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Real Fantastic Beasts


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  • 57. Animal Helpers: Boots, Bandages, and Blood Sacrifice

    48:42||Season 5, Ep. 57
    Why is it always the youngest, humblest sibling who gets the magic animal on their side? This episode we explore Puss in Boots, La Chatte Blanche, and what animal companions tell us about who folklore thinks deserves to win.

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  • 56. Father of terror or enigmatic woman?: unriddling the Sphinx

    40:15||Season 5, Ep. 56
    We talk lions, hybridity, and the unsettling power of a creature that's often part woman, part beast, and entirely a threat to masculine authority — the Sphinx, in all her medieval and Renaissance guises.

  • 55. Harvesting the Salamander Wool

    40:09||Season 5, Ep. 55
    What does it mean for a cold, damp, thoroughly amphibious creature to become the defining symbol of elemental fire? In this episode, we explore the salamander, the fire-resistant (allegedly), asbestos-covered, love-poetry-inspiring, hellfire-embodying little amphibian that confused natural philosophers from Aristotle to Linnaeus.

  • 54. Proud as a Peacock

    43:23||Season 5, Ep. 54
    From Hildegard to the Habsburgs, we explore the European perspective on the most spectacular bird.

  • 53. Pharoah's mouse

    33:04||Season 5, Ep. 53
    We discuss the curious lore of the Egyptian mongoose or ichneumon and its habit of disemboweling crocodiles – from the inside.

  • 52. How fantastic is burning poop?

    43:16||Season 5, Ep. 52
    Guest expert Christine Cooper-Rompato regales us with the most excremental of all animals, the bonnacon, which defends itself by ejecting burning poo.

  • 51. In which we swan with swans

    44:32||Season 5, Ep. 51
    From the OG bird of the soul to the medieval dining table, we explore the long fascination with swans and their (mostly nonexistent) song.