Podcast: Download
MYS090: People have believed in werewolves since time immemorial with tales of human beings transforming either physically or behaviorally. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore what we know of these accounts, where they come from, and whether there’s any truth to legends of lycanthropy.
Get all new episodes automatically and for free:
Subscribe using the RSS feed | Subscribe using Apple Podcasts | Subscribe using Google Podcasts | Subscribe using Stitcher | Subscribe by Email
Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?
Chapters for this episode:
MYS090 – 00:00:00
Intro – 00:22:13
Where the term “werewolf” originates – 01:13:11
Werewolves in prehistory – 02:44:74
Classical written records about werewolves – 05:40:28
Werewolf accounts in the Christian era – 10:47:63
Werewolf trials in Europe – 15:12:50
Thank you to Patrons! – 19:54:00
Theories – 20:25:07
Faith Perspective – 21:30:71
Could or would God transform someone into a wolf? – 23:18:72
Could demons transform someone into a werewolf? – 26:47:29
Reason Perspective – 33:17:50
Plausible bases for werewolf reports – 34:23:47
Individual cases – 38:08:52
Mental conditions – 40:04:74
Physical conditions – 41:06:58
The Bottom Line – 50:54:65
Further Resources – 51:41:29
Mysterious Feedback – 53:32:11
Mysterious Headlines – 65:42:01
Next Time: The Radioactive Boy Scout – 66:30:19
Outro – 66:46:16
Links for this episode:
- Ian Woodward’s book The Werewolf Delusion
- Baring-Gould & O’Donnell’s book Werewolves: The Definitive Guide: Werewolf History, Fiction, Mythology, Folklore, Legends, and Stories
- Kathleen McAuliffe’s book This Is Your Brain on Parasites
- Thomas Aquinas’s book On Evil
- Werewolf (Wikipedia)
- Greek vase showing the Trojan warrior Dolan wearing a wolfskin
- Viking Berserkers May Have Been High on Hallucinogenic Herbal Tea (Insensitive to Pain, Heightened Aggression)
- Peter Stumpp, the “Werewolf of Bedburg”
- Medical paper Lycanthrope: A Review
- Medical paper abstract Lycanthropy: Alive and Well in the Twentieth Century
- Hypertrichosis
- Curious Genetics of Werewolves (picture of boys)
- Petrus Gonsalvus
- Petrus Gonsalvus and Beauty and the Beast
- “On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves”
- Porphyria
- Rabies
- Aquinas’s statement in his commentary on the Sentences
- Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
- Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
- Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
- Send your feedback or comments to [email protected] or send a tweet with the hashtag of #mysteriousfeedback
Mysterious Headlines