logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2023
26m 6s

268. History of Zombies: From Haiti and ...

Thomas Wilkinson
About this episode

What is a zombie? You might be thinking of the flesh-eating, undead monsters common in Hollywood, but the origin of zombies is much more fascinating than the stories in film and TV.


From the brutal slave plantations of Haiti to the development of voodoo legends and traditions, to the modern monsters of Hollywood, join us for a look at the history of zombies in this Halloween special episode!


Transcript - https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2023/10/30/268-history-of-zombies-from-haiti-and-voodoo-to-the-night-of-the-living-dead-english-vocabulary-lesson/


Thinking in English Bonus Podcast - https://www.patreon.com/collection/10513


Bonus Podcast on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6gSPOxNCijMq2hTJW8tyx4?si=009d68bd2f744fed


History of Mummies - https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2023/10/27/the-history-of-mummies-bonus-episode/

My Links



Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thinkinginenglish



⁠⁠ENGLISH CLASSES - https://thinkinginenglish.link/ ⁠⁠



⁠⁠NEW YOUTUBE Channel!!! - https://www.youtube.com/@thinkinginenglishpodcast ⁠⁠



⁠⁠INSTAGRAM - thinkinginenglishpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/thinkinginenglishpodcast/)  ⁠⁠



⁠⁠Blog - thinkinginenglish.blog⁠⁠


------ 


Vocabulary List


  • Practitioner (n): A person who regularly engages in a profession, skill, or belief system.
  • Voodoo (n): A syncretic religion with African, indigenous Caribbean, and Catholic influences, often involving rituals, spirits, and magic.
  • Reanimated (adj): Brought back to life or animated again after death or inactivity.
  • Undead (n): Deceased, but still existing or animated in a supernatural or fictional way.
  • Flesh-eating (adj): Relating to creatures or monsters that consume the flesh of living beings.
  • Enslaved (adj): Forced to become a slave, often involving being owned and controlled by others.
  • Plantation (n): A large estate or property where crops like sugar, cotton, or tobacco are cultivated, typically using slave labour.
  • Under the control (phrase): Subject to the influence of someone or something else.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-english/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Today
350. The Ship of Theseus: What Makes Something Truly the Same? (English Vocabulary Lesson)
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠⁠https://nordvpn.com/think85⁠⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! What makes something the same object over time, even if all of its parts are replaced? This might sound like a strange question, but it’s one of the oldest and most i ... Show More
16m 55s
Aug 18
349. How to Become an Expert in English (or Anything Else!) (English Vocabulary Lesson)
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠https://nordvpn.com/think85⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! What does it really take to become an expert English speaker? How do some people reach such a high level of fluency, while others seem to struggle for years without muc ... Show More
22m 37s
Aug 11
348. What is Universal Basic Income? (English Vocabulary Lesson)
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠https://nordvpn.com/think85⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Today we are going to look at an interesting and often controversial idea: Universal Basic Income, or UBI for short. Let me ask you a question: What if the government g ... Show More
22m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2024
Zombies
Who’s afraid of zombification? Apparently not analytic philosophers. In episode 99 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk all about zombies and their unfortunate legacy in the thought experiments of academic philosophy. Their portrait as brain-eating and consciousness-lacking mobs is ... Show More
59m 47s
Oct 2020
Zombies
Their ubiquity in pop culture suggests zombies are a recent creation, but the ideas animating these cannibalistic cadavers originated in a 16th century French colony. Enslaved Africans conceived of a soul in unrest, occupying the ether. In Western culture, zombies transformed int ... Show More
49m 24s
Oct 2023
Lucy Swanson, "The Zombie in Contemporary French Caribbean Fiction" (Liverpool UP, 2023)
Believed to have emerged in the French Caribbean based on African spirit beliefs, the zombie represents not merely the walking dead, but also a walking embodiment of the region's history and culture. In Haiti today, the zombie serves as an enduring memory of enslavement: it is de ... Show More
52m 44s
Oct 2023
A History of Horror - Witches, Ghosts, Werewolves & Horror Comedy
Happy almost Halloween, Everyone! For those of you who have been following my channel since the early days, you might recall that I started off doing much spookier content. I love Halloween and horror, though I tend to veer more spooking and supernatural than gory. Back in 2018 I ... Show More
48m 42s
Jul 2023
When Zombies Came To Hollywood
Independent horror film ‘White Zombie’, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered in New York City’s Rivoli Theatre on July 28th, 1932. It marked the first time that zombies had featured in a Hollywood picture - albeit as the result of an evil voodoo master in Haiti rather than a condition ... Show More
12m 25s
Feb 2023
Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini, "Infected Empires: Decolonizing Zombies" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
Let’s talk about zombies! Scholars Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini have produced an engaging and important analysis of the idea of zombies, and how and why these particular monsters are omnipresent in American popular culture, especially these days. Zombies both represent and ... Show More
51m 28s
Jan 2022
Zombies
The second in a three-part series on monsters in philosophy. We trace the cultural history of zombies from voodoo folklore, George Romero films, and the zombies used in philosophical thought experiments. Folklore, film and philosophy seem to converge on the idea that consciousnes ... Show More
37m 18s
Oct 2020
Episode 128 ENGLISH VOCABULARY WORDS FOR HALLOWEEN THAT AMERICANS SAY 👻
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays here in the United States, and in this lesson, I explain some of the most common English words and terms we use for Halloween. I explain how pumpkins are turned into jack-o'-lanterns and how some Americans will roast the pumpkin seeds ... Show More
11m 37s