American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

Falling for Fascism (re-release) Nov 04, 2024

Show notes

This episode was originally released right before the 2020 presidential election and is even more relevant as we face the 2024 election. Political philosopher Jason Stanley, author of the book How Fascism Works, helps us understand how countries slide into authoritarian systems through conspiracy theories, demonization of others, the systematic erosion of truth, and the manipulation of anxieties around race and gender.

Check out How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley as well as his new book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

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BURIED ALIVE! Oct 28, 2024

Show notes

In the 19th century, America and Europe experienced a panic over premature burial, believing that anyone could be accidentally declared dead and entombed before their time was really up. Led by a movement of quacky Spiritualists, the panic culminated in the creation of safety coffins with mechanisms that promised to save anyone who awoke six feet underground. Mere decades later, burial artists began performing all over America as a part of advertising gimmicks. They spent months underground in decked-out coffins, and the public could pay a dime to look down a viewing chute and see these "living corpses." For this Halloween special, we'll look at the panic-turned-spectacle of the American fear of being buried alive.

Get tickets for A MASSIVE SEANCE Live Show with You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/amassiveseance

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Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Actor: Will Rogers

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Context Clues: Grave Mistakes Oct 21, 2024

Show notes

'Buried Alive,' our upcoming Halloween special, looks at the American fear and fascination with premature burial. We'll explore the panic that swept the nation in the 1800s, leading to the creation of safety coffins for those potentially entombed too soon, and the spectacles drummed up by eccentric performers who competed to see who could stay buried alive the longest. This episode provides more historical context through excerpts from our previous episodes, Death, The 12 Foot Skeleton, and Quackery.

Get tickets for A MASSIVE SEANCE Live Show with You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/amassiveseance

Full episodes to check out:

Death

The 12 Foot Skeleton

Quackery

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Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Thank you to our sponsor OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code AMERICAN at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod

Sound design and Production by Riley Swedelius-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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A MASSIVE SEANCE Live Show Tour with YOU'RE WRONG ABOUT Oct 18, 2024

Show notes

What could possibly go wrong when two skeptical podcasters try to summon a ghost? Join Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About and Chelsey Weber-Smith of American Hysteria for a historical, theatrical, ecstatic spectacular for the living and dead. Hold hands with your favorite disembodied voices for a spiritualist séance* featuring fireside conversation, mystifying tricks, special guests, and music from The Little Lies – the only Fleetwood Mac tribute band that may actually be ghosts. This winter, we will release the phantoms of the past year and make room for the spirit of the new.

Get your tickets here: https://linktr.ee/amassiveseance

DEC 3 + 4 | PORTLAND, OR

DEC 11 | SEATTLE, WA

JAN 11 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA

JAN 24 | LOS ANGELES, CA

Produced in collaboration with Woody Shticks + Miranda Zickler

*May contain exorcisms.

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I WAS A TEENAGE POLTERGEIST with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

Today Sarah Marshall transports us to the old world of British Hysteria to reveal the mysterious story of the Enfield Poltergeist and joins me at the seance table to discuss the great unknown and the ghosts we know.

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BelovedAsheville

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Listen to You're Wrong About and You Are Good wherever you get your podcasts

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Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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SKIBIDI TOILET Oct 07, 2024

Show notes

Generation Alpha has made the uncanny, creepy, and chaotic YouTube series 'Skibidi Toilet' into a viral YouTube sensation, so much so that a famous director may soon be taking it to the big screen, despite the fact that the phenomenon has been called both brainrot and dangerous to the youth. On this episode, we will explain what Skibidi Toilet is, hear about similar internet videos enjoyed by Millennials and Gen X, and learn about famous art movements like net.art, Dadaism, and Surrealism to see if we can fit the seemingly meaningless Skibidi Toilet into an important artistic lineage.

Watch some Skibidi Toilet now on our Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast

Check out DaFuq!?Boom!'s YouTube channel

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Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Actor: Will Rogers

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Context Clues: Brr Skibidi Dop Dop Dop Yes Yes Sep 30, 2024

Show notes

Our upcoming episode is about the massively successful and deeply uncanny YouTube series Skibidi Toilet, the first content that Generation Alpha's influence has made into a world-wide sensation. Billions of views on YouTube and TikTok are attributed to the original videos and the innumerable fan videos that followed, and soon we may see this bizarro phenomenon on the big screen with a famous director attached. Skibidi Toilet has been called both brainrot and dangerous to the youth, and in this Context Clues episode we will explore transgressive creations of previous generations as well as some other online content that has inspired moral panics.

Head to our Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast to see some Skibidi Toilet videos so you can know wtf we are talking about

Full episodes to check out:

#Elsagate

The Momo Challenge

Jackass

Rotten.com

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Sound design and Production by Riley Swedelius-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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The Untold History of the NYPD with Chenjerai Kumanyika of Empire City Sep 23, 2024

Show notes

Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika is a Peabody Award-winning audio journalist and an assistant professor of journalism at New York University. His latest podcast, Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD “takes listeners on a journey to uncover the hidden history of the largest police force in the world – from its roots in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to everyday people who resisted every step of the way.” With the national spotlight yet again on the corruption and escalating violence of this increasingly militarized police force, it is necessary to understand the true roots of the NYPD, and see that even after close to 200 years, so much remains the same.

Listen to Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD

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Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Taylor Swift Decoded with Pop Music Journalist Brittany Spanos Sep 09, 2024

Show notes

Brittany Spanos is a senior writer for Rolling Stone Magazine who has taught a course at NYU called Topics in Recorded Music: Taylor Swift, which analyzes "the culture and politics of teen girlhood in pop music, fandom, media studies, whiteness and power as it relates to her image." Today we are talking about conspiracy theories that come from within the hardcore Swiftie fanbase, and the ones that come from outside, often via the right wing media.

Follow Brittany Spanos on Twitter and Instagram

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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ELVIS IS ALIVE! Sep 02, 2024

Show notes

The life of the conspiracy theory that claims Elvis Presley faked his death is an almost unbelievable journey through gimmick-crazy hucksters and true blue believers, the tales turning the king of rock and roll into something more like a cryptid than a superstar, evidence caught in blurry photographs and in secret messages, all covered up by shadowy forces. This zany story shows how conspiracies theories are born, how they transform, and how they never seem to die, no matter what, much like Elvis himself, allegedly.

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch at americanhysteria.com

Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Actor: Will Rogers

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices