What if history's most infamous witch hunt could have been stopped with just a few different decisions? We're examining the pivotal moments between January 1692 and May 1693 when someone—anyone—could have pumped the brakes on Salem's runaway train of accusations.

From the shocking arrest of four-year-old Dorothy Good to Martha Carrier's unfortunate promotion to "Queen of Hell," we'll explore how escalating choices transformed a local crisis into colonial America's most notorious legal disaster. We'll meet the key players who either fanned the flames or tried to douse them—including Cotton Mather's mixed messages and Governor Phips' late-in-the-game reality check.

Join us as we dissect the moments when cooler heads could have prevailed and discover how 45 residents of unlucky Andover got swept up in accusations that would make even the devil blush. Sometimes it takes a village—or several villages—to create a catastrophe.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

Josh and Sarah tell the TL;DR version of the story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-93, where 156 people faced formal accusations and over 1,000 became entangled in a legal system that had lost its moral compass. They examine what transformed a small Massachusetts community into the epicenter of mass persecution, from the unprecedented scale of the proceedings to the types of people targeted. This wasn’t just colonial paranoia—it was a perfect storm of social tensions, legal failures, and human frailty that contemporaries recognized as extraordinary even by their own standards. The hosts discuss why Salem continues to captivate us centuries later, serving as both historical cautionary tale and enduring reminder of how quickly justice can derail when fear takes the wheel.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

Sarah Good's final words to the minister who demanded her confession—"God will give you blood to drink"—would echo through Salem long after her death. In a community where everyday foods like butter, bread, and pudding became evidence of witchcraft, the line between nourishment and damnation blurred beyond recognition. Explore how Salem's fears transformed the most basic human need into suspicions of a pact with the devil, from spoiled butter that doomed a sea voyage to cheese found in an accused witch's pocket.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

Move along folks, the Salem Witch Trials were the product of hysteria, and that's all you need to know. . .

or NOT

We kick off with a midnight ride that would make Paul Revere jealous—except instead of warning about the British, townspeople were frantically summoning help for a girl supposedly being tortured by a witch's specter. But before you roll your eyes and mutter "mass hysteria," consider this: What if the Salem Witch Trials weren't the product of unhinged women with wandering uteruses (yes, that's a real historical medical theory), but rather ordinary people responding to extraordinary fear in disturbingly familiar ways?

Join us as we trace witch panics from Springfield to Hartford, uncovering a pattern that's less "crazy town" and more "calculated legal proceedings." We'll explore why dismissing these events as hysteria might be the most dangerous mistake we can make—especially when the same human behaviors that fueled 17th-century witch hunts are alive and well in. Spoiler alert: We're not as evolved as we think we are.

Fair warning: Contains references to wandering uteruses, midnight rides, and uncomfortable parallels to contemporary society.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

We look at the reported use of oomancy—egg divination—allegedly preceding the Salem Witch Trials. The discussion centers around a haunting account from Reverend John Hale about an afflicted girl who used an egg and glass to divine her future, only to see a coffin appear in the reflection. This ominous vision allegedly led to her eventual death, serving as what Hale callously called "a just warning" about dabbling with divination.

The hosts explore the ancient origins of divination practices, tracing them back thousands of years to early civilizations. The episode examines various divination methods documented in Salem records, including the sieve and scissors technique, key and Bible, and other techniques for fortune telling. Several fascinating Salem cases come to light, including Samuel Wardwell's admitted fortune telling abilities and Dorcas Hoar's reputation as a local fortune teller who specialized in predicting the deaths of men. The hosts share intriguing testimonies from neighbors who witnessed these practices firsthand, revealing how common divination was in 17th-century New England communities.

Throughout the episode, the hosts address common myths about Salem, including the popular but inaccurate image of girls gathering in circles for magic sessions. They also explore the mystery of which afflicted girl Hale was referring to in his account, as her identity remains unknown to this day.

Join Josh and Sarah as they uncover the surprisingly relatable human desire to glimpse the future, one cracked egg at a time. Connect with them on Patreon at patreon.com/aboutsalem to continue the conversation about Salem's divination practices and their modern echoes.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠
⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

You've heard the theory: ergot-poisoned rye bread caused hallucinations that sparked the Salem witch trials. It sounds so logical, so scientific, so... wrong.

When the afflicted girl Elizabeth Hubbard accused alleged witch Sarah Good of witchcraft through spectral torture - pinching, pricking, and demanding she sign the devil's book - was she describing a fungal poisoning? Or something far more complex?

Join Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack as they finally address one of the most popular silver bullet "explanations" for the Salem Witch Trials. They'll show you why this tidy medical explanation crumbles: convulsive ergotism is actually a syndrome with a constellation of symptoms and variables.

This episode will sharpen your critical thinking. The ergot theory's problems show us how easily we can be drawn to explanations that sound scientific but don't actually fit the evidence and why we need to dig deeper than the theories that simply make us feel better about difficult history.

⁠Linnda R. Caporael, “Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?”

Nicholas P. Spanos and Jack Gottlieb Rebuttal, “Ergotism and the Salem Village Witch Trials”

Mary K. Matossian, "Views: Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair "⁠

Nicholas P. Spanos, “Ergotism and the Salem Witch Panic”

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt:

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

In Salem, people were hanged based on crimes no one else could see.

In Salem, accusers claimed to see the ghostly “shapes” of their neighbors tormenting them from miles away. These spectral attacks left real bruises, real terror, and real questions: Could the Devil impersonate innocent people? Why did Connecticut reject this evidence decades earlier while Salem embraced it with deadly consequences?

From midnight visitations to courtroom chaos, discover how testimony about invisible crimes became the most dangerous evidence in American legal history.

The shadows cast by Salem’s trials reach far beyond 1692—and the question of what we’re willing to believe based on what we cannot see remains as relevant as ever.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

“The Return of Several Ministers”

Letter from Cotton Mather to John Foster

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube
⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website