The Spiritualism Movement Was Utterly Ridiculous, Part Two: Con Artists, Skeptics, and Ghosts

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the Fox sisters became global superstars for their purported ability to speak with the dead, the Spiritualism movement became both a social phenomena and a booming business. Yet along with the rise of true believers and performing psychics, an army of skeptics and investigators rose as well... and the questions they asked eventually brought the entirety of the movement down. Join Ben, Noel, Max and returning special guest Jonathan Strickland (aka The Quizster) for the second part of this special two-part episode.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show fellow ridiculous historians.
0:29.6	Thank you as always so much for tuning in.
0:32.6	Knock, knock, knock.
0:33.5	Let's hear it for our super producer, Dylan, the Fox Brother Fagan.
0:40.6	Oh, yeah.
0:41.6	Love your barbecue.
0:42.9	Sorry, that's another very Atlanta-centric record.
0:45.9	Narrowcasting.
0:47.4	We are.
0:48.3	We are indeed.
0:49.4	That's Noel Brown.
0:50.5	They call me Ben Bullen.
0:52.0	We're welcoming back, returning guest guest, brother of ours, friend
0:57.7	slash nemesis of the show, the one and only Jonathan Strickland, aka the Quister. And I got to say,
1:05.1	man, you were so well behaved in the first part of this journey. Literally mellow.
1:11.2	I mean, to be fair, you guys, every day I'm getting closer to being able to hold the other
1:16.3	half of the conversation around spiritualism, you know, from the other side.
1:20.4	So it's just kind of put things into perspective.
1:24.7	There we go.
1:25.8	It'll do that, depending on who's leading the seance.
1:31.3	Yeah.
1:31.7	I think if you have ridiculous references to science fiction films I've never seen, then you know, hey, this is probably legit.
	...

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