334: Conspiracy, Ghost Hunting, and Graverobbing (with Colin Dickey)

Join us as we talk with writer and academic, Colin Dickey, and discuss hot takes of ghost hunting shows as reality TV, the banality of evil, and how haunted architecture reflects what society is most afraid of.   Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, the Satanic Panic, ableism, gun violence, toxic masculinity, murder, Flat Earth and conspiracy theories, anti-semietism, sexual assault/abuse, infanticide, and assassination.    Guest Colin Dickey is a writer, speaker, and academic, and has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He’s the author of multiple books, including Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. A regular contributor to the New Republic and Lapham’s Quarterly, he is also the co editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. Check out his upcoming book, Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy.   Housekeeping - Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill - Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books - Call to Action: Check out Join the Party, a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast co-hosted in part by Julia and Amanda. Search for Join the Party in your podcast app, or go to jointhepartypod.com.   Sponsors - BetterHelp is an online therapy service. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/spirits - Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo, available in your podcast app now or at jayacunzo.com/unthinkable-podcast   Find Us Online If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books. Transcripts are available at http://spiritspodcast.com/episodes. To buy merch, hear us on other podcasts, contact us, find our mailing address, or download our press kit, head on over to http://spiritspodcast.com.   About Us Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.