Altar Ego

CW: This episode includes discussion of suicide, mental health crises, emotional abuse, and coercive or controlling dynamics in spiritual spaces. Listen with care. In this episode, we take a deep look at Teal Swan; her rise as a spiritual influencer, the community that formed around her, and the serious concerns raised by former followers, journalists, and mental-health professionals. Drawing from...

CW: This episode includes discussion of postpartum psychosis, suicidality, psychiatric hospitalization, and child death. No graphic details are included. Listener discretion is advised. This episode examines the case of Andrea Yates, a mother whose dismissed postpartum psychosis led to the deaths of her five children in 2001. Jeri guides Heather and listeners through how severe mental illness, ign...

CW: Discussion of historical violence and murder (without graphic detail), fear and moral panic, and the impact of violence on communities. It also references religious and spiritual beliefs and historical racial tension. Listener discretion is advised. In the early hours of New Orleans’ Jazz Age, a killer stalked the city with no clear motive, no consistent victims, and no face anyone could agree...

CW: This episode discusses racism, white-supremacist violence, and systemic oppression , including the assassination of civil-rights organizers . There are no graphic descriptions, but the themes may be heavy, especially for Black listeners, Indigenous listeners, and other people of color who live with the ongoing impacts of this history. Listener discretion is encouraged. In this first episode of...

CW: Discussion of racism, white supremacy, organized hate groups, and historical violence. There are no graphic descriptions, but the themes may be heavy, especially for Black listeners, Indigenous listeners, and other people of color who live with the ongoing impacts of this history. Listener discretion is encouraged. In part two of this series, we explore the history of the Ku Klux Klan and the...

CW: References to invasive medical exams (not graphic), alcohol use and alcoholism, death and child loss (not detailed), spiritualism and séance practices, accusations of fraud and public humiliation, and gender-based scrutiny and mistreatment. In this episode, Heather explores the surprising overlap between Harry Houdini’s mission to expose fraudulent séances and the legends surrounding Sarah Win...

Body Worlds promised education through wonder, but the story behind it reveals a tangle of science, profit, and unanswered questions about consent. This episode looks at Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the man who turned anatomy into art, and the moral fault lines that form when human bodies become a business. A “formal donor program” was created in Germany by Institute of Plastination (IfP) where people...

Before Ouija boards and séance tables, there were three young sisters in Hydesville, New York-- Maggie, Kate, and Leah Fox. In 1848, the mysterious “rappings” in their farmhouse would ignite something far bigger than superstition. The Fox sisters became the spark that set the Spiritualism movement ablaze, blurring the line between belief, deception, and a desperate longing to hear from the beyond....

CW: Coercive spiritual practices and abuse of religious authority, misuse of cultural healing traditions, non-graphic violence, psychological manipulation, death, and burial practices. In this episode, we examine the life and actions of Ahmad Suradji, a North Sumatran dukun whose misuse of a traditionally respected role resulted in profound harm. We explore what a dukun is, the cultural and spirit...

CW: Execution, racism, enslavement, religious extremism, psychological distress.  On this episode, we travel back to 1692 to a Puritan village gripped by panic, paranoia, and prayer. The Salem Witch Trials have become one of the most infamous moral panics in history, but beneath the surface of hysteria lies a complex story about faith, power, and fear. We dig into how belief, both sacred and super...

CW: Factual non-graphic descriptions of violence and discussion of parasomnia. This episode crosses the veil between sleep and wake, where science and superstition blur. Across cultures, sleep is seen as a liminal realm—where spirits move and the soul drifts. We explore this through the case of Kenneth Parks, a man whose stress, gambling addiction, and exhaustion led to an act he claimed happened...

Before there was Halloween, there was Samhain... the Celtic fire festival when the veil between worlds was thinnest. In this special October 31st episode, Jeri + Heather trace how a night of honoring ancestors and warding off spirits evolved. From ancient bonfires and soul cakes to Christian rebranding and modern mischief, we explore what still lingers beneath the masks: belief, memory, and the th...

CW: This episode contains discussion of death, sorcery, and zombification within the context of Haitian Vodou and folklore. Listener discretion is advised. This week, Heather leads Jeri on an exploration of Makaya, one of the most secretive and feared branches of Haitian Vodou. From its Kongo roots and powerful bokors to its infamous link with zombification, Makaya has fueled both mystery and fear...

CW: Spiritual and psychological manipulation, sexual relationships involving power imbalance and underage individuals, cult dynamics, and coercive control. In the early 1970s , The Source Restaurant began as a popular health food restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, founded by Jim Baker, later known as Father Yod, whose vision helped introduce organic and vegetarian eating to the mainstream. Regulars i...

CW: Contains discussion of colonial racism, religious trauma, and descriptions of alleged possession phenomena In 1906, a 16-year-old orphan in South Africa shocked missionaries with violent fits, inhuman cries, and even a confession of a pact with the devil. Known as the possession of Clara Germana Cele, her story includes levitation, exorcism, and colonial propaganda about “dark Africa.” Was she...

CW: Suicidality, domestic violence, and non-graphic animal abuse specific to snakes.  Jeri explores the dangerous world of Appalachian snake-handling churches and the case of Darlene Summerford , a pastor’s wife who survived a near-fatal rattlesnake bite under suspicious circumstances. Through the lens of faith, fear, and control, we examine the origins of snake-handling traditions, the laws that...

CW: This episode contains retelling of violence and murder, as well as talks about schizophrenia. Listener discretion is advised.  Santa Cruz in the early 1970s was dubbed “Murderville, USA” home to two active serial killers at the same time. One of them, Ed Kemper, became a media obsession. The other, Herbert Mullen, was nearly erased from public memory. Convinced he was preventing deadly earthqu...

CW: Discussion of racism, discrimination, and systemic oppression Who…or what…was the Fool Killer? Depending on who you ask, he was a 19th-century satirical invention, a supernatural enforcer born from Melungeon folklore, or a wandering vigilante who struck down the corrupt and the cruel. In this episode, we dive into the tangled origins of the Fool Killer: from gripping newspaper columns to the w...

CW: This episode contains discussion around diets and diet culture, as well as child abuse and infant death. Listener discretion is advised.  What happens when faith, control, and diet culture collide? In our first episode, Heather dives into the rise of Gwen Shamblin Lara, founder of the Weigh Down Diet and Remnant Fellowship Church. From her early teachings on weight loss as a path to holiness,...

Meet the hosts of Altar Ego. Two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of possessions, prophecies, cults, and beliefs, we investigate spirituality, belief systems,...