The Placebo Magick Podcast

Magick is pretend... and pretending is powerful! On the Placebo Magick Podcast we explore how and why to cast spells, perform rituals, read Tarot cards, commune with fictional beings, and delve into ancient or pop culture mythologies to gain real psychological benefits and treat modern problems... all while remaining grounded in a science-based skeptical atheist worldview.

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Recent Episodes

6/30/2021
How My Practice Has Changed (S2E17)

In this informal episode I share how my practice has changed over time.

5/31/2021
Astrology 101 featuring Tristan (S2E16)

Special guest Tristan walks me through a basic introduction to astrology.

4/27/2021
Jesus the Wizard (S2E15)

Examining Jesus' teaching and healing through a placebo magick lens.

3/31/2021
Keeping Up with the Dumbledores (S2E14)

The pressure we put on ourselves as mages to measure up to imaginary standards.

Featured Poetry and Blog Posts

1/31/2018
Ordained
When the poets of old
wrote of star-crossed lovers
they were partly right
and partly wrong
due to a tragedy of scope and scale
and obsession with particular causality,
working backwards
or worse, forwards—
while stars like these ordain the just-rightness
of you and me, it could have been
any …
1/11/2018
The Noble Peasantry: Reimagining Class

"If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself."

3/30/2016
Invitation
Lord, help me to pray
less. Help my gratitude grow
plainer, for smaller and commoner things.
Help my exaltations
dissolve into breath.
And by grace, may I make peace
where the shy wordless creature
can squeak his petitions—
small prayers for small moments
when I break off two squares of …
3/20/2016
Batman
When Batman saved Gotham
having finally figured out
how to synthesize an antidote,
he couldn't go back to just being
Bruce Wayne—like most superheroes
Batman is maladjusted
for everyday life, maladapted
to a saved world.

When Noah touched solid ground
having preserved human- and animal-kind
and much too old …