Episodes
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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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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.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
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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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.
Join our Patreon for ad-free early episodes and bonus content!
This episode was co-produced by Riley Smith and Miranda Zickler
Produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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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!
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Edited by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
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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.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
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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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!
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Edited by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
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Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a podcast about a family on the fringe whoconvinced tens of thousands of people across the globe to buy a miracleliquid made of poison, the international conspiracy they ignited, and thepeople who fought to take them down. Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a Neon Hum Media, Bloomberg & Sony MusicEntertainment production.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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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
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Edited by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
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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.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
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
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Dr. Ronald Dante is a talented hypnotist (and not an actual doctor) whose mind-bending schemes span decades. Dante worked the smoke-filled nightclubs of 1960s Hollywood and rode the self-help craze of the 1980s and 90s, hypnotizing women out of their fortunes, taking out hits on his rivals and opening up one of the biggest fake universities in history. Host Sam Mullins tracks Dante through yacht clubs, prison cells, trailer parks and theme parks to uncover the unbelievable true story of the greatest con man you’ve never heard of.
Chameleon: Dr. Dante is a Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production.
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This episode will give context for our upcoming topic called The Streaking Craze using excerpts from previous shows including:
Terrorism Pt. 1
Mind Control
Teenage Sex
For ad-free, early episodes and bonus content became a Patron at patreon.com/americanhysteria
This episode was co-produced by Riley Swedelius-Smith
Edited by Miranda Zickler
Produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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Tickle Me Elmo, Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Kids, Pokemon cards. These trendy toys all inspired parental parking lot brawls and suburban shadow economies. For our Christmas hangover, we revisit the outrageous toy riots that marked the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, many of which flared up around the holiday season. Includes a little interview with my Grannie about her experience securing a Tickle Me Elmo AT ALL COSTS.
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Listen to Frozen Head: https://wondery.app.link/Frozenhead-AH
Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid. You can binge the entire series early and ad-free right now by subscribing to Wondery+ in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery App.
When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence and others like him have signed up to be frozen and brought back to life in the future. And that belief will pull multiple generations of the Pilgeram family into a cryonics soap opera filled with dead pets, gold coins, grenades, fist fights, mysterious packages, family feuds, Hall of Fame baseball legends, and frozen heads — lots of frozen heads. From Wondery, comes a story about life, death, and what comes next. Follow Frozen Head on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Because so many Hallmark writers and directors also make horror movies, I called in podcasters Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed of 'You're Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' to discuss the similarities between these two seemingly polar opposite genres.
Subscribe to You Are Good and You're Wrong About
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
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
Produced by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
They usually go something like this: A cranky career woman from the big city who has lost the true meaning of Christmas arrives in a small town where she falls in love with a handsome handyman or baker or Christmas tree farmer and together they vanquish whatever big business force threatens the idyllic community. The Christmas spirit leads her to let go of her own ambitions and embrace a more traditional lifestyle and of course, someone's dad is always Santa. Sound familiar? We will explore the history of Hallmark, the formula that makes these cheesy productions so successful, the Christmas Movie Wars of the last few years, as well as the controversies over diversity and "family-friendly" entertainment.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
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-produced and co-edited by Miranda Zickler
Co-researched and co-edited by Riley Smith
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
This episode gives context to our upcoming series on Hallmark Christmas Movies using excerpts from previous topics including The War on Christmas, The Gay Agenda, and Suburbia.
Listen to The War on Christmas
Listen to The Gay Agenda
Listen to Suburbia
Become a Patron at patreon.com/americanhysteria
This Context Clues produced by Chelsey Weber-Smith and Riley Smith
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Colin Dickey is one of American Hysteria's biggest influences—our episodes called Talking to the Dead and Alien Abductions relied on his books Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. His newest piece is called Land of Delusion and it explores two new bizarre conspiracy theories that center around secret societies and buried histories. We’ll talk about the conspiratorial tales we keep telling and how we address this increasingly disturbing Land of Delusion.
Try Scribd now to get Colin Dickey's Land of Delusion
Find more of Colin's work here
Join our Patreon!
Produced by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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Paranormal podcast host (and major buddy) Jim Perry of Euphomet returns to discuss a couple of the many experiences that have made it impossible for us to live purely skeptical lives: his time getting personal with a haunted doll and my time getting personal with the ghost that tried to burn my house down. As usual, expect lots of philosophical waxing from both of us about the mysteries of the supernatural and about how no one really knows anything, no matter what they say.
Listen to Euphomet
Follow Jim on Twitter // Instagram
Join our Patreon!
Produced by Miranda Zickler
Sound design by Clear Commo Studios
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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Featuring poems, fiction, nonfiction, AND A GROUP SONG with work by Sarah Marshall (You're Wrong About, You Are Good), Alex Steed (You Are Good), BJ Colangelo (This Ends at Prom), Will Rogers (Guide to the Unknown), Carolyn Kendrick (You're Wrong About, You Are Good), Miranda Zickler (Kuinka), Riley Swedelius-Smith (American Hysteria), and Chelsey Weber-Smith (me duh)
To get an mp3 of our Halloween song, head to patreon.com/americanhysteria
In order of appearance:
Will Rogers
Guide to the Unknown
BJ Colangelo
This Ends at Prom
Sarah Marshall
You’re Wrong About
You Are Good
Alex Steed
You Are Good
Miranda Zickler
Kuinka
Carolyn Kendrick
Riley Swedelius-Smith
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Here’s a preview from a podcast that's right up your dark alley! On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author Tim Harford finds the morals in moments from the greatest mistakes and tragic catastrophes of the past. This Halloween season, he’s exploring “Halloween sadism” – where a stranger puts something dangerous in the treats collected by children. Razor blades in apples. Rat poison in chocolate. That sort of thing. Fantastical reports of trouble pop up every spooky season, but is trick or treating really something to worry about? Or is there a deadlier danger awaiting children on Halloween night? Hear the full episode, and more from Cautionary Tales, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/cthalloween?sid=hysteria
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