The Worker's Cauldron
A podcast about the cultural politics of the paranormal. Where Karl Marx shakes his fist at the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot speaks to us about the legacies of colonialism. We discuss the contemporary obsession with all things supernatural through a socialist, feminist lens and ask what our strange experiences and beliefs tell us about the society we live in.
The Worker's Cauldron
Mutilation Nation
Mutilation Nation
This week, we discuss the cattle mutilation wave that hit the heartlands of the United States during the 1970s. This is how the near-collapse of the cattle industry and the end of the Vietnam War precipitated rumors of secret cults, extraterrestrials, cryptids, and a secret government conspiracy all hell-bent on slicing up cows. And also how this all relates to radical right-wing political movements in the American West.
Bonus Content: Close Encounters of the Doggy Kind and some Trotsky quotes
Primary Sources:
Michael J. Goleman, Wave of Mutilation: The Cattle Mutilation Phenomenon of the 1970s
Christopher O’Brien, Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery
Bill Ellis, Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media
Kansas City 41 Action News, Rancher mystified by cattle mutilations
KFOR Oklahoma News 4, Ranchers on edge after cow found mutilated in Oklahoma pasture