Episode 2

What happens when fear becomes law?

In this episode of The Mourning Map, we travel to Chelmsford, England - the heart of the Essex witch trials to uncover how ordinary people became victims of extraordinary hysteria. From the infamous Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins to the women accused, tortured, and executed for simply being different, this episode explores the psychology and danger of unchecked fear, and why history is closer to repeating itself than we'd like to believe.

Because the real monsters were never witches.........

For episode 1, I am going to take you to Catania, Sicily — a city that has been destroyed by volcanoes, earthquakes, plague and war, and rebuilt itself every single time. From the same black lava stone that kept trying to kill it.

But before I tell you about the disasters, I need to tell you about a girl named Agatha. Who said no to a powerful man. And paid everything for it.

And how an entire city has been crying in the streets for her every February for eighteen hundred years.