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Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour.
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American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don't.
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As the Season is now upon us, all the elegant individuals of the ton await news regarding their beloved queen. With scandalous fabrications confusing even the most learned members of our society, we feel that it is our duty to distinguish aspersion and misrepresentations from veracity in the tale of this 18th Century matriarch. In many regards, we …
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This episode will give context for our upcoming series on Jackass, an early reality show starring a group of skateboarders and unorthodox performers that filmed their stunts and pranks, becoming the outrageous superstars of the new millennium. Episodes used: Influencers Rotten.com Haunted Attractions The Streaking Craze Join our Patreon for ad-free…
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Dozens of listeners joined us in our nation's capital for a whirlwind long weekend to visit sites, marvel at objects, learn from experts, and make new friends. Here, in their own voices, are the stories from our DC travelers in an episode we're calling an "audio postcard"! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notic…
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American Hysteria
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Unabandoned with Podcaster Blake Pfeil of 'All-American Ruins'
1:12:40
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Blake Pfeil is the host of 'abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast,' a multimedia travelogue exploring abandoned spaces across the United States. Together, we discuss what our deep love of these American ruins means, how it relates to queerness, to addiction and recovery, capitalism and politics, and how these spaces can help us recultivate the …
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Listeners like you can now share urban legends from your childhood and if selected, we will investigate your story in depth, sometimes even testing it out ourselves. Lauren's story: On a rural road outside Chicago, the ghosts of children killed in a school bus-train collision are said to push cars uphill, off the tracks, and out of harm's way, leav…
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The History Chicks
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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Mega-Episode
3:22:40
3:22:40
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Only the most iconic of women are known simply by their first name, and Jackie is one of them. Her life was a complicated collage of privilege, challenge, balance, and reinvention. We've combined and remastered our two previous episodes on Jackie for this one mega-episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notic…
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Ona Judge defied one of the most revered historical figures in America in order to escape the institution of slavery. Though she spent the rest of her life as a fugitive, she managed to direct her own existence on her own terms; answering to no one, free at last. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https…
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American Hysteria
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Interview with the Ex-Vampire (pt. 2) with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
47:18
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For part two of my conversation with Sarah, I finish telling her about a satanic panic era "memoir" published by Chick Publications in the early 1990s which culminates in the author's transformation into a real-life vampire only able to survive by drinking human blood. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus con…
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American Hysteria
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Interview with the Ex-Vampire (pt. 1) with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
54:52
54:52
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Over the next two episodes, I tell Sarah the story of another one of Jack Chick's occult experts using his "memoir" published by Chick Publications in the early 1990s which culminates in his transformation into a real-life vampire. We also discuss other memoirs of cultic abuse and participation written during the Satanic Panic and how they contribu…
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Who was Jack Chick, really? For the final episode in our series we will explore his childhood, his time in WWII, the comic moral panic happening at the beginning of his career, and how it all shaped the nightmarish world he would come to create through his work. We'll explore the negative impacts of his egregious messaging while at the same time lo…
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Some called her The Mother of the Country, some curtseyed and called her Lady Washington, but no one could doubt that she was uniquely capable to shoulder the responsibilities and rigors of both war and diplomacy. Martha Washington's philosophy of "duty over inclination" became the template for future First Ladies in the newly-formed United States …
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An ex-druid grand priest for the illuminati, an undercover Jesuit agent of destruction, a woman married to the devil, and a doctor who battled demons and satanists alongside her – these are the people who brought Jack Chick the life stories he would use to create his tracts, comics, and books. For this episode, we are going to hear their sensationa…
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Cartoons of satanic witch cults, Illuminati world domination, demonic homosexuals, and the pressing choice of hell or salvation were the horror hallmarks of Baptist indie comic artist Jack Chick's sensational world, his stories told through small booklets that his fans were instructed to leave anywhere a stranger might stumble across them. With a b…
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American Hysteria
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Context Clues: A Cartoonish Hell Awaits You
44:21
44:21
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Chick Tracts, what are they? You'll find out in our upcoming three-part series that covers a fundamentalist comic artist who was a hidden architect of the satanic panic, illuminati, and gay agenda hysterias. Jack Chick printed hundreds of millions of his bible tracts, small stapled together cartoon booklets full of blood sacrificing witches, evil s…
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By modeling, educating, and encouraging others, Mrs. Bethune spent her life carrying a torch that shed a light on actionable ways to change hearts and minds and build bridges to education and equality for all. Her mission touched lives across the globe, while she cherished those closest to her heart in Daytona, Florida. See Privacy Policy at https:…
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Mary McLeod Bethune was born to carry the light for others to follow. Now known as "The First Lady of the Struggle", Mrs. Bethune dedicated her entire life to the causes of education and equality for all. She swept everyone she met, from sharecroppers to the President of the United States, into her vision for a better world. Would you like to join …
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American Hysteria
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OMG WTF UFOs with Jim Perry of Euphomet
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Are we being invaded?? I sure thought so. Today we are talking quite animatedly to our official paranormal correspondent Jim Perry of the podcast Euphomet, a documentary series that explores the unknown and our relationship to it. This episode includes our thoughts on the recent unidentified aerial phenomena, the first UFO hysteria of the 1940s, an…
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In 2014, an urban legend formed around a cartoon cat chatbot when rumors spread across social media that a child predator was operating the app, actually visible in the reflection of her big blue eyes. We'll look at the moral panic that cropped up around Talking Angela, and take a look at how urban legends are often a patchwork of clumsy crowdsourc…
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Nzinga was the warrior queen who held back Portuguese colonization in her African kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, kept many of her people from being captured and traded, offered refuge to anyone who needed it, and used every move at her disposal (including shifting alliances, religions and some pretty gruesome tactics) to rule for almost 40 years o…
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American Hysteria
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Urban Legends in the Internet Wilderness with the Digital Folklore Podcast
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For this episode we chat about the sensational tales of cyberspace, from Slenderman to the Momo suicide game, with the guys behind the new podcast Digital Folklore, an immersive experience that explores online culture, internet monsters, memes, and urban legends as an accessible and entertaining way to learn about academic folklore concepts. We'll …
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Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a podcast about a family on the fringe who convinced tens of thousands of people across the globe to buy a miracle liquid made of poison, the international conspiracy they ignited, and the people who fought to take them down. Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a Neon Hum Media, Bloomberg & Sony Music Entertainment product…
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Miss Perkins travels to Washington to become Madam Secretary - and the architect of The New Deal. Her ferocious battles with the status quo during these years later led President Kennedy to call her "one of the most controversial, dangerous figures who ever roamed the United States." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pr…
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American Hysteria
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When Naked Swimming was Required in Gym Class with Journalist Robin Washington
58:14
58:14
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Nope, it's not an urban legend! Today we are talking to journalist and filmmaker Robin Washington who, like a huge number of boys in high school between the 1920s and 1970s, was required to swim naked during gym class. Not only has Robin created documentaries like the PBS film You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!, he is also a founder of the Alliance o…
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