Great Courses: The Real History of Secret Societies by Richard Spence.

 Secret societies have existed from ancient times to today.  In 24 lectures, Richard Spence touches on every kind of secret society imaginable from ancient Greek wisdom cults to modern ISIS.  He spends quite a bit of time on the Free Masons and related organizations, focusing on their influence in history.  He has a lecture on the Mafia, a couple of lectures on the Knights Templar, and several on modern political societies.  In his lectures he gives both what is know through historical documentation about these groups, but also seems to delight in recounting unsubstantiated rumors as well.  He is careful to distinguish between the two, but he is also clearly focused on entertainment value as much as education.  

I had started another book whose plot turned out so silly that I couldn't finish it,(Come Back to Me by Jodie Hedlund)  so I picked this title since I vaguely thought it went along with the spooky tone of October.  It was interesting, and Spence is an entertaining lecturer.  As I mentioned above, Spencer is just as happy to quote obscure historical novels and he is historical documents. It seems like he not only quoted them for entertainment purposes, but because he doesn't discount their possible veracity. Despite the liberal mixing of fact and fiction, I came away from the series with the understanding that "secret" societies are more ubiquitous than I had thought, and that they have many similarities with each other.  It seems that forming secret societies meets some common human need, and therefore when one organization dies another is sure to pop up.  This is a good choice for those interested in listening to fairly light pseudo-nonfiction about an engaging topic. (2020, 24 1/2 hr lectures)