On last night’s radio program, we talked with Alison DiMario, the education director at the Salem Witch Museum about the history of witchcraft. We got her take on the claim by a Massachusetts witch that hanging a costumed figure of a witch in effigy constitutes a hate crime.

Tonight, we’ll talk with Laurie Cabot, Salem’s own self-proclaimed witch, about the issue. Cabot was the subject of a video report I did while studying Broadcast Journalism at Emerson College. The report garnered national attention at a JVC Student Video Competition, winning an award for its subject matter and treatment.

Cabot joins me to discuss the Wiccan religion and hate crimes, from a witch’s perspective.

From Wikipedia:

Laurie Cabot is an American Wiccan high priestess, and was one of the first people to popularize Wicca in the United States. She is the author of such books as The Power of the Witch, and also founded the Cabot Tradition of the Science of Witchcraft and the Witches’ League for Public Awareness. In the 1970s, Cabot was declared the “official witch of Salem, Massachusetts“, by then-Governor Michael Dukakis, to honor her work with special needs children.

She continues to reside in Salem, where she owns a shop called The Cat, the Crow, and the Crown. Cabot claims to be related to the prominent Boston Brahmin Cabot family. She is perhaps the most high-profile self-proclaimed witch in Massachusetts. She is a part of Salem lore, and a bona-fide local celebrity in that city and throughout Massachusetts’s North Shore.

We get underway at 9 p.m. ET. Cabot will join us during the second half of the program. My first guest will be Burt Boyar, political conservative, biographer and longtime friend of the late Sammy Davis Jr.

To listen, hit the button below. And as always, the Blog Talk Radio chatroom will be available for your comments and questions.

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