American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

Titanic in Real Time with Riley Swedelius-Smith Aug 11, 2025

Show notes

This is a bonus episode from our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. Our associate producer (and my brother) Riley Swedelius-Smith is here to tell us the absolutely wild and little-known story of how news of the Titanic shipwreck traveled to shore as the tragedy was all unfolding.

We can use your support right now! ⁠⁠Become a Patron⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get some American Hysteria merch at ⁠americanhysteria.com⁠ and support ⁠The Sameer Project⁠

Leave us a message on the ⁠⁠⁠Urban Legends Hotline⁠⁠⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Song by ⁠Emily Westman⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Polybius: The Arcade Conspiracy Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

This is a bonus episode from our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. I share the history of an 80s urban legend with our producer Miranda Zickler, one about a dangerous video game that appeared in Portland arcades with possible links to the mysterious government agents known as the Men in Black and then disappeared without a trace.

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get some American Hysteria merch at americanhysteria.com and support The Sameer Project

Leave us a message on the ⁠⁠Urban Legends Hotline⁠⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Song by Emily Westman

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

Not Just a Phase: Goths Through History with Christine Laskowski Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

Christine Laskowski shares her research into how an ancient barbarian people known as the Goths came to represent everything from edgy Hot Topic fashion and the band Joy Division to the Notre Dame cathedral and Flannery O'Connor's writing. Christine is the host of the podcast T&J, a limited series about 6th century Byzantium.

Listen to the T&J podcast on Apple / Spotify

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Leave us a message on the ⁠Urban Legends Hotline⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

The Imaginary Gods of ChatGPT with Journalist Miles Klee Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

Miles Klee is the author of a recent Rolling Stone article titled People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies which tells the stories of ChatGPT users who have come to believe that their chatbot is a sentient spiritual being. For this episode, Miles and I discuss the experiences of these ChatGPT worshippers, why the chatbot’s answers have sometimes encouraged this type of divine delusion, and what history has to say about the human relationship between spirituality and technology.

Read Miles' Rolling Stone article

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

The FBI's White Christian Nation with Lerone A. Martin Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

Lerone A. Martin is the author of The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism . For this episode, Lerone explains how the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, colluded with religious authorities to shape the soul of America throughout the 20th century. We’ll see how this revamped version of American Christianity spearheaded by Hoover reflected the conservative politics he wanted to see manifest in the national culture.

Get a copy of Lerone's book

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

STARING AT THE SUN ON LSD with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

Have you ever heard the urban legend about the group of hippie college students that went blind while staring at the sun during an LSD trip? This tale became a very powerful anecdote in the 1960s as politicians tried to regulate the spread of acid spread across college campuses. For this episode, Sarah Marshall of the podcast You’re Wrong About jumps down two rabbit holes with me: one that leads to a messy political hoax in Philadelphia and another to a conspiracy theory created, for once, by me. We'll see how a sensational story like this one can help drum up anti-drug public support and lead to the law-and-order victory of an opportunist politician's dreams.

Resources to Help Our Immigrant Neighbors:

Immigrant Advocates Network

CHIRLA's iRelief Fund

NNiR Report ICE Raids Hotlines

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

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠

Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline at ⁠americanhysteria.com⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

You've probably heard the urban legend called the Babysitter and the Man Upstairs or at least know the idiom it inspired: “The call is coming from inside the house.” Sarah Marshall of the podcasts You’re Wrong About and You Are Good joins me as I share some new ideas about where this tale came from, focused on an epidemic of obscene phone calls in the 1960s and a true crime story that was happening at the same time. We also discuss whether this urban legend may have actually created the entire slasher film genre.

Listen to our new house band Magpie Cinema Club

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

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

THE HIPPIE BABYSITTER BABY ROAST Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Have you ever heard the urban legend about the babysitter who takes LSD and accidentally bakes a baby in the oven believing it to be a raw turkey? For this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we will explore the possible origins of and the meaning behind this piece of 1960s folklore.

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline 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

Context Clues: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's High Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

This episode will give some extra context for our upcoming urban legend episodes: The Hippie Babysitter and the Baby Roast, The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, and the one where the college students go blind staring at the sun on LSD.

We use excerpts from our episodes:

Fangirls (2022)

Suburbia (2020)

Mind Control (2019)

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com

Sound design and Production by ⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠

Edited by ⁠Miranda Zickler⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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

GENDER REVEAL PARTIES: Pride Rewind Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

Happy Pride month to all who observe! This is a rerelease of one of our favorite episodes. Over the last ten years, Gender Reveal Parties have exploded, figuratively and literally. Parents, communities, and social media followers alike can witness the moment that parents and families find out the sex of their future baby, but lately, these parties have gotten so out of hand as to cause massive wildfires, explosions, damage to homes, injuries, and death. For this episode, we will try to figure out what in the world is going on here by exploring the history of gendered baby items, of the strange divination methods once used to guess the biological sex, and take a look at the idea of rituals around the mystery of pregnancy. Of course, we’ll also ask questions about the regressive nature of this blue and pink gender binary, and I will share a little about my own childhood growing up as a non-binary kid, a word I wouldn’t know for two decades.

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at ⁠⁠americanhysteria.com⁠⁠

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