In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the American tradition of devil-named places — over a thousand of them — and what it means that humans have always marked the land where the land pushes back. The episode centers on the Devil's Tramping Ground in Chatham County, North Carolina: a forty-foot bare circle in the longleaf pines where objects move overnight, dogs refuse to enter, and soil tests reveal elevated salt content with no natural explanation. From there, ...
Jul 15
24 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores three of mythology's great shapeshifters — Circe, Proteus, and the selkie — and the thread they share: the one who changes is the one who sees most clearly. Circe's transformations reveal what was already running beneath the surface of her visitors; Proteus releases the truth only when you hold him through every form he takes; the selkie's two natures are both completely real, and the tragedy is the world's inability to hold ...
Jul 8
21 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the night hag — the figure who sits on your chest while you sleep, pins you to the bed, and leaves you certain something was in the room. The experience is one of the most universally reported in human history, and the traditions built around it are remarkably consistent: the Germanic mara, the Newfoundland Old Hag documented by folklorist David Hufford, Queen Mab in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the Hmong dab tsog — a ...
Jun 26
27 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the mythology of the sun — the deities across world traditions who were understood to carry the light, fight for it, and in some cases withdraw it entirely. We look at Ra, the Egyptian sun god who sailed his barque through the underworld each night and battled the serpent Apophis before every dawn could come. At the Greek figures of Helios and Apollo, who represent two very different ideas about what the sun actually means. A...
Jun 10
23 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, host Shelby Bundy explores the origin stories of three of Greek mythology's most feared women — and what those origins reveal about how monsters get made. Circe, the sorceress who transforms men into pigs. Lamia, the child-devouring queen. Scylla, the creature in the strait who drags sailors to their deaths. Each of these figures has a story that predates the monster version, and in each case, the transformation follows a recognizable pattern: a ...
Jun 1
22 min
In episode 74 of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy explores the world of anchoresses — medieval women who chose to be walled into a small stone cell attached to a church and spend the rest of their lives there. It was voluntary, sanctioned by the church, and for many of them, genuinely liberating. Inside the cell, they had something almost no woman of their era could access: solitude, time, authority, and a room of their own. This episode looks at why women chose the wall,...
May 20
23 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, we explore the folklore of stones and soil—the materials beneath our feet that humans have worked with for thousands of years. Across myth and tradition, stones have marked sacred places, protected homes, chosen kings, and stood witness to the passage of generations. Soil, meanwhile, holds the memory of life itself, carrying the traces of forests, animals, and people who have returned to the earth. From Greek mythology and Irish legend to Appalac...
Apr 29
26 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina podcast, host Shelby Bundy explores the long history of people who believed they could speak to and influence the weather — from the Sámi noaidi who sold knotted wind-cords to sailors, to village rainmakers, to the cunning folk who turned storms away from grain fields. Shelby tells the story of Agnes Sampson, a Scottish midwife executed in 1591 whose trial shaped witchcraft law for a century, and traces how weather accusations became one of the most com...
Apr 22
25 min
Across cultures, myths often explain the hardships of human life through the actions of a single woman. In this first episode of a new series, we explore three of the earliest examples: Pandora, Eve, and Lilith. Each story describes a moment when a woman crossed a boundary, sought knowledge, or refused submission, and the consequences were said to change the world forever. This episode examines the myths themselves and the long tradition of placing the blame for humanity’s struggles on the sh...
Apr 1
22 min
In this episode of The Moon in Carolina, we explore the stories that move through families across generations. From inherited traditions to emotional patterns shaped by the past, this conversation looks at how the experiences of our ancestors continue to influence the present, and how awareness can help us shape a different path for the generations that follow. 🖤 You can find Shelby at www.shelbybundy.com 📚 Shop my Booklist: The Moon in Carolina at BookShop.org ✨ Courses: Learn My...
Mar 25
25 min
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