102. Bessel van der Quack

Worldwide Panic is a weekly conversation about the stories, anxieties, myths, and cultural flashpoints that shape how we understand the world. Each week, journalist Joseph L. Flatley and The Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves examine how fear spreads, how belief takes hold, and why certain narratives return again and again—long after they’ve been debunked.In this week’s episode, Lucien and Lenny dig into the messy and largely unreported history of Bessel van der Kolk, the superstar trauma doctor behind The Body Keeps the Score. Before his bestselling fame, van der Kolk was deeply linked to the recovered-memory movement, ISSTD conspiracy therapists, and the experts who fueled the original Satanic Panic. We trace how these ideas migrated into today’s therapeutic culture and why they continue to distort public understanding of trauma, memory, and mental health.This episode also looks at the modern ecosystem that keeps these beliefs alive: influencer therapists, social-media diagnoses, dissociative-identity subcultures, and the profit-driven therapeutic marketplace that blurs the line between treatment and mythology.ALSO: The Satanic Temple flies its Flag over a City Hall in New HampshireHow TST successfully flew its flag over Somersworth City Hall—directly above a Ten Commandments monument installed during the 1950s PR campaign for Cecil B. DeMille’s film. Lucien explains viewpoint-neutrality, legal backlash, media framing, and why pluralism still matters.https://luciengreaves.substack.com/p/the-satanic-temple-flies-its-flagAND: America is Hell: Anima Noira, 1987–2025A reflection on the life and sudden death of a Czech occultist who believed she was called to the U.S. by Satan. A meditation on belief, ritual, and the divide between theistic and non-theistic Satanisms.https://lennyflatley.substack.com/p/terminal-belief-america-is-hellTheme Music: “Satanic Planet” by Satanic PlanetWatch the video version on The Satanic Temple TV: https://thesatanictemple.tv/