LISTEN: ANGUS: "How the Folk Devils of the 1980s Haunt Us

[Oscar]

LISTEN: ANGUS: "How the Folk Devils of the 1980s Haunt Us Today"

Episode 7 of the Dangerous Memory Podcast with Charlie Angus - August 17, 2025 - 24 minutes

“Every era confronts its own fears of social crisis through symbols. They are called folk devils - and the public response to their supposed presence is known as a ‘moral panic.’”

Welcome to Dangerous Memory — the podcast where we reconsider everything we thought we knew about the 1980s.

I’m your host Charlie Angus author of the book Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed, published by the House of Anansi Press and soon on audio books with Tantor Media. Each episode, we’ll crack open a chapter of the 1980s and ask: what really happened and why does it matter?

In this next chapter, we take a look at how the 1980s were haunted by these “folk devils”. From serial killers and satanic cults, to the rise of the mass shooter and the cultural panic they sparked.

We’ll look at how media hysteria mythologized killers and how Hollywood cashed in on slasher films. We’ll also examine how the seeds of today’s mass-shooter culture were planted.

“Yes, in the 1980s we thought we knew where the real folk devils were. We thought we had a plan to deal with the moral panics. But the thing about folk devils is that they can morph and change — and sometimes we just don’t see it coming.”

We’re going back to the 80’s and to the world of moral panic — let’s get started. . . .

[ https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/how ... dium=email ]