He had two companies: FTX (a crypto exchange platform) and Alameda Research (a crypto trading company). Anyway, just over a year ago, Bankman-Fried was seen as the future of crypto-currency. Either way, a money guy without the usual restraints. Or, given the American pronunciation of Fried, a freed banker. Which, let’s face it, is an amazing name for a crypto bro. Spellcaster is about crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. These podcasts have a tendency to end up as Netflix series. Think The Dropout, about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes WeCrashed, about Adam Neumann and WeWork The Missing Crypto Queen, about Ruja Ignatova. And, yes, I mean schaden-fraud: it’s my label for that subset of true crime podcasts in which a charismatic huckster convinces crowds to part with their money, proceeds to soar to the top by riding those billions, and then… crashes. Here’s another Spellcaster : the title of Wondery’s new schaden-fraud series. I’ll be happy if Rakusen turns out witchy but I hope that even if she does, she continues to weave her audio magic. An understandable desire: who hasn’t wanted the ability to point a finger at an enemy and turn them into a toad? The non-magic world has a way of wearing women down. You sense that she really hopes that she too is a witch. Her scripts are a delight: beautifully written and delivered. It helps that Rakusen is an excellent presenter. Prepare to have your cynical mind expanded. Surprise! At the centre of this tale is a deeply flawed individual who makes others believe he’s some sort of messiahĪs you can tell, there’s a lot of highly interesting research in this series. The Celts believed in fairies and so thought witches were OK the Anglo-Saxons, influenced by Germany, did not. Historian Ronald Hutton says that, actually, when it came to witch-killing, the UK divided along Anglo-Saxon/Celtic lines: Wales and the Scottish Highlands on one side, England and the lowlands on the other. His wife and daughter had been endangered in a storm at sea and he blamed witches. Then there’s Daemonologie, written in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland, later James I of England. We hear about the 1486 Malleus Maleficarum – the Hammer of the Witches – a madly sexist, initially ridiculed text that gradually gained respect and somehow got entwined with the papal bull of 1484, so that killing witches appeared to be church-approved. In Edinburgh, Claire Mitchell KC is leading a campaign for the city to acknowledge that 2,500 innocent people – mostly women – were accused, tortured and killed for witchcraft from the 1560s onwards. But life wasn’t always so good for a witch.
A wicca follower mentions they schedule their projects according to the waxing and waning of the moon. Another talks Rakusen through her teas (“That’s very poisonous! It’s nightshade don’t even open the jar”). One burns unwanted bills and invitations in a May Day ritual.
Instead, they’re normal-ish young women who’ve simply continued the spells and incantations of childhood.
I’ve heard the first three episodes of Witch, and the ones Rakusen encounters are a long way from claw-fingered, black-robed pointy hats. Be scared, chaps! Yeah, you’d better be: because Rakusen is talking about – and to – witches. India Rakusen, host of the excellent 28 ish Days Later, which looked at the process of menstruation day by day, is back on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. History’s Secret Heroes, with Helena Bonham Carter (BBC Radio 4) | BBC Sounds Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried ( Wondery )
The week in audio: Witch Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried History’s Secret Heroes – reviewįrom the host of 28ish Days Later, a wonderfully written defence of witchcraft the ‘schaden-fraud’ story of a crypto bro and fascinating tales of wartime derring-do with Helena Bonham Carter
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