Seven Heads, Ten Horns: The History of the Devil

Klaus Yoder & Travis Stevens

A history podcast that explores the origins, development, and continuing influence of the Devil in Western cultures. 

  1. Project [Antichrist] 2025

    10/31/2025

    Project [Antichrist] 2025

    Some rich people can't stop talking about the antichrist. But who cares about the antichrist anyway and where did this mythical character come from? Travis and Klaus look at Philip C Almond's Antichrist: A New Biography as well the horror-comedy El Día de la Bestia (Day of the Beast) dir. Álex de Iglesia (1995) to figure out more about the sudden relevance of this JV Devil character.

    1h 4m
  2. Halloween Special '24: Of Books and Basements

    10/29/2024

    Halloween Special '24: Of Books and Basements

    "The only true mystery is that our very lives are governed by dead people." Kazanian, Inferno Greetings from the Beyond. We are back for Halloween, having watched the following in preparation: -Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) -The Evil (1978) -The Beyond (1981) -City of the Living Dead (1980) -Rosemary's Baby (1968) -Inferno (1980) The Guardian on the Pelicot trial

    1h 14m
  3. It's Been A Minute Crossover Episode

    10/12/2024

    It's Been A Minute Crossover Episode

    Back from the dead to share that we were interviewed on NPR's It's Been A Minute about the devil in cinema. We are also gearing up for a Halloween episode and are assigning the following films as homework (you can find most of these online one way or another...) -Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) -The Evil (1978) -The Beyond (1981) -City of the Living Dead (1980) -Rosemary's Baby (1968) -Inferno (1980)

    6 min
  4. S 4.8 Hildegard of Bingen with Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle

    02/28/2024

    S 4.8 Hildegard of Bingen with Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle

    This week we interview Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle about the visionary preacher and medieval abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. Join us to learn more about the tone-deaf devil from the 12th century as we explore the sermons, art, and visions of Hildegard.

    1h 10m
  5. S 4.7 Adieu, Adrian: Mann's Doktor Faustus, pt. 2

    11/25/2023

    S 4.7 Adieu, Adrian: Mann's Doktor Faustus, pt. 2

    What is the secularized, capitalistic, art-world equivalent to being torn limb-from-limb by the devil? Find out in our concluding episode on Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus.  -English translation of Mann’s Doktor Faustus -Danny Riley, “Interpreting Joy: A Guide to Interpreting Beethoven’s Ninth”

    1h 9m
  6. S 4.6 Catholic Horror with Matthew J. Cressler

    10/23/2023

    S 4.6 Catholic Horror with Matthew J. Cressler

    In observance of the spooky season we're posting our conversation with historian Matthew J. Cressler on the relationship between Catholicism and horror cinema. We explore the sub-genre of Catholic Horror through our analysis of two recent films centering on the Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016): William Friedkin’s (!) documentary The Devil and Father Amorth (2017) and Julius Avery’s horror/dramedy/superhero film The Pope’s Exorcist (2023). The conversation was enlightening and just a delight. Please be on the lookout for all of Matthew’s great work on Catholicism and horror: “The Netflix Series That Should Make Religious People Uncomfortable” The Atlantic, 10/25/21 (on Midnight Mass) “Exorcists, Abusers, and When Catholic History is Horror” The Revealer, 05/10/22 “You Can’t Have a Catholic Imagination without Horror” U.S. Catholic, 10/28/22 And the man’s making comics about this at Bad Catholics / Good Trouble !

    1h 50m
  7. S 4.5 ‘Doktor Faustus, I presume?’ Thomas Mann pt. 1

    10/11/2023

    S 4.5 ‘Doktor Faustus, I presume?’ Thomas Mann pt. 1

    This episode: we can’t leave well enough alone — another literary elaboration of the Faust legend by a member of the Mann family, Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus (1947.) We discuss: why learning is actually interesting to young people, the problems with studying theology and the humanities, why the devil owns music, whether committing yourself to creative excellence always means a deal with the devil, and what you’re not allowed to say about hell.  English translation of Mann’s Doktor Faustus The “Jeremy Brett” version of Love’s Labor’s Lost.

    1h 27m
  8. S 4.4 Klaus Mann's Mephisto

    09/02/2023

    S 4.4 Klaus Mann's Mephisto

    Three Klauses walk into a bar… This episode centers on literary wunderkind/prodigal son Klaus Mann’s attack on Nazi Germany (and an ex-lover, and possibly his dad, the canonical novelist Thomas Mann), in the form of the 1936 novel Mephisto. We discuss the film adaptation, what it means to compare demons to the Nazis, the book’s relationship to Goethe’s Faust, and the politics of race in the novel/film.  -Klaus Mann, Mephisto: Ein Roman einer Karriere -Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark -Farayi Mungazi and Olivia Marks-Woldman “Black people were Hitler’s victims too – that must not be forgotten”  -“Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany,” Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -Colm Tóibín: “I Could Sleep With All Of Them” (On Mann family dynamics in London Review of Books)

    1h 7m
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A history podcast that explores the origins, development, and continuing influence of the Devil in Western cultures. 

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