Episode 316 - Practical Magic in Tudor England with Dr Tabitha Stanmore

Talking Tudors

Natalie Grueninger

History

4.7 • 967 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Host Natalie Grueninger interviews Dr Tabitha Stanmore about cunning folk in Tudor and early modern England — the everyday practitioners of practical magic who offered healing, fortune-telling, love spells and buried-treasure rituals. They discuss how cunning folk differed from accused witches, the rituals and sources used to study them, surprising historical cases, and the Seven-County Witch Hunt Project that uncovers the lives behind wartime witchcraft accusations. Visit Dr Stanmore's official website https://www.tabithastanmore.co.uk/ SEVEN COUNTY WITCH HUNT PROJECT https://medium.com/@Witches7Hunt TUDOR TAKEAWAY 'Mother Bombie' by John Lyly Find out more about your host at https://www.nataliegrueninger.com Support Talking Tudors on Patreon

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Talking Tudors, a fortnightly podcast about the ever fascinating Tudor dynasty.
0:07.3	My name is Natalie Gruniger, and I'll be your host and guide on this journey through 16th century England.
0:14.0	Are you ready to step through the veil of time into the dazzling and dangerous world of the Tudor Court?
0:20.2	Without further ado, it's time to talk Tudors. Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Talking Tudors. I'm your host, Natalie Gruniger.
1:03.1	Thank you so much for joining me today. I'd like to start by acknowledging and thanking the generous
1:07.9	listeners who continue to support Talking Tudors on Patreon and extend
1:12.8	a heartfelt thank you to everyone who's taken the time to rate and review the show. As an independent
1:18.2	podcaster, this means a lot to me. If you love the podcast and you never miss an episode,
1:23.7	please consider joining the Talking Tudors Patreon community. Visit patreon.com slash Talking Tudors for more information.
1:31.1	Once you sign up, you'll have access to exclusive posts, additional monthly life talks,
1:35.8	a member-only book club, patron-only monthly giveaways, study with me sessions to name just a few of the rewards.
1:43.2	You can also support the podcast and share your
1:45.3	love of Tudor history with the world by buying Talking Tudors merchandise. Check out all the products
1:50.5	at Talkingtutors.threadless.com. Now, on to today's episode, I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Tabitha
1:56.7	Stanmore to the show to talk about cunning folk. Tabitha is a specialist in medieval and early
2:02.4	modern English magic and witchcraft. She took her PhD in the history of practical magic at the
2:07.5	University of Bristol and recently completed postdoctoral research on the Levehume funded seven-county
2:13.5	project at the University of Exeter. Her book, Cunning Folk, Life in the Era of Practical
2:19.7	Magic, won the Catherine Briggs Award 2024 and was editor's pick in the New York Times. She's
2:26.4	featured on Radio 3's Free Thinking and BBC Falls Plague Fiction and written for Time
2:32.0	magazine, The Conversation and The Telegraph, among others. Let's dive straight into our conversation. Welcome to Talking Tudors, Tabitha. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. How are you? I'm well, thank you. I've been looking forward to our chat. So maybe a good place to start is just by you saying hello to all our listeners and our viewers and
2:51.3	just telling us a little bit about you and your background. Well, hello everyone. So I'm Dr.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Natalie Grueninger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Natalie Grueninger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.