Dark Academia & The Scholomance
Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore
Multitude
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Where did the Dark Academia aesthetic come from with it’s Gothic architecture and dark libraries? What if we told you there is a school, straight from Transylvanian folklore, that might have spawned the whole idea? And that Dracula himself went there??
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of child endangerment, and imperialism.
Housekeeping
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Get our new Old Wives’ Tale Teller Corduroy Hat!
- Submit Your Urban Legends Audio: Call us! 617-420-2344
Sponsors
- Saily: Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code spirits at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/spirits
Find Us Online
- Website & Transcripts: spiritspodcast.com
- Patreon: patreon.com/spiritspodcast
- Merch: spiritspodcast.com/merch
- Instagram: instagram.com/spiritspodcast
- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/spiritspodcast.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/spiritspodcast
- Tumblr: spiritspodcast.tumblr.com
Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm a |
| 0:02.0 | M. |
| 0:03.0 | M. |
| 0:04.0 | . |
| 0:05.0 | M. |
| 0:06.0 | . |
| 0:07.0 | M |
| 0:09.0 | . Welcome to Spirits podcast at Boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. |
| 0:32.6 | Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. |
| 0:35.9 | I'm Amanda. |
| 0:36.5 | And I'm Julia. |
| 0:38.0 | You know, Amanda, lately it seems like everyone is really into dark academia as a trope and as |
| 0:44.8 | an aesthetic, you know? Thank you for saying this. It began, I think, with Donna Tarts the secret |
| 0:49.5 | history, that spooky bitch. And I think it has really proliferated as we have come to reckon with the |
| 0:55.5 | darkness that pervades our everyday lives. And I would argue, grieve institutions, which we don't |
| 1:02.2 | really have much of here in the U.S. anymore. Yeah. So for folks who don't really know what I'm |
| 1:06.5 | talking about with dark academia, this was an aesthetic that was popularized on Tumblr back in like |
| 1:11.9 | 2015, I would say. Yeah. But I feel like whenever fall and winter rolls around, it starts |
| 1:17.7 | popping up again, either on like TikTok or also on Tumblr. And to kind of give you an idea of |
| 1:23.3 | what we're talking about, it's that sort of like dark, vaguely goth, but not quite aesthetic. It |
| 1:29.1 | sort of harkens back to literal gothic architecture that you'd find at like Oxbridge or at the |
| 1:34.5 | Ivy League schools, right? Think dark libraries, dark wood furniture, candlelight, sort of nostalgic, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Multitude, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Multitude and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.