Why are we so worried about Satan?

Vox’s Sean Illing talks with Sarah Marshall, co-host of the You’re Wrong About podcast, about the Satanic Panic of the early 1980s. They discuss America’s penchant for moral panics, why the country latches onto outlandish stories, and what the Satanic panic and its echoes today say about America’s collective psyche.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) Interviews Writer, Vox

Guest: Sarah Marshall (@Remember_Sarah) Author; host of the You’re Wrong About podcast

References: 

• You’re Wrong About, “The Satanic Panic” (May 2018)
• “Why Satanic Panic never really ended” by Aja Romano (Vox, March 31)
• “Michelle Remembers and the Satanic Panic” by Megan Goodwin (The Revealer, Feb. 4)
• “There’s a bear in the woods” (Ronald Reagan campaign ad, 1984)
• The McMartin preschool trial
• “Baseless Wayfair child-trafficking theory spreads online” by Amanda Seitz and Ali Swenson (AP, July 2020)
• The Mann Act (a.k.a. “White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910”)

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This episode was made by: 

• Producer: Erikk Geannikis
• Editor: Amy Drozdowska
• Engineer: Paul Mounsey
• VP, Vox Audio: Liz Kelly Nelson

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How to be wrong less often

Vox’s Dylan Matthews talks with Julia Galef, host of the podcast Rationally Speaking, and author of The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t. They discuss how we can overcome the ways our own minds deceive us and change the way we think to make more rational decisions.

Host: Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Guest: Julia Galef (@juliagalef), Author; host of Rationally Speaking podcast

References: 

• The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t by Julia Galef (Apr. 2021)

Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Conversations ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Vox Conversations by subscribing in your favorite podcast app.

Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts

This episode was made by: 

• Producer: Erikk Geannikis
• Editor: Amy Drozdowska
• Engineer: Paul Mounsey
• VP, Vox Audio: Liz Kelly Nelson

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Patricia Lockwood’s big, beautiful internet brain

Writer and Vox contributor Anne Helen Petersen talks with poet and novelist Patricia Lockwood about the experience of being extremely online. They discuss Lockwood’s book No One Is Talking About This, writing and religious upbringing, the parts of life perfectly suited to the internet, and the human experiences that glitch the system.

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Who is the real George Soros?

Vox’s Worldly host Zack Beauchamp talks with author and New Statesman editor Emily Tamkin about the life and legacy of George Soros. How did a Hungarian billionaire philanthropist become the No. 1 boogeyman of right-wing nationalist movements on both sides of the Atlantic? They unpack the meaning of the smear campaign against him, and the inherent contradictions of a wealthy man trying to use his influence to make societies more democratic.

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Introducing Unexplainable

Unexplainable is a new podcast from Vox about everything we don’t know. Each week, the team look at the most fascinating unanswered questions in science and the mind-bending ways scientists are trying to answer them. New episodes drop every Wednesday. 

Learn more: vox.com/unexplainable 

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unexplainable/id1554578197

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0PhoePNItwrXBnmAEZgYmt?si=Y3-2TFfDT8qHkfxMjrJL2g

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The border, explained by someone who knows it intimately

Aarti Shahani, NPR journalist and host of WBEZ podcast Art of Power, talks with investigative journalist and author Alfredo Corchado about the US-Mexico border. Trump’s actions created a new urgency for the political establishment to better understand the border, and Biden’s challenges there continue to grow. Corchado, a former child farmworker and a Mexican-American with identities on both sides of the border wall, discusses the reality, politics, history, and future of the border.

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“Wintering,” wisdom, and weathering life’s darkest times

Vox’s Sigal Samuel talks with the author of Wintering, Katherine May, about the lessons we can learn during life’s darkest seasons. They talk about our long collective pandemic winter, about how times of retreat can allow for personal and political transformation, and about how we might carry new wisdom with us as we emerge into spring.

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Reframing America’s race problem

Vox’s Sean Illing talks with the author of The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee, about the costs of racism in America — for everyone. They discuss what we all lose by buying into the zero-sum paradigm that progress for some has to come at the expense of others, and why the left needs to reframe the country’s race problem and persuade the other side with a more compelling story.

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