American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

INTERVIEW WITH THE EX-VAMPIRE (pt. 1) with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Apr 10, 2023

Show notes

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 contributed to the hysteria.

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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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CHICK TRACTS pt. 3 Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

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 looking at how beloved his lurid and campy cartoons have become.

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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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CHICK TRACTS pt. 2 Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

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 sensational tales, explore their relationships to Jack, and expose both their lies and their crimes.

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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

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CHICK TRACTS pt. 1 Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

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 billion of these (often unintentionally hilarious) melodramatic little comics sold throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s, and into the present day, Chick Publications has played no small role in the creation of the most famous moral panics, conspiracy theories, and urban legends in American history. For part one, we will totally submerge you in his strange reality using some of the most outrageous examples of his work.

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research Assistant: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Producer: Miranda Zickler

Voice acting by Will Rogers

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Context Clues: A Cartoonish Hell Awaits You Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

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 secret societies, and sensationalized sin, based on the stories of "experts" like a druid high priest, a Catholic secret agent, and two women battling demons in a witch infested hospital. Chick Tracts are ridiculously brutal, deeply offensive, unintentionally hilarious morality plays meant to be left in random places by random Christians, in order to scare straight whatever lucky sinner happens to find them.

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This episode was co-produced by Riley Smith and Miranda Zickler

Produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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OMG WTF UFOs with Jim Perry of Euphomet Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

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, and how our otherworldly encounters have something to do with both personal and national trauma.

Check out Euphomet!

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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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TALKING ANGELA Feb 13, 2023

Show notes

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 crowdsourced creativity taken far too seriously.

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Co-written by Riley Swedelius-Smith

Co-edited by Miranda Zickler

Voice acting by Will Rogers

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Urban Legends in the Internet Wilderness with the Digital Folklore Podcast Feb 06, 2023

Show notes

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 get deep into what these new stories tell us about ourselves, American society, and the wilderness of the modern internet.

Subscribe to Digital Folklore!

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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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When Naked Swimming was Required in Gym Class with Journalist Robin Washington Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

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 of Black Jews. But Robin is here to talk to us specifically about the trauma that was his 1970s high school swim class and a shocking experience once shared by millions of boys but long forgotten by the rest of America.

Learn more about Robin's work at robinwashington.com

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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 STREAKING CRAZE Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

In 1974, running naked in public became a major fad led by students on college campuses across the nation. This provocative prank was surprisingly well-received, considered a playful call back to the college fads of yore like the riotous panty raids that burned across campuses in the 1950s. We'll look at the most outrageous moments from these crazes and see how streaking was used to discredit the political actions of students protesting against the Vietnam War and in the name of civil rights.

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Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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

Co-researched and co-edited by Riley Swedelius-Smith

Co-produced and co-edited by Miranda Zickler

Voice acting by Will Rogers

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

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