The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2025, pt. 26: Tamara K. Sellman

 

PODCASTS FROM THE SHADOWS: for those of us who like to explore the dark places

 

by Tamara Kaye Sellman

  2025 was a year of alternative media consumption for me as a kind of self-defense against the downward spiral that is US global politics and the rise of fascism and useful idiocracy. I found a great many podcasts worth listening to in particular that I’d like to shout out and share here. Most are not popular, chart-topping shows and none of them are led by “bros.” And because I like things dark, these aren’t going to be “feel-good” shows, but provocative series (most of them limited) that explore our understanding of each other and ourselves through the lens of some pretty uncomfortable, bizarre, or fringe perspectives.

 

·        BLINK

The Binge, Corinne Vien/Jake Haendel

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blink-jake-haendels-story/id1779813806

Jacob Haendel wasn’t supposed to live through a terminal brain disease and coma, but he did. He is co-host, guided by podcaster Corinne Vien, who helps him plot not only his journey, but also the journeys of his family and ex-wife. Here’s the thing: you may at first want to withhold sympathy for Haendel; he wasn’t exactly a model citizen before this all happened. But there’s a hidden medical mystery inside his story that will make you rethink your judgment. You can follow him in Instagram while he continues to recover.

 

·        THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

CBC podcasts, Sarah Marshall

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/2054-the-devil-you-know-with-sarah-marshall

 

Fear, indeed, is the mind-killer, and host Sarah Marshall is the bomb. It takes a great CBC podcast to more honestly unravel the history of the US Satanic Panic of the 1970s, which lingers even today. But this podcast doesn’t stop there; it draws a literal crime map connecting the history of patriarchy, homophobia, misogyny, and moral conservatism via Old School fire-and-brimstone Christianity to illustrate how these controlling factions continue to build a playbook for the fascist New World Order.

 

·        GURU: THE DARK SIDE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Wondery, Matt Stroud

https://wondery.com/shows/guru/season/1/

I remember hearing about the sweat lodge deaths in Arizona a few years ago and wondered how that could happen. It’s easy to imagine how gullible, undereducated people with access to money might fall for this kind of ruse, but in this case, the people who participated were educated, sensible, and yet manipulated by self-help cult figure, James Arthur Ray. You’ll learn about his personal history, how he crept to such heights as a guru, and get (macabre) first-person accounts from survivors at the scene.

 

·        HYSTERICAL

Wondery, Dan Taberski

https://wondery.com/shows/hysterical/

This story takes gaslighting to multiple dimensions. Fifteen years ago, high school girls in New York state experienced an outbreak of “conversion disorder.” This series examines the incident’s progression as it enters local media, where its clunky exploration prompts important sociopolitical discussions about collective confusion/ fear of the unknown, the implicit biases we all hold about female illness, how we link—or fail to link—outbreaks to the environment, and why this story isn’t about gender at all.

 

·        NOBLE

Wavland, Shaun Raviv

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/noble/id1757686789

Not for the faint of heart. This serial investigates the 23-year-old story of Noble, a town in Georgia, where the local crematorium is, in a phrase, “behind schedule.” Despite its grim subject matter, this isn’t a lurid, sensationalized true-crime show, but a thoughtful retelling of a sad moment in this small town’s history. The host’s intelligent overarching question, which informs the podcast, is an important one: “What do we owe the dead?” Even if the show doesn’t resolve that question, it will make you think.

 

·        SCAM FACTORY

Wondery, Denise Chan

https://wondery.com/shows/scam-factory/

I’m willing to bet you think you wouldn’t fall for a scam, and yet, this podcast shows you that there are literal “scam factories” in “scam cities” in parts of southeast Asia, wherein powerful high-tech fraud operators abduct and force people to work in various ways to scam you online… because scamming works. This particular podcast focuses on a perfectly intelligent, loving woman who was simply trying to help her brother find a job and ended up having to participate in the fraud in order to free her family.

 

·        SOMETHING WAS WRONG

Broken Cycle Media, Tiffany Reese

https://somethingwaswrong.com/

I’ve listened for three years now. Such a feat of pursuant justice! The ongoing docuseries’  intrepid, award-winning host, Tiffany Reese, brings rough but necessary activism/journalism to support survivors of trauma, stalking, and abuse. This is another show not for the faint of heart. If you start at the beginning and work your way through, you’ll more deeply understand why victims struggle to come forward, how legal systems continue to fail us all, and why gender assumptions re: villain vs victim need a makeover.

 

·        TELEPATHY TAPES

Yellow Wing Productions, Ky Dickens

https://thetelepathytapes.com/

Do not listen unless you want to get sucked in. This podcast will make you question everything you think you know about autism, our educational system, our science community, and, yes, telepathy. Are you a nonbeliever? I dare you to listen and not come away reconsidering what you think you know about the human mind and collective consciousness. Great commentary on the conflicted interests of systems and individuals. They’re now making a movie based on this compelling story and honestly, I’m here for it. 

 

·        WITCH

BBC Radio 4, India Rakusen

https://open.spotify.com/show/5G8G4pBD93IqpZgRj2p1MN

I’m fascinated with occult topics, but this one resonates for me. The host is a woman who is witch-curious, and that’s a plus because—in case you didn’t already know this—there’s tremendous bias/contempt worldwide about (mostly) women practicing spirituality unsanctioned by organized religion. Witch gives a global history of witchcraft while weaving in contemporary stories about relevant issues, like land access, human rights, and feminism. You may be surprised by what you learn from this exploration.

 

 

 Tamara Kaye Sellman's  published works (poetry, fiction, journalism, and essays) have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize or have earned other awards or distinctions. Some places where you can find her work include Crab Creek Review, Gargoyle, Literary Mama, Lowestoft Chronicle, The Nervous Breakdown, NonBinary Review, North American Review, Quarterly West, Rosebud, Spoon River Poetry Review, Terrain, and Weber: The Contemporary West. Her first book, Intention Tremor (MoonPath Press, 2021), collects poetry and prose forms documenting her life following her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2013. She is currently at work transforming the pieces from this book into experimental films to expand their accessibility to the hearing and vision impaired. (And because it’s fun.) Aqueduct Press released her collection Cul de Sac Stories, a volume in the Conversation Pieces series in 2024. A new work, Rain Shadows, appeared in 2025.