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AMERICAN HYSTERIA: Daily Summaries Delivered
by chelsey weber-smith
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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- Yesterday54 min
The Great Bicycle Panic with Gabe Henry
There are few American symbols more seemingly innocent than the bicycle, but when this newfangled contraption was introduced during the Victorian era, it sparked a moral panic that linked the invention to decaying cultural virtues and even to the devil himself. For this episode, Gabe Henry, humorist and author of Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, tells me the very American story of the bicycle and the changing reactions it sparked over a surprisingly short period of time. Get a copy of Gabe's book Check out Gabe's website Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 14m
The Damsel in Distress Problem with Daniel Peña
Daniel Peña is the author of HOW TO LOOK AWAY: On American Cruelty and the Refusal to Disappear, a collection of essays about his childhood as a Mexican-American kid in conspiracy-friendly Texas and the broader experiences of watching those fringe elements enter American popular culture and politics, helping to create the tolerance of human rights abuses against migrants from Latin America and elsewhere. For this episode, he tells me about Cynthia Ann Parker, a white girl in Texas who was captured by and then raised within a tribe of Comanche natives in the mid 1800s, and how her story, and the stories made up about her, were processed through the white American imagination. We discuss the narrative of the white damsel in distress and look at how girls and women have been used for centuries as an almost folkloric justification for cruelty and the consolidation of power. Get a copy of HOW TO LOOK AWAY Check out Daniel's other work here Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 4m
Bloody Mary (rewind)
This is a re-release of last year's Halloween special. Vote early! Here is a guide to help if you have any questions. Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary... for this episode, we are going to trace the history of the slumber party ritual known as Bloody Mary in which a young summoner stands in the dark in front of a mirror to call up a dangerous, blood-soaked witch-woman. By looking at the Victorian era occult divination games of girls, the many cemetery ghosts known as Mary, as well as humanity's supernatural history with the mirror itself, we'll try to figure out what this modern rite of passage might mean to those who dare go through with it. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Listen to Magpie Cinema Club Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food, supplies, and cash envelops to displaced families. Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Voice Actor: Will Rogers Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 6m
MYSTERY BLOOD
For this Halloween special, we are going to look at a handful of American cases in which mysterious blood suddenly appeared without a sensible source, as if by some kind of macabre magic, whether it be found all over the inside of a house, raining down from the sky alongside flesh and organs, dripping out of a centuries old tombstone, or oozing from an otherwise bloodless Puritan corpse. We'll see which of these events may have reasonable explanations and which remain inexplicable to this very day. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group. Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Voice Actor: Will Rogers Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Young Hunting performed by Brian Peters Rain Oh Rain performed by Dan D. Dirges Subscribe now at LRB.ME/OCTOBER to try 3 months of the London Review of Books and get a free tote bag for just $6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 4 weeks ago2h 0m
Pennywise and the IT Girls (1990) with This Ends at Prom
Don’t you want a balloon? For this episode, the Wives Colangelo of the movie podcast This Ends at Prom join me to honor not only the 1990 horror miniseries Stephen King’s IT, but also its diabolical star, the late Tim Curry, whose transcendent version as Pennywise the Dancing Clown has terrified audiences for the last 26 years. Together, BJ, Harmony, and I go through the sweeping plot of IT and along the way tell stories from the making of the miniseries, give our thoughts on the meaning behind the story, and of course, wax poetic about perhaps the greatest character actor of our lifetimes (RIP). Listen to This Ends at Prom wherever you get your podcasts Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Oct 5, 20261h 35m
The Cat in the Hat Serial Killer Panic with Guide to the Unknown
Breaking news, my dear friends, and this one’s a doozy, an urban legend born from an uncanny movie. Some of it’s silly, some of it’s serious, it’s all happening now and the truth is mysterious. The cat in the hat played by Mike Myers burns through our Tiktoks like an uncanny fire. Teens are using AI to make him even scarier while the consequences are getting much hairier. Threats against schools and threats against students are leading to arrests from here to Saint Louis. Will and Kristen join me from Guide to the Unknown to cover a panic chilling parents to the bone Is this a real problem or will kids just just be kids who haven’t yet learned what a problem this is? Listen to Guide to the Unknown wherever you get your podcasts Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Associate Editor: Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 28, 20261h 22m
Halloween Newspapers.com Dive pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall
This is part two of our Halloween season kick off celebration with Sarah Marshall, host of the podcast You’re Wrong About. In this series, we use the newspapers.com archives to play our favorite game in which we give each other random words, this time Halloween related words, and see what kind of obscure, bizarre, spooky, stupid, and funny stories we can dig up from the last 200 years. For part one, I delivered my fiendish findings to Sarah, and now for part two, she will deliver her awful offerings to me, with many other tricks and treats along the way. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 21, 20261h 23m
Halloween Newspapers.com Dive pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall
It’s the beginning of Halloween season here at American Hysteria, and we are kicking it off with this two part episode cohosted by Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About in which we play our favorite game, the newspapers.com Dive, using the keywords we give to each other to see what obscure bizarre, spooky, stupid, and funny articles we can pull up from the last 200 years. For part one, I will be presenting my haunted historical findings first and then next week Sarah will present hers. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group in Gaza Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About AMERICAN HYSTERIA
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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