What Magic Is This?

Douglas Batchelor takes a topic-based approach with What Magic Is This?, and the results are impressively thorough. Each monthly episode picks a single subject—magical treasure hunting, past lives and reincarnation, Solomonic magic—and explores it comprehensively, often for two hours or more. That commitment to depth is unusual and genuinely appreciated by the show’s audience, which has given it a 4.7-star rating across 314 reviews. With 160 episodes in the catalog, there’s a substantial library covering the history, practices, and key figures across magic, the occult, esoteric knowledge, and paranormal phenomena. Batchelor’s style is warm and knowledgeable without being pretentious. He treats each topic with genuine fascination, and his research is consistently solid. The longer format means you actually come away feeling like you’ve learned something substantial, not just skimmed the surface. Recent episodes on Christmas pagan origins and the supreme secret of sorcery give a good sense of the range. It’s the kind of podcast you put on for a long walk or a quiet evening and let it unspool.