American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

Our Dearest Fears with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

For our very special two-part Halloween conversation, Sarah Marshall and I are going to be sharing the less serious things that scare us: our favorite phobias, eerie feelings, and uncanny upsets. In this episode, I share the things that freak me out, from stilts and spiders to giraffes and medieval art. in order to hear all about what freaks Sarah out, head to the You're Wrong About feed, do not miss it my ghouls!

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American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

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THE 12 FT SKELETON Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Home Depot's 12 ft. Skeleton decoration first premiered in the fall of 2020 and sold out immediately, the nationwide obsession fueling an underground black market. Memes and tweets made 'Skelly' the hottest Halloween fad of the last three years, and for some reason, the internet's biggest crush. For this episode, we will not only explore how the craze around this big old bone daddy unfolded, but we will also take you through our centuries-long bizarro relationship with human skeletons, both the fake and the very real, and we will consider the role they have played in the development of dark humor, the kind that made Skelly a massive star.

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Get your tickets for our live show with You're Wrong About

American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research Assistant: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Acting by Will Rogers

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Context Clues: Who's Your Bone Daddy? Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

Our Halloween special will cover the 12 ft. Skeleton craze and the history of skeleton decorations in America. This episode will give some extra context using segments from:

Haunted Attractions

Death

Horror Movies pt. 1

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Call into our Urban Legends Hotline and share your teenage tale!

This episode was produced by Riley Swedelius-Smith

Produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Haunted Dolls [rewind] Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

Please enjoy this rewind of last year's Halloween special called Haunted Dolls. Coming up next week we'll start our Halloween series called 'The 12 ft. Skeleton.' Then we'll be teaming up with our sibling podcast You're Wrong About for another Halloween special!

For this rewind, we'll see how possessed playthings have crept their way into the dark attic of America: Thomas Edison's little monsters, a demonic Raggedy Ann, a living ventriloquist dummy, a deadly voodoo curse, and an online market where you can buy yourself a soul trapped in the body of a doll.

Become a Patron and support our show! Or subscribe on Apple Podcasts!

American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Co-produced and co-edited by Miranda Zickler

Co-researched and co-editing by Riley Smith

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Voice Acting by Will Rogers

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Lemuria: The Strangest Place to Never Exist with Author Justin McHenry Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

Justin McHenry, author of the forthcoming book Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place, tells me an expansive tale of an alleged long lost continent first written about in early scientific works, then harnessed by esoteric eccentrics and new age mystics, mutating over the decades into fantastical fuel that is embedded in the strangest of conspiracy theories and cults to this very day.

Preorder Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

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

The Killer Crossdresser with Horror Analysts BJ and Harmony Colangelo Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

To unpack the movie trope of the Murderous Man in a Dress, prolific horror film analysts and writers BJ and Harmony Colangelo discuss with me all the complicated trans and drag “representation” in movies like Sleepaway Camp, Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We’ll look at how these crossdressing killers have affected the psyche of Americans through the decades, whether there is anything redeemable about these characters, and what they have to tell us about the horrors of the present day.

Listen to This Ends at Prom

Preorder 'Sleepaway Camp'

Read Harmony's thoughts on The Silence of the Lambs

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

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

EARLY DRAG QUEENS pt. 2 Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

For part two of our series, we are starting in the anti-gay moral panic of the 50s and 60s to see how the drag scene continued to transform underground, with female impressionists dazzling the starlets they tried to copy as closely as possible. We'll be introduced to a nationwide pageant circuit which allowed drag queens the opportunity to compete just like Miss America contestants, leading to a popular and well-reviewed documentary that revealed the controversial personal lives of these performers. Then we'll drop right into the Gay Liberation Movement where rifts between gay men, lesbian feminists, and drag queens led to a harsh animosity. Next we'll look at the southern tradition of Womanless Weddings that stretches back to the 1800s, where well-to-do men acted out every part of ceremony as a community wide ritual of hilarity. Finally, we'll travel all the way back to 16th century London where a moral panic around the theater's evil influence very much included the boys and men who dressed in woman's costumes to play their roles.

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

Tell us your teenage tale on our Urban Legends Hotline!

American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research Assistant: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Acting by Will Rogers

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

EARLY DRAG QUEENS pt. 1 Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

This series will cover the moral panics and cultural crazes that have long followed the controversial art form once called "female impersonation." For part one of our two part series, we'll start back in the 1800s to look at the earliest drag balls put on by formerly enslaved men as well as the police raids that made front page news. We'll learn about a famous Vaudeville star known for his hyper-feminine on-stage and hyper-masculine off-stage personas. We'll explore a time when gay was in, the 1930s Pansy Craze, and the political crackdown that inevitably followed. And finally, we'll cover the smash-hit drag musicals put on by the manly soldiers of WWII and the closeted GIs who may have woven in a secret campy code. Throughout, we'll start to analyze how the culture reacted to female impersonation based on the changing events of the decades, bestowing on these performers both massive success and frightening suppression, usually depending on who was performing and what their intentions were.

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

Tell us your teenage tale on our Urban Legends Hotline!

American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research Assistant: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Voice Acting by Will Rogers

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

Context Clues: Long Live the Queens Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

Our upcoming series, Early Drag Queens, will cover the surprising relationship between "female impersonation" and American masculinity in the time before the gay and transgender civil rights movements. This episode will give historical context with excerpts from these previous episodes:

Gender Reveal Parties

Trash Talks Shows

Horror Movies pt. 1

Join our Patreon for ad-free early episodes and bonus content!

Call into our Urban Legends Hotline and share your teenage tale!

This episode was produced by Riley Smith

Produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

Love in the Time of Leprosy with Advocate José Ramirez, Jr. Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

As the social media and the news got word of the new cases of leprosy found in Florida, a slew of misinformation and stigmatization followed. José P. Ramirez Jr. is the author of the memoir Squint: My Journey With Leprosy (Hansen's Disease), which leads readers through the mystery illness that took over his life as a teenager in the 1960s, his diagnosis at age 20, and his years spent at the only facility for people with Leprosy in the United States, but it was far more than just a hospital. Today José will dispel myths and share his devastating and uplifting life story so we can better understand the disease that still strikes a biblically-inspired fear in Americans.

If you have any questions or comments, you can email José at joseramirezjr@hotmail.com

Donate to IDEA here

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

American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Edited by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

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