Hosted by chelsey weber-smith · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 303 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
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.
chelsey weber-smith hosts American Hysteria, a society show with 303 episodes published.
Love them or hate them, there are few things that feel as quintessentially American as fireworks, the favorite way to celebrate during every unhinged national birthday party. For part one of this two-part semiquincentenn
As we endure surreal celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States, we hear the same Disneyfied history being told over and over again. Rebecca Nagle is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the host of the podca
Have you ever noticed that many of the most iconic evil-doers in movies seem, well, pretty gay? Think Scar from the Lion King, Jafar from Aladdin, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, Hannibal Le
In the early 1990s, match.com debuted as the first major dating app on the world wide web, but it was far from the earliest way that people used technology to meet other hopeful singles. For this episode, we’ll look at w
This is a rerelase with a new introduction! The purse-carrying, tutu-wearing purple Teletubby Tinky Winky was outed as a homosexual in 1999, capping off a decade of conspiratorial anti-gay writings and videos that influe
We are celebrating our (estimated) 300th episode of American Hysteria with a little Chelsey Weber-Smith Q&A session hosted by Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About. It’s been a strange journey, and to celebrate, I’m answe
During the 1970s, a ragtag group led by American astronomer Carl Sagan set out to create and then launch into deep space an audio time capsule of sounds, songs, and messages that would represent the Earth to any intellig
Warning! Extremely weird episode! In a world where AI creations are taking over social media, we are seeing more and more bafflingly bizarre content overwhelm apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, including what has
We’re excited to share a preview of a new podcast we think you’d enjoy: No Such Thing. No Such Thing is a show where three best friends and journalists settle their dumb arguments — and yours — by actually doing the rese
When the Bennington Five disappeared in Southwest Vermont between 1945 and 1950, the local refrain became: Don't go into the woods while wearing the color red. For part two of our series, former Bennington College studen
At Bennington College in southwest Vermont, tales of a curse have been passed around for 75 years. Known as the Bennington Triangle, the nearby mountains and forests were the sites of five mysterious disappearances from
Today we bring you an episode of another great podcast: History Daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on
In 1980, a Stonehenge-esque monument called the Georgia Guidestones appeared in the rural county of Elbert. Financed and designed by a mysterious donor, it presenting ten guidelines for mankind, guidelines that were inte
Take a seat in our old, ornate theater for the confounding wonders of this traveling magic show. For this episode, my dear friend is here, the artist, musician, cowboy, sailor, and now magician, known as Gruff Webb. They
This is a Subscribers-Only episode from 2024 in which I tell our producer Miranda about a wild April Fools Day prank that took place in 19th century London involving hundreds of people from bakers and undertakers to bank
Prior to becoming stars of the stage, screen, and of wondrous World’s Fairs, dinosaurs had to be uncovered, dug out, studied, and finally, displayed. Prehistoric fossils became a valuable treasure found by laypeople and
The dinosaur craze of the 1990s, inspired largely by the Jurassic Park movies, led to a legion of children dreaming of becoming paleontologists. In the century before, these beloved prehistoric beasts blossomed into pop
The extended media universe of Pokémon has been an obsession for young people since the late 1990s, and for this goofball episode my friends from the Guide to the Unknown podcast are here to dive into the creepier side o
Have you ever been suspicious of a corporation showcasing their commitment to the environment, to marginalized groups of people, or to those suffering through a deadly disease? Dr. Mara Einstein is the author of Compassi
We have had many media panics about swarms and hordes, about infestations and plagues of dangerous insects and arachnids that promise to rain destruction down on the defenseless American public. My guest today is comedia
Dr. Sarah Marshall
author of "Play A Dust in My Soul" · Marshall's Haute Sauce
28 appearances on this show
Akilah Hughes
1 appearance on this show
Joseph Laycock
Author, The Exorcist Effect
1 appearance on this show
Annalee Newitz
1 appearance on this show
Jelani Cobb
1 appearance on this show
Perry Carpenter
author of "FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions" · KnowBe4
1 appearance on this show
George Civeris
host of Straightio Lab
1 appearance on this show
Tim Harford
1 appearance on this show
Miles Klee
writer and journalist · Wired
1 appearance on this show
Jason Stanley
Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy · Yale University
1 appearance on this show
Loretta J. Ross
Black Feminist, activist, professor, author
2 appearances on this show
Alex Steed
You Are Good
2 appearances on this show
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American Hysteria is hosted by chelsey weber-smith. The show is categorised under society (culture) and has published 303 episodes.
American Hysteria has published 303 episodes.
American Hysteria regularly covers society, culture, history. It sits in the society category, with a culture focus.
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Episodes of American Hysteria average 66 minutes, giving guests a long-form format with plenty of time to expand on their expertise.
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