PODCAST · true crime
Altar Ego
by Altar Ego
Hosted by two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of possessions, prophecies, cults, and beliefs, we investigate spirituality, belief systems, and the ambiguous psychological spaces in between.
Episodes
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41: Why Did Southern Baptists Boycott Disney?
For years, millions of Southern Baptists were encouraged to boycott Disney—but why? What transformed the "Most Magical Place on Earth" into the center of one of the largest Christian consumer boycotts in modern history? In this episode of Altar Ego, Jeri unpacks the rise of the Southern Baptist...
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40. The Satanic Panic Around Yoga
Sources: The Bible Mark Singleton — Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010) Oxford Academic — Yoga Body Andrea R. Jain — Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford University Press, 2014) Oxford Academic — Selling Yoga Andrea R. Jain —...
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39: Therapist of the Satanic Panic: Barbara Snow
CW: Discussions of SA and ritual abuse. In the 1980s, at the height of what's now widely known as the Satanic Panic, a Utah social worker Barbara Snow, and a colleague by the name of Teena Sorenson developed a framework for how children supposedly disclose abuse. A framework where denial,...
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38: The Great Amherst Mystery: The Haunting of Esther Cox
One of the most famous hauntings in Canadian history began with a terrified young woman... but was Esther Cox haunted by a violent spirit, or was she living through the devastating aftermath of trauma? In this episode, we revisit The Great Amherst Mystery and trace the extraordinary events that...
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37: Amway, Cult Tactics + a Congressman?
What does the Heritage Foundation have to do with the most profitable MLM ever? This week, Jeri takes us through a deep dive of Amway (short for American Way), one of the most influential and recognizable multi-level marketing companies in the world. From its borrowed recruiting tactics to the...
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36: Brick by Brick: How a LEGO Store Exposed Police Corruption
What began as a simple LEGO consignment spiraled into a saga of criminal charges, disputed evidence, alleged police misconduct, and a community left wondering who could be trusted. In this episode, we unravel the extraordinary story behind the Utah Bricks & Minifigs controversy—from the Mansell...
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35: The Stolen Nganga + The Perversion of Palo Mayombe
In 1989, a drug cult operating out of Matamoros, Mexico, was exposed when a member blew through a border checkpoint — believing himself invisible — and was followed straight back to Santa Elena Ranch. What investigators found was confusing and deeply disturbing. What the media told the world…
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34: Prophet, Polygamist, and the Making of Mormon Utah - Brigham Young
In the second episode of Heather's Mormonism in Utah series, we pick up after the death of Joseph Smith, when the future of the Mormon movement was uncertain. Into leadership stepped a carpenter-turned-apostle who would lead thousands of followers across the American frontier and transform the...
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33: MC5's Total Assault on American Ideology
This is the final installment of Jeri's LSD series, and we're ending it in Detroit. A group of kids from Lincoln Park start playing guitar after school in 1963, and by 1968, they are living in a commune run by their manager, getting surveilled by the FBI, and sharing a roof with someone on the...
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32: Joseph Smith: Prophet, Polygamy, and the Birth of Mormonism
Content Warning: This episode discusses polygamy, coercion, and religious control within a historical context. Joseph Smith is known as the founder of Mormonism, a prophet to millions and a figure surrounded by faith, devotion, and controversy. But the story of how the religion began is far more...
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31: The White Panther Party - A Misunderstood Movement of the 1960s
Founded in 1968 as a radical response to systemic racism and state power, the group openly aligned themselves with the Black Panther Party as supporters. Once referred to by the FBI as one of the most dangerous and threatening groups in America. Their message was simple and controversial: white...
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30: The Crossroads Legend - Robert Johnson's Deal with the Devil?
At a quiet crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, a legend was born. Robert Johnson is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. His music shaped generations, yet his story is wrapped in something far darker. According to folklore, Johnson disappeared as an unremarkable guitarist and...
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29: What Really Happened to the Sodder Children?
Five children vanish in a house fire… and no bodies are ever found. On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family fire should have been a tragic accident. A home goes up in flames. Parents survive. Five of their children are presumed dead. Except there’s one problem; there were no remains. No bones.…
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28: The White Witch of Rose Hall
In this episode of Altar Ego, Heather takes us to Jamaica’s Rose Hall to explore the legend of Annie Palmer, known as the White Witch. Said to have practiced dark magic and ruled her plantation with fear, her story lives at the crossroads of modern paranormal beliefs, folklore, violence, and...
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27: Dancing til you Die?
The second installation in our LSD series... This week, we're diving into one of history's most fascinating fungi: ergot. From the sacred rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece, through the terrifying plagues that swept medieval Europe, to its profound cultural significance...
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Bonus: Heated Rivalry Take
In this special bonus episode, Heather shares her personal take on Heated Rivalry and how it hits surprisingly close to home. More reflective and intimate than our usual episodes, join us for a gentle review of Heather's experience watching the series that we've all fallen in love with.
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26: From Internet Myth to Violence; The Slender Man Case
CW: violence involving minors, themes of mental illness, delusion, and psychiatric hospitalization. Listener discretion advised. In this episode, Heather takes us back to 2014, when two twelve-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, lured a friend into the woods and attacked her after becoming...
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25: LSD + The Acid King
In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesized LSD by accident and experienced the first-ever LSD trip. By the mid-1960s the U.S. government had funded over 1,000 clinical studies on it, secretly tested it on soldiers without their consent, and then criminalized it entirely... all within the...
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24: Judas Priest Suicide Trial
CW: This episode discusses suicide, attempted suicide, depression, substance use, and themes of self-harm. Listener discretion advised. In 1990, Judas Priest stood trial in a Nevada courtroom. Not for drugs. Not for violence. Not for anything they physically did. But for what their music…
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23: OneTaste Cult - The Institute of Orgasmic Meditation
CW: This episode discusses adult themes, including sexuality and coercion, sexual and labor trafficking, and sexual abuse. Not appropriate for children. Listener discretion advised. OneTaste was marketed as a path to awakening, empowerment, and liberation, but in actuality was sexual coercion and...
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22: The Corpse Bride of Key West and Carl Tanzler
In 1930s Key West, a man calling himself Dr. Carl Tanzler believed fate had promised him a woman he'd seen in childhood visions. When he met Elena Milagro de Hoyos, she was alive... and battling tuberculosis. After her death, he did not accept the loss. What happened next went far beyond…
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21: "The Rain Boy" + Poltergeists
CW: Brief mentions of child abuse and SA. In this follow-up episode, we discuss the case of a man now known as “The Rain Boy,” Donnie Decker, who became the center of an odd 1983 case in which witnesses claimed water appeared inside with no clear source. Rather than asking only what happened…
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20: The Warrens and The Devil Made Me Do It Case
Ed and Lorraine Warren are two of the most recognizable names in paranormal history. Demonologists, ghost hunters, and the couple behind some of the most famous haunting cases of the 20th century. But before the movies, the mythology, and the merch, they were just two people who found each other...
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19: The Hat Man; The Shadow Figure People See During Sleep Paralysis
What... or who is the Hat Man, and why do so many people describe the same figure? In Part 1 of this two-part series, Jeri explores the Hat Man phenomenon: a shadowy “watcher” reported across cultures and decades. We look at what people consistently report, why these encounters often happen in...
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18: The Curse of Led Zeppelin + Ties to Aleister Crowley
CW: This episode includes discussion of child death, addiction (alcoholism and drug use), and mental health crisis, as well as death, grief, and occult themes. Listener discretion advised. Led Zeppelin didn’t just reshape rock music; they became wrapped in something far darker. Tragedy, strange...
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17: Suicide Cult + Teal Swan
CW: This episode includes discussion of suicide, mental health crises, emotional abuse, and coercive or controlling dynamics in spiritual spaces. Listen with care. In this episode, we take a deep look at Teal Swan; her rise as a spiritual influencer, the community that formed around her, and the...
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16: Postpartum Psychosis + Andrea Yates
CW: This episode includes discussion of postpartum psychosis, suicidality, psychiatric hospitalization, and child death. No graphic details are included. Listener discretion is advised. This episode examines the case of Andrea Yates, a mother whose dismissed postpartum psychosis led to the deaths...
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15: The Axeman of New Orleans
CW: Discussion of historical violence and murder (without graphic detail), fear and moral panic, and the impact of violence on communities. It also references religious and spiritual beliefs and historical racial tension. Listener discretion is advised. In the early hours of New Orleans’ Jazz…
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14 Part II: The Ku Klux Klan
CW: Discussion of racism, white supremacy, organized hate groups, and historical violence. There are no graphic descriptions, but the themes may be heavy, especially for Black listeners, Indigenous listeners, and other people of color who live with the ongoing impacts of this history. Listener...
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14 Part I: Harriette + Harry T. Moore
CW: This episode discusses racism, white-supremacist violence, and systemic oppression, including the assassination of civil-rights organizers . There are no graphic descriptions, but the themes may be heavy, especially for Black listeners, Indigenous listeners, and other people of color who live...
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13: Houdini + Sarah Winchester
CW: References to invasive medical exams (not graphic), alcohol use and alcoholism, death and child loss (not detailed), spiritualism and séance practices, accusations of fraud and public humiliation, and gender-based scrutiny and mistreatment. In this episode, Heather explores the surprising...
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12: Bodies on Display
Body Worlds promised education through wonder, but the story behind it reveals a tangle of science, profit, and unanswered questions about consent. This episode looks at Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the man who turned anatomy into art, and the moral fault lines that form when human bodies become a...
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11: The Fox Sisters + The Rise of Spiritualism in America
Before Ouija boards and séance tables, there were three young sisters in Hydesville, New York-- Maggie, Kate, and Leah Fox. In 1848, the mysterious “rappings” in their farmhouse would ignite something far bigger than superstition. The Fox sisters became the spark that set the Spiritualism…
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10: The Shaman Who Killed Dozens; The Ahmad Suraji Case
CW: Coercive spiritual practices and abuse of religious authority, misuse of cultural healing traditions, non-graphic violence, psychological manipulation, death, and burial practices. In this episode, we examine the life and actions of Ahmad Suradji, a North Sumatran dukun whose misuse of a...
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9: The Salem Witch Trials
CW: Execution, racism, enslavement, religious extremism, psychological distress. On this episode, we travel back to 1692 to a Puritan village gripped by panic, paranoia, and prayer. The Salem Witch Trials have become one of the most infamous moral panics in history, but beneath the surface of...
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8: Can You Murder Someone in Your Sleep; The Kenneth Parks Case
CW: Factual non-graphic descriptions of violence and discussion of parasomnia. This episode crosses the veil between sleep and wake, where science and superstition blur. Across cultures, sleep is seen as a liminal realm—where spirits move and the soul drifts. We explore this through the case of...
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Bonus Episode: Samhain + The Origins of Halloween
Before there was Halloween, there was Samhain... the Celtic fire festival when the veil between worlds was thinnest. In this special October 31st episode, Jeri + Heather trace how a night of honoring ancestors and warding off spirits evolved. From ancient bonfires and soul cakes to Christian...
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7: Zombie Origin Story + Clairvius Narcisse
CW: This episode contains discussion of death, sorcery, and zombification within the context of Haitian Vodou and folklore. Listener discretion is advised. This week, Heather leads Jeri on an exploration of Makaya, one of the most secretive and feared branches of Haitian Vodou. From its Kongo…
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6: The Source Family Cult
CW: Spiritual and psychological manipulation, sexual relationships involving power imbalance and underage individuals, cult dynamics, and coercive control. In the early 1970s, The Source Restaurant began as a popular health food restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, founded by Jim Baker, later known as...
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5: The Exorcism of Clara Germana Cele
CW: Contains discussion of colonial racism, religious trauma, and descriptions of alleged possession phenomena In 1906, a 16-year-old orphan in South Africa shocked missionaries with violent fits, inhuman cries, and even a confession of a pact with the devil. Known as the possession of Clara...
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4: Illegal World of Snake Handling Churches
CW: Suicidality, domestic violence, and non-graphic animal abuse specific to snakes. Jeri explores the dangerous world of Appalachian snake-handling churches and the case of Darlene Summerford, a pastor’s wife who survived a near-fatal rattlesnake bite under suspicious circumstances. Through the...
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3: California's Untold Earthquake Murders
CW: This episode contains retelling of violence and murder, as well as talks about schizophrenia. Listener discretion is advised. Santa Cruz in the early 1970s was dubbed “Murderville, USA” home to two active serial killers at the same time. One of them, Ed Kemper, became a media obsession. The...
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2: The Fool Killer + Melungeon Folklore
CW: Discussion of racism, discrimination, and systemic oppression Who…or what…was the Fool Killer? Depending on who you ask, he was a 19th-century satirical invention, a supernatural enforcer born from Melungeon folklore, or a wandering vigilante who struck down the corrupt and the cruel. In this...
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1: The Weigh Down Diet Cult + Gwen Shamblin Lara
CW: This episode contains discussion around diets and diet culture, as well as child abuse and infant death. Listener discretion is advised. What happens when faith, control, and diet culture collide? In our first episode, Heather dives into the rise of Gwen Shamblin Lara, founder of the Weigh…
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Meet Your Hosts
Meet the hosts of Altar Ego. Two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hosted by two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of possessions, prophecies, cults, and beliefs, we investigate spirituality, belief systems, and the ambiguous psychological spaces in between.
HOSTED BY
Altar Ego
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Altar Ego have?
Altar Ego currently has 45 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Altar Ego about?
Hosted by two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of...
How often does Altar Ego release new episodes?
Altar Ego has 45 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Altar Ego?
You can listen to Altar Ego on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Altar Ego?
Altar Ego is created and hosted by Altar Ego.
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