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The Worker's Cauldron

David Roddy& Ceddie

46 episodes

4 months ago

In this episode of "The Workers Cauldron," we delve into the intersection of feminist paganism and direct action through the lens of Starhawk and her cohorts' activism against nuclear power in the 1980s. We navigate the rich history and dynamic landscape of the feminist pagan movement, exploring how spiritual practices intertwined with feminist ideals fuelled a potent form of activism. Drawing on the writings of Starhawk, a prominent figure in both feminist and pagan circles, the episode unpa...

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Society & Culture,

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In this episode of "The Workers Cauldron," we delve into the intersection of feminist paganism and direct action through the lens of Starhawk and her cohorts' activism against nuclear power in the 1980s. We navigate the rich history and dynamic landscape of the feminist pagan movement, exploring how spiritual practices intertwined with feminist ideals fuelled a potent form of activism. Drawing on the writings of Starhawk, a prominent figure in both feminist and pagan circles, the episode unpa...

Show more...

Society & Culture,

Episodes (20/46)

The Worker's Cauldron

Witchcraft and Women's Liberation Part 3: Feminist Spirituality and Magical Politics

In this episode of "The Workers Cauldron," we delve into the intersection of feminist paganism and direct action through the lens of Starhawk and her cohorts' activism against nuclear power in the 1980s. We navigate the rich history and dynamic landscape of the feminist pagan movement, exploring how spiritual practices intertwined with feminist ideals fuelled a potent form of activism. Drawing on the writings of Starhawk, a prominent figure in both feminist and pagan circles, the episode unpa...

1 year ago

53 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Witchcraft and Women's Liberation Part 2: The Susan B. Anthony Coven no. 1

On this episode of The Workers Cauldron, we discuss the schism between radical and cultural feminists in the 1970s. We focus on the life and works of Z Budapest, who founded the Susan B. Anthony Coven no. 1 in 1970, the first of many covens devoted to what she termed “Dianic Wicca.” This reformulation of Wicca was staunchly feminist and believed men could only be initiated into the craft when true gender equality was won. Sources: Cynthia Eller, Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Femini...

1 year ago

50 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Witchcraft and Women's Liberation Part 1: The Story of the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell

In this episode, we tackle the contentious Radical Feminist movement, particularly the actions of the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, aka W.I.T.C.H. We discuss the shifting political ideas of W.I.T.C.H co-founder Robin Morgan and consider how the contradictions within radical feminism--a movement of women who criticized the root of patriarchal society-- gave way to cultural feminism, which held the seeds of a burgeoning feminist spirituality movement. Sources Jo Freema...

2 years ago

43 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

A Brief Conversation with Brenda Salguero from Monstras

We are publishing a more relaxed episode this month as we prepare for the next series. Brenda Salguera of the Monstras: Latinx Monsters and Folklore podcast joins us to discuss the strange case of flying humanoids(but maybe illegal gold miners with jetpacks) In Loreto, Peru that made headlines last month. Sources from Radio Programas del Perú: "They are aliens!": Loreto residents denounce the presence of strange beings that attack them at night Loreto: Police and Navy arrived at community w...

2 years ago

30 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Teresa Urrea: Rebel and Saint

This month, Dr. Jennifer Koshatka Seman joins us to talk about her book Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo. We focus on the life of Teresa Urrea, a folk saint and spiritual healer in late 19th century Mexico that inspired indigenous and poor workers from the borderlands of Mexico to rise up against the Presidency of Porfirio Diaz. Jennifer Koshatka Seman, Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo Char...

2 years ago

1 hour

The Worker's Cauldron

Peru's Problem with Pishtacos

There is a peculiar phantom rumored to haunt the rural roads of the South American Andes. The pishtaco takes the form of a tall, well-dressed white man who steals the fat from the bodies of the region's indigenous inhabitants. We explore how this monster was born out of the horrors of colonization and how it recreates itself throughout the history of Peru as the personification of oppression. Sources: Mary Weismantel, Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes Ernesto Vasquex...

2 years ago

44 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Vodou Nationalism Part 2: The Truth About Papa Doc

Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's administration was portrayed as a "Voodoo Dictatorship" by the Western press due to his tense relationship with the Catholic Church and his conflicting approach to the nation's Vodou beliefs. However, the claims of his political use of the religion's spirits and beliefs are based on shaky foundations. On this episode of The Worker's Cauldron, we try to shift through competing claims in an attempt to uncover the true history Haiti's right-wing dictator. Sources:...

2 years ago

39 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Vodou Nationalism, Part 1: Between Occupation and Duvalier

Focusing on the years between American military occupation and the dictatorship of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti, the Workers Cauldron Podcast examines the ways in which Haitian literary groups represented the African diaspora religion of Vodou. After being moved by indiginisme, an ethnological movement to ground Haitian identity in its African past, future dictator Francois Duvalier helped to organize a group of black nationalist or noiriste writers called Les Griots who rebell...

2 years ago

49 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

An American Werewolf for Christmas

In the final episode of our 2022 season, we discuss the rise of a bizarre cryptid popularly called The Dogman. We explore the works of the late great Linda Godfrey, who passed away on November 27 of this year, and her role in popularizing Wisconsin’s Beast of Bray Road and the Michigan Dogman. Over the last decade, the monster has grown from humble rural origins into a cryptid of international fame. Linda Godfrey: The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf Real Wolfmen: True Encou...

2 years ago

47 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Gay Liberation and Witchcraft Part 2: From Minoans to Faeries

We continue our journey into the intersections of gay liberation and the neopagan movements with a discussion of Eddie Buczynski a young witch, brought under the wing of famed gay witch Leo Martello, who founded the Minoan Brotherhood--combining what he believed to be ancient goddess worship with a new mystery cult for gay men. We then discuss the pagan turn of Arthur Evans, formerly the strategist for the Gay Activist Alliance, with the 1978 publication of Witchcraft and the Gay Counte...

2 years ago

54 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Gay Liberation and Witchcraft Part 1: The Mysterious Life of Leo Martello

We are back and in time for Halloween we are discussing, among other things, the first pagan pride “Witch-In” in New York’s Central Park on October 31, 1970. The organizer of the event, an eccentric Sicilian-American named Leo Martello, used his experience in the gay liberation movement to craft a (somewhat problematic) political identity for the emerging Wiccan religion. We discuss his life, influences, and how he related to the gay liberation movement after the Stonewall uprising. B...

3 years ago

1 hour 2 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Monsters of the Caribbean

This episode we speak to UCLA social historian Robin Derby, whose upcoming book, Werewolves and other Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands, focuses on manifestations of demonic animals on the island of Hispaniola. We talk about the links between colonization, capitalism and monsters--particularly the mysterious figure known as the bacá. Further Reading: Robin Derby and Marion Werner: The Devil Wears Dockers: Devil Pacts, Trade Zones, and Rural-Urban Ti...

3 years ago

31 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

The Night Doctors

Sometimes monsters take on the most unlikely form. Today we talk about the night doctor, a shadowy medical menace that appears in Black folklore at the beginning of the 20th century. Fear of the night doctor reflected a very real history of racist medical abuse in the United States. CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains discussions about dissections and unethical medical experiments that some may find disturbing. References: Night Riders in Black Folk History By Gladys-Marie Fry Me...

3 years ago

53 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Goatsuckers at the End of History Neoliberalism, Borders and El Chupacabra

The Chupacabra is undoubtedly one of the most well known cryptids. It is a recent monster, emerging in Puerto Rico only in 1995. We discuss what was going on in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, the spread of the Chupacabra to Mexico after the North American Free Trade Agreement where it merged with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and how it became associated with both coyotes suffering from mange and immigrants in the 2000s. We are joined by Brenda Salguero and Dr. Orquidea of the podcast Mons...

3 years ago

1 hour 21 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

When Mary Moved: Ireland 1985

This week we take a look at the strange moving statues phenomenon that attracted hundreds of thousands of Irish Catholics to shrines across the country in the summer of 1985. The moving statues were part the bleak social landscape of Ireland in the 1980s, and a series of scandals leading up to that summer ignited something of a social movement that politicized the alleged miracles. We are joined by Victoria Anne Pearson of University College Cork and Cian Gill of the Wide Atlantic Weird Pod...

3 years ago

53 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Communist Cryptozoology 3: Big Footprints in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Finally, we travel to Vietnam, where both National Liberation Front fighters and American GI’s allegedly encountered Bigfoot-like creatures in the midst of the Vietnam War. We discuss how Vietnamese scientists respond to the Nguoi Rung or forest people in light of the nation's astonishing biodiversity.. Bonus material: The applications of Friedrich Engels to Bigfoot research Sources: Kon Tum: The truth about the horror and bloodthirsty "forest man with no tail" Nguoi Rung: mythical or mis...

3 years ago

1 hour 24 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Communist Cryptozoology 2: Yeren in the People's Republic of China

This week we follow the tracks of the mysterious Yeren, aka "China's Bigfoot," and discuss how revolutionary Chinese scientists have grappled with the development of a “people’s science” as it relates to the country's enigmatic cryptid. Bonus material: The taste of Bigfoot meat Sigrid Schmalzer: The People’s Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China Lauren Chen: Dreamers, crackpots or realists? The diehards on the trail of China’s ‘Bigfoot’ The legend of th...

3 years ago

1 hour 8 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

Communist Cryptozoology Part 1: The USSR

How a select group of explorers and scientists from the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of Mongolia came to believe that a species of primitive, human-like creatures called Almas or Almasty haunted the mountains of Central Asia. Also, we interview Dr. Ed Guimont on the role socialist science fiction may have had on a leader of the Soviet expedition to find the Yeti. Check out his podcast, The Impossible Archive, here. Sources Boris Porshnev, The Soviet Sasquatch Artemy Magun, Boris ...

3 years ago

1 hour 18 minutes

The Worker's Cauldron

A Haunted House Christmas

In our season 3 finally, we pay homage to the great tradition of Christmas Ghost stories by looking into the haunted house. Jumping off from classic gothic literature and the wave of supernatural horror movies at the dawn of neoliberalism, we dive into the popularity of haunted house stories in modern reality television. We discuss the frightening undercurrents of domestic violence, the re-entrenchment of “traditional” gender roles, and the horrors of unstable housing markets. Bonus: Some LE...

3 years ago

1 hour

The Worker's Cauldron

The Terrified Teens of TikTok

In this edition of the Workers Cauldron, we are headed over to the strange world of TikTok, where a new folklore is developing around creatures appropriated from indigenous American spiritualities. These spirits, oddly euphemized as “Flesh Pedestrians” and “Windy Bois," are said to steal unwary hikers off trails and into the deep forests of North America. We break these stories down, and discuss how this form of appropriation sidesteps the very real history of colonialism, to the horror...

3 years ago

1 hour 15 minutes