Annie Kelly brings Jake, Julian, and Travis tales of the lesser known figures of the European witch hunts during the early modern period: the skeptics who openly doubted that every accused woman was actually a witch.

At the time, it was common for village communities in England, Spain, and France to accuse local women of cursing cows and similar satanic mischief. But a handful of men didn’t believe the mainstream belief that witchcraft was widespread. Doubts were raised by the Spanish royal physician Andrés Fernández de Laguna, the English gentleman Reginald Scot, and the inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías. Salazar even established rules on investigating witchcraft that set a high standard of proof. This subsequently saved an untold number of accused witches from being hanged or burned at the stake.

What can all of this tell us about the modern right’s use of the language of demonology to describe their enemies? Listen to get exclusive analysis from the National Baby.

To get a better background on the history of witch hunting, Annie interviewed Professor Marion Gibson from the University of Exeter, and author of the book Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials.


Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:
https://patreon.com/qaa


Annie Kelly
https://bsky.app/profile/annieknk.bsky.social

Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials by Marion Gibson
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Witchcraft/Marion-Gibson/9781668002438


Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


Witchcraft Skeptics And The Spanish Inquisition (E306)

Take a break from hearing about Elon Musk’s pernicious influence in U.S. politics to learn about Elon Musk’s pernicious influence in U.K. politics.

Annie Kelly brings us an update on the state of the far right across the pond. Specifically, we learn about political party Reform UK, and its relationship to the UK’s two most prominent far-right figures. Those figures are: Nigel Farage - Mr Brexit himself and Reform’s leader, and Tommy Robinson, the perpetually re-imprisoned anti-Islamic agitator. Elon Musk spent weeks on X boosting the views of Tommy Robinson. This has caused some consternation for Farage, who has tried to distance himself from Robinson’s explicit ethnonationalism. 

This episode features contributions from Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, the UK's largest antifascist organization.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:
http://www.patreon.com/QAA


Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe, Jake Rockatansky, and Corey Klotz. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


LINKS


Web Worm: How Racist Agitator Tommy Robinson Found Support with the World’s Richest Men
https://www.webworm.co/p/tommyrobinson

Hope Not Hate
https://hopenothate.org.uk/ 

Rebel Sounds: Music as Resistance by Joe Mulhall https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Rebel-Sounds/Joe-Mulhall/9781804441169

Reform UK, Nigel Farage, and Elon Musk (E311)

Jake goes to Mexico City to learn the story of Mexico's anarchist past. He meets a dog and a cat.

NYC CUOMO ROAST
https://bit.ly/Cuomoroast

MERCH
poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON
patreon.com/poddamnamerica

Son of a Water Dog

People use generative artificial intelligence to troubleshoot technical problems, churn out anime-inspired images based on their personal photos, and drive university professors who teach undergrad courses to the darkest pits of despair.

But are the applications of artificial intelligence limited to worldly matters?

On today’s episode, we discuss how strings of words generated by mindless neural network predictions over tokenized inputs are burrowing into our very souls. First, we speak to Rolling Stone journalist Miles Klee, who recently published a fascinating investigation into people who have fallen into spiritual fantasies because of their conversations with ChatGPT. And then Annie covers how conservative author Rod Dreher sees the devil in AI chatbots.

Have you heard the good news of our lord and savior: byte pair encoding tokenization?

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:
https://patreon.com/qaa

///

Miles Klee on Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/milesklee.bsky.social

People Are Losing Loved Ones To AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/


///


Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

God, the Devil, and AI feat. Miles Klee (E323)

In this public News Brief, we break down the selling of an unpopular, disastrous war in record speed. 

News Brief: Pundits Speed-run 15 months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Days

For this special bonus episode we're joined by Jason P. Woodbury from Aquarian Drunkard's Transmissions podcast, to talk about everything from Christian music, to the Michael Tait allegations, to the mystic/freak-folk scene of the mid-2000s, to the crossovers between Ufology and Christianity

Please go check out Jason's podcast on iTunes or Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ErL7gvZD6v3HJ4Nx5oexm

And support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Too Much Goodness Is A Sin Today (w/ special guest Jason P. Woodbury)

Our old pal Steve Sladkowski from the band Pup stops by to talk tariffs, Canadian politics, TikTok, Drake's abs, and what peak performance looks like

Go see Pup on tour soon: https://www.puptheband.com/, and be sure to check out their new album

And support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 399: Venetian Polymath Diet (w/ special guest Steve Sladkowski)


The QAA crew is excited to announce the launch of a new podcast series network: Cursed Media. We hope you’ll also be excited for this expansion of our editorial line and support it by subscribing!

The very first Cursed Media podcast series is Science in Transition, an investigation into the intellectual origins of the contemporary right wing backlash against transgender acceptance. Through six deeply-researched episodes, hosts Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows unearth a bizarre coalition of well-meaning clinicians, aristocratic sexologists, militant feminists, right-wing culture warriors, headline-chasing journalists, and conservative politicians.

On this episode of QAA we are joined by Liv and Spencer to chat about what they found by digging through FOIA documents, interviewing experts, and diving into dense medical journals. 

Get access to Science in Transition plus all other Cursed Media content by following this link: 

https://www.cursedmedia.net/

Subscribers to Cursed Media get access to three new podcast series per year, plus every episode of QAA’s existing mini-series (properly organized!) 

Manclan by Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly, 
Trickle Down by Travis View
The Spectral Voyager by Jake Rockatansky and Brad Abrahams
Perverts by Julian Feeld and Liv Agar

Cursed Media logo by https://dayoff.ltd

What is "Science in Transition" feat Liv Agar & Spencer Barrows (E331)

This week we are joined by Dr.  Olivier Jutel, a lecturer in the Department of Media, Film & Communication at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. His scholarly focus is in communication studies and media theory, particularly around populism, digital media, political economy, and critical theory.

Travis and Julian chat with Olivier about his iconoclastic take on the paradigms that have dominated U.S. technology and communications policy since 2016. 

Olivier argues that fear of foreign influence has been leveraged by a coalition of Silicon Valley firms, national‑security agencies and allied think‑tanks to deflect structural reform of platforms. Drawing on Cold‑War communication theory, this coalition frames all online conflict as “information warfare,” treating citizens as passive targets for behavioral manipulation while ignoring deeper political‑economic drivers of democratic decay. Jutel retraces the military origins of mass‑communication research, critiques Shoshana Zuboff’s “surveillance capitalism” thesis, and dissects the role of high‑profile disinfo professionals whose methods, he contends, don’t question the core assumptions of tech industry platforms and national‑security priorities. 

Olivier concludes that while this disinformation framework is past its heyday, its war‑like view of social life persists, empowering actors such as Palantir while sidelining antitrust and public‑interest remedies. The solution? A shift toward true democratic governance of digital infrastructure. 

Dr Olivier Jutel at University of Otago
https://www.otago.ac.nz/mfco/staff/olivier-jutel


Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

///

We’ve launched a new podcast miniseries network: Cursed Media. The very first Cursed Media miniseries is Science in Transition. 

Science in Transition is an investigation into the intellectual origins of the contemporary right wing backlash against transgender acceptance. Through six deeply-researched episodes, hosts Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows unearth a bizarre coalition of well-meaning clinicians, aristocratic sexologists, militant feminists, right-wing culture warriors, headline-chasing journalists, and conservative politicians.

Listen to the first five episodes of Science In Transition right now and all episodes after the sixth one is released by subscribing through this link.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Subscribers to Cursed Media get access to three new podcast series per year, plus every episode of QAA’s existing mini-series (properly organized!)


The Problem of Disinformation (E334)

This week we talk to journalist Maria Hengeveld about her new piece in Slate covering Nike's supply chain and embrace of the "Girl Effect," which has allowed female Vietnamese workers to lean in without the distraction of a living wage. 

Later, we talk about the dorks on the alt-right and their nemeses, and ours, on the elevator-right, i.e. the pear-shaped Catholic failsons who suffer from chronic public entrapment.

Maria's piece in Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_grind/2016/08/nike_s_supply_chain_doesn_t_live_up_to_the_ideals_of_its_girl_effect_campaign.html

Become a Grey Wolf and get a premium extra episode every week: https://www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

Episode 38 - Elevator To Heaven feat. @HengeveldMaria (9/5/16)

Come, contract Epstein Brain with us.

Listen to Liz and Brace's new podcast here:  https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/the-ep-files

Chapo Trap House

UNLOCKED: 335 - Shrugging Towards Bethlehem feat. Brace Belden & Liz Franczak (7/25/19)

Conspiracy theories, melted online communities and cursed media — we pry open the cracks in consensus reality and journey into the hidden worlds below. The QAA Podcast is a mix of reporting, comedy, and history hosted by Jake Rockatansky, Travis View, and Julian Feeld along with co-hosts Annie Kelly, Liv Agar and Brad Abrahams. Formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.