American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunders...
Burlesque This Mess with Comic Stripper Woody Shticks
Woody Shticks is a comic stripper and burlesque performer as well as the director, production manager, and co-star of our recent live stage show with You’re Wrong About. For this episode, Woody and I talk about our histories with and philosophies around modern burlesque, and I tell him about the drama surrounding the first burlesque troupe to make it big in the United States back in the 1860s. This sexier-than-usual episode will show that the radical joy of art forms like burlesque continue to speak hilarious truth to the boring ass powers that be.
Check out Woody's website
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Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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1:20:43
Thongs
Exposed thongs were all the rage in the early 2000s thanks to a handful of massive pop cultural moments, but as the craze reached the mainstream market and trickled down to teens and tweens, the skank-shaming heated up as did the moral panics and political backlash. Millennials, however, were far from the first generation to experience thong drama, and for this episode we will go back through the last ten decades to see how half of the time moral guardians have tried to legislate the thong out of existence and the other half of the time, the thong has been the thin black line that separated adventurous Americans from the long arm of the law.
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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1:14:30
Context Clues: Let Me See That Thong
Thongs and the battles waged on their backs will be the focus of our upcoming episode. This collection of excerpts from previous episodes will provide some extra context: Wardrobe Malfunction (2019), Teenage Sex (2019), and The Streaking Craze (2023).
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Sound design and Production by Riley Swedelius-Smith
Edited by Miranda Zickler
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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56:29
Erasing History with Philosopher Jason Stanley
American philosopher Jason Stanley is the author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. For this episode, Jason helps us understand some of the attacks on educational institutes at home and abroad and how authoritarian movements purposefully repress and reject historical truths in favor of a different narrative that benefits their attempts at grabbing more and more power away from the people.
Get a copy of Erasing History
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
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1:01:25
David Lynch's Mulholland Drive with 'You Are Good' Podcast
RIP David Lynch, beloved director and otherworldly weirdo. The You Are Good feelings podcast about movies graciously invited me to talk about one of the most influential films and artists of my lifetime. Talking all things Lynchian with Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed, I tried to summarize this famously baffling plot of this film, mused about the concept of Duende, and cried on mic about the Unified Field. Whether you are a fan of David Lynch or not, I hope you enjoy this conversation that was very meaningful to me.
Listen to You Are Good
Find Magpie Cinema Club's cover of Crying and their other music here
Get a plot explanation for Mulholland Drive here
Produced by Miranda Zickler
Co-hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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.