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Episode Description
Harry Houdini spent the final years of his life doing something few expected from the world's greatest escape artist: hunting ghosts. Or rather, hunting those who claimed to speak to ghosts.
In this episode of Talking Strange, host Aaron Sagers sits down with John Cox, the leading Houdini historian behind the acclaimed blog Wild About Harry (wildabouthoudini.com). Cox is the author of Escaping Obscurity: The Travel Diary of Harry Houdini, 1897–1899 and is currently completing a definitive three-volume Houdini biography.
Aaron and John dig into Houdini's complicated, often contradictory relationship with Spiritualism — a movement he publicly crusaded against. They trace the rise and collapse of his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes creator and devout Spiritualist whose unwavering belief in psychic phenomena put him on a collision course with Houdini's exposure campaigns. The conversation also covers Houdini's own staged séances, the mystery of his famous secret code with wife Bess, and the strange afterlife of his legacy in pop culture.
For more with John Cox, check out the expanded episode on Aaron's Patreon (Patreon.com/AaronSagers)
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The Talking Strange Show with Aaron Sagers is a weekly paranormal pop culture show featuring celebrity and author interviews, as well as experts in all things strange and unexplained. Talking Strange is a creation of Aaron Sagers with production help from Michael Ahr.
Host Aaron Sagers is a paranormal TV host and journalist who appears as host of 28 Days Haunted on Netflix, and on Paranormal Caught On Camera on Travel Channel, Discovery+, and MAX streaming service.
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