The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall

Episode 1: Did Swayze Start the Fire?

Release Date: October 20, 2025
Host: Sarah Marshall
Podcast by: CBC

Episode Overview

This inaugural episode of "The Devil You Know" dives into the beginnings of the Satanic Panic in 1980s and 90s America, using the real-life story of "Diane" – a pseudonymous photographer who unwittingly became a target of hysteria while working in rural Kentucky. The episode unravels how rumors, fueled by cultural anxieties, mistranslations, and the media, grew from innocent misunderstandings into a nationwide moral panic—sometimes with bizarre Hollywood connections. Sarah Marshall sets the stage for a series that promises to explore this phenomenon not just as a national story, but as personal ones, spotlighting the individual lives warped by collective fear.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Diane's Story: From Photographer to Pariah

[00:51–03:06]

• Diane, an artist and photographer, describes her 1988 arts residency in rural Kentucky.
• She recounts a welcoming town, enthusiastic students, and a deeply positive start.
• Suddenly, the attitude shifts: the high school art teacher urges her to "leave right away" ([02:30]), and Diane flees in a panic, fearing arrest or even something worse.

Notable Quote:

"The art teacher turned to me, looked at me real seriously, and he said: ‘Leave right away.’ So I did...I just couldn't put the miles between me and that place fast enough. ...I didn't know if I'd end up in a jail or if I would end up, you know, thrown in a cave." — Diane ([02:30], [02:48])

2. The Microcosm of Panic

[03:06–04:47]

• Diane’s experience is introduced as a microcosm of the broader Satanic Panic: a rumor morphs into panic, then legend.
• Sarah stresses that seeing the Panic only as a big cultural wave neglects the intensely personal experience—every victim perceives it differently, often painfully.

Notable Quote:

"The grand sweep of the narrative turns it into something that happened to a country, or a culture. But that also means it happened to individuals. And each of them saw something a little different." — Sarah Marshall ([03:35–04:27])

3. How Rumors Spread & Authority Response

[06:11–09:26]

• Throughout the '80s, mainstream media and authorities buzzed about Satanic cults infiltrating American life.
• TV shows, national news segments, and law enforcement reinforced the fear.
• Mary DeYoung (sociologist) introduces the idea of a "moral panic"—efforts to restore threatened traditional norms amid social change.

Notable Quote:

"Virtually every state that I’ve taken a look at has had its own version of the Satanic panic. ...One day in one community in Kentucky, 450 kids were kept out of school by their parents. That’s a manifestation of a belief system." — Mary DeYoung ([13:53])

4. Why Now? The Social Context of Panic

[10:06–11:32]

• The episode deeply examines social anxieties: rising divorce rates, changing family structures, economic stress, and the rise of "latchkey kids."
• These factors provided fertile ground for conspiracy, particularly targeting children and youth as supposed victims.

Notable Quote:

"There was a lot of anxiety about what was going on in the family during that period of time...you had a lot of commentators talking...about latchkey children and unsupervised children and children, particularly boys, who were not growing up with fathers." — Mary DeYoung ([10:06])

5. The Machinery of Panic: Experts, Law Enforcement & Rumors

[13:04–14:57]

• "Self-appointed experts" on cults and Satanism popped up, training social workers, police, and therapists to "spot" signs of Satanism everywhere—from music to games.
• Rumors led to real investigative consequences—police, teachers, parents on high alert.

6. The Kentucky Rumor Mill: The Blue-Eyed, Blonde Victims

[16:07–17:21]

• In Kentucky, rumors spread that Satanists sought blonde, blue-eyed kids for sacrifice. Hundreds of kids were kept home from school due to parental terror.
• Law enforcement investigated widely, but found no evidence. Yet the cycle persisted.

Notable Quote:

"Satan worshippers are looking for blonde blue eyed children to kill in a sacrifice to the devil. Some versions implicated vacuum cleaner salesmen." — Diane ([16:07])

7. Return to Diane: Art, Paranoia, and a Narrow Escape

[17:31–24:37]

• Diane provides a detailed account of her work and how an innocent arts project suddenly became “evidence.”
• With little warning, she was shunned, instructed to leave by both teachers and friends citing disappearances and urban legends of people ending up in caves or mines ([22:20]).
• The story moves quickly from initial confusion to nationwide media attention—with Diane fielding press calls while still trying to process what happened.

Notable Quote:

"She looked at me and she said, leave town right away. She said, people have disappeared…often end up in nearby caves or mines, never to be heard from again. So then I really freaked out…So I was really shocked and upset." — Diane ([22:20])

8. The Roots of Rumor: Black Fabric and Hollywood Intrigue

[26:24–34:32]

• Diane reflects on how the simplest things—a theater group ordering black fabric—became “signs” of occult activity.
• The episode uncovers how, simultaneously, a local Hollywood shoot ("Next of Kin," with Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson) was source of rumor: the purchase of black dresses for a funeral scene became ‘evidence’ of Satanic rituals.
• Patrick Balch, a child extra on set, remembers the “rumor mill” and the leap from boring facts to wild conjecture.

Notable Quotes:

"Police in Hazard said employees of a department store were frantic after someone bought 20 black dresses. Authorities later learned the dresses were sewn together for use in movie lighting during the filming of ‘Next of Kin’..." — Mary (Producer) ([33:19])
"That’s hazard for you…If you came in and bought black eyeliner and a black dress, they’d say he’s a Satan worshipper, you know…No, there wasn’t no Satanists around." — Patrick Balch ([34:37])

9. Larger Lessons: The Pattern of Panic

[35:34–38:48]

• Sarah draws a parallel to how collective anxieties make people assume not just the worst, but "something even worse than that."
• The episode notes: such panics ebb and flow, returning when conditions are right. And these stories are lived by real people—some thrust into danger, others cast as villains for arbitrary reasons.

Notable Quote:

"When the devil is hard to find, you can always just blame Patrick Swayze. The activities of a Hollywood production crew being mistaken for satanic ritual is just one of many very sketchy pieces of evidence that people pointed to as some kind of a smoking gun throughout the long decade of the Satanic panic." — Sarah Marshall ([35:34])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Diane’s trauma:

  "I'm not the victim here. But I think also, I don't really know how much my experience had to do with Satanic Panic. But I do feel like it was part of the zeitgeist of that time and they needed some excuse, you know, they needed some label for it." — Diane ([27:19])

• Parallel with modern conspiracy theories:

  "The really compelling thing about this story and also the way it compares to sort of the QAnon logic of today is that, you know, it would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous..." — Sarah Marshall ([26:40])

• Patrick Balch, local color:

  "No, there wasn’t no Satanists around. Patrick Swayze definitely wasn’t a Satanist and Liv Neeson wasn’t a Satanist...I didn’t see anybody naked dancing around a fire at night or anything like that. No witches." — Patrick Balch ([34:37])

Key Timestamps

| Segment | Key Content | |---|---| | 00:51–03:06 | Diane describes being forced to flee the town | | 06:11–09:26 | Marshall & DeYoung trace the roots of the panic, role of media | | 13:53–14:30 | Kentucky, blue-eyed blonde child rumors, schools closed | | 17:21–24:37 | Diane’s detailed account, her sudden ostracism, media fallout | | 29:25–34:32 | Patrick Balch on movie shoot, black dresses, rumors | | 35:34–38:48 | Marshall sums up: how panic grows, why it returns |

Takeaway & Tone

The episode blends dark humor, empathy, and sharp cultural critique. Marshall’s narrative voice is wry yet compassionate, highlighting both the absurdity and tragedy of the Satanic Panic. The interviews and anecdotes keep the history intimate and personal, setting up the series as not just a chronicle of a bizarre conspiracy, but a human story about fear, misunderstanding, and scapegoating.

Final Thought:

"There’s no panic without the people panicking…What I’m most interested in and what I want to share with you are the voices of the individuals who found themselves within this larger story." — Sarah Marshall ([38:48])

A must-listen for fans of You're Wrong About, true crime, and anyone curious about how collective anxieties can warp reality—sometimes with an unexpected assist from Hollywood.