American Hysteria

The hosts of the new podcast Pretendians, Robert Jago and Angel Ellis, join me to talk about Indigenous Identity Fraud, the phenomenon of scam artists pretending to be Indigenous in order to receive certain kinds of benefits. We talk about the motivations of these Pretendians, how they get away with it, the effects these charlatans have on those they attempt to emulate, and how these living caricatures overshadow the true identities of various Indigenous communities.

Listen to Pretendians wherever you get your podcasts!

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Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Reporter and producer and musician (Chad Matheny) were both part of a 2014 episode of the podcast called Ten Thousand Years that asked the same question we did in our Talking to the Future episode: how do we communicate warnings about nuclear waste to humans ten thousand years in the future when language, symbols, and familiar technologies have all fallen away? Matt was a contributor to the episode, helping bring the strange story to a much larger audience while Emperor X created a folk song containing lore about the Ray Cat (that biologically edited feline who would turn colors when getting too close to radiation). Could a catchy earworm stay stuck in the collective American head for ten thousand years to help warn future generations? We’ll discuss their experiences with nuclear semiotics, the rise of the Ray Cat and the associated public response, as well as how these thought experiments can be vital to imagining and creating a more hopeful future.

Producer + Editor + Art:
Associate Producer:
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

New episode ⚠️ ☢️ How do we warn people 10,000 years in the future about nuclear waste sites that will remain extremely dangerous for longer than human civilization has existed? When language, symbols, and technologies are lost to time, how can we get our message across? Atomic Priesthoods, Radiation Cats, Forests of Thorns, manufactured folklore, these are just a few of the unorthodox ideas of government-sponsored academics trying to answer this baffling puzzle.

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Producer + Editor:

Voice Actor: and his daughter Zoe

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New episode! How do we warn people 10,000 years in the future about nuclear waste sites that will remain extremely dangerous for longer than human civilization has existed? When language, symbols, and technologies are lost to time, how can we get our message across? Atomic Priesthoods, Radiation Cats, Forests of Thorns, manufactured folklore, these are just a few of the unorthodox ideas of government-sponsored academics trying to answer this baffling puzzle.

Sound Designer + Associate Producer:

Producer + Editor + art:

Voice Actor: and his daughter Zoe

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

New bonus episode feat. cake shaped bois and It Dame behavior 💅🏼
In which Chelsey tells producer about a wild April Fools Day prank that took place in 19th century London involving hundreds of people from bakers and undertakers to bankers and politicians. This was a story left out of Chelsey’s recent appearance on talking with Sarah about favorite historical hoaxes.

Join our Patreon or subscribe to Apple+ for access (link in bio)

In the late 1950s, an organization known as SINA started a campaign with the mission of clothing naked animals for the sake of decency. Today we will look at this bizarre moral crusade and its leader, whose life you’ll have to hear about to believe.

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New episode
John O’Connor is the author of The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster, a cross-country adventure and investigation into the lore around Bigfoot as well as the personalities of those who spend their lives chasing this elusive creature.

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Just found this beautiful piece of ephemera from my high school newspaper, a letter that someone wrote in about my friends and me

For the second part of this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we are continuing to explore various tall tales of ruthless gang initiations from the 1990s onward, as well as looking at the sweeping anti-gang laws of the 80s and 90s that had devastating effects on communities and categorized entire neighborhoods as gang associates, enacting severe punishments based on erroneous assumptions and outright lies.

Call for a Ceasefire and Help End Civilian Suffering (linktree in our bio has resources)

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Written, produced and hosted by by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Making every haunted house a haunted home 💘

Live at SF Sketchfest, Sarah Marshall of tells me about the urban-legendary alligators in the sewers of New York City. But of course, that’s only one of the many manholes we enter.

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Live at SF Sketchfest, Sarah Marshall of tells me about the urban-legendary alligators in the sewers of New York City. But of course, that’s only one of the many manholes we enter.

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Our associate producer tells us the little-known story of how news of the Titanic tragedy traveled to shore as it was all unfolding. Join our Pateon or subscribe on Apple+ to get access to our talk show Hysteria Home Companion as well as ad-free episodes!

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Check out last week’s episode where I am joined by paranormal corespondent of the podcast and of the podcast Stories With Sapphire as well as the TV shows Ghost Town Terror, Paranormal Caught On Camera, and Paranormal Nightshift. We discuss what it’s like to work on very different kinds of projects in the supernatural sphere and get a little behind the scenes look at classic reality ghost shows. We also chat about the dream of diversifying away from the formulaic industry of ghost bros and Christian-influenced endings to allow the paranormal to take different forms, understood in different ways by very different kinds of people.

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In this episode I tell Sarah Marshall of and a truly wild story I uncovered about the first recognized case of Munchausen Syndrome (Factitious Disorder) in the United States. An alleged professional wrestler and American folk anti-hero called the Indiana Cyclone faked symptoms of injury and illness while blowing through hospitals across the country from the 1950s to the 1970s, leaving a bizarre kind of terror in his wake.

Catch Sarah and I at SF SketchFest on Feb 2nd and Feb 3rd!

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Pop culture correspondent and major Pro Wrestling fan Colangelo and I discuss the quirky history of this manly soap opera, its changing landscape in terms of gender and sexuality, as well as the complicated psychology of kayfabe, in which staged performances are presented as genuine.

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👹✨MERCH PREORDER!!✨👹

As we talk about on American Hysteria, a Folk Devil is a person or group of people unfairly blamed for the ills of America. Our Folk Devils United merch contains the motto, "Scapegoats Against Scapegoating" in the hopes that all of us labeled this way might find each other in solidarity.

Patrons can preorder our merch over the next two days, we have t-shirts, baseball tees, and tote bags. And in just two days on the 9th, the preorder will open for everyone! We are really stoked on the design and we hope you will be too.

We have a limited stock available at this time, so if you want in on this preorder you can join our Patreon at patreon.com/americanhysteria. Art by the amazing

Folk Devils Unite!👹✨💘

One week from today, , + (a tribute to Fleetwood Mac) combine mystical forces and take over the in Portland, OR for A MASSIVE SÉANCE Holiday Spectacular for the Living and Dead 🕯️ This performance is sold out but we can’t wait to bring you more like it in the future 🔮

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This is a story from a recent episode of our exclusive Patreon/Apple+ talk show Hysteria Home Companion, where producer Miranda and I take turns sharing stories related to the topics we are covering. For this one, that we felt was too good not to share far and wide, Miranda tells me the story of a mysterious hanging cadaver that once decorated a California dark ride and unravels the decades-long, Forrest Gumpian journey of one long dead man.

Become a Patron by heading to patreon.com/americanhysteria
Or subscribe on your Apple Podcast App

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(explicit content warning) This *Urban Legends Hotline* episode dives deep into the viral myth that 90s shock rocker Marilyn Manson had ribs surgically removed so that he could perform autofellatio. We'll look at two other famous and controversial artists who also had this rumor attached to them, learn about another related tale that went around during Victorian times, and see how the rib removal story became perhaps the most widely told pop culture urban legend of the Millennial generation.

Call our Urban Legends Hotline and share a teenage tale you heard growing up (link in bio)

This episode was written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

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Home Depot's 12 ft. Skeleton decoration first premiered in the fall of 2020 and sold out immediately, the nationwide obsession fueling an underground black market. Memes and tweets made 'Skelly' the hottest Halloween fad of the last three years, and for some reason, the internet's biggest crush. For this episode, we will not only explore how the craze around this big old bone daddy unfolded, but we will also take you through our centuries-long bizarro relationship with human skeletons, both the fake and the very real, and we will consider the role they have played in the development of dark humor, the kind that made Skelly a massive star.

American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by

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Producer and Editor and art:

Voice Acting by

REWIND! 💥📼

This week we’re revisiting last year's Halloween special called Haunted Dolls. Coming up: we'll start our Halloween series called 'The 12 ft. Skeleton.' Then we'll be teaming up with our sibling podcast for another Halloween special 👹

For this rewind, we'll see how possessed playthings have crept their way into the dark attic of America: Thomas Edison's little monsters, a demonic Raggedy Ann, a living ventriloquist dummy, a deadly voodoo curse, and an online market where you can buy yourself a soul trapped in the body of a doll.

Become a Patron and support our show! Or subscribe on Apple Podcasts!

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New bonus episode available on Patreon + Apple Podcasts
Miranda tells Chelsey the life story of the King of Drag, Stonewall's Patron Saint of Cop-Punching, dearest q***r Stormé DeLarverie while Chelsey provides some historical gay context. They also share their own history as a drag/burlesque performer and we get a little deeper into where we find ourselves in the darkness of the present political moment.

Join now to get ad-free episodes and a new installment of Hysteria Home Companion at the end of each topic 💘