Welcome to Esoterica


Esoterica is a magazine for those not well equipped to quiet their brain, who inhale thoughtful articles on topics that hover near the periphery of popular culture and the news agenda and ruminate on them for weeks, much to the chagrin of their lovers, partners, and co-workers.
As Leonard Cohen so poignantly wrote: “Somebody Said Lift That Veil.” Well, that someone is us. Welcome to Esoterica, the magazine that will bring your brain back to the post-pandemic world.
Leah Eichler
Big Ideas


Were the Salem “Witches” High on Psychedelics?
By Andrew M. Weisse, During a cold, wet New England winter in 1692, something peculiar began to happen. In the town of Salem, which sits

Ancestors and Enemies
By Sarah Royalty Pinkelman, A modern, brutal graphic—tiny dots of ink cover a rectangle, like a channel that can’t transmit a signal. The February 2021

My Father, Part Seven
(George F. Walker, one of Canada’s most prolific and popular playwrights, pens an elegy to his father in seven parts. Esoterica will syndicate one part

Were the Salem “Witches” High on Psychedelics?
By Andrew M. Weisse, During a cold, wet New England winter in 1692, something peculiar began to happen. In the town of Salem, which sits

Ancestors and Enemies
By Sarah Royalty Pinkelman, A modern, brutal graphic—tiny dots of ink cover a rectangle, like a channel that can’t transmit a signal. The February 2021

My Father, Part Seven
(George F. Walker, one of Canada’s most prolific and popular playwrights, pens an elegy to his father in seven parts. Esoterica will syndicate one part
Musings


That Quote Has a Ring To It …
By Robert Basler, On June 4,1989, the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre, I was in the Reuters office in Beijing, taking notes from our

Traveling the World from My Sofa
By Bethany Browning, Sure, Squid Game is exciting, but have you seen those videos where people walk through a city for an hour? The concept

Psychedelics and the Holocaust: A Journey Into Ancestral Memory
By Seth Lorinczi, My midlife crisis came a few years ago. It arrived right on time: I was in my 40s, married with a young

That Quote Has a Ring To It …
By Robert Basler, On June 4,1989, the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre, I was in the Reuters office in Beijing, taking notes from our

Traveling the World from My Sofa
By Bethany Browning, Sure, Squid Game is exciting, but have you seen those videos where people walk through a city for an hour? The concept

Psychedelics and the Holocaust: A Journey Into Ancestral Memory
By Seth Lorinczi, My midlife crisis came a few years ago. It arrived right on time: I was in my 40s, married with a young
Interviews


The Interview: ‘Watch out for Her’ by Samantha Bailey
This week on Esoterica Mag we bring you an interview that is as captivating as the thriller being discussed. This is the riveting story of

The Interview: “How to Solve a Cold Case” by Michael Arntfield
In this episode we meet Michael Arntfield, a cop-turned-criminologist and professor at Western University, where he founded the Cold Case Society, an unsolved-crimes college think

The Interview With Bruce Farrell Rosen
In this episode, we speak with Bruce Farrell Rosen about his book “Bombed in His Bed: The Confessions of Jewish Gangster Myer Rush.” Myer Rush

That Quote Has a Ring To It …
By Robert Basler, On June 4,1989, the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre, I was in the Reuters office in Beijing, taking notes from our

Traveling the World from My Sofa
By Bethany Browning, Sure, Squid Game is exciting, but have you seen those videos where people walk through a city for an hour? The concept

Psychedelics and the Holocaust: A Journey Into Ancestral Memory
By Seth Lorinczi, My midlife crisis came a few years ago. It arrived right on time: I was in my 40s, married with a young
Fiction

A little of this, a little of that. A collection of new fiction, articles and other published works that are currently touching my heart. Stories thread our lives together and unite us in the shared human experience.

Pancake Day
By Sarah Edmonds They are perfect. Just how he remembers them—better, even. Circular and golden, with purpled unbroken globes all over, each evenly spaced from

Three Minutes
By Lillian Neal “Three minutes,” I say, struggling to keep the nerves from my voice as I start the timer. I use the mirror to gauge

Maybe Talk to Carl
By Derek Alan Jones Okay, look. I did push the button. Carl told me not to push it, but, I mean, have you ever been

Pancake Day
By Sarah Edmonds They are perfect. Just how he remembers them—better, even. Circular and golden, with purpled unbroken globes all over, each evenly spaced from

Three Minutes
By Lillian Neal “Three minutes,” I say, struggling to keep the nerves from my voice as I start the timer. I use the mirror to gauge

Maybe Talk to Carl
By Derek Alan Jones Okay, look. I did push the button. Carl told me not to push it, but, I mean, have you ever been
The Interview

The Interview: ‘Watch out for Her’ by Samantha Bailey
This week on Esoterica Mag we bring you an interview that is as captivating as the thriller being discussed. This is the riveting story of

The Interview: “How to Solve a Cold Case” by Michael Arntfield
In this episode we meet Michael Arntfield, a cop-turned-criminologist and professor at Western University, where he founded the Cold Case Society, an unsolved-crimes college think

The Interview With Bruce Farrell Rosen
In this episode, we speak with Bruce Farrell Rosen about his book “Bombed in His Bed: The Confessions of Jewish Gangster Myer Rush.” Myer Rush