Bone and Sickle

BONE AND SICKLE explores historical topics related to folklore and horror. With acerbic wit and a scholarly penchant for the grotesque, rogue folklorist Al Ridenour delves into a wide but carefully curated range of topics illustrated by stories from histo

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Recent Episodes

Missing Intro for Episode 133

Posted October 18, 2024 • 00:05:15

Apparently, I clipped off the beginning of the show during the initial upload. It’s been fixed, so this would only effect those downloading yesterday,...

Spirit Boards

Posted October 17, 2024 • 00:38:37

Ouija boards, or more generally, “spirit boards” have antecedents going back to the very first days of the Spiritualist movement. We begin our...

Announcement Trick-or-Treat By Mail

Posted October 8, 2024 •

A special short announcement regarding the October 20 deadline for Trick-or-Treat-by-Mail for listeners joining our

“Young Goodman Brown”

Posted September 21, 2024 • 00:45:10

We’re getting into the spirit of the season with a classic tale of witchcraft set in 17th-century Salem Village, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story,...

Subterranean Sages and Russian Mystics

Posted August 6, 2024 • 01:04:59

Agartha, Shambhala, and Hyperborea are all names for a a mythic spiritually and scientifically advanced kingdom, always in some hidden location, sometimes...