Witches of Scotland

Zoe and Claire speak to the fabulous Marion Gibson about her Sunday Times Best Selling Book "Witchland" and to Al Seed and Jude Milligan about their witch/macbeth related play "Thrice" . Racoons in baby rucksacks on planes included

WE speak to Professor Claire McGlynn about Patriarchy and Porn - Shei is a leading expert on violence against women and girls and gender equality. Her particular expertise lies in the legal regulation of pornography, image-based sexual abuse (formerly known as 'revenge porn'), cyberflashing and all forms of online abuse. She advise governments, civil society and social media platforms regarding online and image-based abuse, and work closely with survivors to strengthen the law.

We also speak to Dr. Dorka Tamás researcher, and author. She is a leading scholar and expert on the famous American poet Sylvia Plath

Dr. Tamás is the author of the academic book Sylvia Plath and the Supernatural, which explores Plath's deep interest in magic, witchcraft, and demonology

Victoria Bradbury speaks to us about her new show about witches and her own personal connection to the witch trials in Salem

Blue Boar VR project: https://blurringartandlife.com/vb/blueboarvr.html

Blue Boar installation project: https://blurringartandlife.com/vb/blueboar.html

Colonial Vegetables Sewn Sampler: https://blurringartandlife.com/vb/colonialvegetables.html

S-WITCH project: https://blurringartandlife.com/vb/s-witch.html

Info and links for my Glasgow School of Art Show July 3-5:

Please join me at one of the events:

Threads Pop-Up Preview

Friday 3 July, 5–7pm

or

Virtual Gallery Tour for Remote Participants

Sunday 5 July, 9am EST / 2pm BST

The exhibition will be on view in-person at the Windows on Heritage Gallery at GSA's Reid Building during the following hours:

Friday 3 July: 4pm–7pm

Saturday 4 July: 10am–7pm

Sunday 5 July: 10am–4pm

If you thought witchcraft accusations were a thing of the past, think again :

Sarah Newey, a journalist based in Bangkok covering global health security across the Asia Pacific, predominantly but not solely for the Telegraph, investigated the witch trials of Papua New Guinea . Her website is here https://sneweyy.squarespace.com/.

This is an uncomfortable but necessary reminder that witchcraft accusations are not a historic abberation but relevant now and historically.

WOMEN NOT WITCHES

QUARRELSOME DAMES

REMEMBRANCE IS RESISTANCE

This bonus ep covers a range of topics related to sexual violence, misogyny, and women's rights. It delves into the normalisation of violence, legal definitions, and the ongoing erosion of women's healthcare. The discussion also calls for the criminalisation of misogyny in Scotland and the importance and necessity of resistance and community building. The chat ends with the suggestion that Raven Intelligence is utilised to smash the patriarchy. Standard convo from these two.

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Zoe and Claire chat to Anna Caig, about Anna's new book, 'The Wise Witch of Orkney,' Set in 1593. it tells the story of Elspeth Balfour, a wise woman from Orkney.

Zoe and Claire present a review of the campaign so far to a London audience - for those with us from the start it's a meandering wander from then till now, for those just joining the pocast it's a catch up of where we've come from and where we are going #quarrelsomedames #remebranceisresistance

Zoe and Claire speak to Dr. Debora Moretti about ritual magic vs. folk magic and most importantly for those taking down their decorations on the 5th of January , The Befana tradition in Italy. On women's rights issues, we speak to Gemma Clark abortion rights activism in the UK and why we should make sure our healthcare rights are protected.

Zoe and Claire wish to offer a Solstice offering to all those who have stuck by us with this podcast through a VERY patchy period and we wanted to give u THE BEST festive guests we could think of to finish this year! First is @thatglasgowwitch whose quiet, authentic witch work has taken the world by storm and the hugely talented artist and author Juano Diaz whose excellent book, Slumboy tells of his childhood and whose current artistic work focuses on the spiritual world.

You’ll have seen memes saying “I made dinners for men I should have poisoned” , well Zoe and Claire speak to Hope Reese about her book “The Women Are Not Fine: The Dark History of a Poisonous Sisterhood.

Hope tells the story of about a woman who lived at the turn of the 20th century, in the village of Nagyrév, Hungary, midwife Zsuzsanna Fazekas. She was more than a caretaker - she was a confidante. She helped poor women give birth; she assisted them with abortions; and she listened. Their stories were the same: husbands who drank, who beat them, who made their lives unbearable.

In response, Auntie Zsuzsi asked one question: "Why bother with them?"

Her solution was arsenic. Soon, women began slipping this concoction, made by dissolving flypaper in water, into their husbands' porridge, stews, and brandy. And over the next twenty years, the quiet village became the epicentre of one of the deadliest poisoning epidemics of the 20th century - according to some estimates, up to 300 people in the region were murdered.

Why did they do it? How did these murders spin out of control? How did these women get away with their crimes for two decades?

In The Women Are Not Fine, journalist Hope Reese pieces together archival newspapers, court documents, police records, and the vital work of historians, sociologists, and psychologists, diving deep into the truth behind this extraordinary event. Her findings serve as a stark warning: when women in a community are pushed to the brink, the consequences reverberate through history.

Zoe and Claire also speak to the fabulously knowledgeable academic and writer Steven Veerapen. Steven is an author born in Glasgow and raised in Paisley.

Fascinated by the glamour and ghastliness of life in the 1500s, his books show a penchant for myths, mysteries and murders in an age in which the law was as slippery as those who defied it... We speak to him about his book “Witches – A King’s Obsession” whether broomstick-riding spell-casters or Wiccan earth-worshippers – have been culturally relevant for centuries. For centuries, too, belief in the potency of witchcraft has been debated, accused witches have been hunted and punished, and film and TV productions have brought the witch and the witch-hunter to big and small screens.

But where did our perception of witches – good and bad – come from? What motivated wide-scale panics about witchcraft during certain periods? How were alleged witches identified, accused, and variously tortured and punished?

Steven Veerapen traces witches, witchcraft, and witch-hunters from the explosion of mass-trials under King James VI and I in the late sixteenth century to the death of the witch-hunting phenomenon in the early eighteenth century. Based on documents and the latest historical research, he explores what motivated widespread belief in demonic witchcraft throughout Britain as well as in continental Europe, what caused mass panics about alleged witches, and what led, ultimately, to the relegation of the witch – and the witch-hunter – to the realm of fantasy and the fringes of society.

Listen to Zoe and Claire to talk to Professor John Azumah and extraordinary photographer Claire Thomas about the women suffering modern day witch accusations, the witch camps in which they are forced to stay for safety and what we can do to help them.

EPISODE 76 DR MARGARET BENNETT

Zoe in conversation with DR MARGARET BENNETT

“is a Scottish writer, folklorist, ethnologist, broadcaster, and singer. Her main interests lies in the field of traditional Scottish folk culture and cultural identity of the Scots in Scotland and abroad. The late Hamish Henderson, internationally distinguished poet and folklorist, said about her: Margaret embodies the spirit of Scotland.”

THIS WAS RECORDED BEFORE WE HAD CONFIRMATION THAT THE UK AND US HARDBACK OF OUR BOOO WILL HAVE THE TARTAN ON IT

CLARE CAMPBELL OF PRICKLY THISTLE talks to Zoe and Claire about the tartan and about how we are releasing the WOS Tartan, clans and much more

Zoe and Claire discuss the witch trials in France and speak to ANNETTE YOUNG, journalist and presenter of the 51% - a feminist French TV show about Gislèle Pelicot. WARNING The discussion includes details of sexual assault.

Zoe and Claire talk to the folks at the Connecticut Witch Trials and find out all about their campaign. They also talk about the Afghanistan Government decision to remove education from women, the internets reaction to a woman celebrating her PHD (Congratulations Dr. Ally Louks) and also talk about middle class women of a certain age.... Those brave listeners who are able to make it to the end of the podcast will be rewarded with raven chat and festive requests.

Zoe and Claire come clean about why there has been no podcast in a while and what they have been up to... SPOILER : They've written a book!

Their publishers say

"HOW TO KILL A WITCH is a compelling and detailed investigation into the historic persecution of women as witches by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, founders of the world-famous Witches of Scotland campaign.

With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the witch hunts, HOW TO KILL A WITCH builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again?

Zoe & Claire speak to Prof Goodare about how the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft came about and Euan McAndrew, Wikimedian in residence at Edinburgh University explains bringing the work to a digital audience along with student Ruby Imrie PLUS BONUS APOLOGY EPISODE with Kristof Smeyers about a topic close to Zoe & Claire’s hearts….

Zoe & Claire speak to the endlessly fascinating Professor Marion Gibson about her new book which spans 700 years of witchcraft trials - from the trial which probably started the European witch hunt to the 21st century allegations of “witch-hunting” of Donald Trump by Stormy Daniels *may include raccoons

Zoe and Claire speak to author Stacey Thomas about her debut novel “The Revels” - all about witchcraft accusations .
Stacey Thomas is a contributor to Bad Form Review. She is an alumna of the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course where she was awarded the Clare Mackintosh Scholarship for Black Writers. In 2021, she was announced as one of the three winners of HarperCollins’s inaugural Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers.

Zoe and Claire catch up with Leo Igwe to find out about witchcraft accusations in the present day : what are people being accused of, by whom and why? NB The Aye Write event has now already taken place - sorry to those who missed it! WARNING - Discusses violence against people accused of witchcraft