DAY 6: The European Witch Craze 1 & 2 (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)
RedHanded
Wondery | RedHanded
4.5 • 18.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited.
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For over a thousand years, witches were believed to be local soothsayers who used their powers for everyday charms and spells. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was suddenly gripped by a new idea: that witches were part of an organised demonic network, plotting with the devil himself to cloud the whole world in evil.
And to stop the armies of darkness, more than 200,000 people were executed across Europe for the crime of witchcraft.
In the first half of our two-parter on Europe's witch hunters, H&S look at how it grew into a state-sanctioned frenzy, why it lasted for over 200 years, and some of the more gruesome torture methods they used to extract confessions...
In part two, we take a look at how the insanity spread to the UK thanks to a paranoid new king and a 19-year-old, self-styled Witchfinder General. Plus: what really goes down at a witches’ sabbath, and why did women make up 90% of the thousands killed?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to RedHounded early and ad free. |
| 0:04.6 | Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at |
| 0:13.2 | audible.coad.uk.uk slash Wondery. That's audible.com.uk slash Wondery. |
| 0:20.1 | What if I told you that the crime of the century is the one being waged on our planet. |
| 0:24.9 | Introducing Lawless Planet, Wondry's new podcast exploring the dark side of the climate crisis. |
| 0:31.1 | Uncover shocking tales of crime and corruption threatening our world's future. |
| 0:35.9 | Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:40.2 | Hello there, spooky listener. |
| 0:42.1 | It's October, our favorite time of the year. |
| 0:44.8 | And so to celebrate and give you all a well-deserved treat, |
| 0:48.1 | we're bringing you the 13 days of Halloween. |
| 0:51.5 | Short-hand edition. |
| 0:53.4 | Usually, every single week over on Amazon music, we release |
| 0:57.0 | brand new episodes of our bite-sized sister show, Shorthand. It's like Red Hand's little friend, |
| 1:03.2 | where we delve into all sorts of fascinating topics, from hell in different religions, |
| 1:08.3 | Haitian voodoo, the death of Edgar Allan Poe, |
| 1:11.1 | Katad Syndrome, Japan's suicide forest, and so much more. |
| 1:16.1 | And this Halloween, from the 19th of October to the 31st of October, |
| 1:20.1 | we are going to be pulling out 13 of our most terrifying episodes of shorthand |
| 1:24.4 | to drop straight into your red-handed feed every single day. |
| 1:29.7 | But beware. |
... |
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