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Paranormal Pajama Party is pro-self-care. I mean, come on. Pajamas are right there in the name.

To be kind to myself this week, I'm not releasing a new episode. Instead, I'm sharing an episode I wrote and produced for the other podcast I make – the one people actually pay me for.

This is Monash University's What Happens Next?, episode 79: "Are Reproductive Rights Human Rights?". You'll never guess what the answer is. (You will, they are, please vote this November if you're a U.S. citizen, thank you.)

Learn more about What Happens Next? or view the transcript of this episode.

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

View all my sources for each episode and read the episode transcipt here.

Follow @ParanormalPJParty on Instagram.

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When you think horror, you think of Edgar Allan Poe. His stories go hard on the eerie atmosphere, intricate plots, and unhinged characters.

But it’s important to note that most of those characters are men. And among Poe’s female characters, two recurring traits stand out prominently: they’re usually beautiful, and they’re usually dead.

This episode explores Poe's fixation with beautiful dead women, tracing it back to his tumultuous life and personal losses, including those of his mother, Eliza Poe, and his wife, Virginia Clemm.

We’ll talk about how these experiences and the cultural glamorisation of tuberculosis victims influenced scary women in Poe’s works such as Madeline Usher, the unwitting villain of his well-known short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher".

Key moments

• 1:08 – "The Fall of the House of Usher" (abridged)
• 27:26 – Welcome to the party!
• 30:55 – Eliza Poe
• 32:48 – Tuberculosis and beauty
• 38:09 – Edgar Allan Poe and masculinity
• 40:30 – Virginia Clemm
• 48:46 – Poe's beautiful dead women

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

View all my sources for each episode and read the episode transcipt here.

Follow @ParanormalPJParty on Instagram.

Send me a text message!

The dark history of witch hunts has some unsettling parallels with modern misogynistic violence. Tonight’s episode continues our discussion on Heinrich Kramer’s witch-hunting manual, the “Malleus Maleficarum”, with a critical look at its legacy, especially as it relates to incel culture and the manosphere.

We’ll examine the parallels between Kramer's misogynistic beliefs and the 2014 Isla Vista killings by Elliot Rodger, exploring the roots of violent ideologies in both cases. We’ll use the “path to intended violence” theory to compare the steps leading to mass violence in the 15th century and today.

We’ll also talk about the origins of the incel community, its online presence, and the dangerous ideologies that stem from extreme misogyny.

This episode discusses themes of terrorism, weapons, murder, serious injury, suicide, and pervasive sexism. Listener discretion is advised.

Key moments

• 0:59 – "Witch-Burning" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
• 2:41 – Welcome to the party
• 7:43 – Incel culture and the manosphere
• 12:41 – The path to intended violence
• 19:14 – Hunters and howlers: Jacob Sprenger and Jordan Peterson
• 21:07 – Internalised misogyny, accusations of witchcraft, and Pearl Davis
• 23:05 – More parallels between early modern witch-hunts and modern violence against women

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

View all my sources for each episode and read the episode transcipt here.

Follow @ParanormalPJParty on Instagram.