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
40 episodes
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...
18. The Face of Medusa: Myth, Monster, or Magical Shield
Medusa is more than a monster in a hero story. In this episode of The Feral Folklorist, we look at Medusa as a protective figure tied to the Evil Eye and the old idea that envy and bad intent can reach a person through attention. We co...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Man Who Sold His Shadow
This time, I’m sharing “The Man Who Sold His Shadow,” a European-style folktale about a bargain that looks harmless at first and the quiet trouble that follows it home. When a man trades away his shadow for comfort and ease, the world slowly st...
17. Witching Hours - Magic, Timing, and the Clock
Some moments aren’t for action—they’re for waiting. In this episode, we step into the folklore of time itself: the hours we were warned not to touch, the nights we were told to leave well enough alone, and the ways folk magic used clocks, moons...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Monkey King Tricks the Demon
This time, I’m sharing “The Monkey King Tricks the Demon,” a Chinese folktale-style story about a mountain road gone quiet and the kind of creature that thinks a sealed jar is the same thing as control. The Monkey King walks in looking harmless...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Men of the Turning Year
This time, I’m sharing “The Men of the Turning Year,” a Czech and Slavic-style folktale about a girl sent into a winter forest to fetch what winter doesn’t give. In a clearing, she finds twelve men around a small fire—each one tied to a piece o...
16. Stitched Under Pressure: Sewing, Knotting, and the Magic of Fabric
Needle and thread don’t just mend. In this episode, we step into the older folklore of sewing—where stitches could bind a person’s luck, knots could lock a fate in place, and finishing the wrong piece at the wrong time was believed to invite tr...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - The Cat That Swallowed The Stars
Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folkl...
15. When the Dead Answer Back: Séances, Mediums, and Spirit Communication
Season 2 opens with spirit communication. In this episode, we’re stripping the velvet off the Victorian séance to look at the grit underneath. We trace the path from the first mechanical "raps" in a drafty New York house to the high-stakes, loc...
14. Christmas Conjure: A Wicked Yuletide Podcast
Holiday folk magic, protective charms, and old-world winter witchery you can still use today. While the world decks the halls, we’re lacing cookies with fixed sugar, slipping sachet powders into gift wrap, and turning ornaments into spell jars....
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale - Duppy and the Silk Cotton Tree
Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folkl...
Feral Folktales: A Short Tale – Grýla and the Yule Lads
Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folkl...
