No, Fungus Didn’t Cause The Salem Witch Trials

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Send a Cake is a great way to show your loved ones just how much they mean to you! Get 10% off your order by clicking the link and using the code SCISHOW: https://sendacake.com/scishowbirthdays2 You've heard of the Salem Witch Trials, a series of accusations and executions based on the idea that witches were rampant in the Puritan community of Salem, MA. And you may have also heard that the reason for all this chaos was ergot, a fungus on the flour that these people ate, which caused them to hallucinate and become paranoid. We at SciShow are here to tell you that this theory.... is bunk. Here's the real science behind ergot, mass panics, and what really went down in 1692. Hosted by: @NotesByNiba (she/her) ---------- Support us for $8/month on Patreon and keep SciShow going! https://www.patreon.com/scishow Or support us directly: https://complexly.com/support Join our SciShow email list to get the latest news and highlights: https://mailchi.mp/scishow/email ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: David Johnston, Cye Stoner, Jp Lynch, Bethany Matthews, Chris Curry, J.V. Rosenbalm, Alan Wong, Toyas Dhake, Reed Spilmann, Garrett Galloway, Friso, Lyndsay Brown, Jeremy Mattern, Jaap Westera, Matt Curls, Eric Jensen, Chris Mackey, Adam Brainard, Piya Shedden, Steve Gums, Alex Hackman, Kevin Knupp, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer, Joseph Ruf, Jason A Saslow ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? SciShow Tangents Podcast: https://scishow-tangents.simplecast.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scishow.bsky.social #SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly ---------- Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSekVylJ2rQ1zLtG9m4ujmB_NbunCV8LHXaKg9lkQQaWoFjZRUeHPdWyKJqDaKA1b5WM9eH3k6ETA3D/pub