Hello, dear listener. I'm Megan, host of this series. And before we get into the show,

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about our sponsor, Fire, the foundation for individual

rights and expression. We live in a moment when free speech, the bedrock of our democracy

and of all free societies, is often viewed as suspect, where many argue that the right

to free speech is too dangerous, and that even listening to ideological opponents is morally

wrong. Many people just don't see a problem with using the law, corporate power, and even

extraordinary social pressure to censor viewpoints they disagree with. But many of us feel the

costs of all this in our everyday lives. We feel it when we self-sensor, afraid to say what we really

think, sometimes even in private conversations with friends or loved ones. We feel it when

we opt out of a growing number of public discussions, afraid of the potential cost to our jobs,

and even our relationships. Fire shares a mission with this show. To remind us why a culture of

free speech in open dialogue matters, and regardless of how loud the calls for censorship are,

fire's defense of that culture is unshakable and invaluable. And if you want to remember why we

choose freedom, even for people we strenuously disagree with, you can learn more about fire's

incredible work at thefire.org. And now, onto the show.

How universal is the idea of the witch? It's really a pan-cultural concept. It begins in the

ancient world when in fact witches were often men. This is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacey

Schiff, author of The Witches, Salem, 1692. She says that witches are mentioned in several ancient

scriptures, and that the first documented witch trial took place in ancient Greece. And from there,

it spread throughout the world. Stacey says there were witch hunts across Europe.

Largely in Germany and France, there were witch hunts in Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Sweden.

Would be difficult to say who were the greatest of witch hunters? There have been

...