Garage Logic: MISCHKE — The Serpent & The Rainbow

Date: February 5, 2026
Host: Tommy Mischke (part of the Gamut Podcast Network)
Guest: Wade Davis, Anthropologist, Author of The Serpent and the Rainbow

Episode Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into the mysterious world of Haitian voodoo and zombies through the eyes of acclaimed anthropologist Wade Davis. Host Tommy Mischke explores Davis’s real-life Indiana Jones voyage into the roots of the zombie myth, its connections to Haitian culture, and the profound significance of voodoo as a spiritual and community force—both in Haiti and in the unique world of New Orleans. The episode also features rich, first-person stories from New Orleans voodoo practitioners, drawing subtle and overt parallels between spiritual traditions across cultures.

Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Introducing Wade Davis: Explorer and Author

[01:46–14:44]

• Mischke gives a rapid-fire, nearly breathless introduction to Wade Davis—a Canadian “explorer of the millennium” and Harvard-trained ethnobotanist, field scientist, poet, and best-selling author.
• Mischke frames his own fascination with non-fictional accounts of zombies and voodoo, noting that misconceptions abound: “One important precept of voodoo is that you can't go to bed at the end of the day without having made another human being happy.” [04:36]
• Sets up the story of Clairvius Narcisse, a man who became the world’s first “verifiable zombie,” a case that propelled Davis to Haiti to investigate.

2. Wade Davis’s Unusual Path to Anthropology

[15:54–21:13]

• Davis recounts his upbringing in British Columbia, influenced by American draft dodgers, and his almost accidental application to Harvard due to their perceived coolness:
  “In a kind of adolescent way, I thought, well, that must be the college you go to to become cool like these guys.” [16:47]
• He describes arriving alone in Boston, out of sync with the semester, saved by the kindness of a pastor—a formative, “fall in love with America” moment.

3. From Plants to Zombies: The Serpent and the Rainbow Investigation

[21:13–27:05]

• Davis’s serendipitous choice to study anthropology, not from ambition but because “you read about Indians” [18:48].
• After extensive fieldwork with Amazonian plants, Davis is tapped by his mentor to travel to Haiti:
  “Would you like to go down to the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, infiltrate the secret societies, and secure the formula of a drug used to make zombies?” [21:38]
• Explains voodoo as a “very democratic faith; the believer... actually becomes the spirit through ritual.” [22:41]
• On the Narcisse case, Davis’s team seeks a natural, scientific explanation for zombies, ultimately linking the phenomenon to the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (from the pufferfish/fugu):

  “The consistent ingredient turned out to be a marine fish... with a very powerful neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, which blocks sodium channels and brings on peripheral paralysis, dramatically low metabolic rates, and yet consciousness is retained until death.” — Wade Davis [24:44]

4. Zombification as Social Sanction

[25:57–28:38]

• The “zombie poison,” Davis explains, was a form of judicial punishment by secret societies—a “fate worse than death” serving as capital punishment and social control.

  “Zombification was a form of capital punishment. And that's why a zombie loses their soul. That implies losing your autonomy.” — Wade Davis [26:24]

• Davis’s unique access: He eventually gained trust and entry into the secret Bizango societies, despite expert warnings that he’d be killed for even asking.

5. Wider Scientific and Cultural Implications

[28:38–30:07]

• Mischke explores how evidence-based investigation could yield broader benefits—e.g., the search for new anesthetic agents:
  “Anesthesiology is much more complicated than people understand. You know, it's easy to put someone out. It's hard to make sure they come back in one piece, if you know what I mean.” — Wade Davis [29:29]

6. On Anthropology, Judgment, and Cultural Relativism

[33:40–39:15]

• Davis addresses criticisms of relativism among anthropologists:

  “Anthropology never calls for the elimination of judgment. It calls for the suspension of judgment so the very judgments we are obliged to make as human beings can be informed ones.” — Wade Davis [33:42]

• He connects the syncretic nature of voodoo with other Afro-Caribbean religions (Santería, Macumba, Hoodoo) and highlights Haiti’s deep African spiritual continuity.
• Parallels are drawn between voodoo rituals involving bones and relics and those in Catholic rites:

  “If you think of Holy Communion... the theory of transubstantiation empowers the Catholic priest to turn that wine and that wafer into, not metaphorically, but literally into the blood and body of Christ... you are essentially indulging in an endocannibalistic ritual.” — Wade Davis [38:10]

7. The Twofold Mission: Science and Story

[39:15–41:54]

• Mischke observes Davis’s dual journey—one scientific, one cultural-narrative. Davis agrees, emphasizing the value of both:

  “People didn’t understand the lengths that I was going to not to get the zombie poison as much as to tell the other story.” — Wade Davis [40:52]

• Davis describes his immersion in voodoo pilgrimages and the haunting beauty of Haitian ritual.

8. On-the-Ground in New Orleans: Voodoo’s Everyday Reality

[43:37–53:36]

• Mischke shares personal stories from his journey to New Orleans, discovering voodoo’s presence in everyday life:

  “What I had not realized was voodoo was so common in New Orleans. I could jump in a cab and the cab driver would talk to me about it.” — Tommy Mischke [46:36]

• A cab driver and priestess recounts using a spell to resolve a stalking problem:

  “She said when you put this in your pocket, the person you having trouble with will no longer give you any more trouble.” — Sally Ann Glassman (via Mischke) [47:04]

• Mischke describes New Orleans voodoo as a “thick, roiling stew... impossible to separate into any individual parts,” tying together African, Haitian, French Catholic, Native American, and Creole traditions.

9. Portraits of Voodoo Practitioners

Priestess Miriam

[49:57–55:11]

• A revered New Orleans priestess, originally from a sharecropping family, tells Mischke about her early spiritual experiences and reticence to explain voodoo to outsiders:

  “I asked the Spirit to not let me just say I knew him, but let me truly know him... it was like this electrified energy just penetrated through my soul.” — Priestess Miriam [52:02]

• She hints at the importance of being “chosen” by spirit and the symbolism of the serpent—a motif echoed in both voodoo and the episode’s title.

Tamu, Voodoo Priest

[55:57–62:52]

• Tamu, whose lineage is a blend of Native American, African, Creole, and Irish, explains his transition back to voodoo after leaving Christianity behind.
• Describes spiritual possession as the core experience—“the most powerful thing... there is no higher form of communication with the Creator.”
• Highlights the North Side Skull and Bones Gang, a New Orleans tradition using ritual to remind the living of their mortality:

  “Try to remind people, one day you too will pass on. So leave a good legacy. We are being watched from the other side, whether we recognize it or not.” — Tamu [59:17]

10. Sally Ann Glassman: Vodou Priestess and Scholar

[63:13–69:30]

• Glassman, one of the only white Americans ordained in Haitian Vodou, tells her origin story coming from an atheistic Ukrainian-Jewish background, drawn to spiritual energy as a child.
• She describes “seeing the world as a mirror image overflows of energy” and her sensitivity to people and atmospheres.
• On her Vodou practice:

  “My whole approach to Vodou is to be of service. That is it. There is nothing I want to get from the spirit.” — Sally Ann Glassman [66:36]
  “Never forget that this was a religion of people who were enslaved, and they lost everything. And instead of feeling like their spirits weren’t worthwhile or that they had failed them, they held on to their beliefs. And that’s really humbling.” [67:42]

• She contextualizes Vodou’s historical and cultural role in New Orleans, celebrating its resistance, resilience, and blend of influences.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Voodoo’s Misunderstood Nature:
  "We think of voodoo as a dark magic, black magic cult. It's not. It's simply the religion of Africa, of West Africa." — Wade Davis [22:33]

• On Judgment in Anthropology:
  "Anthropology never calls for the elimination of judgment. It calls for the suspension of judgment so the very judgments we are obliged to make as human beings can be informed ones." — Wade Davis [33:42]

• On Sacred Experience Across Traditions:
  "The ultimate moment of African belief is that moment when you summon the spirit. And the spirit momentarily displaces the soul of the living." — Wade Davis [36:30]

• On New Orleans' Unique Spirit:
  "This city's spirit is a lot different than anything else in the United States. You can't compare New York or LA or Cleveland or Atlanta. There's nothing like it." — Tamu [60:40]

• On Vodou as Resistance:
  "There was a definite campaign that was intended to divorce people from the practice of the religion, to disempower them... Never forget that this was a religion of people who were enslaved, and they lost everything. And instead of feeling like their spirits weren’t worthwhile or that they had failed them, they held on to their beliefs. And that’s really humbling." — Sally Ann Glassman [66:36, 67:42]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro and Wade Davis’s credentials: [01:46–04:36]
• Clairvius Narcisse: the “verifiable zombie”: [05:00–08:00]
• Wade Davis’s academic journey: [15:54–18:22]
• Initial voodoo investigation, zombies explained: [21:13–25:57]
• Zombification as capital punishment/social control: [26:15–28:38]
• Ritual, judgment, voodoo cross-cultural perspective: [33:40–39:15]
• New Orleans voodoo practitioners and stories: [43:37–63:54]
• Reflections on Vodou’s purpose, history, service: [64:38–68:00]

Tone & Style

• Engaging, conversational, and reflective, mixing Mischke's own narrative voice (curious, irreverent, open-minded) with the gravitas and rich storytelling of Wade Davis.
• The episode bridges pop-cultural fascination with zombies to deep, complex realities about community, justice, spiritual ecstasy, and ancestral resilience in the African diaspora.

Conclusion

This episode is a feast for listeners who love stories that blur the boundary between the mystical and the scientific, the personal and the historical. Through a blend of probing interviews, immersive storytelling, and first-person accounts, Garage Logic gives listeners a richer, truer sense of what voodoo and “zombies” mean—not only in Haitian and New Orleanian contexts, but as a lens on humanity’s perennial search for meaning, justice, and connection.

For more information or to follow Wade Davis’s remarkable journeys, visit daviswade.com.