American Hysteria

American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don't.

Society & Culture
History
151
Our Halloween Open Mic
41 min
152
Halloween Sadism from Cautionary Tales with Tim...
15 min
153
HAUNTED DOLLS
55 min
154
Context Clues: The Uncanny Valley of the Dolls
36 min
155
Rainbow Fentanyl: Poisoned Halloween Candy Rere...
42 min
156
Halloween is Millennial Christmas with Podcaste...
60 min
157
FLORIDA SCAM
36 min
158
FLORIDA MAN
57 min
159
Context Clues: Feeling Like a Freak on a Beach
27 min
160
An Irresistible Movement with Reproductive Just...
48 min
161
WOMB WARS (part two)
52 min
162
WOMB WARS (part one)
55 min
163
Context Clues: Maybe it Ain't About the Babies
30 min
164
Postcolonial Astrology with Alice Sparkly Kat
39 min
165
THE PLANETARY PROPAGANDA OF THE ANTI-NAZI ASTRO...
36 min
166
The Supernatural Imaginary of the Third Reich w...
56 min
167
ASTROLOGY
50 min
168
All the Other Snuff with Sarah Marshall of 'You...
55 min
169
ROTTEN.COM
25 min
170
SNUFF FILMS
50 min
171
Context Clues: Pornography
This rerelease will give some context for next week's new episode called Snuff Films.
38 min
172
Hear ye! Hear ye! Extra extra hear all about it!
Just a handful of little announcements as we take a few weeks off (back in late April).
2 min
173
The Séance of Selena with Poet Melissa Lozada-O...
Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a Guatemalan-Colombian-American poet, screenwriter, and educator, and co-host of the podcast Say More. She is the author of a novel in verse called Dreaming of You, about bringing 90s Mexican-American pop star Selena back to life through a séance and the disastrous consequences that follow.
38 min
174
Scene Queens with Podcasters BJ and Harmony Col...
'This Ends at Prom' is a podcast that dives deep into coming-of-age and teen girl movies from the queer, feminist cisgender and transgender perspectives of wives and film analysts BJ and Harmony Colangelo. Today we chat about millennial pop groups, the emo scene, pop punk, hair metal, gender contamination, boy band haircuts, and what we hope for the next generation of stars and the fans that make them.
57 min
175
BOY BANDS
Behind every manufactured boy band there is what the press calls a Svengali, a puppet master who assembles the group and styles everything about them. This episode will introduce us to the eccentric producers and talent agents who have long shaped pop music from behind the curtain.
52 min