Starting in the late 1960s and continuing through the early 1990s and beyond, some segments of the population took to seeing the Devil around every corner, attributing Satanic meanings to things as innocuous as Saturday morning cartoons and children’s toys, Dungeons and Dragons, and rock music, but also fostering a devastating moral panic about ritual abuse of children which was largely fictional, but resulted in prison time and ruined reputations for some unfortunate victims. What were the underlying causes behind the so-called Satanic Panic, and what led to its spread to all sectors of the mainstream culture in the 1980s? Tom and Jenny talk about various aspects of the moral hysteria, covering everything from the fun stuff (Chick tracts, evil Smurfs) to the horrific miscarriages of justice (the McMartin Preschool Trial and more). Give a horned hand salute in tribute to this live episode 248.

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Channel art and audio & video editing by Jenny Ashford. Music & sound effects courtesy of freesound.org users jamespotterboy, corsica-s, enjoypa, capturedlv, luffy, kiddpark, and justkiddink. Video clips courtesy of Videezy & Videvo.