American Hysteria

by W!ZARD Studios · · ·

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.

Alice Sparkly Kat (who goes by Ace) is an astrologer and the author of the book ‘Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Power, and Labor’. Today they share with us their perspective on the power of the practice and how it has served those in power and those looking …
In 1941, hundreds of British secret agents were sent to the United States to spread creative anti-Nazi propaganda with the hopes of convincing the American people to support military intervention. This included a flamboyant astrologer sent to give false predictions about the imminent downfall of Adolph Hitler. Head to choice.crd.co …
Dr. Eric Kurlander is the author of Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich which details the occult practices and pseudosciences that many high ranking Nazis investigated at length. This episode will explore the 'supernatural imaginary' the early Nazi party was able to cultivate through a mash-up of …
Astrology June 13, 2022
This episode is not about debunking astrology, it’s about something far more interesting: the role that star-gazing soothsaying advisors have played in American politics, and the secret history of how first ladies, presidents, and other politicians have been influenced by those swearing that they can see the future. Become a …
In honor of Pride month, here is a little rerelease of last year's special episode! Over the last ten years, Gender Reveal Parties have exploded, figuratively and literally. Parents, communities, and social media followers alike can witness the moment that parents and families find out the sex of their future …
*CW: Brief description of animal abuse, some brief descriptions of death* Sarah Marshall is the host of our sibling podcasts You’re Wrong About and You Are Good, and is also an expert on satanic panic in all its myriad forms. Today we discuss the decade that produced snuff urban legends, …
Rotten.com May 16, 2022
Rotten.com was a shock website from the late 90s and early 2000s that collected the most gruesome and explicit photos on the early internet. After a series of outrages pushed it into the public eye, the site would become an unlikely voice in the battle for online free speech at …
Snuff Films May 9, 2022
Snuff films are alleged murders filmed for the purpose of distribution, an urban legend that has been circulating since the porn wars of the 1970s. We'll explore the Manson Family rumor that first sparked the story, the hoax film that led to feminist protests, the Christian organization that laid the …
This rerelease will give some context for next week's new episode called Snuff Films.
Just a handful of little announcements as we take a few weeks off (back in late April).
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.
'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 …
Boy Bands March 7, 2022
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.
Fangirls Feb. 21, 2022
Hysterical fangirls have become so commonplace in popular music that we hardly pay attention to them anymore, no matter how loud they scream. But there was a time when the screaming, crying, fainting teenage fan was seen not only as a psychological puzzle but also as a major threat to …
To prepare for our series called Fangirls and Boy Bands, we are heading back to the fantastical realm of the teenager and the reactionary moral panics their sex lives have inspired since the days of the Puritans. In this episode, pay special attention to the invention of the teenager in …
*Please listen to our Westboro Baptist Church episode first!!* Megan Phelps-Roper was born and raised in the WBC, a fervent believer and lover of cruel funeral pickets. But when she got on Twitter to preach the hatred of God, she was met with thousands of replies from thousands of different …
The Westboro Baptist Church outraged both sides of the political spectrum throughout the 90s, 2000s and 2010s, picketing the funerals of AIDS victims and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, touting their loud and always shockingly foul-mouth message that America was doomed because we had accepted homosexuality.
Next week we will be covering the Westboro Baptist Church, the small family clan and hyper-Calvinist group who have long outraged both the left and the right with their severe anti-gay and anti-military funeral pickets.
This is a sneak peek of our new Patrons-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion, where we share with you all the hottest gossip from the cutting room floor. This week we’re talking about the outrageous celebrity alien encounters of Demi Lovato, Anne Heche, Elvis Presley, Fran Drescher, and Miley Cyrus.
Today we're talking to podcaster Jim Perry, the host of Euphomet, a paranormal documentary series that explores the unknown and our relationship to it through the stories of supernatural Experiencers. But Euphomet is less interested in what is real and what isn't and more interested in the emotional side to …