Inside the world of the occult podcaster charged with his fiancée’s murder

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Inside the world of the occult podcaster charged with his fiancée’s murder

By Hannah Murphy

A Perth podcaster charged with murder was a bit “eccentric”, according to his co-host, who was still audibly coming to terms with his friend’s arrest in an episode released at the weekend.

However, the Waking World co-host, known to listeners only as Dale, said Tobias Nuttall “certainly wasn’t a monster … he was just a normal dude”.

Tobias Nuttall, 32, has been charged with murder.

Tobias Nuttall, 32, has been charged with murder.Credit: Facebook

The pair had worked together on Waking World for about two years before Nuttall was arrested and charged for the murder of his fiance in Perth last week.

Police were called to a home on Reid Street in the inner north-eastern suburb of Bassendean on Wednesday following reports a woman had been stabbed.

She later died at Royal Perth Hospital and Nuttall was arrested and charged with her murder.

Friends described the woman to this masthead as an animal lover and avid reader, who “delved into psychology and philosophy” and was “head over heels in love” with Nuttall.

The woman had also appeared on Nuttall and Dale’s show, where she discussed growing up in New Zealand before moving to WA, and her experience working in the sex industry.

However, of Nuttall, Dale told listeners in the episode posted on Sunday that “he’s not a conspiracy podcaster”.

“He’s a guy that’s got loads of information about lots of different topics, of which, some are conspiracies … but it’s history, religion, geopolitics, conspiracies, secret societies, loads of stuff.”

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The podcast describes itself as “two inquisitive minds on a quest for truth, they pull back the curtains of the mundane to reveal a world bubbling with mysteries, hidden agendas, and esoteric knowledge”.

Tobias Nuttall in a recent Waking World episode that was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

Tobias Nuttall in a recent Waking World episode that was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.Credit: YouTube/WakingWorld

Episodes covered the John F Kennedy assassination, MK Ultra, Zionism and what the pair called the “world’s biggest scam” – COVID-19.

A recent episode also discussed how the pair had managed to book moon landing conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel as a guest, who has previously appeared on podcaster Joe Rogan’s program.

Sibrel, who claims the moon landing was ultimately staged with the help of the CIA, infamously lured Buzz Aldrin to a hotel to interview him about faking the moon landing, before calling the astronaut a “coward, a liar and a thief”.

Meditation and an ‘apparition’

Nuttall, who is from the north-eastern Perth suburb of Brigadoon, graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor of philosophy in 2019.

He told podcast listeners back in 2023 he had become interested in the occult when he was 13 years old, despite being raised in a non-religious household, spending three days of his school holidays in “sustained meditation”.

“I remember practicing, I guess, what you would call a seance for the first time,” he said, and detailed how he had meditated on a pentagram surrounded by the nature of his hillside suburb.

“I’ve been there three days, and then I had a what you’d call a manifestation take place,” he said.

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“It was a very bizarre combination of the wind picking up around me, trees shaking. And I remember very vividly a very shadowy apparition flitting right in front of me, as vividly as you are now.

“And you get that sense of chill and this tremendous sense of fear.”

Nuttall said he returned home to speak to his father – Perth doctor Alastair Nuttall, who has himself made headlines in WA – about what happened.

“One part of his life was as a doctor, [he was a] very rational, very intelligent guy. But there’s also this other part [of him] which is very open to discussions about this, and again, it perhaps informed my view of this subject, because my like parental figure, was so amenable to it,” Nuttall told the podcast’s listeners.

Nuttall said he developed an interest in the “metaphysical” due to the experience, and delved deeper into science and mysticism where he found a like-minded community in Perth.

“I would go to bookstores or markets and chat with someone who was already a theosophical library,” he said.

“You’d meet someone … and you end up in these discussions – but also you end up in a sense of shared exploration.

“It’s like, ‘hang on a minute. You’re into this too? What have been your results?’”

Nuttall told listeners he enjoyed the works of famous occultist and Satanist Aleister Crowley, and spoke at length about the Loch Ness lake in Scotland, Led Zeppelin, demons, and the pyramids.

Nuttall would also frequently host a segment called “Is it News?” where he critiqued modern media coverage in Australia, with the summary: “It’s as bland as piss.... but it’s still interesting to see what the plebs are reading.”

Nuttall will appear back before court on September 17. He is yet to enter a plea to the charge.

with Rebecca Peppiatt

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