Topic: Otto Rahn

South African filmmaker and anthropologist Richard Stanley joins the program to discuss his career in horror cinema and esoteric documentaries. The introduction highlights his 2019 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space and his documentary work on Haitian voodoo and the search for the Holy Grail. Stanley's upcoming book, The Last Crusade, focuses on his decades of research into SS officer Otto Rahn.

Otto Rahn was a literary historian and SS officer who became obsessed with finding the Holy Grail, which he linked to the Cathar stronghold of Mont Ségur. Hired by Heinrich Himmler's Black Order, Rahn investigated the connection between medieval Grail romances and the actual history of the Pyrenees. Historical records suggest the Cathars brought a "treasure" to the castle before its fall, which remains missing or hidden within the mountain.