American Hysteria

Latest Episodes:

The Last Prison Rodeo with Journalist Adam Mahoney Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

Since 1965, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, has held an incredibly popular public event known as the Prison Rodeo where incarcerated men participate for cash prizes in contests so dangerous they have been banned from the professional rodeo circuit. Adam Mahoney is a reporter at Capital B and the author of a recent article titled The Wildest Show in the South: Spectacle and Suffering at America’s Biggest Prison. For this episode, Adam discusses with me the surreal reality of the Angola prison rodeo and his experience attending, gives me a background on the dark history of the penitentiary itself, and tells me the various perspectives of those involved in this shocking and deeply American spectacle.

Read more of Adam’s work at capitalbnews.org

Or follow him on Twitter @AdamLMahoney

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

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Mayhem! at the Minecraft Movie with BJ Colangelo May 26, 2025

Show notes

Over the last couple months, groups of Minecraft fans have been making TikTok videos of themselves wrecking havoc in theaters across the nation when their favorite moment of the new Minecraft movie plays. Culture writer and co-host of the podcast The Ends at Prom, BJ Colangelo, teaches me about wtf is going on and together we try not to moral panic while discussing what this new craze means. We’ll also talk about how the Minecraft mayhem compares (or doesn't care) to both The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the rebellious mayhem that we ourselves once wrought upon the nation.

Listen to This Ends at Prom wherever you get your podcasts

Follow @BJColangelo on TikTok 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

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

Lost Boy Larry with Producer Miranda Zickler May 19, 2025

Show notes

In 1973, mysterious communications from a young boy came over CB radios in the Southwest, leading to a massive search and rescue mission that generated far more questions than answers. For this episode, I tell American Hysteria Producer (and co-host of our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion) Miranda Zickler about the dubious case now referred to as Lost Boy Larry and go through the tangle of strange new information I feverishly uncovered deep in the archives of newspapers.com.

This episode is a shortened version of our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. Head to patreon.com/americanhysteria or subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠ to get access to Hysteria Home Companion as well as ad-free episodes.

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

BALLOON BOY May 12, 2025

Show notes

In 2009, the news reported live as a six-year-old boy careened through the air at 7,000 feet trapped inside a homemade balloon craft. Millions tuned into the harrowing saga, but once the balloon finally hit the ground, no little boy was found inside. Details then emerged that seemed to indicate it was all a hoax created by a family as part of a PR stunt for a reality TV show. On this episode, we explore the story of Balloon Boy, ask whether the event was indeed a hoax, and look at the early history of the hot air ballooning craze in the 18th and 19th centuries where hoaxes and wild spectacles were a foundational part of the emerging scientific field.

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

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New Context: Gang Accusations and Initiations May 05, 2025

Show notes

Right now we are seeing accusations of gang associations used to to justify abducting immigrants off the street and sending them to either US detention centers or the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador with no due process. We have included a new introduction for this rerelease of our two part Gang Initiation series from 2024 in hopes that we can illuminate how these types of accusations and their consequences are straight out of the American playbook.

Head to immigrantjustice.org/know-your-rights

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

HOAX DIARY SPECTACULAR with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

Sarah Marshall takes me on a journey through two possible historical literary deceptions and asks me to try to figure out what is real, what is fake, and what it all means. This is a sibling to our recent episode on You’re Wrong About called Hoax Memoir Spectacular, so make sure you check that out as well.

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

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 RUNAWAY NUN HOAX pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

*Please listen to part one of our series first.* 'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' was an 1800s true crime memoir about the horrors a runaway nun claimed to have suffered while living among debaucherous and murderous Catholic clergy in a convent-turned-torture chamber, and at the time, it was the second bestselling book in America. But was it really a truthful account of Maria Monk’s life? Or was it all a hoax, a piece of propaganda meant to incite hatred of the early immigrant folk devils of American culture? In this two part series, Sarah Marshall of 'You’re Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' joins me to try to separate fact from fiction, talk about the similarities between this this book and other hoax memoirs, and discuss the particular ways that anti-immigrant rhetoric has remained the same for two centuries.

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

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 RUNAWAY NUN HOAX pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About' Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' was an 1800s true crime memoir about the horrors a runaway nun claimed to have suffered while living among debaucherous and murderous Catholic clergy in a convent-turned-torture chamber, and at the time, it was the second bestselling book in America. But was it really a truthful account of Maria Monk’s life? Or was it all a hoax, a piece of propaganda meant to incite hatred of the early immigrant folk devils of American culture? In this two part series, Sarah Marshall of 'You’re Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' joins me to try to separate fact from fiction, talk about the similarities between this this book and other hoax memoirs, and discuss the particular ways that anti-immigrant rhetoric has remained the same for two centuries.

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

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

Luxury Doomsday with 'This is Propaganda' Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

The hottest new (and embarrassing) trend in the billionaire bubble is luxury doomsday shelters, wildly expensive bunkers that the ultra-rich believe will allow them to live extravagantly in a post-apocalyptic world. Join me, Joshua Belhumeur, and Malcolm Critcher of the podcast 'This is Propaganda' as we enter their futuristic world, try to understand their tech bro mindset, and take a look at the history of prepping to see how unchecked capitalism has transformed the way we think about the end of the world.

Listen to 'This is Propaganda' wherever you get your podcasts and check out brink.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

Leave us a message on our 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

HOAX SPECTACULAR! with You're Wrong About Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

This is a very special episode I did last year with the podcast You’re Wrong About in which Sarah Marshall and I swapped stories about some of our favorite historical hoaxes and pranks in honor of April Fools Day.

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

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

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline

Carolyn Kendrick produced this episode for YWA

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