Twice Removed Series 3 Episode 1
Rebecca Rideal, creator of HistFest, writer, consultant, podcaster and historian joined me to talk about the history of witches.
From real life witch trials to the Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Rebecca delves into the history of witches and what they tell us about ourselves – and our ancestors.
Watch Rebecca Rideal discuss A History of Witches
You can view all series and episodes of #TwiceRemoved on the Genealogy Stories YouTube channel.
Listen to A History of Witches with Rebecca Rideal.
A History of Witches
You can listen to all series and episodes of Twice Removed on the podcast (of the same name), available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify and more.
A Spotlight on Rebecca Rideal
Rebecca is a writer, consultant, podcaster, event organiser and historian. She specialises in the Stuart dynasty, seventeenth-century England and macarbe things. She is a self-confessed witches obsessive!
Rebecca spent nearly a decade working in specialist factual television, developing and producing programmes such as ‘Jack the Ripper: Killer Revealed’. She is the founder and director of HistFest – a history festival. You can learn more about HistFest here.
Rebecca also hosts the podcast Killing Time and is the author of 1666, Plague, War and Hellfire.
Rebecca provides leisure history courses. I can personally vouch for her recent Killer Women course which I thoroughly enjoyed. You can keep an eye on all Rebecca’s many activities, here.
Resources Mentioned:
"Real" Witches
Witches in Fiction & Mythology
- Read Shakespeare’s Macbeth here (in full and free)
- James I’s Daemonologie, see information at the British Library
- Greek mythology, Medea, Medusa and Circe
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
- American Sitcom, Bewitched
- Sky’s 2018, Discovery of Witches
- The Craft (1996)
- Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and 1996’s teen drama, “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch“
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Female Authors Recommend
More #TwiceRemoved Episodes

#TwiceRemoved with Matthew Roberts
How do we find out about the emotions of our ancestors in the past? Have our emotions changed? Or our views on emotions evolved?

#TwiceRemoved with Justin Bengry
Find out why all family historians should consider queer history and learn about queer lives in the past.

#TwiceRemoved with Tara Morton
Discover your suffragist ancestors and learn about their fight for women to vote with expert guest Tara Morton.
If you want to ensure you never miss #TwiceRemoved or a blog post then please join The Curious Descendants using the form below. You’ll get family history news every week, history nuggets and more!
Join The Curious Descendants!
If you enjoyed this then you’ll LOVE my Curious Descendants emails. I send daily emails packed with family history writing tips, ideas and stories. Plus a weekly news roundup, ensuring you’ll never miss one of my articles (or an episode of #TwiceRemoved) ever again.
