Follow my new podcast, Culture Cuts with Chad Lehrmann at all the same sites!

We separate our lives into so many parts.  Work and home life, church and public life, online and reality.  I've done it, too.  I used to manage two podcasts- one for education, one for urban legends analysis.  It got so tiring trying to maintain those two distinct sites, so I decided to merge them.  Maybe it's time we merge our lives again.  Make who we are online the same as who we are in person.  Get rid of our 'voices' we adopt to convey a sense of power and just speak as we naturally do. 

This is the first episode of my new podcast which will share some of the older podcasts over educational issues alongside my "Urban Legends Unmasked" series and this Didactic Cafe podcast.  Look for that classic content along with all new podcasts coming at you weekly!

25 year old George Corwin was the sheriff that oversaw the Salem Witch Trials.  He developed a reputation for being a tough investigator- and by tough, I mean cruel.  Nicknamed "the Strangler" for some of his techniques, he cut a terrifying path across history.

The foundation of his home now resides below a hotel in Salem called the Merchant- one of the allegedly most haunted houses in Massachusetts.  Is The Strangler back for more victims- or are his victims back for vengeance?

A lonely woman lives in the woods of Maryland in 1697.  When a cruel winter strikes, the community blames this Moll Dyer of being a witch and bringing the catastrophe down upon them.  She escapes their clutches, but is found frozen to death on a rock.  A rock, which legend holds, bears her handprint as a reminder of her tragic- and falsely accused- death.

Would you drop a friend down a well?

What if doing so changed the friend- horrifically?

And what is the metaphor here? Loss of innocence?

Or maybe it's no metaphor at all.  

We will explore the beginnings of our modern tradition of Halloween, from the Celtic Samhain rituals to Stingy Jack and how they make our October 31st so creepy.  The only question is, do you think the costumed kids are the only ones out for mischief on All Hallow's Eve?

When a mysterious man claiming to be the Devil Man is arrested in 1938, his presence sets New Orleans off on an urban legend spiral.  He is seen- and heard- everywhere.  But what causes these mass hysterias? And perhaps more importantly, how should we treat the mentally ill that are often at the root of these legends?  Do we seek to help them or do we just enjoy the ride?

It's another stretch of dark road that has more than its share of eerie twists and turns and paranormal legends.  This time it includes ghost babies, time warps, and even a dark hearse that might just run you off the road.

In the season five finale of Supernatural,  the Winchester brothers face down Michael and Lucifer in a rough little cemetery in Kansas, called Stull Cemetery.

Turns out, it is a real place.  And it has legends about the devil, too.  That he comes on Halloween to dance, that it is a gateway to Hell.  And a litany of other legends.  That's enough to peak my interest, but are they just small town spooky stories, or is there more to the legend than meets the eye?