The Feral Folklorist
The Feral Folklorist is a podcast that blends strange history, old-world witchcraft, and hands-on folk magic. Each episode explores a real haunting, folktale, or magical belief—then digs deeper into the spellcraft, superstition, and shadow work buried underneath. From witch bottles and death omens to crossroads myths and Southern curses, this show uncovers the folklore people whisper about but rarely explain.
Hosted by author and folklorist Papa Gee, The Feral Folklorist combines storytelling with practical magic, revealing how ancient beliefs still shape the way we protect, hex, heal, and haunt. Whether you’re into ghost stories, rootwork, or ritual, this podcast invites you to explore the eerie, the enchanted, and everything that still smells like smoke.
New episodes every other Monday.
Episodes
51 episodes
Feral Fragments: The Hammersmith Ghost and Murder Trial
In the winter of 1804, people around Hammersmith were convinced something white and ghostly was appearing after dark. Witnesses reported a strange figure near the churchyard and along the roads, and before long, frightened residents were going ...
Feral Fragments: The Kentucky Meat Shower
In March of 1876, Rebecca Crouch was making soap outside her home in Bath County, Kentucky, when pieces of flesh began falling from a clear sky. Meat landed across the yard, caught on fences and briers, and soon attracted neighbors, newspaper r...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Three Little Birds
This time, I’m sharing “The Three Little Birds,” a German fairy tale about three royal children taken from their mother at birth and sent down a river by two jealous aunts. A fisherman saves them and raises them as his own, while their innocent...
29. Baba Yaga’s House: The Witch at the Edge of the Woods
Baba Yaga waits at the edge of the forest in a hut that turns on chicken legs, surrounded by burning skulls, bones, and strange servants. But the old witch of Russian folklore is not always the same creature from one story to the next. In this ...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Grey Lady of Glamis
This time, I’m sharing “The Grey Lady of Glamis,” a Scottish ghost tale set inside Glamis Castle, where one chair in the chapel is always left empty. A young servant named Elspeth is warned never to move it, but when unexpected guests leave the...
28. The Bell Witch Speaks: Tennessee’s Talking Haunting
Strange knocks, unseen hands, disembodied voices, and a presence that seemed to know every secret inside the Bell family home. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we explore the Bell Witch, the talking spirit said to have tormented a Tenne...
27. Working the Weather: Witches Who Called the Storm
Storm magic, wind knots, hail charms, thunder candles, weather workers, and the old fear that someone could call trouble down from the sky. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we explore the folklore of weather magic, from sailors b...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - Jack and the Beanstalk, An Appalachian Jack Tale
n this Feral Folktales bonus episode, Papa Gee tells an Appalachian-flavored version of Jack and the Beanstalk, one of the best-known Jack tales in folklore.Jack is poor, hungry, and sent out with one last chance to make things ...
26. The Deathwatch Beetle: The Tapping Omen in the Wall
Death watch beetles, tapping in the walls, old house omens, sickroom vigils, hidden insects, and the old fear that a small sound in the wood could warn a household that death was on its way. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we ex...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - Coyote Steals Fire
Coyote Steals Fire | Native American Trickster Folktale. s a Feral Folktales bonus episode about one of the great trickster stories: the tale of how Coyote helped bring fire to the people.Before fire, the nights were colder, food stayed ...
25. The Devil’s Handprint: Devil Marks, Witch Marks & the Folklore of Evil Signs
Devil handprints, witch marks, haunted churches, strange marks in stone, burned signs in wood, and the old fear that evil could touch the ordinary world and leave evidence behind. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we explore the folklore...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Red Shoes
This time, I’m sharing “The Red Shoes” by Hans Christian Andersen, a dark old tale about vanity, obsession, and what happens when desire turns into punishment. Like a lot of Andersen’s stories, it reads like a fairy tale on the surface, but und...
24. Married in Red: Ghostly Brides and Wedding Curses
Ghost brides, wedding curses, haunted bridal objects, and the old wedding customs meant to protect marriage from envy, death, bad vows, and trouble at the threshold. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we explore the darker side o...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Lion's Whisker
In this episode of Feral Folktales, I’m sharing “The Lion’s Whisker,” a traditional teaching story told in several parts of Africa and later carried into folktale collections around the world. It’s the story of a woman who struggles to...
23. The Book in the Drawer: Grimoires, Family Bibles, and Magical Spell Books
Spell books, grimoires, family Bibles, charm books, and Books of Shadows all belong to the same old habit: writing down what people did when ordinary help ran out. In this episode, we open the drawer on the private working books people kept in ...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Raven Who Walked the Road
This time, I’m sharing “The Raven Who Walked the Road,” a folktale about old warnings, strange signs, and the danger of ignoring what people before you already knew. In stories like this, trouble does not always announce itself in some dramatic...
22. Staked in the Dirt: The Magic and Lore of the Vampire
In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we dig into one of the most persistent figures in supernatural folklore—the vampire. Long before the polished versions that show up in novels and movies, people across Europe were already tellin...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Jar that Caught a Demon
This time, I’m sharing “The Jar That Caught a Demon,” an old folktale about trickery, containment, and the dangerous hope that evil can be shut up and sealed away for good. In stories like this, the jar is never just a jar. It becomes a boundar...
21. Sin-Eaters of the Borderlands: Bread, Burial, and the Last Burden
Sin-eating is one of those borderland customs that sounds too strange to be real, which is probably why it lasted. In this episode, we dig into the old belief from the Welsh Marches and nearby border country that a dead person’s sins could be t...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Story of the Night Mare
This time, I’m sharing “The Story of the Night Mare,” an old piece of folklore about the strange weight that sometimes comes in the middle of the night. Long before people had medical names for sleep paralysis, many believed a spirit called a <...
Feral by Night Sneak Peek - Don't Answer the Third Knock at the Back Door
A knock at the back door in the middle of the night is bad enough. A second one is worse. By the time the third comes, it may already be too late.In this first episode of Feral by Night, Papa Gee pulls you into a dark and uneasy tale of...
20. The Boo Hag of the Gullah South
The Boo Hag is one of the most chilling spirit figures in Gullah folklore. In this episode, we dig into the old Lowcountry belief in a skinless night spirit that slips through cracks, rides the sleeping, and leaves people waking up weak, breath...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Boy Who Drew Cats
This time, I’m sharing “The Boy Who Drew Cats,” a Japanese folktale about a small temple boy who won’t stop sketching cats—on scraps of paper, in margins, anywhere he can get a bit of ink. The priests think it’s a pointless habit until the temp...
19. Foot Track Magic - Conjure Hidden in the Footprints
Hot Foot is the most well known term. In this episode, we dig into the old Southern conjure practice known as foot track magic—the belief that a person’s footprint can be used as a direct line to their body, luck, and movement. From West...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Woman Who Married a Bear
This time, I’m sharing “The Woman Who Married a Bear,” an old northern folktale about a girl who goes missing into the woods and returns with a husband no one quite understands. In some versions he is gentle, in others he is feared, but he is n...
