AMERICAN HYSTERIA
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.
Episodes
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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Let's Talk About Sex (Ed) with Margaret Grace Myers
For this Back to School episode, we are getting schooled in the history of sexual education by Margaret Grace Myers, author of The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine. Through STI public health crises, sex work moral panics, eugenic visions, world wars, sexual...
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Baby Got Backstory with Heather Radke
For this episode, we are covering the storied history of the Butt, that humorous, salacious, anxiety-inducing part of the body, the shape and meaning of which has changed depending on the time period. Heather Radke is a reporter, essayist, RadioLab contributing editor, and the author of the book...
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Ye Olde Cleanse Diet with Zoë Rom of 'Your Diet Sucks'
For all of American history, we have been obsessed with the idea that what you eat is about more than just the purity of the body, it’s about a kind of metaphorical purity as well. For this episode, journalist Zoe Rom, co-host of the podcast Your Diet Sucks takes us through our strange history of...
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Solar Storms and the Carrington Event with Ben Bradford of 'Are We Doomed?'
In 1859, a powerful solar storm known as the Carrington Event hit the world, disrupting early technology in a shocking way. Our guest today is Ben Bradford, host of the podcast Are We Doomed? A show that investigates the greatest risks facing our society, our planet, and our species and asks...
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KU KLUX SCAM pt. 2
At the height of their popularity, the 1920s era Ku Klux Klux counted millions of Americans as part of their secret society, and as we covered in part one, became a kind of pop culture phenomenon using a PR team, family-friendly events, and region-based prejudices while the leaders got rich off…
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KU KLUX SCAM pt. 1
We often think of the Ku Klux Klan as anonymous, masked vigilante terrorists, but for several years of the 1920s, joining their ranks was a mass pop cultural craze, leading to millions signing up and millions more supporting them. For part one of this two part series, we'll learn about the...
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Rednecks (rewind)
As a companion to our upcoming two part series, the topic of which we are not yet revealing, please enjoy this rerelease (2020) of one of our favorite episodes and one that is particularly meaningful to me. For this episode we are dissecting the archetype of American rednecks, hillbillies, and...
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The Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps with Harrison Hill
The Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps was a militaristic evangelical cult with an incredibly dark history, led in this case by a woman who claimed to have divine visions. Our guest today is Harrison Hill, investigative journalist and author of the new book The Oracle’s Daughter…
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Hobby Lobby: Crafting a Christian Nation with Michael Blanding
The multibillion dollar arts and crafts corporation Hobby Lobby has long been steeped in Evangelical Christianity, owned by a family that is extremely influential in conservative politics. Our guest today is investigative journalist Michael Blanding, author of the brand new book The Gospel...
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90s Angel Craze with Christine Laskowski
Back in the 1990s, it seemed like angels were everywhere in popular culture: in movies, TV shows, songs, and home decor. Our guest today is Christine Laskowski, a video journalist and host of the podcast T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story. For this episode, she will teach me about the history of…
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FIREWORKS pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall
Just like every year, more and more stories are coming out about how wild, unpredictable, and dangerous fireworks can be, and yet our capacity for explosive hubris continues to prevail. For part two of our semiquincentennial series on the history of Fireworks in America, Sarah Marshall of You’re...
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FIREWORKS pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall
Love them or hate them, there are few things that feel as quintessentially American as fireworks, the favorite way to celebrate during every unhinged national birthday party. For part one of this two-part semiquincentennial series on their history in America, I demonstrate to Sarah Marshall of...
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Playing Indian with Rebecca Nagle
As we endure surreal celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States, we hear the same Disneyfied history being told over and over again. Rebecca Nagle is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the host of the podcast This Land as well as a new investigative series called First America, a…
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In Defense of Queer Villains with BJ Colangelo
Have you ever noticed that many of the most iconic evil-doers in movies seem, well, pretty gay? Think Scar from the Lion King, Jafar from Aladdin, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs. We have often regarded this as a problem to...
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DATING APPS
In the early 1990s, match.com debuted as the first major dating app on the world wide web, but it was far from the earliest way that people used technology to meet other hopeful singles. For this episode, we’ll look at what came before the apps we know today, the video dating of the 1980s as well...
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THE GAY AGENDA (Pride Rewind)
This is a rerelase with a new introduction! The purse-carrying, tutu-wearing purple Teletubby Tinky Winky was outed as a homosexual in 1999, capping off a decade of conspiratorial anti-gay writings and videos that influenced politics straight up to supreme court. Accused of using kids shows and...
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Our 300th Episode with Sarah Marshall
We are celebrating our (estimated) 300th episode of American Hysteria with a little Chelsey Weber-Smith Q&A session hosted by Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About. It’s been a strange journey, and to celebrate, I’m answering questions provided by our beloved Patrons, so join us to learn more…
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The Voyager Golden Record with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler
During the 1970s, a ragtag group led by American astronomer Carl Sagan set out to create and then launch into deep space an audio time capsule of sounds, songs, and messages that would represent the Earth to any intelligent alien life that might come in contact with the crafts they called Voyager…
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The Disturbing World of Cute Cat AI with Panic World
Warning! Extremely weird episode! In a world where AI creations are taking over social media, we are seeing more and more bafflingly bizarre content overwhelm apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, including what has come to be known as Cute Cat AI. These seemingly kid-friendly, uncanny,...
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Introducing: No Such Thing
We’re excited to share a preview of a new podcast we think you’d enjoy: No Such Thing. No Such Thing is a show where three best friends and journalists settle their dumb arguments — and yours — by actually doing the research. Hosts Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devan Joseph start each episode...
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THE BENNINGTON TRIANGLE pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall
When the Bennington Five disappeared in Southwest Vermont between 1945 and 1950, the local refrain became: Don't go into the woods while wearing the color red. For part two of our series, former Bennington College student Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About joins me again as I explain four more...
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THE BENNINGTON TRIANGLE pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall
At Bennington College in southwest Vermont, tales of a curse have been passed around for 75 years. Known as the Bennington Triangle, the nearby mountains and forests were the sites of five mysterious disappearances from the late 1940s and early 1950s, disappearances that some have blamed on...
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Introducing: History Daily
Today we bring you an episode of another great podcast: History Daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. Please enjoy their episode about April 21, 1934, when...
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Blowing Up the Georgia Guidestones with Tyler McBrien
In 1980, a Stonehenge-esque monument called the Georgia Guidestones appeared in the rural county of Elbert. Financed and designed by a mysterious donor, it presenting ten guidelines for mankind, guidelines that were interpreted by some as a satanic. And then in 2022, the controversial roadside...
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Black Magic with Gruff Webb
Take a seat in our old, ornate theater for the confounding wonders of this traveling magic show. For this episode, my dear friend is here, the artist, musician, cowboy, sailor, and now magician, known as Gruff Webb. They will tell me all about the history of Black magicians in America and the...
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Hysteria Home Companion: The Berners Street Hoax
This is a Subscribers-Only episode from 2024 in which I tell our producer Miranda about a wild April Fools Day prank that took place in 19th century London involving hundreds of people from bakers and undertakers to bankers and politicians. If you like what you hear go to...
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DINOSAURS pt. 2
Prior to becoming stars of the stage, screen, and of wondrous World’s Fairs, dinosaurs had to be uncovered, dug out, studied, and finally, displayed. Prehistoric fossils became a valuable treasure found by laypeople and industrial workmen digging in the earth, and the hunt for the most impressive...
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DINOSAURS pt. 1
The dinosaur craze of the 1990s, inspired largely by the Jurassic Park movies, led to a legion of children dreaming of becoming paleontologists. In the century before, these beloved prehistoric beasts blossomed into pop culture stars through early Hollywood films, wild World's Fairs exhibits,...
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The Spooky Side of Pokémon with Guide to the Unknown
The extended media universe of Pokémon has been an obsession for young people since the late 1990s, and for this goofball episode my friends from the Guide to the Unknown podcast are here to dive into the creepier side of this unparalleled cultural phenomenon. Together with our voice actor Will...
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The Corporate Takeover of Caring with Dr. Mara Einstein
Have you ever been suspicious of a corporation showcasing their commitment to the environment, to marginalized groups of people, or to those suffering through a deadly disease? Dr. Mara Einstein is the author of Compassion, Inc.: How Corporate America Blurs the Line Between What We Buy, Who We…
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BUGS!!!!!! with Akilah Hughes
We have had many media panics about swarms and hordes, about infestations and plagues of dangerous insects and arachnids that promise to rain destruction down on the defenseless American public. My guest today is comedian Akilah Hughes, host of the podcast How Is This Better? We are talking about...
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Talking to the Future: Nuclear Semiotics (rerun)
[We are taking a break this week so please enjoy a re-release of one of our favorite episodes!] How do we warn people 10,000 years in the future about nuclear waste sites that will remain extremely dangerous for longer than human civilization has existed? When language, symbols, and technologies...
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JINGLES pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
If you thought the first part of our series was catchy, wait til we enter the modern era where all the jingles that played throughout our lifetimes will be activated like sleeper cells inside us. For part two of our series, we are starting our history in the middle of the century when television...
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Introducing Mind Games
We’re excited to share a preview of a new podcast we think you’d enjoy: Mind Games. What if you could hypnotize yourself into a better you? Or.... secretly hypnotize others into giving you anything you want? That’s the promise of NLP. Mind Games is an investigation into the world of...
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JINGLES pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
We all contain within us the many cheesy tunes of catchy capitalism that marked our childhoods, those hyper-memorable earworms that, depending on your age, feel like an invention of the 90s, of the 80s, of the 70s, of the 60s. But these musical, lyrical advertisements have a much longer history...
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A Cult by Any Other Name with Joseph Laycock
Joseph Laycock is the author ofThe Penguin Book of Cults, and for this episode we discuss how our culture thinks of and reacts to what we oftentimes incorrectly identify as cults. His book delves into many lesser known examples of new religious movements from the 18th century into the early 20th...
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The Art of (Psychological) War with Annalee Newitz
Annalee Newitz is the author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, which traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools of domestic culture war. For this episode,...
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Celebrity Clone Conspiracies with 'No Such Thing' Podcast
For this collaboration with the podcast No Such Thing, we covered the tales of nefarious forces secretly replacing famous people with clones. We’ll learn about different clone conspiracies and their origins, hear from an expert on the real science and ethical concerns behind cloning, and chat…
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JESUS TOAST
A grilled cheese sandwich, a tortilla, an auto loan company building, a cinnamon roll, and a forkful of spaghetti are just a handful of the places that images of religious figures have miraculously appeared in the United States. For this episode, we'll tell stories about mass pilgrimages made to...
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Party (and Panic) Like It's 1999 with Ross Benes
Ross Benes is the author of the book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. Together we revisit what popular culture was like at the turn of the millennium and how things like Juggalos, professional wrestling, boy band rivalries, nü-metal, Jerry Springer,...
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MALL SANTAS pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
In part two of our two-part series, I show Sarah a more radical side of the American Mall Santa. I tell her stories of how, in some cases, the character transformed into a symbol of societal change and guerrilla protest, from the ladies who had to take his bearded place during WWII, to the Black...
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MALL SANTAS pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
For this two-part holiday special, I tell Sarah Marshall all about the history of the American mall Santa Claus from the 1800s into the present day. For part one, we will learn about the eccentric men who created the look and vibe of the department store Kris Kringle, mass producing a jolly army…
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About this show
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.
Hosted by
chelsey weber-smith