Houdini's Afterlife with Sarah Marshall and Tim Harford

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tim Harford is the host of the podcast Cautionary Tales which recently put out a series on the most famous magician of all time, Harry Houdini. For this episode, Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About joins me as co-host to discuss with Tim the Victorian religion-turned-public spectacle known as Spiritualism, the wonderfully gullible Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creative and comical exposing of fraud mediums, the unknowable mysteries of the afterlife, and showman-turned-skeptic Harry Houdini. Subscribe to Cautionary Tales wherever you get your podcasts ⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a Patron⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get some of our new merch at ⁠⁠americanhysteria.com⁠⁠, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families. Leave us a message on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Urban Legends Hotline⁠⁠⁠⁠ Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Additionally editing by Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's like Houdanias Fox Mulder if every town they went to it was just a hoax.
0:08.4	Yeah.
0:08.9	He's like, Scully, I don't know what to think anymore.
0:11.1	Yeah.
0:11.7	Yeah.
0:12.0	Yeah.
0:12.4	I can't believe. Tim Harford is the host of the podcast Cautionary Tales, which explores awful human error, tragic catastrophes, daring heists, and hilarious fiascos.
0:35.4	And they recently put out a series on the most famous magician of all
0:40.0	time, Harry Houdini. For this episode, Sarah Marshall of the podcast You're Wrong About joins me
0:48.2	as co-host to discuss with Tim some of our favorite things. The Victorian religion turned public spectacle
0:56.6	known as spiritualism, the wonderfully gullible Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creative and comical
1:04.7	exposing of fraud mediums, the unknowable mysteries of the afterlife, and of course, the dreamy showman-turned-sceptic, Harry Houdini.
1:17.4	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith, and this is American Hysteria.
1:30.3	Hello, dear listeners.
1:32.1	We have a very fun and exciting and slightly different episode today.
1:36.9	I have invited everyone's favorite gal over here, everyone's favorite ghoul, back on the show, Sarah Marshall.
1:46.4	And we are going to actually do a little bit of a co-interview, co-conversation with our guest.
1:53.4	So, hi, Sarah.
1:54.8	Thank you for coming here and doing this with me.
1:57.7	Hi, Chelsea.
1:58.9	I'm so happy to be here.
2:00.6	And I'm right now, as you can see, holding a microphone
	...

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