PODCAST: NICOLAS CAGE'S FAUSTIAN PACT

Dr. Scahill was the featured guest on a different type of podcast this month, where he put his scholarly skills to use on the popular satire podcast Lizard People: Comedy and Conspiracy Theories. On Lizard People, host and comedian Katelyn Hempstead plays the skeptic as every week a new guest attempts to convince her of a conspiracy theory, ranging from the potentially legitimate ("JFK's Assassination") to the downright ridiculous ("Beyonce Killed Joan Rivers"). Along the way, Hempstead and her guests attempt to decipher what is attractive about conspiratorial thinking, and why so many people want to believe in the shadowy and the cabalistic.

In this episode, Dr. Scahill came prepared with an onslaught of evidence to explain the highs and lows in the career of actor Nicolas Cage. Suggesting (satirically) that it may be explained by a Faustian pact that Cage made, which resulted in Oscar success, but at the cost of his fortune... and possibly his soul. Is Cage trying to tell us of his struggles through his filmography which repeatedly features a man fighting against demonic forces and uncovering a conspiracy? Click here to listen to the hilarious episode "Nicolas Cage Made a Faustian Pact" on Lizard People: Comedy and Conspiracy Theories.