In the fall of 2022, we launched Thou Shalt Not Suffer: The Witch Trial Podcast with a clear mission: to create a space where crucial conversations about witch hunts wouldn’t remain obscure. These discussions were happening, but they were confined to comparatively narrow circles. We knew this knowledge needed to reach everyone.
Three Eras of Purposeful Evolution
Our journey from Thou Shalt Not Suffer to Witch Hunt to our current form as The Thing About Witch Hunts has been strategic and intentional. Each transformation brought us closer to our goal of making critical analysis of witch hunt behavior accessible to everyone who needs it.
The move from audio to video as Witch Hunt wasn’t about production values—it was about evidence and accessibility. Visual documentation, historical records, and expert demonstrations could finally reach our audience directly. Video also offers a more cross-cultural experience for our worldwide audience, allowing us to share documents, artifacts, and visual context. When we entered our third era as The Thing About Witch Hunts, we solidified our commitment to bridging the gap between historical understanding and contemporary application.
Building the Infrastructure for Change
Over 100 expert interviews represent more than impressive numbers—they represent a systematic effort to bring specialized knowledge together and showcase success stories within what is often a heavy and worrisome crisis. Historians, sociologists, psychologists, legal scholars, cultural analysts, humanities and arts experts, museum professionals, teachers, authors, and economists, to name a few, have contributed their expertise to create a comprehensive public resource that didn’t exist before.
Our international reach, with more than 20 percent of subscribers outside the United States, proves that this need for accessible analysis spans borders. People everywhere are recognizing witch hunt patterns in their own communities and contexts. We’re not just building an audience; we’re building a network of informed individuals who can identify and interrupt these destructive cycles by purposefully using their own platforms of social power and influence.
Making a Measurable Difference
We don’t just create interesting content—we create necessary tools. While single episodes by other podcasts are informational, this is a topic that needs the full story told in all of its cultural and social complexities through a robust catalog of discussions. Our episodes synthesize historical facts and contemporary analysis, giving people the framework they need to recognize witch-hunting. This work spans both literal and figurative witch hunts, examining historic patterns alongside contemporary manifestations of both. This isn’t theoretical work; it’s practical application of knowledge that can prevent real harm with stories of interventions that work.
The synthesis of past and present witch hunt behavior serves a specific purpose: equipping all people to intervene when communities turn against their own members. The patterns are consistent and recognizable once you know what to look for.
Expanding Impact Through Strategic Growth
Our upcoming plans aren’t ambitious dreams—they’re necessary next steps. More expert interviews mean more specialized knowledge reaching more people. Covering witch trials and hunts from as many countries as possible expands the global understanding of how these phenomena operate across different cultures and systems.
Our expanding 101 series ensures that newcomers can quickly get up to speed on essential concepts while providing depth for those ready to dig deeper. This isn’t about creating more content; it’s about availability of effective educational resources.
Influencing Real-World Outcomes
Every person who recognizes witch hunt behavior in their workplace, community, or political environment and chooses to intervene rather than participate represents a victory. Every expert who shares their research and experience through our platform extends the reach of critical scholarship and application.
The conversations we’ve made accessible are changing how people respond to persecution, scapegoating, and mob mentality. Active podcasts offer growing bodies of work that listeners can grow with and respond too. We’ve made historical analysis available to more people so broader conversations can happen, informing real-world decision-making.
The Ongoing Mission
From Thou Shalt Not Suffer to The Thing About Witch Hunts, our evolution reflects our commitment to making essential knowledge available to everyone who needs it. We’re not just documenting history—we’re identifying solutions, examining what it’s going to take to end witch hunts.
The work continues because the need continues. As long as communities are susceptible to the witch hunt mentality, there’s a role for accessible analysis and education. Our growing platform, international reach, and expanding expert network represent infrastructure for change.
We’re not chasing dreams—we’re building solutions. Every new country we examine, every expert we interview, every subscriber who applies this knowledge in their own context adds to our collective ability to recognize and stop witch hunts before they destroy lives.
The thing about witch hunts is that they thrive in darkness and ignorance. By bringing critical analysis into the light and making it accessible to everyone, we’re creating the conditions for them to fail.
Join us in this essential work. Subscribe to The Thing About Witch Hunts and donate to our nonprofit End Witch Hunts to help us continue making vital conversations accessible to those who need them most.
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