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Podcast: New Books in Popular Culture
Episode: Lisa Morton, "Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances" (Reaktion Books, 2022)
Description: From Halloween expert Lisa Morton, bring usĀ Calling the Spirits: A History of SeancesĀ (Reaktion, 2022),Ā a level-headed and entertaining history of our desire and attempts to hold conversations with the dead.Ā Calling the SpiritsĀ investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homerās Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualismāwhen Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by āspirit rappingsā; Daniel Dunglas Home, the āgreatest medium of all timeā; Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the aft...