American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

As the nation grapples with a volatile culture war over just what version of American history our children will grow up learning, in this episode we will see that the Public School has always been a complicated, explosive, sometimes bizarre socio-political battleground. We’ll look at the messy transformations of children’s curricula through the conservative and progressive clashes over the bible, evolution, Black anti-literacy laws, Indian boarding schools, anti-commie-patriotism, good suburban morals, multiculturalism, and a radical public television program called Sesame Street.

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research and co-writing by Riley Smith

Voice acting by Will Rogers

Co-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler

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Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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We Were Teenage Conspiracy Theorists with Ellen Cushing Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

Ellen Cushing's recent piece in The Atlantic called “I was a teenage conspiracy theorist” tells her story as a young Illuminati-truther during the post-9/11 years. Her history with conspiracy theories isn't all that different from my own, so I asked Ellen to join me to talk about our experiences to try to explain what these stories were like back in the 2000s, and how they intersect with the stories we hear now. We’ll also ask the biggest question of all, how do we combat this alternate reality? As the subtitle on Ellen’s article reads, “Want to know why wild conspiracism can be so irresistible? Ask a 14-year-old girl.”

Read Ellen's piece, I Was a Teenage Conspiracy Theorist

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This episode has sound by Clear Common Studios

Produced by Miranda Zickler

Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, it really helps us out!

Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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Animatronic America with Sarah Marshall of 'You’re Wrong About' Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

Join me and our Disney darling of the day, podcaster Sarah Marshall of ‘You’re Wrong About’ and ‘Why Are Dads?’ as we discuss our love for Disney parks, the weird history of animatronics, and Disneyland’s hilarious, disastrous opening day. So grab a Dole Whip, sit back and enjoy the tour through this gleefully haunted mansion of America.

Listen to You’re Wrong About

Listen to Why Are Dads?

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Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with Me

Produced by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch and more at americanhysteria.com

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DISNEYFICATION Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Disney has been presenting a fairytale reality within a reality since the 1920s, a far cuter reality that mimics our reality until reality is no longer reality at all. Make sense? For this episode, we will look at the possible underlying biological reasons for the success of the Disney corporation and the history of this ever-softening societal construction we call childhood. We’ll explore both the finished and unrealized projects of the company, and how they have long presented us with a much sweeter version of our past, present, and future. So join us as we trace the American dream that started with a mythic man named Walt Disney and see if you can tell what’s real.

Next week: Animatronic America with Sarah Marshall of ‘You’re Wrong About’ and ‘Why Are Dads?’

This episode was sponsored by Anchor, head to Anchor.fm to make your own podcast!

Subscribe to the One Strange Thing podcast today!

Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with Me

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research and co-writing by Riley Smith

Voice acting by Will Rogers

Co-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler

Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, it really helps us out!

Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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

The Theater of Trash with Alissa Bennett Jan 18, 2021

Show notes

Alissa Bennett is co-host of The C-Word podcast on Luminary as well as a decorated historian of bad behavior. “By sifting through the cultural trash heap of history,” her podcast dives deep into the lives of famous women who have been called "Crazy" throughout history, the stories that we’re told about them through the tabloid press, and the real life that was happening behind the scenes. Alissa is also the author of four zines; collections of essays reflecting on dozens of fascinating characters in pop culture deviance. She mines the depths of the internet for strange truths and even stranger gossip, while weaving in personal anecdotes of her own. Today we will be discussing why we love trash media of all kinds. We’ll even give The Final Thought, usually reserved for Jerry Springer, to Alissa’s child genius Ollie. Let's get trashy.

Check out the C-Word podcast and Alissa's Zines

Subscribe to the One Strange Thing podcast today!

Thanks to our sponsor Skillshare, get your reef trial of Premium Membership skillshare.com/hysteria

Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with Me

Produced by Miranda Zickler

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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

TRASH TALK SHOWS Jan 11, 2021

Show notes

There are few pieces of popular culture as problematic as the trash talk shows of the 1980s and 90s. Many of us remember Jerry Springer, Geraldo, Jenny Jones, and so many others trying to outdo each other in a parade of sensationalized deviance. The more outrageous, the better, but some of what was considered outrageous then is different than it is today. These programs certainly reinforced stereotypes and exploited their guests for profit, but like the Freak Shows of the past, they also offered national visibility for unseen individuals and the groups they represented. This episode explores how this platform changed American culture for better and for worse, the elitist attitudes that looked down on this low brow entertainment, and how these hallmark American productions are mirrored in our fist fights today, online and off

Thanks to our sponsor Skillshare, get your reef trial of Premium Membership skillshare.com/hysteria

Subscribe to the One Strange Thing podcast today!

Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with Me

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research and co-writing by Riley Smith

Co-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler

Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteriaInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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

'Falling for Fascism' Emergency Re-Release Jan 06, 2021

Show notes

Due to the what appears to be an attempted coup happening right now at the Capitol, I wanted to re-release this vital interview immediately. Please listen and share if you can. This is the colossal power of conspiracy theories.

Today we are talking to Jason Stanley, Jewish-American professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of the New York Times bestselling book 'How Fascism Works'. He'll help us understand more about the relationship between conspiracy theories, moral panics, and the tactics of fascist movements. Make sure you check out Jason's book 'How Fascism Works', it's vital!

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Seekers and Swindlers with Glynn Washington Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

Podcaster and storyteller Glynn Washington grew up in an extremist religious sect called the Worldwide Church of God and also hosted the Heaven’s Gate podcast about the UFO cult that famously committed a mass suicide in 1997. He’ll tell us all about this experience and how it shaped him, and together we will talk about how cults draw well-meaning people in, and what it means to be a seeker.

For more monthly content become a Patron and get access to our new exclusive podcast called Walk with Me

This episode was produced by Miranda Zickler, check out her band Ladies and their new cover of Blue Christmas with more at listentoladies.com

Sound by Clear Commo Studios

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CHARISMATIC LEADERS Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

The charismatic leaders we are talking about today offer utopia and doomsday, salvation and absolute truth, perfection of the self and of the world at large, as long you dedicate yourself completely to the reality of these embodied Gods. Their radical alternate realities can draw in hundreds, thousands, even millions, as they preach spiritual wholeness and heaven, equality and communalism, or apocalyptic visions of a degrading nation, promising they alone can make it great again. For this episode, we’ll look at some lesser known leaders of cults and new religious movements from the puritans to the present, and we’ll also investigate Narcissistic Personality Disorder, collective narcissism, and cognitive dissonance to try to make sense of how these leaders have molded our history and how they are radically affecting our present.

Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with Me

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

Sound design by Clear Commo Studios

Research and co-writing by Riley Smith

Co-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler

Follow American Hysteria on social media:

Twitter: @AmerHysteria

Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast

Find our merch at americanhysteria.com

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

Walk with Me Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

“I would like to step out of my heart/and go walking beneath the enormous sky”, poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in 1918, probably consumed with a similar human anxiety to the one we each bear every weirdass day of our lives. This is the first episode of our new biweekly Patron’s-only podcast where you’ll come on a walk with me, either literally or figuratively, from wherever you happen to be. Walks facilitate, by nature of our very biology, more creative ways of thinking about the world; they are a liminal place where small things happen that feel big, things that can change you. Fair warning, this new show is very different from American Hysteria, and you’ll have to be willing to roll with me out of history and logic and into that dreaded contemplative, meditative territory of ethereal questions and embodied experience, and perhaps worst of all, the joy at the miracle of being alive. I hope you might be willing to share your own thoughts eventually too, so that we can turn this into a kind of ramblin’ collaboration. So, in this time when walks are one of the only things we know are safe to do, I hope you’ll come and walk with me.

If you like this episode, become a patron now for a new episode every two weeks as well as more bonus content!

Music by Miranda Zickler

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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