Pam Grossman makEs magic

Pam is a writer, curator, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the host of The Witch Wave podcast (“the Terry Gross of Witches” - Vulture) and the author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster) and What Is A Witch (Tin Can Forest Press). She is also co-editor and co-author of the WITCHCRAFT volume of Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series. Her forthcoming book on the magical process of creativity, MAGIC MAKER, will be published by Penguin Life in Fall 2025.

Pam’s writing has appeared in numerous mediums, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME.com, Ms. Magazine, Electric Literature, Huffington Post, Film Comment, Sabat, Ravenous Zine, and various Fulgur press publications. She has maintained Phantasmaphile, a blog that specializes in art with an esoteric or fantastical bent, since 2005.

Her group art shows and projects, including Language of the Birds: Occult and Art at NYU’s 80WSE Gallery, have been featured by such outlets as Artforum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, New York Magazine, and Teen Vogue.

In 2017, she launched WitchEmoji, a witch-themed sticker pack for iMessage that became the #1 seller in the App Store. 

She is also the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, Associate Editor of Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies, and co-founder of the Brooklyn arts & lecture space, Observatory (2009-2014), where her programming explored mysticism via a scholarly yet accessible approach.

Pam is a frequent lecturer on such topics as “The Occult in Modern Art 101,” and “Witch Pictures: Feminine Magic and Transgression in Western Art,” and she teaches workshops on spellcraft, creativity, and ritual. She is a featured expert in such documentaries as All of Them Witches (AMC), Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials (Channel 4), and WITCH (BBC). As a featured guest on WNYC’s All of It, NPR’s 1A, Hi Jinkx! with Jinkx Monsoon, and myriad other radio shows and podcasts, she has discussed the role of magic in contemporary life. She has also consulted for such brands as Charlotte Tilbury, House of Hackney, and Treadwell’s Books, as well as for film and television, including The Craft: Legacy (Blumhouse/Sony Pictures).

PAST LIFE

In her former capacity as Getty Images’ Director of Visual Trends, Pam frequently presented her research on commercial imagery at various Fortune 500 companies, global agencies, and conferences, including Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.Org female empowerment nonprofit, Google, Apple, Microsoft, MasterCard, American Express, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BBDO, JWT, Bank of America, Cannes Lions, SXSW, and The Atlantic’s New York Ideas Conference.

She has overseen several initiatives that use the power of imagery to shift perceptions, break stereotypes, and build a more inclusive, equitable world. Her work on the Getty Images Lean In Collection, Refinery29 No Apologies Collection, and Muslim Girl Collection have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, AdAge, Wired, Buzzfeed, The British Journal of Photography, CNN.com, and on BBC News, CBS This Morning, the NPR shows Morning Edition and Here and Now, and elsewhere.

In 2014, Pam was named one of Marie Claire’s “20 Women Changing the Ratio” for their 20th Anniversary issue. 

In 2015, The Getty Images Lean In Collection was a recipient of an International Center of Photography Infinity Award. 

In 2016, she was selected as one of LinkedIn’s Next Wave “Top Professionals 35 & Under.”

In 2017, she was named one of Adweek’s Creative 100.

She now does occasional consulting in the space of visual trends, art direction, and inclusive media representation.

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Pam is a graduate of New York University, where she studied cultural anthropology, art history, and comparative religion. She divides her time between Brooklyn and the Western Catskills alongside her husband, the playwright Matthew Freeman, and their two feline familiars.

All opinions expressed and projects described in the pages following are her own.