all said and done, what can the rest ...
12.12.2018 11 \| Floundering With the Court of Oyer and Terminer officially disbanded, the fog of uncertainly rolled into Salem. What would happen to those still in jail? When would a new trial session begin? And most importantly, who would grab the wheel of ...
12.05.2018 10 \| Pen and Paper Between the examinations and the hangings, it was easy to see the witch trials as a battle fought inside the courtroom. But outside, word was spreading about the injustice of it all, and so the fight was taken to a ...
11.28.2018 09 \| Fight or Flight The witchcraft panic had been gathering victims for months by the time George Burroughs was hanged, and many of them were still in jail. With nothing but torture and certain death awaiting them at the end of their imprisonment, many ...
11.21.2018 08 \| King and Queen As the trials continued to roll forward in Salem, crushing more and more lives beneath its wheels, the panic began to spread outside its borders. In the community of Andover, those old fears found a new home—and the results would ...
11.14.2018 07 \| She Is One Of Us It's easy for a community to turn on the outsiders among them. The Salem witch trials had become a textbook example of this over the first few months. But in July of 1692, all of that changed. As the Court ...
11.07.2018 06 \| Consequences Until now, the daily flood of examinations had been a temporary fix while everyone waited for the new government to set up an official trial. For many, that trial would represent hope and conclusion. For some, however, it would extract ...
10.31.2018 05 \| A Higher Power Some people saw the growing witch panic in Salem as a threat to their lives, and they tried to run and hide. Others saw an opportunity for profit and advancement. Through it all, though, the fire would continue to burn, ...
10.24.2018 04 \| The Refugees While the events of the Salem witch trials began within the borders of the Salem village community, many of the forces that drove it forward were external. As we're about to see, Salem was full of more than stories about ...
10.17.2018 03 \| By the Book As the first suspects are rounded up and questioned by the biased and partisan officials, their confessions unleash more trouble than relief. And as the number of witches multiplies, so too does the number of accusers. In an increasingly uncertain ...
10.10.2018 02 \| The Outsiders Even though Salem had been without an official charter from England for almost a decade, there was no question that witchcraft was still a crime. The only question left was how to handle them, and the answer would involve pitting ...
10.03.2018 01 \| The Arrival The stage is set, the characters are introduced, and the spell is cast. Welcome to Salem Village, home to a diverse and complicated gathering of families and personalities. It is a pile of dry kindling, and the match is about ...
09.26.2018 Unobscured - Season 1 - Trailer History is full of stories we think we know. They are old and dark, but time has robbed us of perspective and clarity. They've become obscured and misunderstood. Which is why this series exists: to dig deep and shed light ...

10.21.2020 3 \| Stardom Victorian journalists had learned the lesson well: true crime sells. They were investigators, but they were storytellers too. And the story they told was meant to shock middle class London, as much as it was meant to inform. Not a ...
10.14.2020 2 \| Rome & Babylon A city divided. It didn’t happen by accident. A century of destroying the old to bring in the new left many without homes. If glossy West London was the city’s pride, the poor pushed to the margins were shamed. All ...
10.07.2020 1 \| Temple Mount Victorian London was the world’s greatest city. But building an industrial empire of steel and treasure comes at a startling human cost. The ancient city’s cults of personality raised heroes and villains for a new era: the Scotland Yard Detective ...
09.30.2020 Trailer: Unobscured Season 3 The deep-dive historical documentary podcast, Unobscured, returns for a dark and bloody 3rd season. Follow along as we take a journey into what many consider to be the most infamous true crime story in history: Jack the Ripper. Season 3 ...
09.01.2020 Introducing: The Hidden Djinn Around the world, and throughout history, billions of people have believed in an entire race of creatures known as the djinn. Ancient, powerful, and hidden from the human eye, djinn lore spans continents and centuries. Join host Rabia Chaudry every ...
08.13.2020 Introducing: American Shadows a Grim & Mild American Shadows is a bi-weekly podcast from iHeartRadio and Aaron Mahnke’s Grim & Mild. The show focuses on the darker stories from American history: the people, places, and things that are hidden and forgotten in the shadows. From better-known tales ...
04.01.2020 Introducing: Strange Arrivals While you wait patiently for us to craft new seasons of Unobscured, dive into a different sort of journey. Introducing Strange Arrivals, a brand new podcast from iHeartRadio, Aaron Mahnke, and host Toby Ball that explores the mysterious events of ...
02.26.2020 20 \| INTERVIEW 8: Molly McGarry Our interview with Molly McGarry, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. To wrap up our exploration of spiritualism, we follow her observations about the power and influence of spiritualism in American life, from past to present.
02.19.2020 19 \| INTERVIEW 7: Cathy Gutierrez Our interview with Cathy Gutierrez, who has served as Professor of Religion at Sweet Briar College and Scholar in Residence at the New York Public Library. We discuss the nuances and historical development of spiritualist theology, as she explores it ...
02.12.2020 18 \| INTERVIEW 6: John Buescher Our interview with John Buescher, co-director of the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals. His dedication to cataloging and preserving spiritualist newspapers give his books on mediums a remarkable command of the people and ideas driving ...
02.05.2020 17 \| INTERVIEW 5: Mary Gabriel Our interview with Mary Gabriel, whose books have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critic's Circle Award. Her biographies of Victoria Woodhull and Karl & Jenny Marx unveil the radical threads running ...
01.29.2020 16 \| INTERVIEW 4: Nancy Rubin Stuart Our interview with Nancy Rubin Stuart, whose award winning biographies of American women include The Reluctant Spiritualist, our guide to the life of Maggie Fox for this season of Unobscured.
01.22.2020 15 \| INTERVIEW 3: Emily Clark Our interview with Emily Clark, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. Her first book, A Luminous Brotherhood, explores spiritualism in New Orleans, giving us a perspective on spiritualism beyond the northeastern hubs of the movement.
01.15.2020 14 \| INTERVIEW 2: Margaret Washington Our interview with Margaret Washington, professor of History and American Studies at Cornell University. Her work on Sojourner Truth's life in the American landscape was invaluable for seeing spiritualism in a broad historical context.
01.08.2020 13 \| INTERVIEW 1: Ann Braude Our interview with Ann Braude, Senior Lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School. Her book, Radical Spirits, was a guiding light for our exploration of the role of spiritualism in American life.
12.18.2019 12 \| There Is No Death Blows fell. Times changed. New voices rose up with answers to the nation’s pressing questions. But through it all, spiritualists worked to create an enduring place for themselves where the spirits could go on speaking.
12.11.2019 11 \| The Sheep and the Ghosts What power did the spirits wield? They had convinced millions of their presence. They had moved mediums into high places. They had crossed oceans and shaken slumbering nations. Now the movement's leading lights saw a world to win.
12.04.2019 10 \| Invisible Hands Seances circled a high stakes table. Spirits were still comforting families, but in cities like New Orleans and New York, they also held to a glowing vision. The future of the nation's laws, and the levers of its economy, were ...
11.27.2019 09 \| Wounds The war was over but the fight to determine the future of the nation continued. And the spirits had much to say. Devastated families cried out for their lost loved ones. Sometimes, the beloved dead answered back.
11.20.2019 08 \| Open Graves As shots rang out and armies crossed the nation, black spiritualists in New Orleans found themselves fighting for their homes against all comers. But most of the nation’s spirit believers were focused on the spirits clamoring around a different residence—Abraham ...
11.13.2019 07 \| Preach the Word The news was grim. Across the south, slave states were withdrawing from the nation. In the north, some spiritualists saw their chance to take their winnings and withdraw from conflict. But others kept their printing presses running. In their pages, ...
11.06.2019 06 \| Restless The child stars of spiritualism were growing up. And facing a whole host of new realities about their world. Were the spirits up to helping their young vessels find love and fight for reform as the storm clouds gathered?
10.30.2019 05 \| Seek and Ye Shall Find The movement continued to swell. It found friends in high places. But everywhere it went, it found entrenched beliefs threatened by this new source of revelation. Finding harmony around a table was one thing. But when mediums met ministers, the ...
10.23.2019 04 \| The Way, The Truth, The Lie Spiritualists weren't the only ones who believed the dead could still be heard. That belief came trailing many stories. And with many aims. Some found a nourishing home. Others found a hunting ground.
10.16.2019 03 \| A Spirit Globe Who could have imagined how quickly their message would cross oceans? Even as they traveled from city to city, the first spiritualists were celebrated by seekers. But an anarchic new faith wasn't met kindly when it faced the authorities of ...
10.09.2019 02 \| Instruments A Harmonial Philosophy was one thing. But Rochester, New York, was about to become the cradle for so much more. The city wanted more than just words. They wanted a demonstration of power.
10.02.2019 01 \| Seer It was all wide open. Great awakenings shattered the old religions. Showmen made spectacles of cutting-edge science. Radicals campaigned for a social revolution. The nation waited with bated breath for a new kind of prophet to take the stage.
09.25.2019 Unobscured - Season 2 - Trailer The critically acclaimed historical documentary series is back with a powerful new season. With insightful research, expert interviews, and Aaron Mahnke's trademark narrative style, the Unobscured team returns for a new season to delve deep into the world of Spiritualism. ...
07.12.2019 Introducing - Noble Blood Your first sneak peek of Noble Blood, a brand new podcast from executive producer Aaron Mahnke and iHeartRadio podcasts. Join author Dana Schwartz on a narrative tour of history's most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and ...
02.06.2019 18 \| INTERVIEW 6: Stacy Schiff Our interview with the Pulitzer prize winning author Stacy Schiff whose 2015 book The Witches was a source for this series.
01.30.2019 17 \| INTERVIEW 5: Jane Kamensky Our interview with Jane Kamensky, professor of American history at Harvard University and author of Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England.
01.24.2019 16 \| INTERVIEW 4: Marilynne K. Roach Our interview with Marilynne K. Roach, author of "Six Women of Salem" and "The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege."
01.16.2019 15 \| INTERVIEW 3: Richard Trask Our interview with Richard B. Trask who has served as Archivist for the Town of Danvers, Massachusetts (old Salem Village) since 1972.
01.09.2019 14 \| INTERVIEW 2: Mary Beth Norton Our interview with Mary Beth Norton, professor of American history at Cornell University and author of In the Devil’s Snare.
01.02.2019 13 \| INTERVIEW 1: Emerson Baker Our interview with Emerson Baker, interim dean and history professor at Salem State University and author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.
12.19.2018 12 \| Making Amends How does a community recover from a tragedy that claims over two dozen lives? How do they even begin to pick up the pieces and make things right again? And when it's all said and done, what can the rest ...
12.12.2018 11 \| Floundering With the Court of Oyer and Terminer officially disbanded, the fog of uncertainly rolled into Salem. What would happen to those still in jail? When would a new trial session begin? And most importantly, who would grab the wheel of ...
12.05.2018 10 \| Pen and Paper Between the examinations and the hangings, it was easy to see the witch trials as a battle fought inside the courtroom. But outside, word was spreading about the injustice of it all, and so the fight was taken to a ...
11.28.2018 09 \| Fight or Flight The witchcraft panic had been gathering victims for months by the time George Burroughs was hanged, and many of them were still in jail. With nothing but torture and certain death awaiting them at the end of their imprisonment, many ...
11.21.2018 08 \| King and Queen As the trials continued to roll forward in Salem, crushing more and more lives beneath its wheels, the panic began to spread outside its borders. In the community of Andover, those old fears found a new home—and the results would ...
11.14.2018 07 \| She Is One Of Us It's easy for a community to turn on the outsiders among them. The Salem witch trials had become a textbook example of this over the first few months. But in July of 1692, all of that changed. As the Court ...
11.07.2018 06 \| Consequences Until now, the daily flood of examinations had been a temporary fix while everyone waited for the new government to set up an official trial. For many, that trial would represent hope and conclusion. For some, however, it would extract ...
10.31.2018 05 \| A Higher Power Some people saw the growing witch panic in Salem as a threat to their lives, and they tried to run and hide. Others saw an opportunity for profit and advancement. Through it all, though, the fire would continue to burn, ...
10.24.2018 04 \| The Refugees While the events of the Salem witch trials began within the borders of the Salem village community, many of the forces that drove it forward were external. As we're about to see, Salem was full of more than stories about ...
10.17.2018 03 \| By the Book As the first suspects are rounded up and questioned by the biased and partisan officials, their confessions unleash more trouble than relief. And as the number of witches multiplies, so too does the number of accusers. In an increasingly uncertain ...
10.10.2018 02 \| The Outsiders Even though Salem had been without an official charter from England for almost a decade, there was no question that witchcraft was still a crime. The only question left was how to handle them, and the answer would involve pitting ...
10.03.2018 01 \| The Arrival The stage is set, the characters are introduced, and the spell is cast. Welcome to Salem Village, home to a diverse and complicated gathering of families and personalities. It is a pile of dry kindling, and the match is about ...
09.26.2018 Unobscured - Season 1 - Trailer History is full of stories we think we know. They are old and dark, but time has robbed us of perspective and clarity. They've become obscured and misunderstood. Which is why this series exists: to dig deep and shed light ...

Unobscured

What's Unobscured about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Unobscured episodes:

3 | Stardom

2 | Rome & Babylon

1 | Temple Mount

Trailer: Unobscured Season 3

Introducing: The Hidden Djinn

Introducing: American Shadows a Grim & Mild

Introducing: Strange Arrivals

20 | INTERVIEW 8: Molly McGarry

19 | INTERVIEW 7: Cathy Gutierrez

18 | INTERVIEW 6: John Buescher

17 | INTERVIEW 5: Mary Gabriel

16 | INTERVIEW 4: Nancy Rubin Stuart

15 | INTERVIEW 3: Emily Clark

14 | INTERVIEW 2: Margaret Washington

13 | INTERVIEW 1: Ann Braude

12 | There Is No Death

11 | The Sheep and the Ghosts

10 | Invisible Hands

09 | Wounds

08 | Open Graves

07 | Preach the Word

06 | Restless

05 | Seek and Ye Shall Find

04 | The Way, The Truth, The Lie

03 | A Spirit Globe

02 | Instruments

01 | Seer

Unobscured - Season 2 - Trailer

Introducing - Noble Blood

18 | INTERVIEW 6: Stacy Schiff

17 | INTERVIEW 5: Jane Kamensky

16 | INTERVIEW 4: Marilynne K. Roach

15 | INTERVIEW 3: Richard Trask

14 | INTERVIEW 2: Mary Beth Norton

13 | INTERVIEW 1: Emerson Baker

12 | Making Amends

11 | Floundering

10 | Pen and Paper

09 | Fight or Flight

08 | King and Queen

07 | She Is One Of Us

06 | Consequences

05 | A Higher Power

04 | The Refugees

03 | By the Book

02 | The Outsiders

01 | The Arrival

Unobscured - Season 1 - Trailer

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